Many things surprise me as I write. One of them is the structure the story seems to have chosen. I thought the party going exploring would give me a set of chapters about, well, dungeon exploration. Fighting monsters. Finding treasures. That sort of thing.

  With the answer given and Gamelyn again normal, the mortals debated what to do next. Enheduanna watched them, but could not stop thinking of the Iron Elf. She should have thrown herself through the portal. Surely she could have dealt with whatever was on the other side. And these mortals were so slow. But […]

The original notion I had for Merrynight was “The Thin White Duke of Hell.” That changed a fair bit as I worked on the chapter, but I think traces of the original idea are still there. Just, you know, a bit darker than what I first had in mind.

  “I am Bohemond of the Town Hauksby,” said the tall man to the agar, “and I am a priest of the dukes of hell, their majesties Merrynight, Mockshadow, and Mumchance.” Hochelaga thought the man was maybe as old as Ulixa. The bones of his chin and cheeks were very prominent, and she thought he […]

It’s funny the things that you pick up here and there. I wrote a story for the historical magazine Old News some time ago about porcelain, and the European who figured out how to make the stuff. It was highly-desired, literally worth its weight in gold due to its beauty and hardness. So having it […]

  Gamelyn watches. He is by nature a watcher, like much of his clan. In the shadows of the garden, under the boughs of the lilac-tree, he observes, a lit torch in hand, while the riddle wraps tighter round his brain, ourobouros-like. He sees: Ulric falls, by the will of the jailer-god called Urizen. He […]

This chapter grew a bit as I worked on it, to the point where I ended up dividing it into two shorter chapters. Part of that growth, I feel, I should have seen coming. There’s something that happens with a lot of writers, in which a theme or image or idea recurs in their fiction. […]

  It was true, thought Hochelaga, that she’d never tried to work a summoning circle on her own before. But she was sure that this wasn’t supposed to have happened. “Come, ye powers,” she’d said aloud, just the way she had been taught. She knew summoning had something to do with forming the words, like […]

I’ve been wanting to get into the habit of writing down thoughts on the chapters of The Fell Gard Codices as I publish them, and as I’m beginning to figure out the time commitments involved with the story and how to make it all work, I figure it’s time to get started with that. Herewith, […]

  Ulric opened his eyes. There was a very bright light before him. He recalled the pain in his skull, the fall. He thought he had walked down a long hall, and fallen again. All he could see was splendour. At the heart of the white light there was a bird, that had landed upon […]