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.
Just 1Question: Here's a quickie one question interview: Are you eliltist writers? Are you an indie Author? Would you like a shot at appearing in J1Q? Email us at support at Metaphor Publications (one word) ((dot)) com to put in your request!
You know the list. You've seen it a thousand times. There's fantasy fiction, science fiction, historical fiction, crime, mystery, thriller… The list goes on and on -- until the clothes come off. Then we need a new genre of fiction. Because whatever real genre the novel belongs in, whatever real literary merit the work may have, is all forgotten. It's tossed […]
About a month ago we were asked to do a guest post for the good folks at Cmash. Today that guest post, coupled with a give-a-way of Raven's Tears went live. Click the link below to go check it out. And while you're there, sign up for the give away! (Expires February 12, 2014) The first questions we get asked are […]
Here's the complete Raven's Tears book review article by AprilR on Book Addiction RAVEN’S TEARS by Alesia and Michael Matson is an exciting, heart pounding Science Fiction/Fantasy/Thriller/Romance set in the Fantasy world of Menelon. Meet, Sir VIncent Sultaire aka, the Raven,con turned cop and Lady Angelique Blakesly, aka, Angel, urchin turned lady, the Iris, one of Fernwalls’ most successful […]
It seems that the slush pile flood issue will never go away. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of new titles are being uploaded to Amazon every day. Books and shorts that never would have seen the light of day under the ‘old regime’ can now be tossed up on the web, virtually for free, by anyone who thinks they're the next Mark […]
