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Helping Authors Without Spending A Penny
Cory Doctorow is a science fiction writer who is also a political activist, with a lot to say about capitalism, most of it not nice. He does not mince words. Recently, he wrote a long post that is of...
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Tolkien’s Sources…
Authors can go to extraordinary lengths to build their fictional worlds. They have travelled the world, and spent decades in research. James Cameron has gone where few men have gone before–in ocean...
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Top 13 Fantasy Magazines I Follow
Fantasy as a genre tends to run long. One hundred thousand words (400 pages) for a novel is average. But short fantasy: short stories, novellas and novelettes, are a specialized artistry for the...
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The Duality of Magic Systems in Fantasy: Hard vs. Soft Magic
Magic systems in fantasy often fall into two distinct categories: hard magic and soft magic. Each offers unique storytelling opportunities, although readers tend to gravitate towards one or the other....
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Unveiling the Tapestry
Unveiling the Tapestry Real-World History’s Impact on Fantasy Worldbuilding I’m a history nut. I don’t know if every fantasy author is also a history nut, but a love of history must surely become a...
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The Original Modern Fantasies.
Read them right now, for free. Most casual readers of fantasy presume that J.R.R. Tolkien invented it. Not quite. Fantasy as an element of fiction has been around since history began, in all cultures...
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May the Fourth Be With You
It’s Star Wars Day, which times out nicely as my new post schedule is for Saturdays. Although you could be asking why a fantasy writer is talking about a science fiction franchise. I’m talking about...
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Fallout from World War I
Village of Manre, France, WWI. Atlas Obscura recently reported that some of the WWI battlegrounds in France, particularly around Verdun, still have great swathes of land, some of it larger than Paris...
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A Contest to Watch — SPFBO
There are many grand prix awards for fantasy writers, including the Aurealis Awards, the Australian grand prix awards for fantasy and science fiction, of which I am a finalist this year. There is also...
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Posts Will Slow Down For A While
The vast majority of my readers keep up with my news via the email list, so for a while I thought I would just let the blog sit where it was, with a run of interesting posts. However, I’ve been to...
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