Katharine Kerr shares some history she first wrote about for her Patreon page. So, Some People We Could Name, but won’t because they’re depressing, want to roll back the environmental protections that are now USA law. Let me tell you … Continue reading
Katharine Kerr
This post is one of many featured on Katharine Kerr’s Patreon page, where you can read more like it by becoming a supporter. What books influenced you when you were young? Writers get asked that a lot. Here’s my answer. … Continue reading
The Gift A Nola O’Grady Story by Katharine Kerr One week before my eleventh birthday, my father, Flann O’Grady, took me to visit a friend of his who owned a jewelry shop. Even though I was one of seven children, … Continue reading
In this blog, I’ve had to focus on books written in English, because blogs are short, and English is the language I know best. I intend no slight to speakers and readers of other languages by doing so. I often … Continue reading
If we’re going to discuss fine points of grammar and style, then we need to define some terms. Some of the fuzziest common terms are strong verb vs. weak verb. The difference twixt the two is not so easy to … Continue reading
There are a number of grammar myths current in the genre writing community. A lot of people seem to believe, for example, that commas exists to mark pauses when, actually, they show logical relationships between parts of a sentence. Strunk … Continue reading
Everyone raves about doing research on the Internet. It’s supposed to be easy, which is true; fast, also true; and accurate — but there’s the rub. What is the sound of two “facts” rubbing against each other when they differ? … Continue reading
Before we go any farther in our discussion of using Western magic in fantasy writing, we need to consider an important question: what is the difference between magic and religion? For that matter, is there any difference? The devoutly religious … Continue reading
Last week I pointed out that the various systems of Western magic fall into two rough categories, folk magic on the one hand and on the other, natural philosophy, the attempt on the part of European intellectuals of the Renaissance … Continue reading
One of the things that makes a fantasy story fantasy is the presence of magic. I’m often asked how I “created” the magical system in the Deverry books. At times writers just turning to fantasy have asked me how to … Continue reading