Recent content by Malik

As much as I disliked the books for a myriad of reasons, the introductory scene--effectively a prologue--to Game of Thrones was perfect. If you'd skipped it, you wouldn't know the White Walkers were real; knowledge that throws all of the political infighting and court intrigue--and even the...

Whole thing in my blog about exactly this and how it plays into prologues, BTW. https://josephmalik.com/prologues (TLDR: in epic fantasy, the world is a character with its own arc. The prologue is the world's walk-on scene, laying out what the world was like before the events in the story. The...

In "epic" fantasy, the characters' actions should be something that goes down in the world's history books. This has always been my dividing line between epic fantasy and high fantasy; in high fantasy, the character or characters go about their adventure but don't have a world-rocking effect...

The Hanwei pieces are Chinese production models of his swords. They can use a little cleaning up, but even with custom post-work, they're much more affordable than a custom piece. If Stonelands gets greenlit, I'll be getting custom pieces. And finding one of these, which is my White Whale...

So, hey--I had the opportunity to send my Hanwei Tinker Great Sword of War back to Tinker Pearce himself (it helps that he's family and my long-time sparring partner) for a rebalance and a new grip. I hope to have it back within a couple more weeks. He's going to shave some steel from the blade...

"If you ever find yourself in a fair fight, you deserve to lose." -- Jarrod Torrealday in Dragon's Trail

They don't know. The area where my series takes place has three countries (using the loosest possible definition; it's effectively Germanic tribal law holding strings of held territories in alignment), an elf sanctuary/homeland that many believe is only a rumor, one breakaway republic who may or...

Yup. New book. Same world. There's an overview on my blog now: New Project: STONELANDS | Joseph Malik

Mostly trade in my world, but some coin. Silver and iron coins are the most common--a soldier's wages are (generally) a silver a day, and the silver coin is called a Hero. Iron coins are worth less than silver, but they can also be melted down and turned into steel for tools, weapons, etc., so...

I have never read it, nor seen the films. I've been meaning to get around to it, but I've never had the time.

I haven't. I've never used them in my worldbuilding, so I've just kind of bleeped over halberds.

I was looking for another post and just saw this. I kinda hate to necro it, but it kinda needs to be necroed. Almost every part of this post is incorrect. I don't know if I have the time or the bourbon to take it all apart. The biggest part of this post that leads to its incorrectness...

Can I just say I love the way this topic derailed? I needed a cottagecore fix. This whole process has been insanely stressful.

He's an 85-lb.Olde English Bulldogge--basically two bags of cement with a jet engine on the back. He ran right at the coyote and body-checked it like that meme with the school bus and the train, and then beat the crap out of it. It finally got up and took off--it's been a month and it's probably...