Cozy-adjacent fantasy author
I got halfway through the first draft of The Library at Eventide last summer and gave up. It was too much of a downer. One of the main character’s parents passed away. The world was post-apocalyptic. The other main character was struggling with a chronic illness. There was a heavy, unpleasant feeling of sadness and…
When I was a teenager I had a record (yes, a physical LP) called Environments (New Concepts In Stereo Sound – Disc 4 – Ultimate Thunderstorm / Gentle Rain In A Pine Forest). I have very happy memories of sitting in my parents’ basement, having my mind blown by a book by Philip K. Dick…
Going back through my notes for Talio’s Codex, I discovered some research I did at the very start of the project. I wanted to see what kind of cases, terminology and legal concepts were used in medieval England. Fortunately, the proceedings of the Old Bailey (the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales) are online….
Reusing material you’ve already written is a huge help during revisions. Don’t get rid of anything permanently! Whenever I delete a scene, or even a part of a scene, I tuck it away in a OneNote notebook in case I’ll need it later. In the case of Talio’s Codex, there was an entire pages-long scene…
Yesterday, I got an email from my publisher (Space Wizard Science Fantasy) that they were good with the developmental revisions for Talio’s Codex. After two years of writing, I feel like it’s finally finished (but not yet published – that’s coming in July). Exciting times. I’m going to go back over some early notes and…
2012-2013 was the brief, shining era of Slow TV. What was Slow TV? Take a long event, like a train ride from one town to another, or an 8-hour knitting competition. Air it in its entirely, either with gentle music accompaniment or color commentary. You’ve got a show that’s relaxing and easy to watch –…
Back in the bad old days of the early 20th century, queer fiction had to have an unhappy ending in order to get published. Much like the Hays Code required movie villains to get their comeuppance, there was an unspoken rule that homosexual characters needed to come to an unhappy end – and if they…
People don’t like messages in fiction, for some reason. They think they’re preachy and didactic. I disagree. I’ve always been fond of message-driven fiction. Some of it can be preachy and didactic, sure. But I’m thinking of stories where the messages are far subtler. Kurt Vonnegut’s Deadeye Dick, for example, showed 12-year-old me that a…
I’ll be 56 this February. Wow. I’m used to being the oldest one in the room. I hang out on a few Discord servers, and for some reason there are a lot of younger people on Discord. Maybe because it started out as a gaming platform? I’m not sure. It definitely reminds me of IRC…
From the pilot episode of the Lavender Tavern podcast. Go give a listen! In a city that stood on a hill by the sea, every child born was given a pair of dice. When the doctors had delivered the baby, red and crying, and cleaned it and cut the cord connecting it to its mother,…