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
Category: writing
The F word: Faerie, Fairy, Faery, Fayrie?
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?
National Novel Writing Month 2017: Permission to be terrible
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? Wordcounts for fantasy novels
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
My Writing Process
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.
Optimum Cafe Conditions for Writing
I spend a surprising amount of time writing in cafes. I like the background white noise, the free heating/air-conditioning (depending on season), and the ability to be alone whilst not alone. The easy access to hot drinks is a nice bonus.
Genre: What even is ‘gaslamp fantasy?’
In which AJ attempts to file things in the correct place.
Camp Nanowrimo
I had intended to finish the raw draft of Book 3 of The Iron Law before 31 March, all nice and neat and ready to start editing the entire trilogy* for Camp Nanowrimo on 1 April. As it turns out, I'm not quite done with Book 3, so Camp has become a combo of finish-book-3 and… Continue reading Camp Nanowrimo