Top 10 Books of 2018

When I posted my Top 10 Children’s Books before last Christmas, one of my friends asked if I had a Top 10 Books of 2018 list in the works. Of COURSE I did! Well, not at that very moment—but I thought it would be fun to develop one after the new year. Then I got […]

What Fantasy Authors Can Learn from Beowulf

“If You Want to Write Fantasy, Stop Reading It.” That was the title of a post I wrote a couple years ago for Faith & Fantasy Alliance. (You can read it here now.) Despite the clickbait title, I don’t believe fantasy authors should discontinue reading fantasy: for one, it’s important to keep up with developments […]

Why the Word-Hoard?

“Now, you sea-travelers from a far-off land, listen to my simple thought—the sooner the better, you must make clear from whence you have come.” The eldest one answered him, leader of the troop, unlocked his word-hoard: Why a Blog? Cap’s been wanting me to start an author blog for a while. “I don’t like blogs,” […]

William Faulkner Teaches Fantasy

In my last post, I argued that reading classic literature can help inspire our writing of speculative fiction. To demonstrate this principle, I’ll (over time) write several posts describing how my own reading and teaching of classic English literature has enriched and enlarged my views of what spec-fic can do. For the sake of argument, […]