The literary landscape, once envisioned as a diverse ecosystem teeming with voices, is increasingly shadowed by the looming presence of a few dominant players. In the realms of ebooks, paper books, and audiobooks, the concentration of power into the hands of near-monopolies is not just a matter of market share; it's a critical issue that is actively stifling the growth, […]
The Great War dramatically changed almost everything and everyone on Menelon. That is no secret, and Fernwall's Great War was no different. What is not generally known is what those changes were, and how they affected each culture. The war spanned three continents and an unknown number of islands. For a rare few, the major impact of the war was […]
Police Inspector Barbara Cole first appears in Raven's Tears and her story continues throughout the Raven & the Iris Series. In this series of shorts, which we're titiling "middle class life in Fernwall", we go back in time to Barbara's preparations to become a police detective, and take a peek at what middle class life looks like in Cascadia. Part […]
Fantasy sailing ships are the front line war machine of The Great War. In the first Fire Mission story, the crew arrives in Bagédaan on a leaky old tub, but leaves on a fine naval schooner. In the fantasy and fiction world, there are several definitions of the "schooner," but in the 18th century, a schooner was defined as a […]
Police Inspector Barbara Cole first appears in Raven's Tears and her story continues throughout the Raven & the Iris Series. In this series of shorts we go back in time to Barbara's preparations to become a police detective, and take a peek at what middle class life in Fernwall looks like in Cascadia. Part I can be found here. […]
One of the things that used to drive me crazy was finding, or figuring out, believable prices for stuff. If you're a scifi/fantasy author, gamer, or game designer, you can probably sympathize. Whether it's the price of everything, or the prince of anything, historical price lists are hard to find, and when you do find one, its either based in […]
Police Inspector Barbara Cole first appears in Raven's Tears and her story continues throughout the Raven & the Iris Series. In this series of shorts, which we're titling "Middle Class Life in Fernwall" we go back in time to Barbara's preparations to become a police detective, and take a peek at what middle class life looks like in Cascadia. It […]
For readers and publishers both, the EPUB format has everything one could want in a 21st century digital publication — except for one thing: Uniformity of presentation as described by the IDPF Standard. This post looks at some of the more common failings to be found in the EPUB reader ecosystem, and proposes changes that the IDPF could make to the EPUB Standard that would help it live up to its goal of being "the industry standard" for digital publications.
Today, we live in air conditioned houses or flats in concrete jungles, and travel in air conditioned cars and buses and planes. Natural disasters not withstanding, weather is usually little more than a minor irritation or point of idle conversation. It didn't use to be that way. When it was cold, it was hard to keep warm. When it was hot, there were few ways to cool down. To travel, you had to be out in the weather. Weather was a fact of life - for everybody!
Anyone can learn to be an effective writer. Colleges are full of creative writing courses turning out effective writers. A better question would be, can one learn to be an affective writer.
