There are a lot of Grand Epics in books, movies, and comics, the trick is to design them in such a way as to make them real to the reader. Believable enough within its own context to get the reader or viewer emotionally involved. Comic books have plenty of epic spectacle, but some of their …
Tag: mystery
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The Mystery Map of Maldene
What you are looking at is The Map. Yes, this is the mysterious indesctructible map found in the bowels of Thïr Tÿorca in the third section of the first Maldene novel, and the reason for a new quest begun in “Maldene II: Mysteries Of Olde”. What does it mean? Well, for that part you’ll have …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.maldene.com/plot-talk/5112
It’s Coming… Volume 2
So, if you’ve been keeping track then you know I had a great new cover for Maldene Volume II commissioned, the second half of the first novel. Well, I’ve also been working on getting a proper conversion to ebook as well, the problem being one of the appendices. For you see, the end of this …
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Maldene Behind The Scenes: The Strip Desert
On the world of Maldene, on the continent of Degaloth, there is a piece of terrain called The Strip Desert. So named because of its shape. A desert thousands of miles long that divides the fields and farmlands to the north from the jungles to the south, it keeps its fifteen-hundred mile width pretty uniform …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.maldene.com/plot-talk/1836
Maldene Behind The Scenes: The Farlands
In my Maldene series, The Farlands almost becomes a running gag. An out of the way little continent so backwards that a crossbow is considered a major artifact and the only natives are for the most part descendants of someone that got shipwrecked there long ago. So, why bother having a place like that? What …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.maldene.com/plot-talk/1787
Maldene Behind The Scenes: Tedelnosho
Tedelnosho is the Maldene name for The Great Whirlpool. Actually if you consult the dictionary in the back of the book, the literal translation is “really big hole in the water”. So, what’s the behind the scenes stuff on this? Well, first it WAs indeed inspired by our only Earthly bermuda Triangle, only I wanted …
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W. J. Rosser Interview Now Available
Today on Author Talk I spoke with author W. J. Rosser. We talked a lot about the craft of writing, the different styles, as well as motivations for doing this stuff in the first place. About 10 minutes in there was a technical glitch that prevented us from hearing one another, so I had to …
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Writing Tips: What Is The Right Length For A Story
A question that has come up in many discussion groups is, how long should a story be? Some stories barely breach the definition of a novel at 80,000 words while others could challenge Harry Potter for sheer heft. So then, what Is the right length? The short answer is that a story is only as …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.maldene.com/writing-tips/1536
Michael Hebler Interview
Today I interviewed Michael Hebler, author of Night Of the Chupacabra. A fun talk about a book of horror, a children’s book, and some apparent commonalities amongst us writers. Give a listen to this fun interview on the Author Talk Audio Page then look up his Facebook Fan Page at
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What Defines Epic Fantasy
Recently I saw a discussion online asking what makes Epic Fantasy. Of course I posted my onw opinion- being the author of something that is easily considered epic in scope- and one or two of the responses seemed a bit… limiting. One answer was along the lines of basing Epic Fantasy very strictly on Tolkein, …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.maldene.com/writing-tips/1296