Thursday, July 17, 2014

Meet the Scriptors

It’s a brand new blog, but who the hell is this knaves' gallery of indie authors and ne'er-do-wells?

We thought we'd introduce ourselves this week, but rather than toot our own horns, we let our friends from The Scriptorium do it for us. Each person took a randomly-assigned name and wrote a little bit about the Scriptor to tell you about ...well, our writing. Here goes.



Fiona Skye (written by our treasured reader, Amanda Bonnett):

I haven’t known author Fiona Skye for long, but she’s whetted my appetite for more of her prose. Her sharp eye for character detail and the authenticity of her world enthrall me, bring her stories to life, and plop me down in the totally exciting realm she’s crafted. Her use of Nordic linguistics intermingles with her knack for well-rounded characters, and I’ve noticed her talent at filling her stories with just the right kinds of details—the outfit, tools, and weaponry her skillful killers employ fill me with a sense of what to expect, and her descriptions are beautifully-painted pictures of a savage, northern world. Fiona’s post days are always on my reading schedule.




S.J. Delos (written by M.A. Ray):

By day, S.J. Delos is a snarky accountant pushing numbers for The Man. By night, he pushes words into attractive configurations, writing kick-ass female protagonists in an urban fantasy setting. In the Scriptorium, we know to look out for Sidhe princesses who can't walk down the road without spraining something, teen werewolves riding Ducati motorcycles, and assassin vampires gone kinda straight (but not completely) in his fast-paced work inspired by action movies and the World of Darkness.




M.L. John (written by Casey Matthews):

Put a hundred writers into a room with M.L. John and she will make ninety of them jealous. I am one of the ninety. I’ve watched her rip my heart out in the space of two lines, then roll it in laughs and thump it back into my chest. One always has the sense, when sitting down to her stories, that she is at the other end of the keyboard, smirking, saying, “I am about to make you feel things.” And you never know precisely what they are going to be until they come at you. She brings her street urchin runaways and kick-ass swordswomen off the page, makes you fall in love with them, and then holds them hostage on a weekly basis. If you don’t want to feel things, if you don’t want to fall in love, if laughing and grinding your molars alike unnerve you, then stay far, far away from M.L. John.




M.A. Ray (written by M.L. John)

M.A. Ray is a soft-spoken barbarian queen who never needs to yell to make herself heard. She spends her days baking muffins for her family and her nights writing fantasy about knights and berserkers. Her work is rich and captivating, full of breathing characters and breath-taking world building. If she shows up at your house with a spear, I strongly suggest surrender.




Casey Matthews (written by S.J. Delos):

It’s not an easy thing to make characters exciting and interesting. Most of the time, the adventure supersedes depth. This is far from the case with the writings of Casey Matthews. Call him the lovechild of John Woo and Martin Scorsese with a pen. Casey’s tale of a monster from beyond time beautifully blends action and character development into a story that grabs the reader from the first scene and doesn’t let go until it reaches the end of each blockbuster chapter.

When he’s not carving words into detailed prose, Casey stalks the halls of academia and hangs his hat in the Washington, D.C. area with his wife.





Jen Ponce (written by Fiona Skye):

When she's not busy taking care of her kids or fighting for women's rights, urban fantasy author Jen Ponce is busy building dark, dangerous worlds, peopled with kick-ass magic-wielding heroines, floating heads, sentient spiders, and scary-but-still-lovable demons. With the combined skills of Simon R. Green and Neil Gaiman, Jen masterfully cooks up tales that will grab you and not let go until you've consumed the entire feast in one satisfying sitting. If you want an exciting, funny, thrilling tale, look no farther than Jen Ponce's work!




R.L. Wicke (written by Jen Ponce):

Author R. L. Wicke explores the fullness of life set against the compelling beauty of a post-apocalyptic Earth. Her writing is rich and filled with reverence for the characters who struggle and fight at the end of one world and the beginning of the next. Death throws life in sharp relief in her stories, giving the reader an appreciation of the magnificence of humankind in all its foibles and imperfections. When she's not weaving magic into words, she's fostering a love of learning and kindness in her children, loving and supporting her husband, and lifting up her fellow writers in a way that makes the rest of us blessed to know her.




Amanda Bonnett (written by R.L. Wicke):

A good reader is a writer’s best friend, and Amanda Bonnett is an invaluable friend to us all. Amanda reads everything from Chinese historical tales to urban fantasy and is looking to fill out her collections of Anne McCaffrey and Jim Butcher. Armed with her cheery disposition, boundless enthusiasm and encouragement, and a keen eye for detailed line edits, Amanda enjoys nothing more than sitting down with a printed-out manuscript and a red pen, wrapped in her Hufflepuff robe. She lives in the United States with her husband and hundreds of books.



Matt Green (written by Casey Matthews):

Matt Green is a talented architect of worlds, evoking sophisticated locales for his readers to discover. Whether science fiction, steampunk, or magitech, he lays the groundwork, and then follows through with a welcome talent for characterization. He populates his environs with bickering twin wizards, misfit ensembles, infatuated computer intelligences, and has a recurring focus on adventurous female protagonists. When he isn’t kicking the asses of Dark Lords and commas, Matt enjoys role-playing games and nerd culture, is employed in academia, and lives with his lovely fiancé, Alice.

1 comment:

  1. I've read through these a bazillion times and I still sat down and read them all again. I've said this a lot to you all but I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support, your feedback, and your stories.
    I'm so lucky to have you all as partners in this crazy writing thing.

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