Virtual FantasyCon 2014: SFF and Politics

There is nothing more glorious than to defeat your enemy by transparent democratic process, and hear the lamentation of the other sides’ whips. Can SFF make political process dramatic and heroic, or will it always come down scheming viziers and noble warriors?
Lizzie Barrett (m), Jaine Fenn, Foz Meadows, Catherine Hill, Adrian Tchaikovsky [with interjections and digressions from Megan]

Virtual FantasyCon 2014: How to write sword fights, and authors that keep attacking each other

Writers who also happen to be swordfighters discuss the myths and realities of the sword in fiction – and demonstrate their skills with the blade!
Marc Aplin (m), Fran Terminiello, Juliet E McKenna, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Clifford Beale [with Megan's interjections - here, obviously, not just yelling out during the panel]

A long overdue update, in pictures, & a super writing exercise

The blog's been quiet for so long, while behind the scenes I've been doing ALL THE THINGS and my blog-posts-to-write notebook is bursting its spine with lovely things to come, plus NaNoWriMo is already sending its unearthly shimmer over the horizon, so here's a quick rundown of the (mostly) writerly things I've been up to and a glimpse of all the blog-posts-to-come that I've foraged. Plus A BONUS KITTEN. And at the end, a super writing exercise.

Building your world: Virtual WFC 2013

Where does your world-building start? Which bits are your geek-fest and which do you gloss over with smoke and mirrors? And what kinds of cultural assumptions do you trail unwittingly behind you? Patrick Rothfuss, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Robin Hobb, Hal Duncan, and Ellen Kushner (moderator) discuss.