A sleepy western frontier town is explosively awakened to the presence of a dastardly apparition… John Henry Hunter is a wanted outlaw, cad, and a magician of the dark arts, able to conjure fiery destruction at will. Vane Black is trying to hunt him down with a small arsenal of ...

Giftwrapped Toxicity
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Jan. 16, 2021
There is a gripe that I have when it comes to romance. It might be the reason I don't really like reading romance as a genre, and while I am aware that not all works in the romance genre are like this, there are too many for me to ...
Protagonist, Antagonist and Villain
Banes at 12:00AM, Jan. 14, 2021
Over the past couple weeks I watched and loved Cobra Kai. There are multiple articles that I could write about this show.
It's an ensemble cast, and I guess Johnny and Daniel could be called co-Protagonists. I actually think Johnny is the Protagonist, Daniel the Antagonist and Kreese is ...
When Nothing Is Normal
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Jan. 9, 2021
Usually when building a character, we go for their general personality in terms of traits, the routine/general behavior they would display, the routine/general things that would interest them and so on.
If you are writing a slice of life story, or a sitcom style series, or anything that ...
Back From The Dead
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Jan. 2, 2021
So we've talked often about how letting a character die in a story is something that should be used very frugally, because once death occurs, it should be permanent. In most settings, death shouldn't be something that is reversible. If not, it will lose its impact, and the ...
Handwaves, Explanations and Just-Go-With-Its
Banes at 12:00AM, Dec. 24, 2020
The long-running series Supernatural just came to an end and I enjoyed the last couple episodes. Even though I haven't seen the last few seasons and don't plan to, I knew the series fairly well from its first 6 or 7 years. I could say more about this ...
QUACKCAST 510 - STUFF WE SPEND OUT MONEY ON
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, Dec. 22, 2020 LISTEN on our new player!
Listen on Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/adarunkduck-quackcast
Or TuneinRadio - https://tunein.com/podcasts/Books–Literature/Drunkduck-Quackcast-p1150194/
This is the time of year you typically spend your money on other people… but we wanted to talk about what we spend our money on when ...
Exploiting Death
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Dec. 19, 2020
When a character the story's cast and audience identify and are familiar with dies, the effect is, or should be, monumental.
Not only because that effectively ends that character's journey (and arc), but also because as an event it has immediate ramifications for all the surviving characters.
First ...
Welcoming a new member to the cast
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, Dec. 18, 2020
I’ve been getting back into reading epic fantasy novels. Grand worlds, exotic locations and, of course, an ever increasing cast of characters. As I am one to never stop taking notes, even when I’m trying to chill, here are some things I noticed about introducing new characters that ...
QUACKCAST 509 - Saltcast
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, Dec. 15, 2020 LISTEN on our new player!
Listen on Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/drunkduck-quackcast
Or TuneinRadio - https://tunein.com/podcasts/Books–Literature/Drunkduck-Quackcast-p1150194/
Escapist fiction Vs Gritty and real style fiction… Furwerk-Studio made an interesting post about this subject. They were annoyed at people who dismiss escapism as something lessor ...