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. :)
My tired old brain has failed me again - I have both forgotten to write a blog this month and had no ideas for one anyway. So I'm doing a Blog Redux on this offering from 2020 about how precious and unique a book is to every reader. :) *** The human imagination is an extraordinary thing, when you stop and think about it. Being as I am not of a scientific bent, I have no idea of the ins and outs of how it can possibly work, how it is that a lump of grey meat inside a wrapping of bone could possibly generate images, ideas, unheard sounds, regurgitate things once seen and create whole new universes out of nothing. Indeed, to be honest, I don’t want to understand how it works - that would destroy the magic. I’m quite happy just to have the means to play in new and never before seen realms in the depths of my own head. But there is another special thing about the imagination – it is unique. It is a strange thing to consider that no one will ever see my characters exactly ...
The Joy of Tropes As anyone who has read my novels may be aware, I like to play with tropes. I like to try at least to puncture expectations and point out the kind of plots and characters a narrative tends to rely on with big fat signposts. I don’t like to let the obvious and predictable pass by without comment. Sad as it sounds, that’s my idea of fun. ;) But – and here’s the thing – I point them out while trying to adhere to a satisfying narrative structure myself. Stories where the bad guys win and everyone dies horribly do exist, but they aren’t much fun for the audience – there needs to be the escape, the payoff, the triumph in order to leave the reader smiling and satisfied. There needs to be victory over adversity, a price or a heroic sacrifice to make the moment hard earned – an easy victory is no fun either, there has to be some drama or strife. That is what makes a tale worth telling. So while I poke at tropes, oddly enough I don’t actually have that much objection...
NOTE: Life based arse kicking is ongoing. Therefore I thought I'd repost the sequel blog to my last redux written and posted back in August 2021 instead when The Merry Band was just coming out. Gosh, that feels a long time ago! The Name Game – The Sequel In honour of the release of The Merry Band , my sequel to The Disposable , I have been seized by the urge to write a sequel to my previous blog, where I discussed my naming strategies. And my premise is simply this – if you had to name yourself in the manner of my Realm, what name would you give yourself? Because on thinking about it for myself, it’s really not as simple as it sounds. Would you want to chose your own name or have it chosen for you? Would you want a name that genuinely reveals an aspect of your personality or would you prefer to keep your true self and any accompanying expectations privately behind a less accurate or less specific one? And what part of yourself would you chose to advertise ...
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