Author Of Maldene.
Every story needs a good villain, but a great story needs a great villain. So, just what comprises a great villain? Just having someone in a black hat that can unstoppably destroy everything he touches is a bit juvenile, too basic, and rather unimaginative. On the other hand a villain can’t be weak either. So …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.maldene.com/writing-tips/843
The biggest cop-out in a fantasy story is when the author (in the form of one of the characters) has something happen as a result of some magic spell or item of power and when the illogic begins to rain down just says “It’s magic, it doesn’t need any reason.” Well, I’m here to say …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.maldene.com/writing-tips/811
A couple days ago I was interviewed by Kaamil Garyson of Sinister Prose, and even better it was a full video call via Skype! You can view the whole thing direct on YouTube right Here, or view the embed which should (hopefully) appear below. You can also check it out on his blog.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.maldene.com/news/792
Time travel is one of those things that is great as a concept, but all too often a horrible miss in execution. Be it in books, movies, or TV, too often the author thinks that the phrase “It’s time travel, who can understand it?”, or “Temporal physics gives me a headache,” is all they need …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.maldene.com/writing-tips/788
Every good SF or Fantasy story needs its monsters or aliens, but it is not enough to simply slap together something ugly and then drop it in front of the characters. To make your story believable in any setting, the monsters must feel as real as everything else. First off, the creature has to make …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.maldene.com/writing-tips/746
If you are writing an epic that spans the globe of whatever fantasy or SF world you have created, sooner or later the subject of weather will come up. And if you do indeed have an entire world to deal with (or most enough of one) then it is not just enough to start sprinkling …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.maldene.com/writing-tips/737
Fight scenes can be a two-edged sword. On the one hand they look great and exciting… visually on thew movie screen. But trying to put that on paper can very quickly end up as something like “parry, parry, thrust, oh parry” for a couple of pages. I learned very quickly tat you have to get …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.maldene.com/writing-tips/712
There are a lot of tips and strategies that people suggest and use for doing what it takes to write an epic novel, but no matter what fine point or strategy one chooses, no matter what preference one tells you or secret one has for writing that book, it really comes down to three simply …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.maldene.com/writing-tips/687
Maldene is a world of many races. Even just with the Human races the list is quite long. I shall not list all the races running around, but simply a few highlights and save the rest for revelation within the books of Maldene. So herein I list just a few of the Human races to …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.maldene.com/plot-talk/680
There’s something to be said about a good epic, the kind that spans several volumes. But for the writer, that involves a lot of planning ahead. For myself, I have written a fantasy ep;ic that spans 13 novels, 5.2 million words, and about 250 characters, as well as a smaller Sci-Fi epic at 5 novels, …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.maldene.com/writing-tips/661
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