Recently, as I was listening to an audiobook of Bernard Cornwell's The Last Kingdom, I was disturbed by a scene of martyrdom. …
Continue Reading about Paganism vs. Christianity in Popular Culture
Recently, as I was listening to an audiobook of Bernard Cornwell's The Last Kingdom, I was disturbed by a scene of martyrdom. …
Continue Reading about Paganism vs. Christianity in Popular Culture
So. Circe. Have you heard of this huge bestseller that's winning all kinds of awards from people who normally don't read fantasy …
Those of you who have followed this blog or read my books know that I have a pretty visual style of writing fiction. Part of that …
Continue Reading about Slavic Mythology Spotlight: Russian Impressionism
There are few things that excite me more about the end of the year than David Brooks' Sidney Awards. He gathers the best-written …
Continue Reading about Your Favorite Posts and Articles of 2018
As I was reading the translation of my first novel into Russian to my wife yesterday, she was holding our third baby. He was …
There's one thing no one does enough of these days. Read philosophy. As I've been going through this first semester of my Masters …
Continue Reading about Nietzsche’s Superman: the Perfect Villain or Anti-Hero
The setting is this: Lebía has just woken up to a changed world where nothing is as it seems. A Changer has sneaked into the …
Continue Reading about A Sneak Peak into The Forge of the Covenant
You might think we're living in an age remarkable for its low level of culture and thought. People on all sides of every …
Continue Reading about Two Ways of Writing “Christian Fantasy”
Have you ever heard writers say something strange like, "My characters have minds of their own"? They go on to complain that …
Continue Reading about Monsters from Slavic Mythology: Mermaids, Water Spirits, Vilas
Recently, in a lamentable [unspecified amount] of time lost while scrolling my Facebook feed, I ran across a post from a person …
Continue Reading about Is Patriotism the Same as Nationalism?
When you think about the great inventors of history, a few names come up: Archimedes, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Thomas Edison. …
Continue Reading about Renaissance Man: Seven Inventions of the Russian Leonardo da Vinci
Have you ever seen photos of Russians getting in long lines in the middle of winter only to jump into a cut-out in the ice? Have …
Sometimes, truth really is stranger than fiction. Take the story of Cinderella, the quintessential rags to riches story, the …
Continue Reading about A Russian Cinderella Story: How the Tsar Chose His Bride
Have you noticed a strange thing about modern culture? People everywhere are complaining that the world is becoming a more evil …
Perhaps the most mythologized element in Slavic mythology is water. In my own first novel, The Song of the Sirin, the Water of …
Continue Reading about Water in Slavic Mythology: the Giver of Life and Death, Part 1
It seems that Vikings, and everything Viking-related, is internationally popular right now. Take the multi-season History Channel …
It's that time again. Somehow, despite four nor'easters in the space of a month, the world didn't end. The sun came out again. Our …
Continue Reading about 5 Fantasy Books to Read at the Beach This Summer
Does the news cycle depress you? Have you lost any hope in the emergence of a hero for our time who might direct our political …
Continue Reading about A Hero for Our Time: Prince Dimitry Pozharsky