Foil Maps + Updates Dragonsteel art director Isaac here. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve probably seen me post about the maps for the latest Osten Ard books by Tad Williams: The Heart of What Was Lost and The Witchwood Crown. The original trilogy was what hooked me on epic fantasy in the late 80s/early…
Weekly Update Adam here. In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Handling a Large Cast, Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice discuss their favorite techniques for managing large casts of characters, and how their processes differ from when writing small casts. What does “large” and “Small” mean? Last week, we looked at foolish oaths, broken oaths, and the necessity…
The Reckoners board game, The Way of Kings VR Experience + Update Adam here. If you’ve been following Brandon’s Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram you will know that it’s been quite the exciting week for us here at Dragonsteel Headquarters. For those who haven’t, here’s a quick rundown. In a previous post we showed you you a bit about the cooperative board…
New Writing Excuses Episode + Updates Adam here. In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Villain, Antagonist, Obstacle, Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard breakdown (you guessed it) villains, antagonists, and obstacles. What’s the difference between villains and antagonists? How is an obstacle character different from those other two? How are they alike? And most importantly, how can we…
Awards Season 2018 Hey, all. It’s awards nomination season again! As is tradition, I’d like to do a quick post highlighting what I have that is eligible for the various awards in sf/f. As always, I request that you nominate based on work, not author. If you are eligible to nominate, and truly think one…
Announcing the Oathbringer Reread + Updates Adam here. In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Protagonists Who Aren’t Sympathetic, Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard discuss protagonists who, per writer intent, do not engender audience sympathy. Alice Arneson and Lyndsey Luther of Tor.com announced their new reread series for Oathbringer. This week they introduce themselves but next week they’ll launch…
The Reckoners board game + Updates Adam here. In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, What Writers Get Wrong, with Aliette de Bodard, Dan, Mary, Aliette, and Howard discuss “What writers get wrong.” This year the third-week episodes will follow this theme and each of the episodes will feature an expert guest who will help us understand what…
Kaladin Album + Update Adam here. In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Hero, Protagonist, Main Character, Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard start the new season with a quick discussion exploring the differences between heroes, protagonists, and main characters. Beginning with addressing the question “wait, aren’t they all the same person?” Because that’s the elephant in the room.…
Weekly Update Adam here. In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Cross-Genres as Gateways, Brandon, Piper, Howard, and Dan talk about books which have drawn them from genres where they’re most comfortable and what can be learned about your own writing by reading those gateway books. Brandon will be speaking at the Superstars Writing Seminar in February. If…
Making a mess with papers, FAQ Friday + Updates In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, What Makes a Good Monster, with Courtney Alameda, Howard, Mary, Dan, with guest host Susan Chang talk Monsters with Courtney Alameda at LTUE 2017. What makes the best ones so good? We discuss some of our favorites, and how the…
