I was asked today to write a brief description of The Cityborn for DAW Books. Here’s what I came up with: it’s your first peek at my next science fiction novel, my eighth (!) novel for DAW, coming out in about a year’s time. The metal City towers at the center of the mountain-ringed Heartland, squatting like …
Category: Writing and Editing
Read the first two chapters of Flames of Nevyana…also, it has a map!
Although I don’t have a release date yet for Flames of Nevyana, it’s getting close. Its page is now active on the Rebelight Publishing website, and to mark the impending release, I’ve posted the first two chapters of the novel here: read and enjoy! Here’s the publisher’s blurb: Blue Fire is both blessing and curse. …
The Space-Time Continuum: Women of Futures Past
My latest column for the Saskatchewan Writers Guild’s newsletter, Freelance. Whenever I lead a workshop about writing science fiction, I say it’s important to read widely and deeply in the field: that science fiction is like a long ongoing argumentative conversation, and jumping into it without being aware of what has already been said will …
How to write YA fantasy: more story, less pretentiousness
On May 30 I gave a talk at the offices of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild for the Saskatchewan chapter of CANSCAIP, the Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers (that’s their logo at left). The talk was live streamed and will eventually be on YouTube (I’ll post a link once it was) but here …
CanLit for Little Canadians likes Cave Beneath the Sea
Helen Kubiw at the excellent CanLit for Little Canadians site has been a fan of The Shards of Excalibur from the beginning, and she likes Cave Beneath the Sea quite a lot: In Cave Beneath the Sea, Edward Willett has created as exciting a read as the earlier books in the series, continuing to develop his characters and their …
Read the first two chapters of Door into Faerie!
We’re just six weeks from the May 15 release of Door into Faerie, which means it’s time to give you a sneak peek. Normally I only post the opening chapter of the books, but for the finale, I’m giving you two. Click here to read the first two chapters of Door into Faerie! And remember, …
Answering some questions about writing
I was recently asked, by someone on Facebook, several questions about writing, and I though the answers might be of general interest. And so here they are! How do you decide what ideas/characters/plots/etc. are good? Or which to keep? Hmmm. Of course, I think they’re all good. When I was starting out and writing everything …
Two recent audio interviews
While I was Guest of Honour at Can-Con in Ottawa in late October, I had two great audio interviews, one with Kevin Johns of Write-Along Radio, and one with Derek Newman-Stille of the great Speculating Canada website. And here are handy links to each! Here’s the one from Write-Along Radio… …
The Space-Time Continuum: Where do you get your ideas?
This is my latest column on writing science fiction and fantasy for the Saskatchewan Writers Guild newsletter Freelance… One of the challenges of writing a regular column (as I know from long experience, since I wrote a weekly newspaper column for many years) is coming up with ideas. Oddly enough, that’s also one of the …
My first published book of 2016…
…does not involve magic, aliens, spaceships, or grand adventure, although its topic does date back to the dawn of time. But the important thing is, I got paid! It’s Becoming a Mason, for Rosen Publishing. Masons have been responsible for, quite literally, the foundations of society, erecting everything from the pyramids of Giza to the …
Great reviews for Twist of the Blade and Lake in the Clouds from CanLit for Little Canadians
Starting off 2016 right, Twist of the Blade and Lake in the Clouds both picked up excellent reviews, one after the other, at the excellent CanLit for Little Canadians site. Of Twist of the Blade, Helen Kubiw writes: “While Edward Willett continues to weave the Arthurian legend into a Saskatchewan setting, he builds on the Merlin, …
Cave Beneath the Sea, Book 4 in The Shards of Excalibur, now available!
Cave Beneath the Sea, Book 4 of my Shards of Excalibur young adult fantasy series from Coteau Books, officially released on November 15. I’ve been thrilled with all the covers of the Shards of Excalibur series, and I think you can see why, looking at Cave Beneath the Sea. All the books have looked fantastic, and …