Something Positive may not be the first webcomic out there, but it was the first I encountered way back in early 2002. It was my gateway drug into webcomics as they exploded onto the internet scene in the early aughts, and at their heyday was my preferred method of wasting time at work. The first 30 minutes of my workday was always devoted to catching up on my comics, and, just off the top of my head, I went through: Something Positive, PVP, Queen of Wands, Penny Arcade, Errant Story, Girly, Megatokyo, Applegeeks, Two Lumps, Wapsi Square… and several others I can’t remember the names to anymore. And though I stuck with these comics for years, over the next decade and a half, they began to fa

There’s a fairly popular adage going around these days about how every character is the protagonist in their own story. And while I appreciate the spirit behind this concept in that each character should be treated with the same attention you garner your protagonist, it’s simply untenable in execution. I mean, think about just a single battle scene with 1,000 soldiers: Are you, as the author, supposed to know the backstory and inner life of pikeman #367? Of course not. There’s a clear caste system to writing characters, with the Protagonist obviously on top, followed by Main Characters, then Secondary and Tertiary Characters, and the lower on the totem pole you go, the character is drawn in

So last free KDP giveaway I basically had no idea what I was doing and did not know about online hangout spots for fantasy fanatics like reddit/fantasy, the latter of which I’m deeply indebted to my argument partner (and fellow SPFBO Semifinalist) Daniel Olesen for pointed out to me. He also suggested I take part in the Fantasy Writer of the Day Ask Me Anything (AMA), which I did (find the process here). I signed up for a Wednesday, and therefore decided to have that be the central anchor of my five-day giveaway (eg, Monday-Friday). PREPERATION This time around I had a bit more planning as well as budget, and while researching fellow Gunpowder Fantasy authors (mentioned in the Goodreads Case

Funny thing about us fantasy nerds: We LOVE theorizing about battles that will never be. Can Superman defeat Thanos? Would Brock Sampson take Brock Lesnar? What about Gandalf vs Obi Wan? These questions will never be definitively answered, yet they are the ones that keep us up at night. I mention this because both Daniel’s novel, The Eagle’s Flight, and my book, The Woven Ring, have made it through the first round of the gauntlet/ trial by combat that is the Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off. This is quite the accomplishment already, yet we humble authors operate under no delusion that we, best-of-internet-friends-4EVER will end up facing off in the ultimate gladiatorial deathmatch in the fina

If you’ve been wondering about the slew of low-effort posts on my part lately, it’s because I’ve been gearing up to get book two out. And I can say that I’m pretty proud to announce The Imbued Lockblade (Sol’s Harvest Book II) is now up on Amazon for preorder with a delivery date of November 20th! This is my first attempt at a preorder, so there are already a few unforced errors. To wit, I was unaware one could not set up a preorder for the paperback version, so pretty much lost my entire morning putting up a slug file that never quite worked out. IF YOU ARE A PAPERBACK READER instead of the ebook (why, I don’t personally understand), know the paperback WILL be available the same day. It’s j