Coming March 2022
Robert Burne – author
Robert Burne was born in June 1982 in a dusty town in South Africa.
As a child, Robert loved reading and would happily sit for hours in classrooms reading while teachers grew increasingly irritated.
Encounters with The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia entrenched Robert firmly in the fantasy world.
He spent many beautiful afternoons tucked up in the city library, reading everything he could get his hands on.
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Cleansing Fire
Power & Pride or Love & Loyalty? For thousands of years, the Barrier has stood unbreached between the people and the mysterious Skaji. For thousands of years, the dark God Shango has been locked in the lost Well of
Recent Blog Posts
Writing Magic Systems (Part 8)June 4, 2021Putting it all together As we draw this series to a close, it might be interesting to look back on what we’ve discovered and lay the groundwork for a Magic System that’s unique, interesting, and realistic – as far as that’s possible when talking about something entirely fictional. What should we base our magic system on? Let’s do a quick exercise to figure that out. Idea: Magic comes from a reincarnation cycle that is common across the world. We pass power down through generations of reincarnations so can grow pretty huge. Established education centres help to regulate some of the magic […]
Writing Magic Systems (Part 7)May 28, 2021Power corrupts. This is not a new concept. We’re all intimately familiar with the idea that power can corrupt. But the extent of the corruption is something that doesn’t always get a lot of attention. In some ways, that’s a good thing and leads to some of the most nuanced storylines. However, as with most other things, it’s important to know the background and understand *how* power corrupts if we’re going to write effectively. I bet you’ve asked this question We’ll start this post off with a question: Why does Gandalf not use the One Ring to destroy Sauron? We’ve all heard people […]
Writing Magic Systems (Part 6)May 21, 2021Edge Cases Warning: This blog post will contain spoilers for both Harry Potter (Book 4 and up) and The Wheel of Time Very often, the most interesting things happen, not in the main arena, but at the edges. If I consider stories that have gripped me from the start and held me there, they always explore the edges of what is possible. This includes (but is not limited to) the edges of society, what happens when monolithic climate systems clash and what happens when unexpected magic occurs. Magic is itself an Edge Case If we go right to the core of what Magic is, we can define it in a few quick […]