Frank Frazetta’s paintings showed me that art could be primal and terrifying, portraying an ancient and primitive world, where the terror of the unknown lurked in every shadow. If you stare for a while, his paintings can make you forget that civilization exists, surrendering the notion that you’re protected from those monstrous creatures and cruel gods that tormented early humanity. Read more
You can learn the basics of Markdown in 5 minutes, so I’ll teach you those basics now. Learn a tiny bit of code to make your life easier. Trust me, this is easy. You’ll likely never want to return to a rich text editor again. Read more
For those of us exploring past, future, or speculative worlds, we often go to great lengths to avoid physical anachronisms like cell phones in the wild west, but we don’t often consider philosophical or ideological anachronisms. I find doing so gives me great insight into the human condition I may not have discovered otherwise. More importantly, it strengthens and deepens my characters. Read more
I’m going to make the case that the way you capture your ideas is just as integral to the creative process as what happens in the mind. It not only prevents forgetting great ideas, but it creates a feedback loop that leads to more great ideas. Read more
In the first few pages of E. R. Eddison’s The Worm Ouroboros, we see a man named Lessingham carried on the back of a hippogriff. He is led by a magical black martlet to a world called Mercury—a world that resembles the Viking Age of Earth. Lessingham is to be an observer of the story … Read more