Tag Archives: magic systems

Blood Inheritance – Available this week for pre-order

Leave a reply

So things have been a bit quiet here as I have been frantically juggling all manner of things and trying to get my latest novel, Blood Inheritance, available for pre-order. Pending a final review from my merry band of editors and some final decisions on the cover, we are pretty much there.

So, let me tell you a little bit about this book. It is a labour of love: ten years in the making. To put that in context, one of the main characters started out surgically attached to her PDA, which over time became a Blackberry (remember those?) and now is just a cellphone. Given the rate of change, I didn’t even want to give her an iPhone in case they fall spectacularly out of fashion in the next six months.

I started writing this supernatural series before Twilight became a thing and changed how vampires were perceived for a generation. For centuries now, this comes in cycles, but it certainly did lead to a massive saturation in the market for a while. It even ruined the fun for me and I’ve always enjoyed the heroes with pointy teeth. But now I believe that a good story, strong characters and self-sufficient women can be interesting enough to put the sense of saturation aside.

Over the next two weeks I’ll be updating this website with more details, character introductions and all the other good stuff that I’ve loved about writing this series before we release on May 22nd. I’m excited to see where this will take me and I know that regardless, I’ll continue to work with these characters until their stories are finished. I just hope you’ll join me for the ride!

Mistborn: The Final Empire – A Brief Review

Leave a reply

As part of my pre-writing for my next Epic Fantasy project, I’ve decided to read some Brandon Sanderson. He’s been recommended to me for years, but I knew of him mainly from the Writing Excuses podcast (which is one of my favourites – you should check it out).

Because of this, the one thing I knew about Sanderson was his strength when it came to creating magic systems (hence Sanderson’s Laws). I want to do new things in my writing (or at least avoid horrendous tropes), but in order to do that, it is essential to know what has already been done. So in addition to just enjoying this book, to a degree I was studying it. In particular, I wanted to see how he set up Allomancy, which is one of the most engaging magic systems I have ever come across. Despite the grand scope of it and the potential brutality, the action scenes are handled with a deft touch. There is a system of checks and balances, which means the main characters never become so competent that they also become boring in the process.

For me, having a female main character was something I wanted to see done well, as I also intend to write from a mainly female perspective. It is often lamented that there aren’t many female protagonists in Epic Fantasy, so I wanted to make sure I didn’t think I was treading new ground when I wasn’t. I was really pleased to see the way he handled her vulnerabilities and insecurities, without reducing her plausibility as a hero. This seems to be something of a fine balance, especially there are intensely physical fight scenes as part of the plot.

So much to learn from, but that’s one of the fun parts of the experience!