First review I’ve seen of the new version of Song of the Sword is from Kirkus Reviews, which says it’s “a tight story (all the details make sense), and characters exhibit honest emotions,” and adds, “Fantasy references galore should ensure that readers who enjoy fantasy—and Arthurian legend in particular—come away satisfied.“ Read the whole thing. …
Category: Writing and Editing
A couple of new book reviews…
While the most recently released book is always the one that generates the most reviews (although reviews for Masks have slowed tremendously since it first came out), older books can still spark reviews at unexpected intervals, and recently a couple of reviews popped up for some of my older books. Outworlder Reviews picked up The …
Book Giveaway Week 5: Enter and get a pre-publication sneak peek at STAR SONG
The winner of Week 4 of my great book giveaway was Melinda, who commented on my Edward Willett Facebook page. Now it’s on to Week 5! Rules are the same: leave a comment below, or reply to one of my Facebook posts, or retweet one of my daily Tweets on the subject, and if your …
Week 4 of the Great Book Giveaway of 2014: enter and get a free copy of The Chosen
And so we move on to Week 4 of the Great Book Giveaway of 2014. I had an even dozen entrants last week, each of whom received a free download of my YA ghost story The Haunted Horn. The winner was David, who commented on a post on my E.C. Blake Facebook page. This week, …
I wonder what my college professor would think of me now?
The next post after this one is going to be a very early short story of mine that I just uncovered. Called “Reunion,” it was published in the Spring, 1979, issue (Volume 2, Number 2) of Shapes and Names, the literary magazine published by the department of English of Harding College (now Harding University) in …
The Space-Time Continuum: Reality in Fantasy
Here’s my latest column for the Saskatchewan Writers Guild‘s magazine Freelance… *** When someone writes a hardboiled police procedural novel, we expect it to adhere to correct police procedures in the city in which it is set. When someone writes a historical novel set in 19th-century India, we expect the details of life and governance …
Song of the Sword web page goes live at Coteau Books
Song of the Sword, first book in my news YA fantasy series written as Edward Willett, now has its official web page on the Coteau Books site. And here it is! You can download a high-res version of the cover or the media release. Feel free to send it to everyone you know. You can …
A couple of more Masks reviews to note…
First, Masks got a second review in Locus this latest issue. Carolyn Cushman writes (not online), “Blake…know how to turn out an old-fashioned adventure with just enough of a dystopian edge to feel new again.” Meanwhile, Dark Faerie Tales gives Masks 4/5 stars…er, ravens, saying: “Young adult books can sometimes be hit or miss with …
Coteau Books releases Spring 2014 catalogue featuring Song of the Sword
The launch of my back-from-the-dead YA fantasy series The Shards of Excalibur grows ever nearer: Coteau Books has released its spring 2014 catalogue (download the whole thing here) which features Song of the Sword, book one in the five-book series which will continue with Twist of the Blade (currently in rewrites) this fall…with two more …
Some thoughts on the reviews of Masks
One of the…um, eye-opening…things about having novels published (and at this point, under both this name and others, I’ve had quite a few) is the realization, as the reviews start to come in (if you’re lucky enough to even get reviewed), that not everyone thinks you have written the most amazingly wonderful book of all …
The Space-Time Continuum: Workshops
Today, while writing the next installment of my regular SF/F-writing column “The Space-Time Continuum” for Freelance, the magazine of the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild, I realized I’d never posted the previous column online…and so here it is! *** Over the years I’ve participated in a number of science fiction and fantasy writing workshops, to great effect: …
My latest live walk and vlog
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