Marc Aplin's Blog, page 200
November 13, 2014
Collecting Data On Your Writing
If you have any sort of science background, one of the most surprising things about trying to achieve success as a writer is the lack of metrics to gauge your progress. We live in a world of numbers, whether they be sales targets, exams scores, or measures of efficiency. Therefore, stepping into a world where […]
The Liar’s Key Cover Reveal
When your most recent novel has done enough to pick up both the David Gemmell Legend Award (prose) and the David Gemmell Ravenheart Award (Cover Art), you are inevitably going to have readers waiting with bated breath for your subsequent work. Certainly, when Mark Lawrence announced that he was going to continue writing books in the […]
Johannes Cabal: The Detective by Jonathan L. Howard
“Don’t think you can quantify me and put me in a thesis. A census taker once tried to test me. I let my front garden eat him.” – Johannes Cabal Johannes Cabal: The Detective is Jonathan Howard’s second novel featuring the title character, a necromancer of some little infamy. While the first novel took its […]
November 11, 2014
Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins
Harper Price has everything. She’s president of the Student Government Association, has Cotillion coming up, does well in school, has a great group of friends (and one best friend, Bee), is dating a guy who’s just about perfect for her, attends Future Business Leaders of America meetings, and is all set to be Homecoming Queen. […]
Asimov’s ‘Foundation’ heading to Television!
A couple of years ago it seemed that Fantasy and Science-Fiction had died its death on television. You’d get the odd show trying to kick-start the genre, but generally, no matter how good, we knew it was only a matter of time before it was cancelled (Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, StarTrek Enterprise, etc, etc, etc). It […]
November 10, 2014
What Makes a Great Bookstore?
Everyone has a favorite bookstore—whether it’s a big chain or the corner independent. It’s the place where we discover new books, maybe even wait in line for hours for the latest in our favorite series. I don’t know about you, but walking into a bookstore always brightens my day. So, how do you know if […]
Giveaway – The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley
In December, our book club will be reading The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley. There has been a lot of buzz about The Mirror Empire this year and I have to confess, I was already extremely excited about the choice because it’s one of my favorite reads of 2014. It also lends its self quite […]
November 9, 2014
World Fantasy Award Winners
It still does not seem real to me that this website, that I set up because I didn’t have any friends to talk to about the fantasy book I’d just finished, was in 2014 nominated for a World Fantasy Award… A World Friggen Fantasy Award, people! To me, winning isn’t important. It never will be. Judges […]
November 8, 2014
Patrick Rothfuss responds to Creative Writing Teacher’s ‘fantasy doesn’t count’ jibe
Here at Fantasy-Faction we love Patrick Rothfuss and his Kingkiller Chronicles. I feel Pat is an incredibly intelligent, well spoken man who has done a lot of good in terms of promoting the fantasy genre. However, I wouldn’t recommend you make him angry, because you won’t like him when he’s angry… Here’s the explanation of […]
November 7, 2014
Keeping the Little Things Undead
We are all familiar with ‘zombies’, right? Senseless, decaying and yet animated corpses that eat juicy live brains’ – as seen in AMC’s The Walking Dead. Well, that’s certainly a popular depiction of them, but there are others too. One of the most fascinating examples that I’ve come across over the last few years are […]
