peter of windbourne – A Mad Pursuit

August 28, 2011

aldersgate cycle, arthuriana, blog, editing, fantasy, glassmere, indigo and ink, peter of windbourne, pilgrim of the sky, queen of none, steampunk, the gnome and the necromancer, ward of the rose, WIP, writing

challenges, confidence, frozen, gridlock, writer's block, writing

Prosaic Analysis Paralysis

In which I think aloud for a few paragraphs… pardon the navel gazing. The burden of words. It’s quite something, I tell you. And at the moment I’m finding it to be on the verge of utterly overwhelming. I have all these stories, all these books and novels and ideas, and instead of a calm,... / READ MORE /

August 14, 2011

aldersgate cycle, editing, fantasy, indigo and ink, peter of windbourne, pilgrim of the sky, publication, steampunk, ward of the rose

drafts, editing, fancy, rewriting, struggles, success, the aldersgate, the aldersgate cycle, writing, writing process

The Perils of Early Success: Or, Writing With the Pointy End

So I started blogging “as a real writer” at the very beginning of 2008 in order to share a draft of my novel, The Aldersgate, with the world at large. I had already written two drafts, and then decided to start again and record the new chapters and launch them out into the world for... / READ MORE /

October 13, 2009

LGBT, peter of windbourne

coming out day, heroic fantasy, LGBTQ, peter of windbourne, queer writing, writing

Coming out in Character

For Coming Out Day, 2009 Peter was “born” sometime in the second half of 1999, likely toward winter. I remember that first scene very vividly. I saw him wrapped in a brown cloak, his hands wrapped around a staff, a tuft of his sandy hair protruding from the hood. He was standing by enormous bronze... / READ MORE /

September 17, 2009

blog, fantasy, peter of windbourne, publication, writing

life, peter of windbourne, progress, stats, writing

“Be patient, keep writing” and other things I tell myself.

Last night I finished chapter 20 of Peter of Windbourne, and am now approaching the part in the book in which a series of Very Bad Things happen. The draft is sitting at 101,122 words at this moment, with hopefully no more than five or six chapters remaining (generally my chapters hover between 4-5K). It’s... / READ MORE /

August 12, 2009

fantasy, peter of windbourne, WIP, writing

clearly lost her marbles, epic fantasy, fantasy writing, heroic fantasy, nataniababble, self-conscious writing, wizards, writer rants, writing, writing about stuff

Falling in (and out of) love with fantasy

Occasionally, I still have moments where I look at a scrap of dialogue or a descriptive phrase, and I feel a little self-conscious, writing what I’m writing. It’s fantasy, sure. It is epic? Sometimes. It is heroic? Yeah, a bit. Does it have magic and all that? Of course. Am I way hung up on... / READ MORE /

August 10, 2009

fantasy, peter of windbourne, WIP, writing

fantasy novel, fantasy writing, gay characters in fantasy, intimacy in fiction, peter of windbourne, sex scenes, third person limited, writing

So, that finally happened…

If you follow my Twitter feed, you’ll know I was on something of a writing binge this weekend. Every few months this happens. It’s like my own personal NaNoWriMo, where the book I’m writing takes on an absolutely powerful life of its own, and I’m kind of strung along. While it sounds kind of cool,... / READ MORE /

August 3, 2009

blog, peter of windbourne, WIP, writing

blog, progress, writing

Nothing to see here, move right along.

Yeah, haven’t been posting much. I just have this thing, see, where I like to be interesting when I post, and honestly, I don’t have a lot of interesting stuff to say at this particular juncture. I’ve started and stopped a handful of posts, and they all just feel rife with ‘eh’ to me. Having... / READ MORE /

July 6, 2009

fantasy, peter of windbourne, WIP, writing

imagination, revising, revisions, rewriting, story telling, WIP, writing process

(re)writing blind

I’m in the process of a complete rewrite, the most extensive I’ve ever done. It’s true, first novels aren’t the best novels. And my first novel was written three times before I put it away for a while. But it kept pestering me until I realized that the characters, the story, and the plot (if... / READ MORE /

June 29, 2009

fantasy, peter of windbourne, WIP, writing

fantasy, fantasy novel, fantasy writing, lord of the rings, magic, novel writing, peter of windbourne, WIP, writing

The self-conscious fantasy epic.

This morning I read a piece in the Guardian called When the Lord of the Rings doesn’t cut it: Confessions of a fantasy junkie, and found it rather amusing. In particular this bit (which makes us all sound a bit like Gollum, I think): I understand the pain of the addict. At the turn of... / READ MORE /

June 25, 2009

fantasy, peter of windbourne, writing

fantasy, fantasy writing, female warriors, feminism, feminism in fantasy, gender in fantasy, women warriors, writing, writing issues, writing problems, writing rants

Notes on the woman warrior, fantasy literature style

The first woman warrior I remember reading was Eowyn in The Lord of the Rings. That image of her standing before the Nazgul Witch-King, her sword brandished, her blond hair spilling down her shoulders and catching in the wind is probably one of the most vivid early memories I have of fantasy literature. And I... / READ MORE /