Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard brainstorm some fantasy setting elements for you. Need a magic system on the cheap? How about a political power structure?
Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart.
Andrew P. Mayer joins Howard, Mary, and Dan to talk about taking silly ideas and making seriously awesome stuff out of them.
Peter Ahlstrom, assistant to Brandon Sanderson, and Valerie Dowbenko, assistant to Pat Rothfuss, join Brandon and Dan to talk about what they do for “their authors.”
Mary walks Brandon, Dan, and Howard through the Milieu, Idea, Character, and Event (M.I.C.E.) quotient from Orson Scott Card, and then they retell the Billy Goats Gruff four times.
Tom Smith joins Howard and Brandon at Penguicon for a discussion of Filk and some delightfully improvised music.
Brandon, Dan, and Howard discuss what an alpha reader is, is not, and where one might find these marvelous creatures.
Brandon, Dan, and Howard give examples of making, keeping, and breaking promises to your readers.
Brandon, Dan, and Howard critique some tagless dialog submissions.
Late last season we took a look at Brandon’s first novel and did some line-editing and critiquing. It was so much fun we decided that Dan needed to take a turn in the dunking booth. He totally gets wet. In the course of dunking Dan we cover beginnings, descriptions, character…
Scott Westerfeld joins Brandon and Howard for a discussion of Steampunk.