Welcome to the Kotar-verse! (Someone in my Patreon community coined this term; it feels a bit silly, but I like it, and …
The Craftsman’s Workshop: Cantos of Arcadia
Today I reveal the story behind Cantos of Arcadia, which I like to think of as a sequel to That Hideous Strength and the epic tale …
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When Science Fiction is Smarter than The New York Times
One of my projects right now is exploring what a canon of speculative fiction for our time might look like. For context, check out …
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The Wood Between the Worlds: Does Grimdark Fantasy Belong in the Canon of Speculative Fiction?
Why Am I Reading Grimdark? Recently I decided, for reasons that will become clear later this summer (how’s that for a teaser?), …
The Craftsman’s Workshop: Cultivating Imagination
Spring is springing! Flowers are blooming, and life returns after the death of winter. How fitting for the end of Lent and the …
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The Craftsman’s Workshop: Slow Productivity and Better Stories
As you may have heard me say by now, my goal this year is simple: don’t be butter scraped over too much bread. In other words, I …
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The Consolation of Fantasy
Storytelling and enjoying fairy tales is not a childish or simple-minded pursuit. It’s a noble calling, in some ways, especially …
How to Build a World in Both History and Fiction
This post originally appeared on November 14, 2019, on A Light So Lovely. I’ve been thinking, lately, about the question of …
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Forming the Moral Imagination with Fairy Tales
This post originally appeared on September 29, 2020, on A Light So Lovely. I recently received a wonderful question from one of …
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How to Achieve Artistic Perfection
People are drawn to beauty. There’s no denying it. The Greeks believed in perfection of form, a kind of harmony that had the power …
What the Kingfisher Can Teach Us About Living Well in Crisis
Is there anything more perfect than this photo of a kingfisher? It won an audience award a few years ago. For obvious …
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How to Finish a Novel in Ten Days
What a crazy time to live in. Suddenly, the consumptive author shutting himself in his attic to suffer the pangs of creation in …
Your Quarantine Reading List
Well, it's official. There's at least another month of lockdown/quarantine/social distancing going on in the US. Rather than lose …
Come and Navigate the Sea of Story with Me!
Have you ever had the surreal experience of realizing you're inside someone else's breakthrough moment? When you're seeing the …
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Why is This (slightly embarrassed) Fantasy Author Reviewing Golden Age Mysteries?
I can't help it. I don't care about genre conventions. If there's a book that grabs you by the throat, turns you upside down, …
How to make the best creative use of your Coronavirus “free time”
How are you all coping, dear friends? I've had quite a range of emotions, ranging from freaked out to excited about the …
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To Make it Through Quarantine, Read… A LOT
It's all a bit overwhelming, isn't it? Especially if you spend too much time reading the news media. There was a time (I think) …
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Empathy vs Compassion: Or How Game of Thrones Got it All Wrong
We are told that empathy is what makes us human. Without empathy, we would be sociopathic and cold-blooded. In fact, screenwriters …
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