I’m not much of an Xmas guy. My family never celebrated it growing up and neither did my wife’s. But I do look forward to the holidays, particularly because they give me a chance to read and write. And so I thought I’d share some of the stuff I’ve enjoyed best this year, as well as the top of my To-Be-Read pile with you. Best of the Year The Game Bird, Aidan Walsh Aidan’s debut novel, the Game Bird, is a nautical adventure set in what feels a bit like our 19th century, but is in fact a fantasy world populated...
I never met Stan Lee. Closest I came was being shoved out of the way by his security detail when I nearly tripped over him in a crowded aisle at San Diego Comic Con in 2010. I am glad, in retrospect, that those guys stopped me from treading on him because he was tiny and he looked a lot more frail than he does on the big screen. But I did sit opposite his booth at the first Melbourne Oz Comic Con and I can tell you this much about him: he made people love comics. First and only con...
This new site Curious Fictions approached me a couple of weeks ago about joining up and posting some work there. A bunch of other, much better authors have shared short stories and other content there and it’s great company to be in, so I have joined up, too. https://curiousfictions.com/authors/460-jason-franks For starters I have posted my short story “Hellhound on My Trail“, a stand-alone piece featuring the bluesman Bad Jack Saunders from Bloody Waters, and if people tune in I’ll share more stories and other content. Give us a follow and have a browse around, there are many fine writers on...
Ursula Le Guin, my favourite author, just passed over the wall of stones. I always wanted to meet her, although I knew I never would. Ursula was, in my estimation, the best author I’ve read. She was wise and humane and original and vital, in her writing and, as best I can tell, through her life. Her craft was beyond impeccable: every sentence beautifully turned out, rhythmically perfect, and unfailingly clear, without ever being pretentious or showy, despite the planet-sized intellect that lay behind it. I’ve just watched the The Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin, a documentary by Arwen Curry...
I wrote this essay for Pete Aldin about how I developed the Magus in Faerie Apocalypse, and what I learned from so doing. This particular character is probably the one that readers have remarked upon the most. One reviewer said he was unrelatable, repulsive an despicable (which he is). Others have told me that he is their favourite character in the book. He isn’t my favourite, but he was certainly the most difficult to manage. I think I threw out fifty percent of the material I wrote around this character. An early reader told me that he should have an...
