Lois McMaster
Lois McMaster
character guy plot
The rule for finding plots for character-centered novels, which is to ask: 'So what's the worst possible thing I can do to *this* guy?' And then do it.
waste pedants nomenclature
Never argue with a pedant over nomenclature. It wastes your time and annoys the pedant.
lying men iron
If you desire a man to tell you comfortable lies about your prowess, and so fetter any hope of true excellence, I'm sure you may find one anywhere. Not all prisons are made of iron bars. Some are made of feather beds.
saint scream jokes
Only the saints would joke so about the gods, because it was either joke or scream, and they alone knew it was all the same to the gods.
inspiration choices ifs
If you ever have to make a choice between learning and inspiration, choose learning. It works most of the time.
moving tired hands
His outflung hands traced over the threads of his rug, passed loop by loop through some patient woman's hands. Or maybe she hadn't been patient. Maybe she'd been tired, or irritated, or distracted, or hungry, or angry. Maybe she had been dying. But her hands had kept moving, all the same.
gold next doe
From fried witchetty grubs to gold-plated turnips, when you're a writer you never know what's going to appear on your plate next. It keeps a woman alert, it does.
life heart desire
Some prices are just too high, no matter how much you may want the prize. The one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart.
important quests findings
The most important thing about quests, he decided, was not in finding what you went looking for, but in finding what you never could have imagined before you ventured forth.
habit plus miles
Cecil flashed a grin. "Quite. Plus your rather irritating habit of treating your superior officers as your, ah..." Cecil paused, apparently groping again for just the right word. "Equals?" Miles hazarded. "Cattle," Cecil corrected judiciously.
escaping climbing-up pages
Miles is... Miles; close to a force of nature, climbing up out of his own pages and escaping subordination to any opinion of mine.
prayer moving doors
This wasn't prayer anyway, it was just argument with the gods. Prayer, he suspected as he hoisted himself up and turned for the door, was putting one foot in front of the other. Moving all the same.
prayer savages answers
The gods' most savage curses come upon us as answers to our own prayers. Prayer is a dangerous business.
dream people grows
Some people grow into their dreams, instead of out of them.