(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) In an early essay for this Patreon, I made an offhand comment about how before we had monetary systems, the economies of early societies operated on the basis of barter. … Continue reading
This article was originally written in 2014. I repeated it two years ago when the name Parkland joined Newtown, Las Vegas, and Columbine in fame. Now we are faced with a different sort of epidemic, but conspiracy theories still abound. The … Continue reading
Treasures in the Iraklion Museum of Archaeology illustrate the story of the ancient goddess of nature and fertility. NOTE: Of course, Thor and I had to make another trip to Greece, as he’s fallen as much in love with the … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) In the roleplaying game Legend of the Five Rings, set in a fantasy world heavily based on historical Japan, there’s a lineage known as the Kitsuki who are notorious for … Continue reading
From small things do bigger things grow — cubs into lions, acorns into oaks, ideas into stories and then collections of stories and then worlds. Some time ago a friend tossed me an idea “challenge” — a story about a … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) These days, the word “trial” calls to mind a courtroom, a judge, learned people arguing about evidence and the law. But that’s not the only way of doing things. Most … Continue reading
Top-level legal concepts like civil vs. common law are rarely going to play more than a background role in a story — even a story set in the real world. But when it comes to trials, our TV, movies, and … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Many of the largest topics in worldbuilding are difficult to address in anything like a detailed fashion because they spread their tentacles through many other parts of society. In the … Continue reading
I just finished this dandy volume by Lisa Zunshine, Why We Read Fiction: Theory of Mind and the Novel. It’s readable, makes a lot of sense, and in Kindle ebook format it is FREE. Writers, go get it.
Continue reading(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Humans will bet on the stupidest things. When my husband and I went to the Penn and Teller show in Las Vegas years ago, at one point Penn asked the … Continue reading
