It's been a while since I've posted anything about Russian culture or history on my blog. There have been lots of good reasons for …
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My 5 Favorite Children’s Fantasy Series
You know we all love them--those fantasy books we read as kids. Those fairy tales that stuck with us all day and kept us up at …
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Amon Sûl Podcast: The Bridge of Kotar-dûm
So a few weeks ago, I did a wonderful podcast recording with Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick, who has just started a new Tolkien …
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The Wheel of Time and Identity in Fantasy Literature
Game of Thrones fever is getting bad again, just months before the last seasons airs. While I'm ambivalent about the series …
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Why Are the Ancient Myths Still So Popular?
Does it surprise you that one of the most popular and critically acclaimed books of the last few years is a straight-up retelling …
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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. …
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Circe by Madeline Miller
So. Circe. Have you heard of this huge bestseller that's winning all kinds of awards from people who normally don't read fantasy …
Slavic Mythology Spotlight: Russian Impressionism
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 …
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Your Favorite Posts and Articles of 2018
There are few things that excite me more about the end of the year than David Brooks' Sidney Awards. He gathers the best-written …
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A Look Back at 2018, Plans for 2019
As I was reading the translation of my first novel into Russian to my wife yesterday, she was holding our third baby. He was …
Nietzsche’s Superman: the Perfect Villain or Anti-Hero
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 …
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A Sneak Peak into The Forge of the Covenant
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 …
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Two Ways of Writing “Christian Fantasy”
You might think we're living in an age remarkable for its low level of culture and thought. People on all sides of every …
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Monsters from Slavic Mythology: Mermaids, Water Spirits, Vilas
Have you ever heard writers say something strange like, "My characters have minds of their own"? They go on to complain that …
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Is Patriotism the Same as Nationalism?
Recently, in a lamentable [unspecified amount] of time lost while scrolling my Facebook feed, I ran across a post from a person …
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Renaissance Man: Seven Inventions of the Russian Leonardo da Vinci
When you think about the great inventors of history, a few names come up: Archimedes, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Thomas Edison. …
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Water in Slavic Mythology (Part 2)
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 …
A Russian Cinderella Story: How the Tsar Chose His Bride
Sometimes, truth really is stranger than fiction. Take the story of Cinderella, the quintessential rags to riches story, the …
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