Whatever happened to the good old days when we recognized that some things are ugly, some things are monsters and you can't fix …
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In a Certain Kingdom: Ivan the Peasant’s Son
Ivan, the third son of a peasant family, refuses to be left behind when his brothers go to war against a dragonish monster. And a …
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Fantasy For Our Time: Caped Crusaders and the Common Good
Should we avoid violence in media? Are certain portrayals of violence in media better for us than others? This week I continue …
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Fantasy For Our Time Special Episode: Sample Audiobook Chapter From Nicholas Kotar’s Raven Son Series
Time, despite my best efforts to conquer it, has, yet again, conquered me! In all of my busyness, I wasn't able to sit down and …
In a Certain Kingdom: The Third Son
The Third Son, a Carpatho-Russian fairy tale, starts like the well-known parable of the talents. But this time, we're looking at …
Fantasy for Our Time: The Power of Story – A Conversation with Author and Illustrator Vesper Stamper
In this wide-ranging conversation with YA author Vesper Stamper, we talk about the power of story, the ways trauma can lead to …
Fantasy for Our Time: The Green Knight and the Secular Apocalypse
Generally, I like to focus on the ways that fantasy stories help form us and make us into better humans; but, is it possible for …
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Fantasy for Our Time: Till We Have Faces – The Fulfillment of All Heroic Journeys
C. S. Lewis's final novel Till We Have Faces is a novelization and adaptation of the Roman myth "Cupid and Psyche." Rather than …
Mikhail Nesterov: A Modern Artist with an Old Soul, Part I
The end of the 19th and turn of the 20th century was a period of rich cultural growth for Russia. As the empire expanded, the …
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Don’t blame the Byzantines: Why does Russia have such problems?
One of the early readers of my first novel complained that I had too many adjectives in my writing. He was absolutely right; I was …
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The Curse of the Murdered Prince Dmitry of Uglich
Several episodes in Russian history are so fanciful that they read like novels. One of the more mysterious and interesting is the …
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Cover Reveal: The Song of the Sirin
Well, here it is! The cover reveal for The Song of the Sirin. Designing your book's cover is such a tricky step in …
Medieval mystery: who really killed Boris and Gleb?
It seems everyone in the US is (justifiably) getting riled up over the impending demise of the National Endowment for the …
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Ivan Glazunov: the artist who lives in a 17th century palace
Recently I came across a fantastic work of art that fits beautifully into the aesthetic of the world of my novels. It’s called …
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I’m Self Publishing My First Novel This Year
Friends! Mark your calendars. I'm publishing my first novel. The Song of the Sirin will be available for purchase online on July …
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My Last Post for this Year
Have you ever felt that no matter what you do, nothing works out? The harder you push, the harder life pushes back? Well, I've …
Oleg: the Prince Who Was Killed by His Favorite Horse
The boundary between history and legend used to be malleable. People were not always so in love with facts. And, frankly, that …
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The Spiritual Meaning of Stories: Slavic Mythology Edition
More and more people are willing to accept the fact that fairy tales are not merely for children. However, there's still often a …
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