Category Archives: Musings
Epic fantasy? What does that even mean?
Written on May 7, 2013 at 12:56, by Anne
Yesterday I finished the final draft of The Prince of Lies – yay! – which inevitably left me feeling more than a little punch-drunk, like I’d been hit round the head with a 135,000-word manuscript…So I goofed around on Twitter a bit, and whilst chatting about book lengths and genre I realised that fantasy really Continue Reading »
The Joy of Stationery
Written on April 16, 2013 at 18:00, by Anne
My name is Anne Lyle and I’m a stationery addict. There, I’ve said it. I have more notebooks, pens and other impedimenta of writing than is strictly necessary. A lot more. I discovered just how much more when I was between drafts recently… I’d handed in the first draft of The Prince of Lies to Continue Reading »
Another year over, and a new one begun
Written on January 1, 2013 at 11:48, by Anne
So, the obligatory New Year blog post… It’s been an utterly amazing year Chez Lyle, with not one but two novels published – and people actually buying them all over the world, from Canada to the United Arab Emirates and probably beyond. The response has been tremendous, with The Alchemist of Souls appearing on at Continue Reading »
Woman in sensible armour
Written on December 4, 2012 at 06:37, by Anne
As a fantasy author, I’m often called upon to write combat scenes for my books. Sometimes they’re a simple tussle using whatever weapons come to hand (like Ned’s main fight scene in The Alchemist of Souls) but given that my protagonist Mal usually goes around wearing a rapier and matching dagger, there are inevitably a Continue Reading »
The Next Big Thing
Written on November 27, 2012 at 08:06, by Anne
I tried to slither out of this at first, but then I woke one morning at 5am and couldn’t get back to sleep, but couldn’t get into the writing groove either, so I thought I might as well give it a go! The Next Big Thing is a blog post chain for writers. You talk Continue Reading »
I need a hero: feminism, escapism and the female gaze
Written on September 11, 2012 at 08:29, by Anne
At WorldCon last week I attended a panel where one of the participants, Catherine Lundoff, announced she had just written a book called Silver Moon about a woman who becomes a werewolf when she goes through menopause. Several audience members reacted with “ooh, I’d love to read that!”, but I was not one of them. Continue Reading »
Failing the Bechdel Test gracefully
Written on August 14, 2012 at 11:37, by Anne
The Bechdel Test is a well-known yardstick used by writers and critics to assess the feminist credentials of a narrative. Taking its name from an episode in Alison Bechdel’s comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, the basic principle is that in order to pass the test, there must be at least one scene in Continue Reading »
Lyle’s Three Laws of Magic
Written on July 24, 2012 at 09:34, by Anne
Yesterday I came across an article about creating a magic system for your novel, and on impulse tweeted to say that I disliked the phrase “magic system” when applied to written fiction. This sparked a lively debate, and afterwards I thought it would be fun to codify my conclusions in a set of rules. OK, Continue Reading »
Why I read reviews
Written on May 21, 2012 at 12:52, by Anne
The other day a question came up on Twitter: what value do you get out of reading reviews? I’d been thinking of writing about this topic anyway, so I thought it was time to put my thoughts in writing… A lot of writers refuse to read reviews of their own books, on the grounds that Continue Reading »
Romance in fantasy
Written on February 14, 2012 at 11:09, by Anne
Maybe it’s a cliché to write a romance-themed blog post for Valentine’s Day, but the celebration is rife with clichés so I thought, why not? In medieval and Renaissance times, a romance was not a love story but “a long fictitious tale of heroes and extraordinary or mysterious events, usually set in a distant time Continue Reading »
