Marc Aplin's Blog, page 120
January 17, 2017
Why I Don’t Like Dragons
First, a confession: the title of this article is a little bit sensationalist. The truth is, I don’t actively dislike dragons. I don’t go around hating them and huffing and puffing at books with dragons on the cover, and films with dragons in the trailers. My feelings towards dragons is closer to an indifference. They […]
January 16, 2017
Top Ten Books To Improve Your Writing
A likely first stop on the journey of any aspiring writer is the purchase of a writing book to teach them about the subject. Often they’re drawn to titles like “Write a Bestseller in Six Months,” or “Making Money from Kindle Publishing.” First and foremost though, the goal should be to master your craft, from […]
Promoting Your Personality, A.K.A. Marketing For Authors In 2017
I stumbled across a Facebook status by an author friend who posted that he was about to start work on the ‘0.01% of being a writer’ that was building his personal brand (the other 99.99%, to his mind, being writing). Now, I hate to disagree with good friends. However, based on my experience, I’d say […]
January 15, 2017
The Dreaded Adverb Problem
The poor adverb. No part of speech is more maligned than this little modifier. When authors want to insult each other, what do we do? We accuse each other of using too many adverbs. It’s the writer equivalent of “your mama.” But to say that all adverb use is lazy or a sign of bad […]
January 14, 2017
Exploring Rural Landscape
The quest is a hallmark of great fantasy fiction and some of the best quests see our heroes traverse a variety of locations before reaching their goal. When done well, the environment can become a character in its own right. But all too often in writing fantasy, the environment can be bland, the landscape uniform. […]
January 12, 2017
Plotting – What Happens Next?
“What happens next” is a question that has the power to freeze a writer’s hand over the keyboard, paralysing them with potential issues. Which route should your characters take? How would they respond to story events? Does it make sense? Does it slow the pace? Does it feel right? Creating a coherent and successful plot […]
January 10, 2017
The Moonlight War by S.K.S. Perry – SPFBO Review
The Moonlight War is one of ten novels in the final round of Mark Lawrence’s Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO) 2016. Updates on the contest’s progress can be found here. Three caravans have vanished traversing the Cowcheanne Way. The legendary Tahsis platoon, warriors thought by most to be invincible, are dispatched to investigate and are never […]
January 8, 2017
Gender and Stereotyping in Fantasy – Part Six: Historical Accuracy
This final part of our extended series on gender and stereotypes in fantasy and science fiction will be both a conclusion and a sweeping reflection on what we’ve already examined, but in the context of that one thing many who fail to see the lack importance (and, indeed, those who oppose diverse and inclusive representation […]
January 7, 2017
Rogue One – Book and Movie Review
Note: This review covers both the film Rogue One and the prequel novel Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel. Small “spoilers” abound but I’ll say without reservation that there is no way this review can really spoil anything. The conclusion was foregone. We already know how the story ends. What I haven’t spoiled are some of […]
January 6, 2017
High Wizardry by Diane Duane
Even though I’ve only reviewed two books in Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series, I’m sure people will be able to guess from the previous two reviews how this one will go. I’ll swoon over the friendship between Nita and Kit, and how the two of them are such a perfect example of a bookish friendship […]
