[Warning: Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers everywhere] Do you know what irony is? Irony is a man wondering if he can find a new life, and then getting killed ten minutes later – due to past sins, no less. I don’t know if Jeffrey Overstreet intended such a morose irony, though he did write it. That was…
Tag: writing
CSFF Blog Tour: The Ale Boy’s Feast
(Note: In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.) The king is missing, but frankly, that’s the least of these people’s problems. The people of Abascar are exiles without a home behind them. Bel Amica is an open refuge, except for maybe the refuge part….
Great Openings
Note: This is a totally subjective list, comprised of openings I found most amusing, intriguing, or arresting. You will not find “Call me Ishmael” here, largely because I never read the book. It’s a fine sentence, but it’s all I need. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” is also…
CSFF Blog Tour: The Art of the Point and the Point of the Art
The Strange Man opened with an old man telling the sad, strange tale of Joe Hallerin. At the end of the telling, he stood and roared the moral of his story: “And if the Strange Man ever come knockin’ at your door, don’t you ever, ever let him in!” A few chapters later, a mother…
CSFF Blog Tour: The Strange Man
(Note: In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.) Dras has problems. He has no job, no money, no prospects, and no ambition. Plus, he just got gypped on a Snake Eyes GI Joe action figure. But the Strange Man is coming to town, and…
Violence in the Bible and other Christian books
A little while ago, the discussion on the CSFF blog tour turned to the violence, or lack of it, in Donita Paul’s Dragons of the Valley. Becky LuElla Miller wrote a couple posts about violence in Christian fiction, and particularly fantasy. I’ve decided to throw in a couple thoughts of my own. It can be…
CSFF Blog Tour: Breaking the Love Triangle
I’m going to start off by putting a Spoiler Alert on this whole post. From here on in I’ll make free in discussing details from the book. One of the interesting aspects of Dragons of the Valley was the love triangle. Bealomondore loved Tipper, Tipper loved Jayrus, and Jayrus loved … well, you couldn’t tell….
CSFF Blog Tour: Dragons of the Valley
(Note: In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.) It’s been said that good fortune follows good fortune, and bad fortune follows bad fortune. This may be why Chiril’s first armed rebellion in many years is followed by its first foreign invasion in many years….
First, Get Your Facts …
Reading, they say, broadens your horizons. So does writing. In fact, it can be even more broadening. Research can take you where your curiosity never would. Historical fiction demands the most research. The genres that demand less – that can appear to demand very little – are modern fiction and science fiction/fantasy. Modern fiction is…
CSFF Blog Tour: Building Corenwald
Every fantasy world is a mixing and changing of real-world elements. Corenwald, the setting of The Charlatan’s Boy, is different in which elements are chosen. Unlike most fantasy worlds, Corenwald is more American than European, more modern than medieval. A few things in Corenwald do sound British – the constables, the public houses. But the…