World Fantasy con 2025 special

I headed down to Brighton and Hove on Thursday to attend the opening evening of World Fantasy Con 2025. I got stuck on the M25 with everyone else, but managed to reroute and arrived by 2.00pm. After getting situated at the Mercure Brighton Seafront Hotel, my wife and I had a bite to eat at […]

Fan Fic Collab

M Carmel is the author of the Arkavian Intelligence Services series. Earlier this year we agreed to collaborate by producing a piece of fan fiction based in each other’s fictional worlds. J M would write a story set in the world of The Changeling King, focusing on Det. Karen Rainbow’s catholic roots, and I would […]

FAith Beyond the Surface

Writing Belief That Breathes What does it mean to truly believe something – and how should that shape a character’s every breath? Recently, I interviewed Arthur C. Clarke and Hugo Award winning author, Adrian Tchaikovsky in which we discussed his recent book Bee Speaker and the Dogs of War series. During the conversation the matter […]

Adrian Tchaikovsky Interview

I’m joined by Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of the Hugo Award winning Children of Time Series, Shadow of the Apt Series, Echoes of the Fall Series, Dogs of War Series, The Tyrant Philosophers Series, The Final Architecture Series, and a large number of standalone novels. He won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Children of Time, […]

Religion and fantasy

Introduction Tales of the fantastic have always been intertwined with faith religion. No doubt the genesis story in the Bible and the origins of the universe in mythologies of ancient times have inspired many a writer to come up with belief systems for the peoples of their world(s). Early fantasy writers such as Tolkien and […]

On Characters

On Characters (including a Deep Dive on my characters) Coming up with new characters for a story is one of the most fun and also daunting tasks for any author. Sometimes it comes easily, with a main character already cast in your mind with your initial idea. Other times its like trying to squeeze out […]

New Interview and a Guide for Muslim Writers

Substack writer Heba Hallak interviewed me recently as part of her article The Muslim Guide to Writing Fiction. Have a read and give her a like: https://open.substack.com/pub/humanitiesnotebook/p/the-muslims-guide-to-writing-fiction?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=3q8q1u

Fantasy & Faith Ep.4

The latest blog post is now available over on YouTube:

Fantasy and Faith

I launched a podcast today titled … Fantasy and Faith. The first episode was just an intro episode looking at some of my history and the challenges I’ve faced as a writer. Its available on Substack and also on YouTube Podcasts. I would really appreciate your support on either channels. I’ve also published a collaborative […]

How Not to Write Muslim Characters Part 2

In the last post, we explored the different stereotypical characterizations of Muslims. In this post, we will look at how to write a Muslim better. Muslims are like any other human being. They have needs and wants, they have family and friends, they have aspirations and goals. Therefore, ground your character in these qualities. The […]