Jan 25
Most people think of the U.S. states of Nevada, New Mexico, and Arizona as cowboy country, the Wild West. Originally, I wanted to do these three states as a post puncturing the cowboy myth, and how these rough-and-tumble men were nothing at all like those on TV and in the movies. But then I realized …
Jan 11
New York City is famous for its Jewish delicatessens, with Katz’s still being the oldest and the best known. This particular kind of eatery sprang up in the late 1800s when German immigrants began to settle in lower Manhattan. The food was decidedly Teutonic: sauerkraut, pickles, cold cuts, sausages. Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe later …
Dec 27
In the opening chapter, prologue really, of The Snow Queen the reader is treated to a humdinger of a setup for the rest of the book. During the planet Tiamat’s masked festival/ball, a couple sneak away to have sex in one of the side rooms, where they fall asleep from drugged wine. Arienrhod, the Winter …
Dec 14
Christmas can be a pretty bizarre holiday, being as it’s conglomeration of pagan, Catholic, and secular traditions. In the Catalan region of Spain, for example, there’s the traditional of the Caga Tio, or shitting log, that is stuffed with presents and hit like a pinata on Christmas Eve until it gives them up. Related …
Dec 07
As far as we know, most of the magic spells of ancient Egypt dealt with protecting the dead on their journey to the afterlife. Amulets were concealed in mummy wrappings and spell-prayers carved in hieroglyphics all around the tombs — on the walls, columns, even ceilings. These people took their afterlife very seriously. As I …
Nov 30
Ancient Egypt, I’ve found, is so fascinating on its own that for fantasy writers and worldbuilders there isn’t a lot that needs to be created from scratch. The amulets above, for example, were created in about an hour using text prompts and various AI art generators. And ancient Egyptians did love their amulets. Any significant …
Nov 23
The civilization of Ancient Egypt has enthralled the Western world ever since Napoleon’s forays down the Nile brought it to the attention of European scholars. Part of that was the indecipherable hieroglyphics that covered its temples, tombs, and monuments. Not until the 1850s were these translated into English, using cross-translations from the Rosetta Stone. In …
Nov 16
A few months ago, back in August 2022, the ARCs (advanced reader’s copies) of a YA fantasy novel, Lightlark, were released to selected readers and reviewers to generate some buzz. The author, Alex Aster, had generated plenty already. Already active on BookTok — the TikTok community centered around reading and authors — she’d been talking …
Sep 02
The World of the Castrati by Patrick Barbier Souvenir Press, 1998 [Challenge # 32 : A book taking place in Europe or is about Europe.] I got this book from one of my favorite places to get free reading material, my neighbor’s Little Free Library which has rarely failed me. I’d enjoyed both the …
Aug 17
In this post I’ll talk about how Lewis wrote his fauns and satyrs, which are not the most child-friendly of mythological beasts. Are you ready? Because everything you think you know about them is wrong. First of all, the original satyrs of Greek myth did not have goat legs, horns, and tails. Those were attributes …