Featured Medieval Historical Fiction Novel

This is the Kindle Edition of the book. The cover grabbed my attention, and it received good reviews, so I thought I’d feature it.

The Red Cross of Gold I:. The Knight of Death by Brendan Carroll
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 804 KB
Print Length: 386 pages
Product Description:
An apparent kidnapping and rape become the first steps in a […]

Novel Update, Excerpt Included

It’s been a while since I’ve given an update on my novel, but as of now, I’m still on track to finish by the end of August / September. I’m done with the majority of the re-writing, I believe, so I should be able to keep most of what I already have while making edits […]

Create Unique Words and Names When Writing Fantasy

Writer’s Corner has a good article on How to Find Interesting Words and Names for Your Fantasy Writing. The article covers the following points:

Keep a small notebook of interesting names and words
Maps are an excellent resource
Dictionaries and encyclopedias
Foreign languages
Add a glossary to your novel
Hearing the words
Enhance your readers experience

Names of cities on old maps have […]

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol Original Manuscript

The original manuscript of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is now available in digital format. You can flip through the 66 pages of the manuscript, toggling between the actual hand-written pages or the typed version of the pages. It’s interesting to see all of Dickens’ editing marks.
Read “Looking over the Shoulder of the Creator of […]

Novel Update - Excerpt Included

I started working on my novel again this week. It’s the first time I’ve written something new in months. I’m re-writing the first scene entirely, and this is what I have so far (always subject to change, of course):
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He knows the truth. Cobus held the parchment next to the flame on his desk, the red […]

Moving Houses

The last half of last week was spent moving from one side of town to the other so I can be closer to where I work. My commute used to be around 45 mins, but now it will only be 15 mins. Sorry that I have missed a few days of medieval history / fantasy […]

Neil Gaiman on Entitlement

I thought Neal had a good post over on his blog recently about the entitlement readers sometimes feel regarding an author and his/her work. He answers a question from a reader concerning George R.R. Martin and the completion of A Song of Ice and Fire. You’ll have to scroll down some in the post to […]

Template Fixed

Okay, I’ve uncovered the problem and everything is back to normal. Let me know if you see anything that looks out of place. Thanks!

Template Issues

Currently, I’m having some issues with my new template. Still trying to diagnose the problem, so I had to revert back to the old look until I can pinpoint why the content is not displaying correctly with the new design. Should have this resolved some time today.

Fantasy Writing / Novel Cliches

Does the fantasy novel you’re working on avoid the typical writing cliches? Compare your novel against the following Web sites:

Grand List of Fantasy Cliches
Risus Fantasy Cliches
The Fantasy Cliche Meter (The Good Guys)
The Fantasy Cliche Meter (The Bad Guys)

Granted, the Web sites are not aesthetically pleasing, but it’s still fun to go through the checklist […]