Marc Aplin's Blog, page 75
August 20, 2018
Once Upon A Time: Fairy Tales and Fantasy
Once upon a time… Just about anyone familiar with the Western literary canon knows that phrase. It opens familiar fairy tales we’ve grown up with, like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, along with more obscure ones, like Katie Crackernuts. It appears in modern fiction, too, albeit slightly translated. After all, what else could “A long time […]
August 19, 2018
Warriors by Erin Hunter – Series Review
When I hear my twelve-year-old weeping, I know one of two things is happening: a) she’s reached the climax of another Warriors book, or b) there’s been another tragic death in a Warriors book. This massive series has been my daughter’s singular book obsession for roughly a quarter of her life. She occasionally takes a […]
Monthly Short Story Winner: Letters
This month we had our entrants try their hand at writing a letter. Sounds boring and not fantasy-ish at all? We hope not! We didn’t want them to just write a random letter. Instead there were four topics to choose from, some funny, some sad, some what they make out of it. First person was […]
August 16, 2018
Weaving A Narrative
A story is more than its central plot tenants. It is more than the broad strokes of its grand events and dramatic moments. It is a woven tapestry of differing narrative threads and layers that weave together to create a cohesive whole. Yes there will be the macro arc of the greater plot that directs […]
August 15, 2018
Darius Hinks Joins Angry Robot Books with The Ingenious – Guest Blog
Today we have author Darius Hinks with us to talk about his upcoming release, The Ingenious, due out February 2019, from Angry Robot Books! Waaay back in 2011 I wrote my first Games Workshop novel, Warrior Priest, and over the last seven years, all my fiction has been set in one of the Warhammer universes. […]
August 13, 2018
The Armored Saint by Myke Cole
To be able to write efficiently in more than one genre is a rare talent. Although I loved his first series, I going to be really honest at the onset of this review by admitting I didn’t expect Myke Cole to possess this trait. And boy am I glad to be proved so wrong. The […]
August 12, 2018
Frances Hardinge Interview – A Skinful of Shadows
Frances Hardinge is one of the finest fantasy authors around. Her inventive and beautifully written YA novels, the most recent of which is A Skinful of Shadows (2017), are widely loved by readers of all ages and have received many awards. They run the gamut from richly invented fantasy worlds populated by homicidal geese or […]
August 9, 2018
Monthly Short Story Winner: Writing In A Subgenre You Don’t Like
We chose this topic to achieve two things: First, to acquaint entrants with something new, and second, to help entrants identify what they normally don’t like about their chosen subgenre. We hoped this would force them to write something different, rejuvenating the genre for them. And we are happy to say, the experiment was a […]
August 8, 2018
Dale Lucas Interview – Friendly Fire
Dale Lucas, film reviewer and indie fantasy author, had his first Big Five debut last year, with First Watch, first book in The Fifth Ward series. The book came out to much acclaim and its sequel, Friendly Fire, is out this week! Today we are lucky enough to have the author himself here to tell […]
August 7, 2018
A Fantasy Geek’s Guide to YouTube: Weapons and Warfare
YouTube is an app, a website, and a cultural phenomenon. It’s also a vast and barely-explored wilderness full of content that ranges from dynamic to dire. Whatever your interests are, there’s probably at least one channel out there for you. Still, managing to dig out the channels that cater to your own SFF needs can […]
