Sarafaie, Magic: Your answer just made me think, is there any one or two or more magical term(s) that you used from particular references in City of Sinister Angels? Or all magical terms just came out from your own imagination?
                              
Charles, Featured Author: Oh, City of Sinister Angles is dripping with references. 
                              
In The War of Succession, when Viktor assembles the pile of evil books, a few are books from the Cthulhu Mythos (there's Lovecraft again). Specifically the Dhol Chants and I think some others.
                              
I'm pretty sure I stole the idea of calling Mana "Puissance" from China Mieville. It's too perfect. Anyone who hasn't heard of him is now obligated to buy Perdido Street Station because you can't deprive yourself of joy.
                              
The Black Lotus flower, which shows up fairly often, is a reference to the Conan stories. My version is very different but the name and the idea of it being a magical drug is all from Robert E Howard. 
                              
Most of the magical language, however, is born from my own pretentiousness and a lifetime of playing Pen and Paper RPGs. I know every synonym for "magic".
                              
There's actually a non-trivial RPG influence on the anthology.
                              
Sarafaie, Magic: Wow. First of all, thanks so much for sharing this information with us.. I believe this will be helpful for those Magical Fans out there.. ^^
                              
Is there any secret you're hiding inside City of Sinister Angels that only few people will know? And if there is one or two, would you like to share it with us?
                              
Charles, Featured Author: It's not so much a secret as something that I simply haven't had the reason to go into but I could explain a little more about the magic system in City of Sinister Angles.
                              
Puissance is accumulated slowly over the course of a lifetime through ritual and conduct, and is very difficult to acquire in large amounts. How powerful a magician's magic is is a direct result of how much Puissance they have. Because Puissance is also expended when a spell is cast this means every time someone uses magic they become less powerful overall. So the idea with magic is to be as subtle as possible, use as little magic as possible because every time you use it you're a little bit weaker.
                              
Demeter from the Painted Dog is actually one of the most powerful magic users in the setting because of her natural talent for absurdly fast Puissance accumulation, she just uses it as quickly as she generates it because of her various pathologies.
                              
This is heavily influenced by wuxia novels and how they handle qi. It doesn't resemble qi so much anymore but that was my starting point. High-end martial artists use the same kind of energy.
                              
Sarafaie, Magic: Read your answer got me thinking, What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer?
                              
Charles, Featured Author: Good question, because I'm actually the brother of LaurenDMSmith, a very popular fantasy writer on here. She hasn't been as active lately as she used to be because she got a book deal through her work on 카지노후기 and is currently working on her third novel for her publisher. Quick plug: everyone reading this should go buy Lauren's first book Emperor's Arrow, not only because you'll like it but because the better books from 카지노후기der's sell the more publishers are going to come here looking to sign people. Think of it like investing in your future.
                              
Lauren helped edit a lot of my early work, but between her book deal and new baby she has bigger fish to fry at the moment. We talk about writing a fair amount and have attempted collaborations before. Actually the entire reason the 온라인카지노게임 collection Starship Armstrong exists was because at the time it was NaNoWriMo and Lauren and I were developing a sci-fi universe together.