(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Governments have taken a dizzying array of shapes over the millennia since we first invented them, all around the world. We have lots of terms for discussing those shapes, but … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Given the importance of religion in human culture, it’s not remotely surprising that it’s often served as the underpinning for a leader’s right to power. In European history we most … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Every government and every leader has some basis on which it claims the right to power. This is true whether the leader in question rules over a tiny village of … Continue reading
I have on occasion contributed a series to this blog called “Raised in a Barn.” It is a loose series of anecdotes about my, um, colorful childhood, spent between Greenwich Village (in the 1960s) and the converted barn in rural … Continue reading
Join Thor and me as we visit the reconstructed Roman villa in Kos Town. NOTE: Since our recent trip to Greece to research more settings for my novel-in-progress, THE ARIADNE DISCONNECT, Thor and I knew we had to return to … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Some worldbuilding topics are so large, it’s hard for me to figure out which approach is best for tackling them. In more than two years of this Patreon, I have … Continue reading
My first novel was also my first experience trying to create a fantasy world from the ground up. With Tolkien as my only model, I waded hip deep into Scottish history and Auld English linguistics to come up with character, clan, place and object names for my fantasy trilogy, The Mer Cycle.
Here’s what I learned: whatever names I use, it pays to simplify their spelling wherever possible.
Continue readingDear Auntie Deborah: How can I find a real publisher for my YA novel, instead of one of the many vanity or scam presses? — Tearful Wannabee Dear Tearful: Do your research about publishers. Find out which accept unagented submissions. Check … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) As this goes live, I am in Yosemite National Park, where I hope to take many lovely photographs of nature. Lots of art forms have developed new materials or techniques … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Like sculpture — but unlike what I’ll be talking about next week — painting, in the broad sense of “color applied to a flat surface,” goes back a long way … Continue reading
