World building: Celebrations

World building: Celebrations

Woo who – lets have a party! Said every human in every culture since the dawn of time. There are more festivals and things to celebrate than there are days in the year, so the human race is definitely one

World building: Are we there yet?

World building: Are we there yet?

People have been making up ways to measure and define all the things for a very long time, perhaps longer than we can measure. So if in “real” life people make up stuff that becomes a standard, what shall we

Worldbuilding: Touch what?

worldbuilding

If a smell can trigger a memory, then a touch can trigger an immediate reaction. Our vocabulary is rich in words that are repellent merely from their association with touch – moist slithers to mind. But the opposite is true

Writing News

Writing News

Been wondering what I have been up too? Well, probably not, but as I am still alive and squirreled away in my study, I thought an update might well be of some interest. Druid’s Portal: The First Journey has reached

World Building : Climate

World Building : Climate

It was a dark and stormy night… Trite words yet they bring a sense of expectation – of a horror to come, with wild deeds afoot. Climate is so variable that it can almost be another character in a book.

How to build a fictional world

How to build a fictional world

A book is a wonderful and amazing thing. You hold in your hands the key to another world, a world that previously only lived in the mind of another person. Inside the imagination of the author live the characters, fighting

Writing up a storm

Writing up a storm

Everyone always complains about the weather – do your characters? Or do they sail through the pages in blissful ignorance of the climate? Weather conditions can be a big part of a scene, adding impact in many different ways, from

Crom! There’s a louse in my ale.

Crom! There’s a louse in my ale.

Insects are all around us, from spiders living in your hard drive and the corners of the room, silverfish eating your precious books, beetles clicking, butterflies fluttering…you get the idea, I don’t have to get all poetic. Insects outweigh us

Quest for Fire

Quest for Fire

Reading is easy. We sit in a comfortable chair, perhaps by a warm heater with cat on lap/dog at feet and a hot drink. That’s often why we read, to share vicariously the bad times and good with characters while

Using Herbs in Fiction

Using Herbs in Fiction

Herbs have a long history of use, from pre written word days right up to the internet. They can add flavour, lifting a simple dish into one fit for royalty. So it is only fair to include them in your