Reading Like A Writer: Why to do It, How to do It, and Why I Often Fail at It
Eric Christensen
In podcasts and interviews, I often hear authors lamenting the fact that due to deadlines and publicity efforts, they don’t get to read as much as they used to. Even…
Eric Christensen
City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
City of Stairs is the story of spies, murder (of both men and gods alike), hidden histories and the resulting lies that are taken as gospel, politics, finance, miracles, colonization…
Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear
RANGE OF GHOSTS nails a lot of fantasy fundamentals: the world building is stellar, the characters are strong and layered, the prose is both precise and poetic, and the plot…
Gemini Cell by Myke Cole
With each book, Myke Cole levels up, and Gemini Cell is no exception. This is Cole’s best work to date—a blending of magic, action, and romance that fans of Cole…
Ursula K. Le Guin’s Show-Stopping Speech
On November 19, Ursula K. Le Guin received the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, celebrating her lifetime of achievement. The author of A Wizard of…
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer
In August of last year, I wrote about a variety of resources that might be useful to fantasy writers. Recently, I came across another resource that I found so amusing,…
The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley
The Mirror Empire is not an easy read. It’s not a fluffy piece of forgettable fiction you casually pick up in the airport before a long flight. It’s a challenging…
Kameron Hurley Interview
I conducted this interview before the Hugo Awards ceremony. Back then, Kameron Hurley was “merely” a Hugo-nominated author. Now, she is a multiple-Hugo winning author! So congratulations are definitely in…
Is It Better To Be A Blank Slate Or To Have Some Character?
In a recent blog post, Mark Lawrence commented on the trade offs of creating a blank slate character versus a more defined, idiosyncratic character. In the post (and I highly…
Shield and Crocus by Michael R. Underwood
Ever since Jaws, summer is the time Hollywood studios release their action blockbusters. If the movie has robots, monsters, superheroes, or magic, odds are, it’ll come out during the summer.…
What Makes This Book So Great? by Jo Walton
I want to begin my review of What Makes This Book So Great? where Jo Walton ends the book: comparing literary criticism and talking about books. Walton doesn’t like being…
Recap: “The State of Short Fiction” Roundtable
Recently, the Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS) hosted “The State of Short Fiction” Roundtable featuring editors Neil Clarke (Clarkesworld), Scott H. Andrews (Beneath Ceaseless Skies), Jonathan Laden (Daily Science Fiction),…