Erotica, fantasy, and horror writer.

Most commented posts

  1. The Worm Ouroboros
    [Reading Challenge 2018]
    — 7 comments
  2. The Lady of the Green Kirtle (Part I) — 5 comments
  3. The Wild Lands of the North
    (and a bit about Giants)
    — 4 comments
  4. All Things Charn (Part I) — 4 comments
  5. Worldbuilding Wednesday 8/30/17: Mundane Fare — 3 comments

Author's posts

Black and White Swans

This lovely illustration, for the MG book series The School for Good and Evil, is by Italian illustrator Iacopo Bruno. It’s the cover art for the third book, The Last Ever After. Bruno’s previous covers were OK, but this one really knocks it out of the park with its black and white swans and twin …

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Worldbuilding Wednesday 1/26/22: Highfalutin Magic Rings

I’m talking about the ones featured in The Lord of the Rings: sophisticated, powerful, conventional (in appearance) tools of mass destruction, masquerading as fine jewelry any 20th century European might want to wear. Foremost among them was Sauron’s One Ring, of course, of unadorned gold, with a mysterious script running around the inside as demonstrated …

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Worldbuilding Wednesday 1/19/22: The Best of Twittersnips (Playing in Another’s Sandbox)

Very occasionally over the past years I’ve stepped out and created random characters for existing media —  books, movies, or even toy lines. Here’s a selection.   Franchise and fanfic characters Middle Earth (J. R. R. Tolkien) Smerri Peachlake, Nol Bluffbuggin, Gosti Threeclasp (Hobbits) Yevenglazar, a giant spider Prince Thrindhöil Gandian Graymurgh, a wizard Islands …

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Water Pug

pug crossed with a manatee

What do you call a pug crossed with a manatee? A Pugong, of course!  

Worldbuilding Wednesday 1/12/22: Mermaids

Mermaids are one of those mythological creatures everyone thinks they know everything about, yet no one knows anything about. To begin with, in spite of a certain mockumentary, they are not real. I repeat, mermaids are NOT REAL. Any sitings purported to be mermaids in ancient sailor’s tales and the like are probably of sea …

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Go back! Go back!

This looks like a horrific clip from Terry Gilliam’s dystopian spoof movie Brazil, but it’s a photo of actual Chinese firefighters wearing special chemical-resistant suits.  

Worldbuilding Wednesday 1/5/22: Ladies of Arthurian Romance

The women of King Arthur’s Court did not go on grand quests like the men did, but for their comparatively fewer numbers, they were big drivers of the plots. In the most familiar version of the Camelot story, Guinevere cheats on Arthur with Sir Lancelot, creating a major conflict; likewise, Morgan le Fay, Arthur’s half-sister, …

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Worldbuilding Wednesday 12/29/21: Twittersnips 2021 (Spells and Magic Items)

This year, I structured my worldbuilding tweets differently. I stuck to spells and magical items for fantasy gaming, and the response was good. The magic ranged from the practical and logical (Amulet of the Whippet) to the elaborate (Curse of the Necromancer’s Feet) to the flagrantly useless (Sunshine’s Color-Changing Plum). Here’s the complete list.   …

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