by Joseph Malik | Nov 9, 2020 | Dragon's Trail, General, In The Press, The New Magic
Well, it’s been nine months. I’d say that a lot has happened, but that’s kind of an understatement. COVID hit Washington State early, in late February, right after RadCon. The Army wasted no time in designating me “Essential Personnel”...
by Joseph Malik | Jan 14, 2020 | General, The New Magic, Worldbuilding
So, something fun. We took a week and did a retreat to the desert. Well, not so much a retreat as a frontal assault, but the point is, we left the rainy Northwest and ended up in the desert. Some of you may remember that the desert and I don’t get along so well. I’m...
by Joseph Malik | Aug 21, 2019 | Dragon's Trail, General, The New Magic, Worldbuilding, Writing Craft
“. . . within four hours of announcing that I’d engineered sexual violence out of my worldbuilding—that I’d used it in Dragon’s Trail to show the difference in societies but I’ll never use it again—Dragon’s Trail sold every paperback copy that we’d brought.”
by Joseph Malik | Aug 9, 2019 | Dragon's Trail, General, In The Press, The New Magic
So, here we are. I’ve been a little busy; apologies for the lack of updates. Lots of huge things going on, and the biggest one right now is that I’m going to be appearing on three panels at WorldCon in Dublin on the 15-16 of August. I’ll also be...
by Joseph Malik | Mar 22, 2019 | Dragon's Trail, General, The New Magic, Worldbuilding, Writing Craft
This is an extension of a post I made over at Mythic Scribes in which authors were asked to explain their magic systems in five bullet points. This was fun, in no small part because with the increased role of magic in, well, The New Magic, some readers have been...
by Joseph Malik | Nov 13, 2018 | Dragon's Trail, General, The New Magic, Writing Craft
Hey, it’s been a while. I had the brilliant idea to start Book III right after releasing Book II, which gave me absolutely no time to do blog posts. The good news is that Book III sucked so bad in its first draft that I’m starting over with a blank page...