Recent content by johnsonjoshuak

I start with a 1-sentence idea for the novel. Then I write the beats. Then a summary and then the real work begins. I write a chapter-by-chapter outline usually 2-3 paragraphs. This usually ends up being between 8-10K words all together.

Gunpowder Fantasy. It gives me an outlet for my obsession with the American Civil War since the age of like 6 =D

Gunpowder Fantasy/Flintlock Fantasy/Muskets and Magic has seen a recent uptick with books by Django Wexler and Brian McClellan (being the two most prolific Gunpowder Fantasy authors so far). So using a more technologically advanced setting isn't going to be as strange as it might have been a...

The great thing about Fantasy: Magic. I've strongly considered a winged species of humanoids in several of my works, but I end up cutting them for one reason or another. But knowing that it would be physically impossible, I fail back on Magic.

I think a society like this would make an amazing basis for a gunpowder fantasy: the story of the commoners creating or importing gunpowder to overwhelm the tyrannical magocracy.

I messed around with this in my current WIP. Families (especially wealthy families) regularly include up to 4 spouses of any gender. So one of my characters is male and has 1 husband and 2 wives. In their society, the max is 4 (total) but those without more than 1 are considering poor because...

I'm actually considering doing this as well, with three different main characters who have interweaving story lines but are technically separate. It introduces interesting logistic challenges and making sure the timelines are correct across the board, but I like a challenge.

I use Elves and Orcs in my world, but the Elves are modeled after the phoenicians: sea-going merchants (and sometimes pirates). The Orcs live in industrial city-states and have built their successful economy off of legions of mercenaries and a central-location that makes them great traders.

Thanks for all of the responses. Looking back at my outline, I realized that my character didn't face any real opposition or defeats. I'm going to build up some resistance among existing storylines and have her fail a few times as well.

So while I let my last novel sit on the shelf before edits, I've been working on the next one. It's a Gunpowder Fantasy Politics story, about an elected official who is rigging and election and trying to consolidate power; it's very heavily influenced by Republic of Thieves and House of...

An Idea for the Heretics: they believe that closing the eyes is not sinful because it shows faith that the Eyes Above will watch for them. A really cool idea btw

In general, the nations and societies in my world measure time relative to an event. One nation measures since its founding, some measure based on the leader, there are city-states that measure the time since the Republic that once held them together dissolved, and so on. I think that's a...

The thing is, while these places might not be established initially as towns, they'll likely be placed in locations that make towns perfect. Travel access, fresh water, enough arable land to support crops. They might start out as simple waystations, but eventually they will evolve into towns.

And of course, all of the merchants and travelers will bring bandits, cutpurses, etc

Even reading that excerpt hurt my head and I stopped after 5 words :-D I'm of the camp that modifying a precious few words to get the point across works better than laying it on thick. One of my characters has a sort-of "Southern, American" accent so I tend t' drop extra vowels on a few words...