Marc Aplin's Blog, page 179
May 18, 2015
“The Witcher: Sword Of Destiny” Extract
The Witcher is far more than the title/class of a character in an SFF Book in its native Poland. In its country of origin, the series of novels and short stories by writer Andrzej Sapkowski has the kind of cult following that The Lord of The Rings has over here in Britain. Indeed, the growing […]
May 16, 2015
Writing Contest Winner: Joker Month
We had a lot great contest themes this year and I know that some people didn’t manage to finish their stories on time for some of the contests or didn’t take part for other reasons, so this month I decided to revisit the themes we already had. November (because of NaNoWriMo) is a special month […]
May 15, 2015
Self-Published Fantasy Redux: Riyria. Revelation.
My favorite fantasy books of 2015 have been self-published. For a guy that wrote “Self-Published Fantasy and Me” for this very website, that is quite an admission. And while I don’t for one moment regret that previous article, I do admit to one colossal miscalculation. I should have read Michael J. Sullivan’s Riyria Revelations years […]
May 14, 2015
A Look At Points Of View
What point of view to write from is one of the most significant decisions a writer can make about their work, yet with so many aspects of writing craft to consider, characterisation, plotting, pacing, it often gets regulated to the background after a quick, early decision. Giving a little thought to what point of view […]
Laura Lam’s “Dark Circus” to be completed with Tor!!!
Fantasy-Faction were heart-broken when we heard that publishing imprint Strange Chemistry would be folding. Authors such as Laura Lam, who had written books like Pantomime that scored 9 & 10 out of 10 scores, were left out of contract. Equally hard to swallow was that series like Laura’s would be left mid-way through without a […]
May 12, 2015
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
A word of warning before we begin: As soon as I finished this book, it went straight into my top five all-time favourites, so be prepared for raving. I’ve reviewed several books this year and given them ten stars, but I’d give Uprooted eleven if it were possible. Because occasionally you find a book that […]
May 10, 2015
Rogue Legacy – Video Game Review
When I started this game I thought it would be a fun distraction for a Sunday afternoon, a cute little game that would remind me of the old games I used to play in the past. It turned out that it was those things, but also so much more. I didn’t realise how addictive this […]
Writing Contest Winner: Abandoned Places
We’ve been getting such good feedback for the short stories our members have submitted in our Monthly Short Story Competition that we have decided to post them on the main site at a rate of one a week. The task this time was to write a story using pictures of abandoned places as inspiration. Abandoned […]
May 8, 2015
So What’s The Fuss About Writing Journal?
Many writers enjoy tracking their productivity. They’ll keep spreadsheets to see how well they’re writing, filled with rows of word counts, start and end times. This way they can calculate just how many words they are writing an hour. For some, it’s a way to track their progress, to see just how far they’ve come […]
May 7, 2015
The Many Nations of Elves
For many of us the words elf and fantasy are as intertwined in our minds as peanut butter and jelly. What self-respecting lover of fantasy among us has not spent major time exploring the many nations of elves out there? You could easily argue that one of the most enjoyable parts of sinking your teeth […]
