Recent content by Avara

It certainly does and in that case I would agree that using "Pasha" and the like would be a better choice.

that is awesome and as it should be Interesting points, it never even occurred to me to see Katniss as a convenient hero but now that you mention it it makes a great deal of sense. All the difficult choices were taken out of her hands, so she didn't really face any true moral conflict.

Thank you so much. Those are some really interesting ideas. And thanks for the recommendations, I'll be sure to add those to my list of books to review

Is the culture and race of these nomads based on people from Middle Eastern countries? Do they come from an area that is reminiscent of the Middle East? Cause if not I would caution against using such terms as it could come off as cultural appropriation. Personally I don't see anything wrong...

the names didn't bother me personally but then I'm not a history buff, so I'm not very familiar with those names. The only thing I would caution against is making sure the ethnicity/race of the names matches the ethnicity/race of the people they are attached to, even if it's only by influence...

hey guys, A few weeks ago I started up a blog under the pseudonym Mars Moonwater. I'm currently running 2 weekly columns: Diverse Fantasy Reviews (DiFR) where I review fantasy books that have diverse characters or authors (LGBTQIA, POC, disabled, etc.). AND Infuriating Fantasy where I post...

Thanks I can definitley understand the preference for superhuman things. I actually don't read superhero comics a whole lot as most of them are too dark and have continuities that are too convoluted for my tastes, but I love the idea of superheroes and what they can do, hence why I'm creating...

Thanks. I will say, and I forget if I mentioned this in the article, that a lot of my personal preference for optimism does come from the fact that I have depression and look to fantasy as a form of escapism. So when something in a story brings me down and is meant to invoke an atmosphere of...

I've been a member here for a long time but have been inactive for a while. I'm trying to get more into writing now and thought it would be a good time to get back into the discussions here and thought I'd re-introduce myself as a result. My username is Avara, I'm also known as Mars and I have...

Yeah, that's a thought i had but the instances in which i've seen it used have never used it that way. In fact the only places i can think of where i have seen it have been books with rather amateurish writing, which is what leads me to the conclusion that the only reason any author uses the...

I've seen this in a few books in the past and it has always bugged me. Why do some authors call their prologues preludes? It doesn't make any sense to me. Do they just not realize the difference? are they thinking it sounds more poetic? Or is there possibly a good reason that some authors...

Yeah, unfortunately fantasy didn't have as many genre defining writers as sci-fi. Not to mention a lot of people are under the impression that fantasy is easy to write for, which it most certainly is not. And thanks:D

Primarily other worldly high fantasy with natural born heroes rather than chosen ones as heroes and largely with female protaganists. Though i do have ideas for a superhero series, a vampire novel(that is NOT a romance), and a fantasy noire series. I'm currently working on creating a whole...

I agree with Lowan, humor should not be forced. I usually don't worry about making "comic relief" characters. Instead i just let the characters evolve and as they do so i'll find certain characters are more prone to inducing hilarity than others. The primary rules i would recommend though is...

Up till now i've just been using a mass of rtf files created in open office but i recently downloaded ywriter and want to start utelizing it to bring some order to my chaos:D. When it comes to maps i've tried various programs from campaign cartography to the mount and blade map editor but have...