Blog Archives

Tip Your Henchman You know what bothers me in movies and books?  When the villain slaughters one of his head henchmen for stuffing up in a minor way.  It makes no sense.  I mean, I know you’re a bad guy but with the cost of recruitment and training new staff […]

How NOT to Review a Book We’ve all seen them.  The reviews that say MUCH more about the reviewer than they do the book. They’re often mean and unfair, sometimes funny, and frequently the subject of much eye-rolling.  They’re generally accompanied by a one-star rating the book doesn’t really deserve […]

Touché Mr Spartan   In a panel discussion on world building recently, I mentioned the issue of word origins when creating a fantasy world.  There are some words that I don’t think you can use in a fantasy setting because of where they came from. “But Darian,” you might say. […]

Book Reviewing 101 – You can do it! Anyone who has had any contact with an author knows they’re often desperate for reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and basically anywhere reviews can be posted.  Readers are sometimes hesitant to post a review because they feel an expectation to write something lengthy […]

The last two weeks have been busy ones so here are a few photos to show what I’ve been up to. I attended Conclave 3, the New Zealand National Convention for fans of Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror.  I had a great time participating on panel discussions on indie publishing and […]

Imagine the implications for liability insurance if magic was real… The insurance broker clicks his pen and looks the client over. “Just so you know, we can’t cover you for pre-existing magic so you need to make a declaration. Have you ever been diagnosed with magic?” “No, never,” says the […]

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword   This is a “bait and switch” movie where the switch is not played on any of the characters, but on the viewers.  One might expect from the title and the marketing, that this is an updated version of the Arthurian legend.  It is […]

Here I am being interviewed by the wonderful T P Hogan from Australia. It was one of the hottest days of summer and I turned off my fan to preserve sound quality so…see if you can spot the point at which I die of heat-stroke! A big thank you to […]

Sir Julius Vogel Award Finalists – 2018 The list of finalists for the 2018 Sir Julius Vogel Awards is out and I’m thrilled to be on it. A huge thank you to the organisers and everyone who nominated me.  Also, congratulations to all the other excellent finalists! Starlight’s Children (the […]

Black Panther and the Case of the Reverse Racism If you’ve been under a rock and somehow missed it, the movie Black Panther was released recently.  It has made quite a splash on social media and a good portion of this is due to it’s being one of the few […]