Many modern books which intrigue me enough to look up a description, or which I hear or read about, lose me at the description stage because they are not highlighting what I’m looking for in a story.
A Writing Diversion
I took a break to work on a different novel. No, that’s not a joke, but it is an accident.
The Dragon Waiting Review
A few, core, what-if questions form the foundation of Ford’s genre-blending The Dragon Waiting. The most important is what if Byzantium adopted a policy of religious toleration instead of Christianity? Oh, and what if there were vampires and wizards, too?
Lord of Chaos Review
Mainly, this is another book about Rand, and Jordan again manages to convey both the sense that Rand is going mad, and how each step and action he takes is reasonable and logical for itself.
The Healing Hand Review
The Healing Hand is a fantastic piece of nonfiction which I think anyone could find interest in, but it should be required reading for anyone writing about wounds in a historical (or secondary world historical) context.
The Fires of Heaven Review
The fifth book in Wheel of Time starts Rand al’Thor on a leadership arc that will take many books to resolve, as he wrestles with a question that few of us will ever have to confront, but which bedevils theories of leadership, especially in other periods of history: how much can a leader allow himself or herself to care, on the individual level, about the people around her or him?
Impressions Completed!
I finished the first draft of Impressions, which is now with my writing group and other beta readers for feedback before I start my cycle of revisions, solicit more feedback, and finally begin sending it out to possible literary agents. That the whole revision process lies ahead makes the “I’m finished” a bit less satisfying.
The Shadow Rising Review
Wheel of Time, to a certain extent, works by leaning into tropes and making them more, rather than avoiding or subverting them. The advantage of a story sprawling across fourteen books is that what starts as a trope can be fully developed and made into as unique a part of the worldbuilding as the most inventive, original aspects.
Languages in Fiction
Language is a funny thing, and for all authors should be preoccupied with it, we sometimes seem to forget to reflect linguistic variety in our fiction.
Plot Timing
If you want to tell the story of, say, the rise and fall of a civilization, or even an institution, in a way to fully capture it, you are often left to tell the story of a snapshot of that institution and use it as a lens by which to examine the rest.
IGC Publishing 