Mathew Reuther's Blog: Goodreads Excerpts, page 9

Guest: Lori J. Fitzgerald on Crime in the Middles Ages: Treason

Today’s guest entry has it all: a brief look at chivalry and crime in the middle ages, a pretty book cover, an excerpt from a novelette, and a giveaway. What more can one ask from from a Magic Appreciation Tour guest? Read on to see what Lori J. Fitzgerald’s The Dragon’s Message is all about!

Crime in the Middle Ages: Treason
by Lori J. Fitzgerald, White Raven Writing

When you think of a medieval fantasy setting, often characters such as knights and ladies, castles and dragons, perhaps even Sir...

Net Neutrality and the Writer

I’ll be honest with you. I’ve been quiet lately because I haven’t been getting much done. That’s not because I don’t want to get things done. It’s more because life is the way life is. I have two small children at home with me each day, and while I appreciate that some writers out there are able to balance that responsibility with reasonable production, the fact is that I am who I am, and I don’t find that as attainable as I might like.

This is an important thing to understand. Real people who...

Guest: Tracy Falbe’s Fantasy Book Blast

This week Tracy Falbe is back on the blog. She’s asked for help getting the word out on her The RhysChroniclespromotion, so I’ve offered her up a little space to do just that. She’s offered up a helpful little graphic to explain the deal:

So, first off, you will notice that you can get a taste of her epic fantasy series for free with Union of Renegades:

To download a copy, just visit any of these outlets:

Brave Luck Books

Smashwords

Amazon Kindle US | UK | CA | AU | FR

Barnes & Noble Nook US | UK

Ap...

Website Migration

I’m not migrating the site, but my hosting provider (A Small Orange) is moving it from one server to another one in a different datacenter. In fact, that’s already happened. As a result I’ve updated my DNS records.

In any case, nothing SHOULD happen to interrupt the site resolving for you. As near as I can tell the old server is still offering up the site, and the DNS changes should propagate fairly quickly so that the new server is handling all requests.

But if there is a minor hiccup, you’ll...

Geekssential #20: First-Person Shooters

This week I’m doing a more general post than usual. (For reasons of current interest.) Instead of a specific (named) something, I’m singling out a whole genre of somethings. In this case, the video game genre known as First-Person Shooters.

id Software’s venerable Quake.

In the Beginning…

While a lot of credit is given to the games Wolfenstein 3D (which I played extensively) and Doom (which I played a bit) for launching the genre, the truth of the matter is that these two games were not the firs...

Guest: Tracy Falbe on the Hammer of the Witches and a Brief History of Crime Investigation in Western Society

Another day, another guest post! This time up I’m welcoming fellow MAT epic fantasy author (of the Rys Rising and Rhys Chronicles series, for example) Tracy Falbe who is touring in support of her brand new book, Werelord Thal: A Renaissance Werewolf Tale. Tracy has written up a look at criminal investigations in the West as it relates to her setting, 16th century Prague. Certainly an enjoyable read in my eyes, but you should read on and see for yourself. (And make sure to check out the sale c...

Writing in Character, Motivation is Everything

One of the biggest issues with writing is how you treat characters. Now, not every writer approaches their dramatis personae in the same manner. February’s writing-focused post is simply covering how I look at mine.

“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players”
— William Shakespeare
Photo from the Ashland Shakespeare Festival

Agency, Not just a DOJ Lawsuit

When you look at characters within a work of fiction, you examine something called agency. It’s a common term used by writ...

Geekssential #19: Dungeons & Dragons

Earlier this week I mentioned being a big role-playing gamer. It’s true. I have been for years, since first being introduced to pen and paper gaming in about 1980. I had my first experience at a slumber party during elementary school. There was a box, a blue rulebook, something called a halfling, and a scary hole in the ground filled with monsters. I was, of course, playing Dungeons & Dragons…

Literally the rulebook I played with that first night.

Workout for the Imagination

I was already a pret...

Geekssential #18: Dragonlance

Many years back I was (this will come as a shock, I know) a huge Dungeons & Dragons gamer. My friends and I played on a regular basis, and we even worked on our own rules for a game we called Warball & Chain. Around this time (the mid-1980′s when I was spanning late elementary and junior high) I first picked up another one of those books which helped shape my reading life. It was a story of a world destroyed, gods lost, and fearsome creatures returned. I’m speaking, of course, about Weis and...

Guest: Katharina Gerlach with an Excerpt from Swordplay

Today brings with it an excerpt from a new book: Swordplay, from German author Katharina Gerlach. Dire fans might like the conceit of the magical police—though Katharina’s work is decidedly less brutal than mine.

Make sure to enter the giveaway down below after reading the excerpt!

CSI with magic but without the gore

Despite her obvious lack of magical talent, nineteen year old Moira Bellamie apprentices with the Gendarmerie Magique, the magic police. She puts all her effort into solving a burgl...