The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy, Vol. 2: The Opus Magus [Paperback]

Tee Morris (Editor), Valerie Griswold Ford (Editor)

Book Description

Release date: October 1, 2007 | ISBN-10: 1896944159 | ISBN-13: 978-1896944159 | Edition: 1

Tee Morris and Valerie Griswold team up as editors for the title that picks up where Alchemy With Words leaves off. The Opus Magus takes on the advanced topics of writing, such as incorporating horror, mystery, herbalism and advanced worldbuilding.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A treasure trove at your fingertips—a perfect companion to The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy" -- Sheri L. McGathy, Author of Within the Shadow of Stone

"Jovial and practical, this is a fine 'companion' for any writer of fantasy." -- Michelle M. Welch, Author of Confidence Game

About the Author

Tee Morris (author of DMP's MOREVI and Billibub Baddings and The Case of The Singing Sword) and Valerie Griswold-Ford (author of DMP's upcoming dark fantasy Not Your Father's Horsemen) team up as editors for the title that picks up where The Complete Guide leaves off. The Fantasy Writers' Companion takes on more advanced topics of writing, such as incorporating horror, incorporating mystery, herbalism, developing a story in your favorite RPG universe, and exploring alternative cultures for worldbuilding.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Dragon Moon Press; 1 edition (October 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1896944159
• ISBN-13: 978-1896944159
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #445,561 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tee Morris began his writing career with his 2002 historical epic fantasy, MOREVI The Chronicles of Rafe & Askana. Tee then released in 2004 The Case of The Singing Sword: A Billibub Baddings Mystery which was earned him honors from ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Awards. It was in 2005 when his idea -- podcasting a novel -- established him as a pioneer in the Social Media movement, becoming the first author to podcast a book in its entirety. That experience led to the founding of Podiobooks.com (with Evo Terra and Chris Miller), the premier site for podcast literature.

Tee took his collaboration with Evo Terra to print in Podcasting for Dummies (featuring Chuck Tomasi in the Second Edition), and penned other social media titles including All a Twitter (Que Publishing) and Sams Teach Yourself Twitter in 10 Minutes (Pearson Education). Other non-fiction titles Tee has contributed to include BenBella Books's Farscape Forever: Sex, Drugs, and Killer Muppets, the Complete Guide to Writing fantasy series from Dragon Moon Press, and BenBella Books' So Say We All: Collected Thoughts and Opinions of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

In 2011 Tee Morris returned to his first love -- fiction -- alongside his wife, Pip Ballantine, with Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel (Harper Voyager). This title went on to win the 2011 Airship Award for Best Steampunk Literature, and was a finalist (the only steampunk to make the final round in any category) for Goodread's Choice Awards under Best Science Fiction of 2011. He can still be heard podcasting short fiction with Tales from the Archives, and alongside Pip on The Shared Desk at theshareddesk.com.

Find out more about his work at teemorris.com and ministryofpeculiaroccurrences.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Stands above the rest, but how far? March 2, 2005

By the bookshelver

Format:Paperback

The greatest compliment I can give this book is that I've owned it for less than a week and it's been borrowed four times. The first volume goes over general character and world generation--anyone with access to roleplaying reference materials knows general character and world generation--but this book won my heart because it describes other areas of fantasy fiction. High notes are Tony Ruggerio's chapter on horror fantasy and Tee Morris' chapter on Asian-based fantasy, and a few chapters concern editing and publishing specifically for the fantasy writing market. However, the rest of the book rehashes the same information laid out in the first volume, albeit with a few tweaks (like a full-blown "sex in fantasy" chapter instead of a few hints).

All in all, it's one of the better fantasy resources I've found in print. If you've got the cash to spare and you write offbeat fantasy, it's worth owning.

28 of 33 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than Volume 1 in series February 27, 2005

By David A. Olson

Format:Paperback

For all that this book rambles on about such "interesting" topics as the discussion on how to this book (not your book, but this book!), I found it better than the original volume in the series. There is once again wasted space, i.e. chapters about writing short stories, that don't fit well and are covered much better in other book on writing. Some somewhat useful sections on combining genres.

What makes this book shine is two of the sections are quite good. There is a detailed section on Asian culture (though I wish it had a reference section) and an intruiging chapter on government.

To summarize my thoughts on these books: I was looking for something that would overview a lot of information (which these do) in enough detail (which these sometimes do) and with good references (the references were spotty at best. Some chapters ended with suggestions on how to do an internet search.) If there were a better set of books that covered this information, I would recommend it, but I have yet to find any such thing.

Unless you want a detailed discussion on Asian culture, I recommend purchasing "The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference" instead.

5.0 out of 5 stars Good tool for writing February 27, 2011

By Julius

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Lots of good incite and details to watch for, for anyone thinking about writing fantasy. The chapters on self-editing and short stories were epically enjoyable and helpful. This book picks up where the Complete Guide Vol. 1 lets off.

5 of 12 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The book's great, but the binding isn't. May 1, 2007

By S. Mcclanahan

Format:Paperback

I have to say that Vol. 2 is just as complete as the first book in the series. However, the first book was printed in the US, and the second book in Canada, so the second book is a little smaller (metric I guess), and the book was cut with a unsharpened blade, so the pages are not even and have blade patterns cut in them. Other, than the asthetics, the book is great. The publisher needs better QC, that's all.

5 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous resource June 7, 2005

By J. Creech

Format:Paperback

This is a must-have for anyone trying to write fantasy. The book is an easy, entertaining read. Kudos to all who contributed