Worldbuilding Through Characterization
Aaron Miles
When somebody mentions worldbuilding the first thing you’ll think of is probably a lavishly detailed map, something filled with interesting geography, the locations of important cities, and maybe a dragon…
Articles
SFF and Queerness – We Need To Do Better
Leo Elijah Cristea
We’ve just said goodbye to June, month of queer visibility and pride (and gender-nonconforming visibility and pride, too—which many people (but not all) feel belongs under the umbrella of “queer”,…
5th Annual Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off: An Introduction
David Zampa
Hello, to all the followers of the SPFBO (Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off) the competition that began with an idle thought in the shadowed recesses of Mark Lawrence’s mind and is now…
What If… – Guest Blog by Tom Lloyd
Tom Lloyd
Writing—It’s all basically the same whatever genre, right? No, of course I don’t believe that! If I did, I’d be trying to make my fortune in romance or something. There…
Unicorn Mirror: A Compendium of Unicorn Lore
S. H. Paulus
Introduction: The Ethereal Glimpsing of a Unicorn “The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. She was very old, though she did not know it, and…
A Fantasy Geek’s Guide to YouTube: Vampires
Richard Marpole
Vampires. They’re better than zombies. I’ve demonstrated this conclusively in a previous article. From True Blood to Let the Right One In to V Wars, vampires are all over literature,…
On Planning My First Solo Author Event
Kellie Doherty
Planning a book related event is stressful on all accounts, no matter if it’s a simple reading or a large writing conference. Regardless of size, the same questions remain: Will…
Blade Skill, Iron Sensing and Hypnosis: Behind the Scenes Look at Shadowblade – Guest Blog by Anna Kashina
Anna Kashina
Despite being a scientist in my day job, in my writing I tend to gravitate to fantasy. This means, magic rather than technology, supernatural and mystical as opposed to rationally…
40 Years of The Perfect Organism: Does Alien Hold Up?
Toby Frost
Spoiler Warning! This article contains many spoilers! When I was about 15, Aliens had a reputation among my friends as a great film. It was part war movie, part science…
As I Learn: Or Why I Stopped Calling Myself A Pantser
Gibril Kerefah
Do you already know what type of writer you are? You may call yourself a discovery writer, an outliner or a mixture of both. We traditionally think of discovery writers,…
Fantasy-Faction Game of Thrones Discussion: Season 8, Episode 2
*Spoilers* Watch through Season 8, Episode 2 before reading! If there’s one thing we should take away from the first two episodes of the season, it’s that we all just…
Hell: An Exploration
The nature of the afterlife has fascinated and terrified humanity for tens of thousands of years. What, if anything, waits for us after death? Is there more than one place…