I think authors are just realizing there's no real reason to feel limited to a narrow set of genre rules in their writing. There's no reason a mystery novel can't have fantastic elements in it. Similarly, there's no reason why your epic fantasy series can't have elements of a mystery.

What were you thinking?" Bast said with an odd mixture of confusion and concern. Coat was a long while in answering. "I tend to think too much Bast. My greatest successes tended to come when I stopped thinking and simply did what felt right, even if there was no explantion for what I did.

Humor is important for is pacing. If your whole book is just drama drama drama, it's going to wear down the reader.

There are two sure ways to lose a friend, one is to borrow, the other to lend.

A long stretch of road will teach you more about yourself than a hundred years of quiet introspection

I can't count the men who have tried to seduce me away from my virtue by teaching me how to defend it.

Barbarian that I am, I had eaten all of it. It had tasted quite nice too. Still, I took note of this fact and resigned myself to throw away half of a perfectly good cheese if it was set in front of me. Such is the price of civilization.