It seems fantasy is a YA favourite to the point where emerging authors are writing nothing else. Vampires abound at the turn of every page and you can always rely on a spot of Harry potter magic to get you in and out of trouble. My two possible fantasy titles are The Wealth and Dragon Stalkers — I mean a dragon heads up one of the stories, but I have avoided magic as a tool to help the plot along. The Wealth is based on Viking life and even the barest historian will pick up references to Dark Age and Roman technology and ideology. Meanwhile my McAlister Line series still upholds the historical novel genre although McAlister's Spark falls firmly in the post Apocalyptic World of the near futu
While I've been downsizing and preparing our house for sale and move into a smaller, more manageable place, I've neglected my blog page. So now I've resolve to post regularly at the beginning and end of each week. Here are some random thoughts on character building. Is it important for characters, especially the main ones, to grow through the story? I think in many cases it doesn't matter. For rite-of-passage story, OK, but I don't think James Bond changed much in the 007 books however much Hollywood wanted him to. I've just finished the 25th Stephanie Plum novel, and she, Morelli, Ranger and Lula stay much the same, nor are they age (just like Calvin who's been six for ever). When I write a
