Robertson Fantasy Works

My book  Blood Shadow: A Vera Shadow Mystery  is written in the style of the Hardboiled Detective stories of the 1930's and 40's, made famous by writers such as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain. I have attempted to write their style, and I would like to provide insight into how I've mimicked the style. The first thing that everyone thinks of when you say 'hardboiled detective" or in more modern times, "Film Noir", is the brooding detective and the slang used. He always calls women "dames" or "doll" and has an internal monologue (assuming the story is written in first person). One of the most important things to me was to get the slang right. So I read every hardboiled detective story that I could get my hands on with my meagre book budget. This was a great way to experience how the slang is used, but I need a glossary. That is when I came across Mr. Ian Tregillis' glossary, A Hard-Boiled Slang Glossary  for hi...

So, my last post was about how I "faked" world building in  Blood Shadow: A Vera Shadow Mystery . I plan for this to be me documenting how I build this low fantasy world and where my influences are coming from. Let's get stuck in! Alright, so I want this setting to have the feel of Dark Ages Europe (approximately 5th–10th century). This is coming from my love of the sagas (e.g. Beowulf), Norse mythology, and shows like "Vikings" and "The Last Kingdom". Because of this, I've decided to base the main area on Anglo-Saxon Britain, with Pictish/Gaelic/Welsh styled peoples to the north and west, and then having a Scandinavian analogue culture to the northeast. But because I want the main story to take place in the Anglo-Saxon region I'm going to start with that. When I world build the most important thing for me is to get the names/naming traditions right. I could just use random name generators but for this I really want to give the names more m...

Sorry for the "click-baity" title. But this is something I would like to discuss. You may be asking yourself, "Why fake world build?". Thats a good question. Everyone likes to hear about beautifully crafted worlds with an extreme about of lore (e.g. Middle Earth, Westeros, The Forgotten Realms, etc). Something no one tells you, is that these worlds are the result of years and years of world building. Let's say your story is set in a densely populated city like New Angel City in my first book:  Blood Shadow: A Vera Shadow Mystery , and you don't want to map out every single building and location. Thats absolutely okay. I didn't sit down and draw out every street. In fact, I despise world building cities. So here's what I did. I wanted New Angel City to resembled Los Angeles and New York City (hence the name). I knew I wanted key Noir locations such as film studios, rich upper class neighbourhoods, docks, and an entertainment district (perfect for s...

So my book " Blood Shadow: A Vera Shadow Mystery ", is styled after the Hard-Boiled Detective genre, popular in the 1930's and 40's. I wanted to capture the style and setting of those novels, most notably those written by Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. I can't quite remember where I first saw the image of a brooding private dick wearing a fedora and overcoat, smoking like a stovepipe and drowning their woes in bottom shelf whiskey (though I expect Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes had something to do with it). But none the less, my imagination was taken captive and I began to become interested in the genre. So, what makes a detective "hard-boiled"? For me, the characteristics that make someone hard-boiled are hard to quantify. I think at the most basic a hard-boiled shamus is someone who is damaged and cynical. They have seen the dark underbelly of the setting they inhabit, and they've been burned one too many times by people they th...