Ladies and gentlemen - we have a release date and a cover! The final book of the Plot Bandits "Trilogy", The Taskmaster, will be coming out on 20th June 2023. :)
The Unachievable Heights of The Chosen One Ah, The Chosen One. That staple of the fantasy world. Destiny’s Child, born under an auspicious star, with a unique birthmark foretelling their glorious fate, generally blessed with a stunning or striking appearance, an unusual eye colour and unexpectedly modest origins for their impressively regal heritage, watched over at a distance by a guardian just waiting for the right moment to reveal their secret power and fated purpose in saving their realms from a lurking evil. Step forward all you fantastical Eriks out there, for you are legion. But as anyone who has read my novels may have guessed, I have a few issues with the trope of The Chosen One. Because as the father of modern fantasy, JRR Tolkien himself dictated, fantasy is escapist but also aspirational. And although his work does have a Chosen One – Aragorn, I’m looking at you – who does his bit extremely well, he isn’t the one who saves the day. That role falls to a couple of v...
Life has been kicking my arse again this month - after five years of dodging, COVID finally got me and justified why I'd dodged so hard! - so I am still lacking in blog based inspiration and am yet again rehashing an old blog to keep you entertained. With full awareness of the irony, I have chosen one that is about the horrors of a lack of originality in the media. Yes, I know...;p The Cliche Cycle Brace yourselves. I need a small rant. When, oh when, did making money become more important than making something original and good? Yes, I know, it’s a stupid question that probably can’t be answered. But although it’s hard to precisely put one’s finger on the origin, there is no denying it is definitely the dominant way of things in this day and age. I do wonder, sometimes, if there is a finite amount of imagination out there in the world, people seem so afraid to use it. Or at least, to take a risk. I remember way back in the day, when I was hunting around for a literary agent, I cam...
The Importance of Thinking Twice We live in a reactionary world. That’s simply the way it is now. Someone says something or does something and around the world people React. They get quite fervent in their reactions and the reaction builds and then suddenly it becomes a Thing. But I do wonder how many of these Things would not develop in the way they do at all if people just stopped and thought twice . Because it isn’t the first thought you have that matters. It’s the second . The great Sir Terry Pratchett has beaten me to this insight, of course, in his Tiffany Aching books. But I shall do my best to clumsily articulate it all the same. Our first reaction to anything is instinct. It’s born of our culture, our upbringing, our influences, our religion, even deep, primal emotions – it’s the thought that comes without even thinking about it. So, for example, if you grew up in a time when or a place where, for example, homosexuality was considered unacceptable then one’s first...
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