Swords and Sorcery fiction provides us with exciting action in memorable settings. It also drops terrific characters into those settings and lets them run free. Some of those characters have stood the test of time. I’ve selected ten of those that I consider the pantheon of the genre. There is no science here. It is… Continue reading Top Ten S&S Characters
Month: March 2022
The Great (House) Hunt
I can’t truly call this a vacation, despite spending a couple of afternoons splashing about with the HA in the hotel swimming pool. No, this trip has a rather more serious purpose. I spent the last couple of days driving about with MBW and the HA, meeting the real estate agent at this house or… Continue reading The Great (House) Hunt
The Dragon Lord: Arthur As Backdrop
The State of the Web Log. Plus A Trip To Nashville
The state of the web log is…unfortunate. I tried to post last week only to discover that my entire website had gone missing. With the assistance of a helpful freelance IT specialist from Bangladesh I was able to recover enough that at least the place is functional, though poorly furnished. Of over 400 posts, only… Continue reading The State of the Web Log. Plus A Trip To Nashville
A Trip to The Dalles
Only a fence and the Columbia River separate me from the State of Washington I took MBW and the HA for an excursion yesterday. We needed to shake the rust off and see new horizons. So, skirting south of Mt. Hood, then along its eastern flanks for a while, until we cut due east through… Continue reading A Trip to The Dalles
A (Un)Real American Hero
Who is the most American of fantasy heroes? I ignited enough fireworks yesterday in the course of Independence Day festivities to get me feeling good and patriotic. And as a patriotic writer of fabulism, it should come as little surprise that the opening question occurred to me. The British Isles have produced abundant fantasy heroes,… Continue reading A (Un)Real American Hero
Belly Up to the Bar
What are the best taverns in fantasy? Where do you imagine yourself sipping a pint in rather unusual company? The genre is full of these joints, though most, sadly, go nameless. Of course, some of these you’d probably just as soon avoid, like a den of merriment in Arenun’s Maul, in Zamora. Some spring immediately to… Continue reading Belly Up to the Bar
The Quintessence of S&S
If I were to distill the elements of Swords-and-Sorcery to their essence, what story would I find pooled at the bottom of the alembic? To answer such a question, I’d first have to gather the elements. It requires a confident man or an arrogant fool to think he knows what those elements are. Let’s take… Continue reading The Quintessence of S&S
A Snippet
I thought I’d offer a change of pace this week. Something different from my usual blathering. I’m offering a snippet from my novel Thick As Thieves. I hope you get a kick out of it. If you’re intrigued enough to want to read the rest, Thick As Thieves is available in print and digital formats here and here, and I suppose… Continue reading A Snippet