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Writing is about realising dreams – my dream of being a writer, my dream world, and also the dreams of who I wish to be, reflected through characters.
One of the joys of being a writer is being able to be the person you always wanted to be through your characters. You can create someone […]
Once or twice, people have asked me who I base my characters on. The moment they ask, I know that they are not fiction writers.
What makes me say that?
Simply because character development isn’t about ‘lifting’ a real person you know and dropping them into a book. Let me give you an example of […]
Here I am again.
The draft is written and now, all I need to do is review and polish the next bestseller-to-be. And, of course, half way through the second set of revisions, all I can hear in my head is “Oh, this is a really weak story. This is terrible. Everyone is going to […]
I’ve come to the realisation that Age of Oppression – the novel I’m currently writing is all about power.
The sub-plot of the book highlights the political manouvering between the Emperor and his brother as they attempt to gain power over one another. Their political wrangling and reactions to trouble in the south provides some […]
When I was three years old, someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. My answer? A cuckoo clock! My Dad later told me that he knew then that I would be a writer.
He was right. From the age of seven I wrote stories and I’ve never really stopped. But […]
My blog over the past couple of week has been all about the creation of the landscape for The Bremmand Chronicles. It is one of fun parts of narrative fiction – inventing your own geography. It isn’t just the geography either – it’s the society too. So, having created the Kingdom, I also had to […]
Long ago I was part of a writer’s forum where one rather chap would keep saying, over and over, “writers, WRITE!” By this he meant that a writer should writer every single day. I suspect he felt frustrated by those who would come to the forum and post regularly about how, someday, they would get […]
I was chatting to a friend about Christmas this week – and how many religions have a festival around this time of year. Any culture which emerged outside of the tropics will have found ways to make the long winter nights more bearable. It goes right back to pagan times and most cultures ‘borrowed’ from […]
When Balance of Betrayal was published in the spring, I wrote a series of blogs about some of the characters. One of them was, at the time, a mystery even to me. You see, I created Afrial as someone to be staunchly loyal and yet I never really explained why. Check out the original blog […]
In the UK, last night was Bonfire Night. For my international friends, all that means these days is that is an excuse to stand out in the freezing cold and watch fireworks. It’s history is more interesting. It’s proper name – Guy Fawkes Night – is more telling and it is the day the British […]
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