Blog

Building a magic system on memories – Gerrard Cowan

Memories can play tricks on us, fading and twisting over time and sometimes even changing altogether. How, then, can they form the basis of a magic system? That was the question I faced in developing The Machinery Trilogy. Without giving too much away, memories sit at the heart of the… Read More

The Anatomy of Truth by Nancy K. Wallace

From the very beginning, The Wolves of Llisé has been about truth. On my website, www.amongwolves.net there is a quotation by Mark Twain that I love: “The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid prejudice.” It’s an old refrain but most would agree that history… Read More

Marina J. Lostetter – Alternate Yous

Clones have long held a fascination for storytellers.  Before cloning was a scientific reality, there were many myths and fables about evil twins, doppelgängers, and the creation of humans “from scratch.” Copies, supernatural reflections, and Frankenstein’s monster all come from the same long-standing questions and fears: what… Read More

Peter V Brett – The Core Tour

Please click on the links below to buy tickets:   All Waterstones events   Forbidden Planet, London   Blackwell’s, Edinburgh    … Read More

Creating a World by Anna Smith Spark

When I came to write The Court of Broken Knives, it was the world that came first, not the story. The story, in fact, is pretty simple, in the way that myths and folk tales often are. The first scene I wrote was a description of men in a… Read More

Hero Risen: Guest blog from Andy Livingstone

The safety valve for our darker selves Cricket with my parents and brother on baking-hot days in a park on holiday in Blackpool. Tennis, with my dad pretending I was as good as him and, in later years, with my brother proving I was not. Rugby at school, hockey after… Read More

An exclusive message from Robin Hobb

I dedicated Assassin’s Fate to Fitz and the Fool. They’ve been my closest friends for over twenty years. That’s not to denigrate my marriage of forty-six years, or the friendships that reach back to my high school. The characters we write live inside our minds, creating an internal friendship that… Read More

A Letter from Mark Lawrence

Red Sister contains a very different story to that in my debut, Prince of Thorns, or my next trilogy starting with Prince of Fools. When I brought Jorg Ancrath’s story to a close I made it clear that I didn’t want to be wedded to one character for the whole… Read More

Red Sister is coming! Out tomorrow!

  “If you wish to know what someone is made of you must squeeze them until it shows.” In the Convent of Sweet Mercy Abbess Glass and her sisters apply pressure to the girls placed in their care. They find out what their novices are made of and train each… Read More

A Ripple in the Glass by A. F. E. Smith

Every book holds up a mirror to the world, and to humanity. Sometimes the reflection shows us as we are. Sometimes it shows us as we might be. Fantasy is particularly good at this, I think, because it puts a ripple in the glass. That ripple changes the reflection, makes… Read More

How to be a good supporting cast member – A guest post from Peter Newman about The Vagrant and the City

It was an interesting challenge writing this story. It had to: • Be a complete narrative on its own while fitting into the overall arc of the trilogy. • Reveal something interesting about the characters but nothing so important that readers would need it to understand the main books. Read More

Rachel Winterbottom

#BFIVoyager – Definitive Content List

Rewriting the Script: Laura Liddell Nolen (@LauraLLNolen) gives 3 Reasons YA Sci-Fi Creates Spectacular Female Characters An interview with… Read More

#BFIVoyager – Author Lineup

Al Robertson Dr Caroline Edwards Chris Brosnahan Christi J Whitney Claire North David Cronenberg Dean Johnson Derek Landy Emmi Itaranta Erik Laan Francesca Haig Garth Nix and Ilona Andrews Gerrard Cowan Guy Haley Henry V O’Neill Ingrid Seymour James Smythe Janet Edwards Jason W LaPier Jeff Pearce Jeff VanderMeer Joanne… Read More

Nevernight is out NOW!

Never flinch. Never fear. Never forget. The incredible Nevernight is out now, and here are just a few of the reviews… ‘If you love Robin Hobb or George R.R. Martin, you will adore Nevernight‘ Starburst Magazine ‘The Venetian-style city, colorful profanity and quick-witted banter of Scott Lynch’s Gentlemen Bastards;… Read More

Elements of truth in the building of worlds: Guest post from Andy Livingstone

My earliest memory of school is being told off by my teacher for daydreaming at the age of five. My earliest memory of fantasy fiction is picking up a copy of The Hobbit at the age of six, trying to be smart and thinking that the title would make my… Read More