No genre exists in a vacuum, Fantasy especially. Each new book is deeply indebted to previous works, and even those wishing to eschew tropes and traditions are still reacting to the series they choose not to emulate. Each previous book is but another brick in the Fantasy foundation, which future authors build upon with new bricks stamped with their own particular seals. Yet, to belabor this building metaphor a bit more, some series come to the conclusion “Why fix what ain’t broken? If that one brick worked so well, let’s just keep cranking out the same thing over and over,” which crosses a line from “influenced by” to “derivative of.” Two of the worst offenders include Dragonlance and The Ma

Novel Playlists from Fantasy Novelists treats each fantasy novel like a feature film and encourages the author to put together their own dream soundtrack. Tooting my personal horn for a second time here with a playlist (it is my blog after all), I present the playlist to The Imbued Lockblade, the second book in my Sol’s Harvest series. [Spoiler warning: You probably shouldn’t read this article if you haven’t read book one, The Woven Ring.] Over the Mueller Line and stalking across the Eastern homeland she betrayed during the Grand War, Marta Childress now cares for the catatonic Caddie Hendrix, whom she has been tasked to deliver to the child’s father. Too bad Marta secretly intends on killi

[From the Biba Sacara, Book 8, Chapter 19] And Waer wandered the land, making all Ayr her home but finding no rest. For the engles warred upon her whenever she came across them, and so the Children of Sol clung close to the safety of the scattered nodi no matter their tribe. The protection of Sol’s children enraged Waer, and so she made her mischief by poisoning the Great Nodus. And as she did, a great cloud rose up into the heavens, blocking out the sun and showering the land in black. In the land of Baca lived a righteous man by the name of Anders, and Anders did his all to abide by the will of Sol. Then Waer’s darkness descended upon the land of Baca to steal the life from Anders’ village

Well, it finally happened. The ax fell and it was my head on the chopping block in the vaunted 2017 Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off (SPFBO). As both myself and my blarguing companion pointed out not that long ago, neither of us held any illusions of taking the top spot. But I’m not going to lie and say it didn’t sting a bit. But the sting ain’t too severe. I’ve been at screenwriting for 15 years and have received rejections that would make you envy the dead, so this experience was nothing short of stellar. Yet I find myself in a fairly unique position in that, while I personally know the author’s pang of having your deeply-personal masterpiece not make it on to the next stage due to the pers

Beside being almost as good of an interviewer as he is a human being, Peat took the time to ask me some searing questions involving writing, influences, and the secret to immortality. If you want any/ all of the above, you best head on over there. Seriously, this was a huge honor since not that long ago I was reading his interview with Anna Stephens. Yes, that Anna Stephens! As you can tell, I've never been happier...