Yearly Archives: 2016

30 posts

Another Clean Fantasy Giveaway! + Urban Mythic FREE Boxed Set!

I’m hosting another clean fantasy giveaway! Enter here. You can unsubscribe at any time, of course, but if you stick around for at least the first round of emails from the authors, you’ll pick up some fantastic freebies! All of the books are clean or “cleanish” fantasy as described by their authors. You can also check out the individual books below. Urban Mythic Boxed Set My book Things Unseen is in a FREE (yes! totally free!) boxed set right now! This won’t last forever, so go get it while it’s hot! Not that I’m excited or anything… The theme of the set […]

Noblebright Fantasy: An Overview

Several years ago I was fortunate enough to connect with another indie author, Mike Reeves-McMillan, who wrote a lovely review of The King’s Sword, which he described, tongue-in-cheek, as “cheerybright.” He meant that the world wasn’t perfect, but good characters exist and can make a difference in their world and society through actions defined by honesty, integrity, and self-sacrifice. While the term cheerybright certainly made me smile (and was a lovely counterpoint to grimdark), we eventually discovered the term “noblebright.” The term noblebright was originally something of a joke from the gaming community. The quintessential grimdark game Warhammer 40k (which I […]

Writing Fight Scenes (some tips that may or may not be useful)

This post was originally written for D. H. Aire’s blog for the 2013 Blogger Book Fair and is slightly expanded here. Note: The information below is geared toward relatively realistic hand-to-hand fights with real-world physics. Magic changes things! If your characters are wizards or mages or shapeshifters or something, that will obviously affect the fight a great deal. Fight scenes are one of the areas where even experienced writers can run into difficulty. Although I wouldn’t call myself an expert, I’ve gotten some nice reviews and comments on the fight scenes in my books, particularly The King’s Sword, so I thought I’d […]

What I’m Reading #7

Raven by Pauline Creeden – I didn’t realize when I picked up this book that it was Christian fantasy (it’s clear on Amazon, I had just forgotten when it came up in my Kindle); I think it will appeal to non-Christians too. I also didn’t realize it was steampunk when I picked it up, but if steampunk isn’t your thing, don’t be turned off – the steampunk aspects of the story were fairly restrained. I really enjoyed watching Raven Steele develop through the story; she was both a “strong female character” in that she was awesome at kicking tail when […]

Christmas in July promo image

Christmas in July!

A Fairy King is on sale for $0.99 as part of a Christmas in July sale! This weekend only. Click the banner above to go to the sale page, or click the book cover to go directly to Amazon. Enjoy!  

Twelve Days of Faery cover image

Characters I Love: Althea and Markon

More adorable characters from W.R. Gingell! Althea and Markon are the two main characters in Twelve Days of Faery. Althea is confident and competent, magnificently understated, and somehow adorable rather than intimidating. She’s kind and funny and endearing, while remaining supremely focused on her mission. She’s quite understandably fascinating to Markon (and to the reader), and she’s a wonderful example of a “strong female character” who isn’t written as a physically rough-and-tough sex symbol with too much attitude. Markon is the point-of-view character, and he’s immediately likable. He’s overworked, beset by annoying visiting dignitaries, and deeply upset by the curse […]

Help Me Focus!

I’ve started on a number of new projects, but I need to focus after my long period of post-surgery recuperation. Why yes, I’m almost functional again! Thanks for asking. I’m getting better! I don’t want to go on the cart! I’d originally posted this on G+, but I figured my blog is a better place to do this. Plus a lot of you aren’t active on G+ so maybe you’ll vote this way. What should I work on next? I have an abundance of ideas at the moment. All of these are started but only the first has anything approaching […]

Want free books? Sign up for my ARC Team!

Would you like free books? Of course you would! I’m forming an Advance Review Copy (ARC) team – that’s a team of readers who will read my books before they’re available, and post reviews as soon as the books are launched. What do you get out of it? Free review copies, of course! I send you a free ebook, you read it, write a review, and post the review when the book goes live. You’ll need to post on Amazon, but posting on other retailers and review sites like Goodreads is also very much appreciated. What do I get out of it? Reviews! […]

Playing Hearts cover image

Characters I Love: Jack

 Did I mention I’ve been loving W.R. Gingell’s work lately? I have. All of her characters are delightful (except the horrible ones, who are horrifically horrible). Jack is the son of the Queen of Hearts. Jack is a self-centered, untrustworthy liar, shallow and prickly and sarcastic and utterly, completely delightful. He’s disappointing and brilliant, and he makes the story infinitely more personal to narrator Mabel. And Mabel is his equal, impulsive and brilliant and dangerous in her mounting terror at the Queen’s evil manipulations. Playing Hearts is a novella, but there is so much story crammed in a relatively short […]

Fantasy Giveaway Image - C. J. Brightley

Another Fantastic Giveaway!

I’m hosting another fantasy giveaway! This giveaway is also for a Kindle Fire and 30 clean fantasy ebooks (mostly different books than the last giveaway). Click here to enter! If you didn’t see the previous giveaways, you might be wondering “what’s the point?” Well, we’re all looking for new readers! By entering, you’re sharing your email address with us so we can tell you about our new releases and other writing news. Don’t worry… you can unsubscribe at any time. Many of us also have special freebies for subscribers, so even if you don’t win, I hope you’ll be glad you entered. You […]