Dec 12
This places looks like the stuff of fantasy, but it’s 100% real. Water parks got their start in the 1970s, 1977 to be exact, with the opening of Wet n’ Wild in Orlando, Florida. From the beginning it boasted a lazy river and a pool with an artificial wave generator and served as the template …
Dec 05
Everyone knows about Atlantis, right? In popular culture, it’s most often Grecian, a place sunk by some cataclysm to the bottom of the sea. People may or may not still live in it. Often it’s inside a dome, and just as often, the Greek-like culture is an advanced one powered by crystals with rayguns and …
Nov 28
Why write a whole YA book when you can query by title alone? Feel free to nab any of these. Evocative YA Titles The First and Darkest Throne Above Clouds of Illusion A Pure Sea of Dragons Haunted Breath Godsmoke Unlike Promises of Glass The Fangling Starflame A Mortal Yet Heavenly Prince Among the Gold …
Nov 21
Knickerbockers, tam o’ shanters, farthingales, liripipes… who wears these things anymore? But even if we don’t, we remember them because of their odd and lyrical names. Here’s a list of more you probably haven’t heard of (because I randomgenned them up) but will remember once you hear them. So will readers and campaigners. Use at …
Nov 14
Contrary to what you may have heard, the Tarot was not created for telling fortunes. It was instead a cousin of the regular playing card deck used throughout the Western world. Tarot cards date from 15th century Europe and are still used in the present day to play games such as the Italian Tarocchini. Note …
Nov 07
In my art classes I was taught that the way to create a good caricature, whether for a political cartoon or MAD magazine parody, was to exaggerate the two or three most distinctive features of a subject’s face, because that is what the human eye takes in first. Such a depiction is grotesque, yet instantly …
Oct 31
It’s Halloween. And what better way to celebrate than by visiting a spooky old mansion? Old castles, manses, and abbeys are a mainstay of Gothic literature. Manderlay, in Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, is practically its own character, along with its housekeeper. And who can forget “The Great House of Collinwood” mentioned at the beginning of …
Oct 24
Thinking up a new and unique Halloween costume can be a chore. Everything seems like it’s been done before, and done better. Pizza Rat. A Thousand Points of Light. A Stayfree MiniPad. But through the magic of random generation, it’s possible to combine costume ideas in new ways and truly create one that’s unique. Unique …
Oct 17
Salt Lake City is a city with a most illustrious pedigree, having been settled by religious visionaries like many of the original towns of America’s East Coast. It was named in the Western tradition of naming towns after prominent landscape features, like Butte, Montana and Boulder, Colorado. Yet it also has a certain ring. The …
Oct 10
Unique and rare elements are a staple of worldbuilding when writing SF. Star Trek has its dilithium, Black Panther’s Wakanda vibranium, and the moon of Pandora, unobtainium. These elements serve as a means to explain a technology that does not exist, or serve as a McGuffin for conflict. Looking for a new element? Here’s a …
