The first thing Amanos did was have Gral examine all the passages and rooms they had to protect. He found a trapdoor in a hall, set stoneflat in the floor; it opened to a ladder, that led down a long shaft far beyond sight. They used it for disposing of their dung and urine. […]

  Glimmering silver, set in basalt dark as shadow, a fragment of a moon shines through mist. Water-drops on leaf and stalk catch the light like tears. Vines bend low beneath the weight of their fruit. Stems of pale trumpet-like flowers wreath a trellis. Bushes are freighted with berries. Tree-branches, blossoming, reach with no object. Ivies choke […]

  Yune watched as the rest of them arranged themselves. The elf sat where she could look along the passage heading to the north-west, young Gral sat at the threshold of the room to the north-east, and the singer set his torch by the archway opening to the south. So all the ways into the […]

  Ulixa took a step back, raising her dagger. The man joined her and the boy. The ratmen paused. That was when the creatures from the other room ran into the chamber. There were four of them, running with the frantic speed of children. They began howling war-cries as they saw the light of the […]

  They had still not come to a conclusion about their next move when the goblins found them. Ulixa (she was used, by now, to thinking of herself not by her true name, but rather by the Empire name by which those around her would know her) had watched the group debate, saying nothing herself. […]

I wanted to write a few notes about language, and the word choices I’m making with The Fell Gard Codices. To start with, I’d like to recommend this great post by Mark Rigney at Blackgate.com. It’s about the sort of things I have on my mind: how you have to choose carefully which words to […]

  William of the Long Road knew they were all about to die. To look down the throat of a dragon is to see your grave and the hell that waits for you. Now this certain death grieved him, for not only was he young and had found an elf-maiden who looked on him with […]

Just a note to say that I’ve got a new post up at Blackgate.com, about DC comics relaunching their line and putting digital comics up for sale the same day as their print copies hit stores. In trying to explain the significance of the move to non-comics readers, I ranged back to the beginning of […]

  Enheduanna watched William take a good length of rope from his pack and throw an end down into the pit. He seemed surprised by the pull on it: “Oak and Holly,” he gasped, “how much do little girls weigh, in these dark times?” Groaning, he stumbled forward. Enheduanna caught him around the waist and […]

  Hochelaga was walking over to join Ulric by the map when the trap-door opened below her. She fell into darkness as the door snapped back into place. She had enough time, as she fell, to compose and recite a quick charm of flight. She was too young for it to really work well, of […]