Brondt Kamffer's Blog, page 8

review requests & price gouging? (3/30 update)

In this update, I wish to tackle two issues that have cropped up in the past couple of weeks. I received word, via a couple of emails and an Amazon review, that some folks think I am trying to charge more for less in regards to The Scion of Abacus. I feel I need to make an official statement here to clear the air.

Official Scion pricing statement

I feel I ought to respond simply to clarify what is patently a false accusation regarding the length of the individual volumes in the serial.

Each of t...

And now for something completely different…

…a review of Nimpentoad, a story for children.

I have not written a review here for some time, partly because I just don't have the desire to anymore, partly because I don't have the time to read books that I don't normally pick up, but every now and then I stumble across something that really piques my interest. Nimpentoad had an interesting story behind it, which was related by author Henry Herz in his earlier guest post. I am always intrigued by projects that are out of the ordinary, and...

Guest post: Henry Herz, author of Nimpentoad

I have here today a guest post from Henry Herz, author of Nimpentoad, an illustrated children's paperback. It is "the tale of a courageous and resourceful little Nibling, who leads his tribe through the perilous Grunwald Forest, overcoming obstacles and encountering strange creatures along the way."

It sounds like an interesting project overall, but I will let Henry explain it a bit more, as well as the process behind putting it all together. As regular readers of my blog know, I just love to ...

the pessimist within (3/23 update)

Another week has passed us by, and I've got to tell you that things have never looked better. The rosy-tinted glasses of moderate publishing success are coloring everything I see…and for this natural-born pessimist, that is a very worrying thing.

Lord Pessimisticus

There is an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond in which Ray is singled out as an irredeemable pessimist. He then tries to reform, gets a promotion at work, confronts his family about their constant negativism, and then glories in...

religion in fantasy: atheism

*This is the fifth in an eight-part series, which I'll publish during the month of March. Click for theism, deism, dualism, or polytheism.*

Religion is an integral part of every society in this world, and thus it comes as no surprise that religion often features so prominently in fantasy literature, wherein authors construct imaginary worlds that must balance the fantastic with the believable in a way few other genres have to deal with. The issue I want to explore is how various authors...

religion in fantasy: polytheism

*This is the fourth in an eight-part series, which I'll publish during the month of March. Click for part one: theism, part two: deism, or part three:dualism.*

Religion is an integral part of every society in this world, and thus it comes as no surprise that religion often features so prominently in fantasy literature, wherein authors construct imaginary worlds that must balance the fantastic with the believable in a way few other genres have to deal with. The issue I want to explore is how...

rubicon crossed? & scion 4 (3/16 update)

Yet another incredibly busy week has passed me by, leaving many of my plans in the dust. But at the same time, it has been an immeasurably good seven days, and so I sit typing this sitting on a sort of cloud nine.

Crossing the Rubicon

I've written repeatedly for weeks now of my amazement that The Scion of Abacus has seemed to resonate with readers enough to climb the sales charts at an astounding rate. Last week I noted that the first volume of the serial novel had dipped below rank 5,000 on...

religion in fantasy: dualism

*This is the third in an eight-part series, which I'll publish during the month of March. Click for part one: theism, or for part two:deism.*

Religion is an integral part of every society in this world, and thus it comes as no surprise that religion often features so prominently in fantasy literature, wherein authors construct imaginary worlds that must balance the fantastic with the believable in a way few other genres have to deal with. The issue I want to explore is how various authors...

5,000, religion, and more (3/9 update)

It's been an exciting week, a busy week, and an interesting week all round. On Sunday, I had so many plans for what I was going to do, what I was going to write, and so on, but planets aligned and stuff, and so I have completed about 1% of my to-do list. But it wasn't all bad. It has, on the scale of things, been a very good week in many different ways.

5,000

That is my new favourite number. I was making a daily sales check on Amazon Tuesday evening, and discovered that for the first time, one ...

religion in fantasy: deism

*This is the second in an eight-part series, which I'll publish during the month of March. Click for part one: theism.*

Religion is an integral part of every society in this world, and thus it comes as no surprise that religion often features so prominently in fantasy literature, wherein authors construct imaginary worlds that must balance the fantastic with the believable in a way few other genres have to deal with. The issue I want to explore is how various authors approach this most...