The idea of historical fantasy can feel like a paradox. Fantasy is all about wild, magical worlds full of imagination. History is founded on facts meticulously pieced together over years of study. One plays with and changes facts, while the other fixes them in place. Yet, as opposite as they are, the two can intertwine…
Soil is strange. We use it to bury our dead, then we use it to grow our crops. Thanks to gravity, we’re always connected to it—though we try to rid ourselves of it by washing it off our hands, our clothes, and other unwanted places. We walk upon the ground, becoming familiar with the surface….
Tag Along – Discovering the Hanger Sword Join me as I research hanging swords in an effort to increase my writing ability Regardless of how you feel about weapons, you have to admit—they do a fantastic job spicing up life. Think about it: even the most mundane situations become exciting when a weapon enters the…
The Aztec Lore that Found Its Way Into my Novels Snakes are already fearsome. Add wings, and they become nightmare fuel. Imagine not just watching one slither toward you, but seeing it descend from the sky. This is the image carried in Aztec mythology of the feathered serpent, Quetzalcoatl. More than scales and feathers, it…
Today marks my 48th daily weekday post in a row—and it’s my last. It has been a good run, and I’ve enjoyed the challenge, but it’s time to pivot. Instead of writing a post every weekday, I’m going to be spending more time on editing, crafting, and researching a single weekly post every Wednesday. I’ve…
I broke up my first fight today. It’s a new quarter, and as an electives teacher, I got all new students. Across my five class periods, I was happy to find that each class was better behaved and more attentive than last quarter’s—that was until my final class of the day. I still think they’re…
Spiders. So many spiders. That’s one of the things I’ve had to get comfortable with around my home here in South Carolina. They stay outside for the most part, but there are always two or three sitting on webs around each doorway. Part of me wants to go out there with a hose and clean…
Four or five months ago, my life underwent a surprisingly drastic change. I knew I was about to become a father, but I didn’t know I’d be moving to South Carolina and teaching at a middle school. Rewind to a year ago, and I didn’t even know I wanted to be a teacher. In fact,…
Mash the keyboard. What comes out? Words. Letters. Symbols. Meaning. I sit again to write,Ideas drain from brain to text,Today flowers, tomorrow suffering. MASH the keyboard. I want. I need. I must.Why?I NEED to.I write, I bloom. I forget, I wither.Author, poet, craftsman. MASH the KEYboard. Type. Type. Type.Composed, insane,Worlds confined within my brain.Get out….
I’ve never really been one to hop on the bandwagon when a new movie or book comes out. Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games—none of them. I didn’t avoid them entirely, but I also never dove in headfirst like a lot of the people around me did. What’s interesting is that…