Fantasy need not be epic! My first fantasy is out now. The Tyrant of Spite is a light-hearted novella with coming of age and romance themes. Nothing epic or grim, I went for a very light touch with a little magic.
I designed the cover using a licensed image from Tithi Luadthong (@grandfailure on iStock) and Photoshop. This wonderful illustration inspired the story.
Review - Murder in the Basement, by Anthony Berkeley: really cleverly constructed, and actually pretty entertaining too. Not sure it's a 100% fair play mystery, but still entertaining. Rating: 4/5 ("really liked it").
#WordWeavers 6/3
Who is your most creative character?
Definitely the minstrel, Shawmelle. She sings, plays a lute and writes her own songs. Her father was a minstrel, as well, and was the one who taught her to play.
She's also very lucky, in that one of the kingdom's squires takes a liking to her. 🙂
At the #library, I picked up the debut novel by Tommy Orange, an #Oakland-based Native writer.
I couldn’t put it down for 100 pages. It’s like it was written for me: Oakland streets, bikes, Radiohead, MF Doom, the Coliseum, BART, ethnic food, family stuff.
“And in his last look as we drove away, I saw that he was very sorry for me. I was glad to see it. I felt for my old self as the dead may feel if they ever revisit these scenes. I was glad to be tenderly remembered, to be gently pitied, not to be quite forgotten.”
I was in a bookshop today but they didn't have the book I wanted. So I went to the desk to see if they could order it. While I was waiting I looked at a book on the counter called A Field Guide To Tasmanian Fungi and I thought what a great book to help ID all the species I see about. I wasn't going to buy it, though, until I noticed that I knew one of the authors, who besides being a mycologist, is a keen chess player.
#Bookstodon / #BookSky challenge: Choose 20 books that greatly influenced you. One book per day, for 20 days. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
kim stanley robinson’s Red Mars still stands out to me as the finest piece of science fiction i have ever read
recently found out that he had written another trilogy set in a post-nuclear california, and i was skeptical. i’ve had enough derivative mad max crap to last me six lifetimes.
i am very happy to be proven wrong. this decidedly turned out to not be fallout apocalypse porn. robinson spends his time imagining the human joys and freedoms found in inhabiting a world turned into wildlife and wild country. no idiotic fights over gasoline or nukes. instead a concern with fishing, building community, repairing old railroads, and figuring out who else lives beyond the village boundaries.
I've finished: Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson
The sequel to: The Space Between Worlds
This is the story of Ashtown, of the runners, of the emperor, of Cheeks and of scales.
This is the story of their violence, of their grace, of their love, of their hate.
Starting the second of Iain M. Banks’ Culture books, “The Player of Games”. I liked the concepts in book one, but I’m told that this is where things get really good. #Bookstodon