As you know, if you follow this blog, I don’t see the boundaries between Historical Fiction and Fantasy as clearly as my readers (or editors) might like. When I set out to design a magic system–oh, about thirty-five years ago, I was heavily influenced by a single book that I had just read–really, two books, […]
Archives for April 2015
Writing about Crafts — Interviewing Jiri Klepac
This week, I thought I’d interview another armourer. Now, perhaps you are all bored by armour, but to me, it is the most complicated costume artifact ever. Let me put this in perspective as a writer. I wear armour 20-30 times a year, and almost every time I wear it, I learn something—something about fit, […]
Writing about war–tactics, decisions, and the edge of battle
Yesterday I began book 4 of the Traitor Son series–which for now, I’m calling ‘A Plague of Swords.’ I’m starting a week late because I did some fun things like visiting my friends in the USA and spending a day with Jeffrey Hildebrandt. But now I’m ready to get down to some serious writing. A […]
Crafts and Craftspeople–Jeffrey Hildebrandt–writing about the past
Those of you who have the UK editions of the Red Knight know that the cover and the internal illustrations are not ‘generic’ and represent characters and scenes from the book. The chapter heads were drawn by my friend Dimitry Bondarenko, and some of them are portraits of people and artifacts and costumes that inspired […]
Whores and Heroines–writing about war and women
This is not, strictly speaking, a book review of ‘Common Women’ by Ruth Mazzo Carras or of ‘The Cavalry Maiden’ or ‘The Tigress of Forli’ or Ulrich’s superb ‘Midwife’s Tale’ although I truly recommend all four books. It is more of an essay on writing about women in the midst of war. I’m going to […]
