It’s the last Sunday before Hallowe’en, so I thought I’d share a scary episode from my first novel, The Bones of the Earth. Here, the protagonist, Javor, is riding with a column of Roman Legionnaires because … well, you’ll just have to read the book for the “because” part. The column is riding two wide along […]
Trick or treat! My favourite holiday, Hallowe’en is coming up fast. In honour of the event, I’ll be posting the spookiest passages from The Bones of the Earth. The Bones of the Earth is a historical fantasy set in the Eastern Roman Empire during the darkest of the Dark Ages. It begins when Avar raiders […]
Some days, I wish I had never met that woman A couple of years ago, The Magic Appreciation Tour challenged writers to start a short story that begins with the words, “Some days, I wish I had never met that woman.” I was inspired to add to the story of the Witch’s Son, which begins with […]
Since today is Mother’s Day, this sample from The Bones of the Earth is an interaction between the main character, Javor, and his mother, Ketia (remember, no matter how outlandish they may seem to you, all the names are historical). This is from a flashback, where Javor remembers his mother talking to him on the […]
A couple of years ago, I participated in a Web and social media initiative called Six Sentence Sunday. The idea was to publish six consecutive sentences from a writing project—book, story, play, whatever—link it to the Six Sentence Sunday page and then, every Sunday, read the samples of other participants. Six Sentence Sunday has since […]
This installment of Written Words has reviews of two very different types of books. First is Secrets by SL Pierce: a taut, fast-paced thriller. Pierce is a professional writer. Her skill and knowledge of putting together a good read is evident in all her books. She doesn’t waste words and knows how to make a […]
Guest post by author M.A. Chiappetta If you look at the list of fantasy and science fiction authors from the past 50 to 75 years, a majority of those names belong to men. Take, for example, NPR’s list of Top 100 SFF books—85 of those books were written by men. 85 percent! As you can […]