Grimdark or Just Honest? On Epic Fantasy and the Tendency Towards Gratuitous Violence

The Agartes Epilogues is not grimdark. This is something I tell people in the description, because someone who is savvy in the genre of epic fantasy could immediately think this upon reading the Prologue of Jaeth’s Eye. It’s been described by many reviewers as violent, with some sex and some swearing. In epic fantasy, these are usually the signs of …

Try Not To Tell, Show, But If You Show, Don’t Show Everything…

It has taken me a long time to be able to articulate my thoughts on the common debate on the show, don’t tell advice that is frequently handed down to young writers. And yes, I do believe that such a debate exists the longer you stay in this craft. Le Guin had an article about why …

Confessions of an Asian-Canadian Fantasy Writer

I write about “people of colour.” I didn’t know this was a thing, back when I first started. As far as I was concerned, I wrote about “people” and that was that. I only later realized–somewhat belatedly–that I was writing “diverse fiction.” I’m still not sure about what I think about this. On a certain …