Fae. Romance. Shenanigans.
It's currently the heart of winter, which in Wellington means cold rain and wind. Lots of wind. The cats have become increasingly snuggly i.e. interested in sharing body warmth. I feel the cold easily. The ambient temperature of cafes has thus become even more important to me than usual. For this reason, I've shifted my… Continue reading Writing in Cafes Review: Verve Cafe
One of my favourite cafes to write in at present is the Mt Cook Cafe, located in (astonishingly) the suburb of Mt Cook, Wellington. I may be biased in its favour because it's within walking distance of my house and the barista knows me and my order on sight (one day I'll order something different,… Continue reading Writing in Cafes Review: The Mt Cook Cafe
So here we are, 2018, Day One, all fresh and shiny and full of potential. Rather like a new notebook (and who doesn’t love the crisp perfection of new notebooks?). In the Northern Hemisphere, New Year has a sort of starting afresh / emerging from the darkest hour seasonal parallel. Here in New Zealand, we’re… Continue reading Greetings 2018! Writerly New Year’s Resolutions
I’ve been thinking a lot about a certain F word lately. You know the one: Fairy Faerie Faery Fae Fey Feyrie That one. Or rather, those ones. You see, my current series contains a lot of, um, F-things. And I need to decide which spelling to use. Now, you might think, given that I'm halfway… Continue reading The F word: Faerie, Fairy, Faery, Fayrie?
Every November there is a big and very nerdy international event of significance only to writers: National Novel Writing Month. The basic idea is to write 50,000 words between 1-30 November. It's supposed to encourage people to stop procrastinating / agonising over every word and just write. Your 50,000 words don't have to be any good;… Continue reading National Novel Writing Month 2017: Permission to be terrible
How long is a book? This is a question I first asked the internet at around age 14, after finishing my then-masterwork of epic fantasy (spoiler: not actually a masterwork of epic fantasy). The internet answered: Um. It’s complicated. Now, keep in mind that the internet then was not the internet of now, when indie… Continue reading How long is a book? Wordcounts for fantasy novels
A few people have asked why they can't read Book 1: The Lord of Stariel now if I’ve finished writing it. (As an aside, this enthusiasm is awesome. Thanks guys!) The answer is mostly because I'm writing a quartet and at the end of Book 4 it needs to look like I knew where I was heading all the way back in Book 1.
