Marc Aplin's Blog, page 201

Cover and protagonist details released for ‘Half the World’

Just yesterday we were talking about how Joe Abercrombie’s Half A King should easily have made Goodreads’ Best of 2014 Fantasy and/or Young Adult list – and we’re still holding out hope that it makes it in as part of the public write in stage. So, as you can imagine, we’re pretty excited for 2015’s […]

Fantastical Biology Part 4: Deep Ocean

The ocean covers 70% of the Earth’s surface, and yet humans have explored less than 5% of it. No wonder the deepest parts of the ocean have inspired and played a part in so many speculative fiction stories, like Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, or China Miéville’s The Scar. Dolphins, seals and manatees are […]

THE HOBBIT IN 72 SECONDS… Cause you ain’t got 9 hours.

Not everyone has enjoyed The Hobbit movies so far and that’s a problem. Expected to sit at around 9 hours in total, when all is said and done, that’s a lot of life to waste on a trilogy of movies. What if you are one of the people who didn’t enjoy it and a friend […]

Goodreads Announces ‘Best Fantasy of 2014′ Opening Round Nominees

The Goodreads Choice Awards have rapidly grown into one of the most influential book awards in the world. Authors such as Mark Lawrence have reported that just a nomination in these awards is enough to see interest (and sales) in your books skyrocket. And Winning? Well, that sees your work exposed to around 30-35million dedicated […]

Johannes Cabal the Necromancer: Review

“Thrown out of the best universities, excommunicated from all the most popular religions and many of the obscure ones, fresh from his recent engagement in Hell, we present Johannes Cabal, Necromancer!” —Johannes Cabal the Necromancer Jonathan L. Howard’s Johannes Cabal the Necromancer opens with the title character taking a trip to hell to get his […]

Traditional Publishing, Self-Publishing and the Pro Writer

Once upon a time, not long ago, there was ‘real’ publishing and vanity publishing. ‘Real’ publishing paid the author, and authors paid the vanity publisher. The lines were clear. Few self-published books made it across the threshold into legitimacy. Self-publishing carried a stigma, regardless of how well-written. My, how things have changed. Blame or credit […]

Interview with Rebecca Levene

2014 has been an incredible year for readers hunting new authors within the Epic Fantasy genre. To prove it I could point you to some fantastic debuts such as Age of Iron, Traitor’s Blade and Red Rising (all frighteningly good if you’re a writer looking to get published one day – the bar has officially been […]

Ten Tips For Short Story Writing

The release of the Fantasy Faction Anthology has got me thinking about short stories lately. Short stories can be great fun to write, but sometimes tough to get the knack of. For anyone who wants to try their luck at this form, I’ve come up with a list of useful tips to help you get […]

Silverthorn by Raymond E. Feist

This one was a strange one. When someone reads a sequel, they, in perhaps a blind state of expectancy, naturally believe the latter to be alike to the former, at least in feel. With Silverthorn, the very idea that is was the official sequel to Magician never really hit me. It didn’t feel like the […]

Dear Grimdark… Guest Post by Sam Sykes

As most of you know, Sam Sykes has a new book out this week, The City Stained Red. We’ve been lucky enough to get our hands on a copy and can tell you that it is by far the best thing Sam has written (and that’s saying something). A full review is forthcoming, but we […]