authors

6 min read 2022-06-29 01:09:24

FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION AS INVENTED HISTORY

Are we all writing historical fiction, but the history is invented? When I was working as the Forgotten Realms novel line editor at Wizards of the

2 min read 2022-06-27 19:00:00

“A comprehensive and fascinating deep dive into the evolution of libraries… Bibliophiles should consider this a must-read.”—Publishers

5 min read 2022-06-22 00:58:10

If you follow me on GoodReads you’ll know that I set up a Reading Challenge every year, and for most of the past few years I’ve actually

7 min read 2022-06-15 18:32:30

The novelist Patrick Gale knows how to write an opening line. Consider these examples from a selection of his books, and then try and resist the urge

2 min read 2022-06-15 00:28:03

Even if you aren’t writing hardboiled detective, crime, or mystery stories, I think pulp grandmaster Raymond Chandler’s 1950 introduction to

2 min read 2022-06-14 22:33:34

“You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style.” So began Vladimir Nabokov’s puppet, Humbert Humbert, as he set out his case to

3 min read 2022-06-08 01:32:14

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is the author of The Book of Proverbs: A Social Justice Commentary, new from CCAR Press. In this excerpt from the

5 min read 2022-06-08 00:22:50

Some more from the old online worldbuilding course… If we begin with the basic concept that no one literally speaks English in either Westeros or

4 min read 2022-06-03 05:31:55

If you visit The Refuge in Manchester, you’ll find a rarity of an exhibition: images by renowned photographer Tish Murtha, as well as a selection

3 min read 2022-06-01 01:15:39

In A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway told us that, “The only kind of writing is rewriting.” And from there, at least, came generations of

2 min read 2022-05-25 01:14:40

This week, I’d like to mine some material from my now defunct online Worldbuilding course. This, on the subject of magic in fantasy, and to some

2 min read 2022-05-24 09:24:42

This one’s for those who spend their lunch breaks with Xiran Jay Zhao, although not in the literal sense. Serving exquisite hanfu looks and

1 min read 2022-05-19 07:34:00

Issue 11 of the Journal of Popular Romance Studies features a special issue on Black Romance, edited by Margo Hendricks and Julie Moody-Freeman.

3 min read 2022-05-18 01:22:33

It would not be entirely correct to say that, for some decades now, my “day job” has been as an editor. To say “day job” means that it’s

7 min read 2022-05-11 21:41:34

Brian Lebeau was born in Fall River, Massachusetts, home of the infamous Lizzie Borden. After being awarded an "A" in high school English