Worldbuilding: True Names, Binary, and Mathematics as Magic
Fleshing out my magic system takes me on a journey through binary, computer coding, and metaphysics.
Don Quixote and Evan Puschak’s “Middle Earth and the Perils of Worldbuilding”
The Occult Triangle Lab responds to The Nerd Writer’s video criticizing fantasy worldbuilding.
Making ‘Black Heaven: A Necromantic Dating Sim’, Part 2: Narrative
Welcome back to my ongoing series of posts on my game demo project “Black Heaven: a Necromantic Dating Sim”! If you haven’t read part Part 1, go read that first, you animal. This time, I’m talking about narrative—outlining the story, figuring out the characters, and writing the opening scene. Because Black Heaven is just a demo at this stage, there …
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Making ‘Black Heaven: A Necromantic Dating Sim’, Part 1: Concept
I haven’t finished a novel in at least two years. It’s a pretty shameful thing for someone with a degree in Creative Writing. It’s even more shameful for someone who originally wanted to work in book publishing. Instead, I’ve been playing games like Doki Doki Literature Club, Katawa Shoujo, VA-11 Hall A, and Mass Effect (among others). I’ve …
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I’m Going to Have a New Column on Magic at the Fantasy Hive!
Hey all, I’m back to being a freelance writer, and I’ve signed on to be a staff member for the upcoming fantasy website Fantasy Hive, along with Laura Hughes, A.Z. Anthony, Steven Kelliher, and a bunch more! I’m going to be writing a column on magic called “Magic and Mayhem,” which will explore building magic …
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Beneath Ceaseless Skies Has Accepted My Short Story “Old No-Eyes”!
After seven years and a lot of rejections, I’ve made my first professional short story sale to Beneath Ceaseless Skies, my favorite fantasy magazine! Two of the major reasons BCS is my favorite is because they focus on worldbuilding and “literary adventure fantasy,” the latter of which encourages strong characters and well-crafted prose. That’s what I go for …
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Programmer Spells: The Two-Ton Punch
I’ve spoken a bit about how spells would work in my world, but for a long time I’ve struggled to figure out the details of the nuts-and-bolts mechanics. I’ve drawn inspiration for my spells from computer coding, but I don’t know how to code or the syntax of any programming languages. So with that in …
Highlights from GIFCON 2017 and my trip to Scotland!
Hey, so you probably heard I was asked to speak at the Glasgow International Fantasy Conference on my 2015 project, The Rats in the Walls. The talk went great, and I’ll be publishing the full text soon, but in the meantime I wanted to give some of the high points of the trip. First off, …
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A Manifesto for Neo-Fantasy
When people ask what I write, I usually say “fantasy.” From there, people ask if it’s like Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings, and I would go “Ehh, kind of.” I can name some of the books that influenced me, like Mountains of Madness or Wizard of Earthsea, but they aren’t good comparisons …
Short Story Updates: “The Crownless King” and “Old No-Eyes”
Despite working my full-time job at Outer Places (which included an interview with P. Craig Russell, who’s scripting the new American Gods comic), I’ve been doing a lot of writing. I’ve got two stories on deck this month, one out for submission and one in the late stages of revision. At this point, I’m offering copies for people …
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