Marc Aplin's Blog, page 157

Joe Abercrombie update and Sharp Ends cover reveal

Fantasy-Faction is a huge fan of Joe Abercrombie. He has spent a great deal of time at the top of our ‘Most Anticipated’ and ‘Best Novel’ lists over the years and based on the quality of his Young Adult novels this isn’t going to change anytime soon. It’s not just us though, one of the most […]

What To Do In December Now NaNoWriMo Is Over

It’s done. After 30 solid days of eye-bleeding writing NaNoWriMo is over. You step into December blinking, the ordeal over and your life strangely empty. After frantically trying to spend every spare minute of the last few days of November writing, December leaves you feeling all out of sorts. So whether you made the golden […]

Game of Thrones Season 6 Teaser… Is Jon Snow Dead? If not… how not?

This post contains spoilers for the show and book. I didn’t disguise the title as the subject has trended on the news, Facebook and Twitter… I don’t think there are too many people alive who don’t know that Jon Snow is ‘dead’. Just ’cause they died doesn’t mean they are dead… It’s kind of A […]

Steve McHugh Interview

Today we have the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Steve McHugh, author of the Hellequin Chronicles, an urban fantasy series that currently spans five full length novels and two short stories. His latest book, Lies Ripped Open, was released in August 2015 by 47North. Now on with the interview! For folks, and there may be a […]

Interview with Peter McLean

Fantasy-Faction makes no secret of our love for UK Publishing House Angry Robot… Want some reasoning? OK, how about: Kameron Hurley, Wesley Chu, Adam Christopher, Anne Lyle and Chuck Wendig to get us started… Angry Robot specialise in taking risks on books that can’t be defined as ‘a copy of x’ and discovering new talent. […]

Our Lady Of The Ice by Cassandra Rose Clarke

Our Lady of the Ice is my latest attempt at broadening my perspective and understanding of the ‘Young Adult’ genre. When I started out on this journey, after the Young Adult Literary Convention, a few years ago I thought that within a few books I’d easily be able to define what makes YA ‘Young Adult’ […]

What Photography Teaches Us About Writing

Before a photographer takes a photo, a lot of considerations run through her mind: composition, metering, white balance, light sensitivity, aperture size. She does this because she knows it will make a better photo – more than that, it will make a photo that says something, that conveys a message or a mood to the […]

The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher

The Aeronaut’s Windlass is the latest offering from the talented Jim Butcher. I have been a fan of Butcher’s work for a long time, as I’m sure many of you reading this are too. It felt strange to be picking up a book with his name on that didn’t feature a particular Chicago based, professional […]

Grandmothers of Fantasy

It’s often said that, until the past two or three decades, both fantasy and SF were completely male-dominated genres. To a large extent this is true, but not entirely. For this article, rather than focus on a specific classic author or book, I thought I’d take a brief overview of some of the women who […]

The Seat of Magic by J. Kathleen Cheney

The Golden City was a wonderful historical fantasy murder mystery set in an alternate Portugal where selkies and sirens (called sereia) secretly roam the streets and magic can be used to alter the flow of history. Its sequel, The Seat of Magic, does just what a good sequel ought to: It raises the bar without […]