I wanted to write an adventure in the old-fashioned way, something to which I could apply the adjective 'rollicking' and not feel embarrassed. But I've never liked my heroes to be too heroic, so they ended up being a bunch of criminals instead.

Chris Wooding

Categorized in : Never Feel Way Adventure

Well, wherever you go, whatever you do, you're still you. You can change your surroundings, start a new life, but you'll always fall into the same old patterns, make the same kind of friends, commit the same mistakes. The thing you need to change is yourself.

patterns mistake fall

Don't confuse contentment with happiness. by Chris Wooding

Don't confuse contentment with happiness.

contentment

Real life is a story, too, only much more complicated. It’s still got a beginning, a middle, and an end. Everyone follows the same rules, you know. . . It’s just that there are more of them. Everyone has chapters and cliffhangers. Everyone has their journey to make. Some go far and wide and come back empty-handed; some don’t go anywhere and their journey makes them richest of all. Some tales have a moral and some don’t make any sense. Some will make you laugh, others make you cry. The world is a library, young Poison, and you’ll never get to read the same book twice.

real journey book

Then a person has only one tale?” No, some have two or three separate ones or more,” Fleet said. “Some people have many tales. Sometimes they are linked into one big tale, sometimes they are utterly distinct. Most people do not have one at all.

three two people

Imagination is as close as we will ever be to godhead . . . for in imagination, we can create wonders.

imagination wonder

If there was one thing worse than being cheated, it was being cheated by someone who referred to themselves in the third person.

cheated third-person thirds

On reflection,’ Crake said to Frey, as they huddled behind an upturned table, ‘this wasn’t one of your better plans.

tables reflection said

How was is that life never worked out the way it did in his head? by Chris Wooding

How was is that life never worked out the way it did in his head?

way

Not for the first time, he wished he commanded a highly trained bunch of soldiers instead of a ragtag mob of rejects in varying stages of alcoholism.

stage soldier firsts

Things just seem so much better in theory than in practice. by Chris Wooding

Things just seem so much better in theory than in practice.

theory practice seems

Some of us are born in the right place, and some of us have to go... by Chris Wooding

Some of us are born in the right place, and some of us have to go look for it.

right-place born looks

Once upon a time there was a young lady who lived in a marsh, and... by Chris Wooding

Once upon a time there was a young lady who lived in a marsh, and her name was Poison.

poison once-upon-a-time names

I just wanted them to die," said Poison. "They didn't have to mak... by Chris Wooding

I just wanted them to die," said Poison. "They didn't have to make such a drama about it.

poison said drama

But time has a way of stealthily deciding a person’s mind without her conscious knowledge, and as she studied and procrastinated, Poison found one day that she had come to know her choice.

one-day choices mind

We may seem the weakest and most insignificant of all the Realms, but our strength comes in other ways. We have what no other race has: imagination. Any one of us, even the lowliest, can create worlds within ourselves; we can people them with the most extraordinary creatures, the most amazing inventions, the most incredible things. We can live in those worlds ourselves, if we choose; and in our own worlds, we can be as we want to be. Imagination is as close as we will ever be to godhead, Poison, for in imagination, we can create wonders.

imagination race people

Cynicism was a one-way path, and once taken the way back was lost... by Chris Wooding

Cynicism was a one-way path, and once taken the way back was lost forever.

taken forever way

Poison." he said, deadpan. "That's an unusual name to give your child. You must love her very much." She's a treasure." Bram agreed, blithely ignoing the sarcasm. .... Then went a few dozen feet in silence, until they were out of eaarshor of the gaurd. She's a treasure." Poison mimicked, and Bram burst out laughing.

sarcasm names children

In my head, scenes are shot from certain angles; there are camera pans, all of that kind of stuff. Converting those visuals to comic format was mostly a matter of adapting them to the rhythm of paneling.

head camera rhythm matter

Steampunk has been hovering around for a long while, and it's nev... by Chris Wooding

Steampunk has been hovering around for a long while, and it's never really caught on in a big way.

big never long way

I hate SF books that think all you need to make a book is cool technology and mind-bending ideas without a decent plot or characters. And I hate when fantasy books are allowed to ramble off into five hundred page diatribes which don't advance the story one bit.

cool you technology hate