Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Nathan: Ohio State and Pitt, with no one scoring more than 70, in the final? Very interesting. Bryan has a 1, 2, 4 and a 6 in the final four. That's what I call courage. I find Vic's (Aspiring_X) trust in Georgia nice and quaint. I live in Atlanta, so I'm sure the local radio will be ecstatic if yo...

Agh! I have ten different entries in the ESPN contest, so which one to pick? One of the saner ones with many of the top seeds going through, or one of the upset brackets? Oh well, I gambled with one of the upset brackets, with San Diego State and Syracuse making the final 4.

I blogged about derivative fantasy - http://tedacross.blogspot.com/2011/03/c ... onals.html

Life is not like that. Death generally comes unexpectedly and for no reason. I liked it that we finally had an author who would address this fact. A great deal of real life makes no sense. Writing stuff that makes no sense usually doesn't work for many a reader. A great deal of real life doesn't wo...

I enjoyed the first two and a half books very much. It's no small task to keep a story going with that many points of view and such an unrelenting onslaught of tragedy . I paused in my reading when I reached a certain scene and felt he had exhausted my trust with what I felt was a senseless killing...

I blogged about some thoughts on Nathan's First Paragraph contest -- http://tedacross.blogspot.com/

I partly wrote my epic fantasy novel to deal with an aspect of boys that I don't see nearly enough of in fantasy fiction. I have an extremely close, loving, affectionate relationship with my sons, yet I don't see enough examples of such caring fathers in the fantasies I read. My book deals heavily w...

A short excerpt from my fantasy novel that might make you wince -- http://tedacross.blogspot.com/2010/09/steel-enema.html

For some reason I find battle scenes very easy to write. I have put a couple examples from my book either on my blog or on Authonomy and people really seem to like them. For the record, my MC does not kill the big baddie. It makes perfect sense in my story how an elderly mute ends up being the big h...

My take on the latest trend to make speculative fiction covers look like romance novels -- http://tedacross.blogspot.com/2010/09/romantasy.html

I did a Blood & Gore Fest entry - http://tedacross.blogspot.com/2010/09/b ... entry.html

Interview with a wizard -- http://tedacross.blogspot.com/2010/08/i ... izard.html

Down the Well, I agree with you. I am not suggesting any huge 'fix' for writing is necessary. I do think it is a bit sad that the professional feedback that is so essential to rapid development is almost completely lacking in writing. In any other art it is relatively easy for an upcoming talent to ...

I tutored several classes of primary schoolers on writing for one semester. The one who had the strongest writing skills and natural talents followed her own way. Like the readers I also tutored, all she needed was one prompt to grow on. Ask questions and find your own answers wherever you may. She...

The admonition for writers to read, read widely is both mentoring and mentorship. Literature study and response is a mentoring process. Writers writing about writing, from Aristotle to Zelazny, is mentoring. Writing workshops and retreats, online writing discussion venues, writers conferences, manu...