David M. Samuels's Blog

A kindhearted apprentice falls under the sway of a murderous master. Together, their careers, families, and feuds will shape the fate of kingdoms.

There’s nothing more enjoyable than swindling those who deserve it. Namely, the lordlings and prelates who’d sooner run their carriages over orphans than arrive late to a banquet. All through my lean boyhood years, I’d witnessed that and worse. These days, managing Master Donthas’s gallery gives me the chance to bleed those dimwits dry.

My heels tap across the parquet floor as I guide Matriarch Lisabette down the length of the gallery. The walls abound with pastoral scenes, naval battles, and panoramic cityscapes—all by my hand and none of them genuine.

An art forger mistakenly copies a cursed painting in this Gothic High Fantasy.

https://t.co/9N3eOvN6xl https://t.co/c4It8TTSay

CHARACTERS
Names
Professions, Titles, and Identities
Organization Names
Age
Physique
Teeth
Lips
Faces
Eyes
Skin
Hands and Arms
Hair
Clothes
Armor
Flashbacks and Memory
Ancestry and Family
Interpersonal Dynamics
Prompt
Voices

DIALOGUE & BODY EXPRESSION
Blushes, Pallor, and Swollen Rage
Threats
Swears
Insults
Breathing
Facial Expressions

SETTING, AMBIENCE, AND OBJECTS
Windows
Wood and Carpentry
Architecture
Room Types
Building Types
Citybuilding
Roads and Conveyance
Sky
Snow
Insects
Weapons
Music
Books and Writing
Alchemy and Medicine
Artwork
Lights
Containers
Furniture
Geography
Wind

SENSORY DETAILS
Sight
Touch/Tactile
Smell
Taste

ACTIONS
Injuries
Walking
Running
Melee Combat
Archery and Gunfights
Swimming
Ships and Sailing
Horseriding

PROSE TECHNIQUES
Ending a Chapter

I’ve got a bias because I studied architecture in college, but I think structural details are crucial for immersing readers of HF&F. Give the reader a splash of concrete detail (a window style, for example) and let his imagination fill in the rest with your aesthetic from there.

[None of the quotes below belong to me. They are intended to be used as references for influence and not to be copied directly]

LANCET WINDOWS

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MULLIONED WINDOWS

Closeup of two mullioned windows (bifore) of the Palazzo d’Accursio, Town hall in downtown of Bologna (XIII century), Piazza Maggiore, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, Europe[image error]

TRIPLE MULLIONED WINDOWS

BAY WINDOWS

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ORIEL WINDOWS

A form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, brackets, or similar, an oriel window is most commonly found projecting from an upper floor but is also sometimes used on the ground floor.

LATTICED WINDOWS

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WINDOW PEDIMENTS

DORMER WINDOWS

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FAN WINDOW / FANLIGHT

Victorian Fan-shaped cast iron window of the Buxton Midland Railway.[image error]

ARROWSLITS / LOOPHOLES

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GRILLE / GRIDIRONS

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CHEAPER WINDOWS

Horn panes
Tacking sailcloth over windows
“The oiled animal skin stretched taut in the window frame allowed sunlight, such as it was, to filter through its golden aura”
Faint yellow square of a window covered with oiled cloth
And burlap tacked over the windows to keep the sunrise out


“Tower was merely a dank square shaft of empty air illuminated at intervals by holes punched through the thickness of the walls
“Langdon passed an opening in the wall – a wide slit through which he briefly glimpsed the city lights.
“A breach in the wall that served duty as a window”
Slots high in the walls through which moonlight could sift

OTHER WINDOWS

Stained-glass windows
“pointed-arched windows”
Double-hung (window consisting of two sliding vertical sashes)
Six-pane grid
“The windows on the first floor were tall, narrow, and rounded at the tops”

MISC

Slats (a thin, narrow piece of wood, plastic, metal, that overlap or fit into each other as in a fence or window | “Candlelight showed around the door, through the cracks and between the slats.” | “Sunlight speared through the missing slats”)
Windows made up of dozens of small panes of yellow glass, which turned the light to gold
Shuttered window
Ill-fitting shutters
“One of the shutters was half-open, sagging from a single hinge”

Window hung open
Windows set in redwood
“The first-floor windows festooned with flower boxes”
Windowbox
“the windows themselves were darkened, everyone, by the roses and ivy growing up on the walls.”
“Letting in such light as the thick and dirty glass could offer”
Blue stained-glass windows be set into the hall to make it look as if it had been built underwater
The darkened eyes of shops and cafes
Nine windows lined the west-facing wall
“The window ledge / Window seat (“window seat overlooking the entry court”)

“commanded a view”
“Window framing the smog-shrouded city beyond”
“Stood in the light of a paned glass window from which one could view the shipmasts and harbor activity just beyond”
“Window looked directly along the cart track”

“In true Roman style, even on the side of the vacant block its outside walls were windowless.”
Narrow windows
“stone-trimmed window”
arched windows
Door that looked as though it had been made for a larger doorway and cut down to fi
None of the windows were the same size

They say you’re a paladin, but all I see is a fool.

Look at you: armored like a crawdad with the brains to match. One wrong move on that poleboat and you’ll sink to the base of the swamp.

Gimme your hand. Let’s get you back on solid ground—if you can call this pier solid. The stilts wobble in the sludge, so watch your step.

Not a talker, clearly. Don’t bother unrolling that scroll. I know all about your oath of silence. Word travels fast among us Marshmen. As the village shaman, I was among the first to learn about your little quest. You seek redemption, yes?

Then go home. Adopt a war orphan and get on with your life. Truth be told, you’d have better luck floating in that platemail than slaying the Bogroth…

…Read On!

(literallystories2014.com)

More Stories

Image by Roland Mey from Pixabay 

If the Brothers Grimm had a sister, it would be Angela Slatter. Fans of Patricia McKillip and Sapkowski will doubtless love ALL THE MURMURING BONES. We return to the high fantasy world that Slatter has gradually built over her career (earning a British Fantasy Award an Aurealis Award, among others). The novel is set ahead of the other works, so we’ve reached a Fable III sorta point in the timeline where magic is fading almost as quickly as legends. But just because you wear a frockcoat doesn’t mean a corpse-wight won’t shamble into your path!

From the salt marshes of Hob’s Hallow to the sleepless port of Breakwater, Slatter takes the reader on an unforgettable journey. I especially enjoyed the little stories that Miren O’Malley recalled along the way in a Shahrazahd style of framing—they were like flash fiction pieces of the O’Malley history. And let me tell you, the O’Malleys have quite the history. It’s up to you to get to the bottom of it.

Of Steel That Stings & Other Sharp Things

“The writing is clear and beautiful… The dialogue, too, feels natural and engaging.” – Adam Heine, developer of Planescape: Torment.

A thief must sabotage a duel in her client’s favor.

Three Nights in Faral-Khazal

2018 Baen Fantasy Adventure Finalist
2017 Writers of the Future Honorable Mention, Winter Quarter

Three standalone stories influenced by Scott Bakker, Joe Abercrombie, and KJ Parker.