Time (past time!) for another “idea to book” post, this one about how Facets of the Bench came to be.
Facets of the Bench takes place in 1927 and it’s all about love of place. It’s also about making a life that we want, even if there are some unexpected twists along the way.
Names are important. They have power, they indicate things. And they’re also sometimes confusing.
A reader mentioned recently that this can be confusing (alas, yes, though more below about how I try to make that a little easier). Today, it’s time to talk about why those different names and forms of address matter.
Right now, a lot of people are (for various reasons) rethinking where they get their books. I’ve been seeing a lot of comments about it. Along with the comments, I’ve been realising how many pieces of the underlying landscape aren’t very visible to readers. This blog post is here to explain a couple of pieces of the landscape, for those who want more information to make their choices.
Here, I’m talking about indie authors (people who self-publish their own work), though some of this also applies to small presses. As I note where relevant, trad publishers (especially the huge ones) work under different rules.
We’re going to talk about the overall landscape, then different sources of ebooks, print, audio. I wrap up with what I do and what readers and authors might do about different aspects of this.
Today’s topic about levels of magical power comes from a question on one of the current running series of extras for patrons on Patreon. (More about the context below.) The question is about levels of power, and how Garin (and more generally Lords of the land) fit into that.
This post makes a quick tour through ‘how do we define magically powerful’. Then we’ll look at some specific character examples. I’ve avoided plot spoilers in those!
More about the background of the Pact in the previous post. Here we’re looking at who makes the Pact, when, and some edge cases.
The Pact has been a foundational magic of Albion since 1484. After my post about apprenticeship, I had several great questions from people who wanted to know more about specific aspects. This post covers the basics of the Pact. The following post (up on the same day) gets into making the Pact in more detail.
Continuing on from last week’s post about apprenticeships in general, it’s time to dive into a specific set of training: Healers and related professions.
I had a question from a reader recently about how professional training works in Albion. Today’s post is about apprenticing in general, and next week’s will talk about Healers and related professions in more detail.
Hello to my plans for 2025! (You can check out what came out in 2024) As you know if you’ve been reading me for a little, you know that I plan a fair bit out in advance at this point. There’s room for things to move around, but these are fairly stable points.
(This is due to a combination of how I schedule writing and needing to plan out the background research.)
I’ve also got some updates to the website, direct sales via Payhip, and so on in the works over my winter vacation time. (Keep an eye out here and on the newsletter for an update when those are done.)
(more…)It’s the end of the calendar year, and that means it’s time for a roundup of the year. Read on for what was published, what I’ve written, the extras shared this year, and what’s on the Patreon!
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