Recent content by chrispenycate

I personally adore writing first person. Once you have squirmed under the skin of your protagonist/antagonist/observer, it is effectively very difficult to observe other than through his/her/its sences (Its? Oh yes, almost all of my dragon trilogy is in first person, the majority from a...

Canabalism is by species, not phylum, order family or genus; so, as an omnivore, if I eat a pork chop (which was once mammalian), a cabbage, botannical, or a chicken (avian) I can possibly be accused of numerous crimes, possibly even genocide if it were a very rare porcine breed (ah, no, not...

South coast (West Sussex) but bit of a pedant, ancient and more SF than Fantasy. Do regular Zooms to Switzerland, Austria, canada and other regions of the UK.

London, England, I assume? Sounds interesting, but I would definitely have to wait until the railways were on an even keel (studies mixed metaphore, and decides not to modify). I've had meetings in London with chrons, but since Covid, no conventions, no meet ups. Idea. My sister, who is a...

Elves are renown for archery. Now, archery doesn't appear as a defensive sport - it is generally (in human societies, anyway) developed for hunting, and indeed, in lots of stories featuring them bringing down game, once I remember shooting fish. g Now, this is not definitive - they've been...

How about 'The phantom of Kansas' By John Varley? The Phantom of Kansas – Full Text – John Varley And, I suppose Heinlein's 'All you zombies'? I'll keep thinking. Can't think of any fantasy, right now.

If you go to the Baen Free library and download In the Heart of Darkness by Eric Flint and David Drake - WebScription Ebook you'll find, in chapter 25, a naval battle, even though most of the book concentrates on land warfare. This is late Roman Empire, Byzantine (indeed, the series is named...

Which December? Actually, I rather approve of the idea, when it comes to feeding my Kindle, and consider it just, as dead tree books don't carry VAT.

Individual combat, or extremely small numbers, I simply live behind the eyes and reflexes of one, chosen fighter (probably one who survives, but that's not essential - except for him/her). with dozens or hundreds, I've never managed an all-enveloping experience - you'll need someone else's...

My dragons are conventional - four legs, two wings, scales and claws, solitary predator, no social reflexes. Does that make them clichéd? It means you need less scene-setting, as people already know what to expect… yeah, I know, I enjoy worldbuilding as least as much as the next writer -...

Don't worry too much about it. By the renaissance, gunpowder had been around European battlefields and sieges for a considerable time. Sure, firearms were set to revolutionise warfare, but it took them several centuries to do so. Bombards, petards, maybe a few grenades that were more or less...

Definitely traditional publishing, if forward looking (they were among the first to accept electronic subscriptions, produce eBooks, other innovations I can't drag to mind at the instant, and intereaction with readers) I found them cooperative and flexible (admittedly, this was some years ago...

Nanotech Hardly my speciality, but some things are obvious. The problem of the fabrication of ultra-miniturised mechanisms is the precision of the tooling - even the wavelength of light is a limiting factor. Physics doesn't say we can't do it, only engineering - and engineering has a tradition...

All right, scrappy, disorganised and in need of a good edit, but contains some ideas. Chrispy. Tech levels for my sci fi world? Post-Information Age, which is around (2030-2050) I don't believe in post information, without an apocalypse. As long as mankind is developing new there will be data...