Marc Aplin's Blog, page 220
July 12, 2014
What’s Your Favorite Fantasy Sword?
Everyone loves Excalibur; I mean it’s the sword of swords! One land, one King! And all that jazz. I could sit here and talk about all the times I drew what I thought Excalibur looked like on my folders in middle school, but who really knows what that mythological sword was shaped like. What is […]
July 11, 2014
Winner of the March 2014 Writing Contest
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 about one a fortnight. Today we will be looking at the winner from our March 2014 contest. Grimdark. If you […]
Sam Sykes’s ‘The City Stained Red’ Gets A Cover… And It’s AWESOME!
We really like Sam Sykes. Him. His novels. His Tweets. His Pugs. There isn’t really anything not to like in all honesty. Well, earlier this week Sam announced that he is going to be adding a comic book to that list of ‘things to like about Sam Sykes’. We were all pretty excited about that, […]
July 10, 2014
The Martian by Andy Weir
Book recommendations and I have a torrid relationship. Most of the time it doesn’t work out for me due to a great deal of impatience with many traditional tropes, inability to get past other tropes, and my usual response to such silliness is to make bad jokes at the book’s expense until I am suitably […]
Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 Teaser Trailer
Has it been a year since the last film already? We quite enjoyed the second Hunger Games movie, although we will admit it was really just a slightly different version than the first… However, we have high hopes for this third movie not being another carbon copy. If these teaser trailers and the books are […]
Patrick Rothfuss’s ‘The Slow Regard of Silent Things’ cover reveal
Our good friends over at Gollancz have finally released the cover for Patrick Rothfuss’s brand new novella, The Slow Regard of Silent Things. Fantasy-Faction covered just what this story is in quite some detail a few months back, but to summarise it is a short, sweet story about fan favourite Auri. Although we’ve said ‘short’ […]
July 9, 2014
World Fantasy Award Nominations
Today, I and Fantasy-Faction got nominated for a World Fantasy Award. This is a huge deal for me personally and for the community that we have built here, at Fantasy-Faction. To see our name alongside George R.R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, Jonathan Oliver, K.J. Parker, Neil Gaiman, Helen Wecker, Gene Wolfe and so many more stars and […]
Terry Pratchett signs deal for ‘Dragons at Crumbling Castle’ & UPDATE: Cover Reveal
In news that flew gently under the radar, Sir Terry Pratchett has signed a book deal for a collection of middle-grade stories that will be titled Dragons at Crumbling Castle. The stories – 14 in total – initially appeared in The Buck’s Free Press (in Buckinghamshire, England), long before Terry Pratchett made it as a […]
July 8, 2014
Five Reasons To Cast Your Novel
At the heart of every great novel are great characters. Love them or hate them, their escapades propel the narrative forward. Readers empathise with them, cheer them on and cry with them. Writers need to know how to make their characters as real as possible. Therefore, in your own writing it’s essential that you are […]
Harry Potter surfaces after 7 years M.I.A.
We haven’t seen Harry Potter for seven years – when he was waving goodbye to his children as they boarded the Hogwarts train at the end of The Deathly Hallows. But, this month, fans are to receive an update on the world’s most famous wizard. In an original piece of writing for the Pottermore website, […]
