A couple of weeks ago my friend and mystery writer Vicki Delany tagged me to do a Blog Hop – which for those of you who are unfamiliar with the phenomenon, is a kind of chain letter, blog style. I get tagged by a friend, I tag some friends, and so on. Vicki can be …
What’s New?
I've had a lot of emails and other such communications lately from people telling me how much they enjoy the Dhulyn and Parno books. I can't tell you how much that means to me, there is actually no way to express how important it is for people who work alone 80% of the time to …
So What About Female Heroes?
<img src="https://furstek.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/path.jpg?w=201" alt="Path" width="201" height="300" class="alignright size-medium wp-imageWhen I found sword and sorcery in my teens, there weren't a lot of strong female protagonists for me to relate to. Jirel of Joiry comes to mind, maybe Red Sonya – but they were already very old by the time I got to them. When I think …
Hands off Buddy, Or, Etiquette Revisited
I've been noodling around with this idea for a while, and since we're off to Immortal Confusion later this week, it's popped up again. Here's what I've been thinking: a lot of the problems people have been complaining about in the last year or so with respect to public behaviours might be solved if we …
Gonna Roll the Bones
About a year ago I read a book called The Desert of Souls, by Howard Andrew Jones. I'd happened to be on a panel with Howard at Confusion in Troy, Michigan, and it turned out that we read the same kind of books (big fans of Fritz Leiber), and thought the same way on many …
Point of View . . . with Attitude Writers pay a lot of attention to point of view – so much so, we even have a short form for it (POV). You can find endless discussions on the use of first or third person, limited or omniscient, single POVs or multiples, and so on. But when …
THE NEXT BIG THING? A couple of weeks ago my friend the mystery writer Vicki Delany invited me to participate in The Next Big Thing Blog Series, which would involve my answering a set of questions. Unlike most writers, who are shy, and reserved, and shun the spotlight, I love to talk about myself and my …
THE NEXT BIG THING? A couple of weeks ago my friend the mystery writer Vicki Delany invited me to participate in The Next Big Thing Blog Series, which would involve my answering a set of questions. Unlike most writers, who are shy, and reserved, and shun the spotlight, I love to talk about myself and my …
So, Why Do I Write Sword and Sorcery?
I have a PhD in 18th-century English literature. Most people don't care (hell, most of the time, I don't care), but those who do invariably ask me why I write fantasy novels. The implication, as you might guess, is that I should be writing something more important, or more literary, or more "real". I used …
Web Log
Saturday, October 12th. I'm revamping my website a bit. I'm now using this space for observations on writing in general, and on writing fantasy in particular. I'll still be giving you personal news, but you'll find that in the page "Personal News and Notes". (Look right). I'll be giving you more World Con observations and …
Violette Malan / VM Escalada 
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