This post is part of a series on time travel and alternate history fiction — and why we reach for it when the present gets loud. Right now, these books are all available together in the Escape from 2026 Storybundle, through June 25, 2026. What if the real reason to travel through time isn’t the […]
Douglas Smith’s Time Travel Stories: Into the Time Slip Read More »
What if…what we think of as escapism isn’t limited to entertainment that doesn’t have deep underpinnings? What if…science fiction is particularly suited to asking deep questions that enhance the fun of how escapist the story is? Time travel and alternate history fiction might be the best examples of that. Escapist fiction: fiction which helps the
You’re in a hallway. The walls are yellow trim with panels of patterned gold wallpaper; the carpet has a green, gold, and scarlet pattern. The carpet pattern is interrupted once by a single green patterned square on the floor, as if to mark a turn toward another hallway or perhaps the elevator, but you can’t
Liminal Spaces in Fiction: Empty Rooms, Interminable Passages, and Strange Perspectives Read More »
So you’ve written a book and now it’s time to say something nice about yourself. Quelle horreur!!! Most people have been taught not to say good things about themselves (because it’s socially considered self-centered bragging) or have been trained to actively say bad things about themselves (because of emotional abuse). If you’re neurodivergent, trying to
After the last section, I spent some time writing and rewriting what I wanted to say next about assholes. What are assholes…why are assholes…and then I wanted to write about how assholes do what they do. But the more I wrote, the more I realized that it’s probably too soon to write about the overall
Not every writer needs to write the same kind of story. Yet a lot of advice points writers toward using the same structures in their stories. Mostly, I think the advice is meant to be one writer pointing out what works for them and why. But sometimes writers get caught up in teaching structures as
Story Structure as Prelude and Fugue: Underpinnings in Music and Fiction Read More »
The Wee Beasties Storybundle I’ve joined a new StoryBundle, and this one has teeth. The Wee Beasties StoryBundle, curated by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, is all about creatures that look small and harmless…right up until they don’t. Fairies, pixies, halflings, cats, mice, corgis, ghosts, orcs playing baseball, elves playing baseball, bats, rats, and other assorted critters
Wee Beasties StoryBundle: Defenders of Dream and Other Animal Fantasy Adventures Read More »
So hear me out: I think that modern Gothic fiction depends on not just rehashing old Gothic tropes, but including elements from the modern Goth subculture. Reviewing recent novels that are labeled strictly as Gothic leads to a certain paucity of choices, a sense of the same stories being told over and over out of
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! I mean… I would like to announce that My new gothic space opera novel, House of Masks, is live on Kickstarter. If you love modern gothic fiction with a science fiction twist (and have feeling a bit like you might want to set a few things on fire lately), please click the button to take
House of Masks – A Gothic Space Opera on Kickstarter Read More »
So I’ve read a lot of both classic and modern Gothic fiction over the years. Gothic stories make me happy…I mean, in a cynical, disaffected, melancholy and perhaps overly dramatic way, they make me happy. I suspect it’s because I grew up in the 1980s and am neurodivergent, and had to crawl under my desk
Modern Gothic Fiction: From Haunted Castles to Morally Gray Survivors Read More »
