fantasy

  • The seeds of a story (or is it the story’s cocoon?)

    The seeds of a story (or is it the story’s cocoon?)

    With novella 2, Pursuit and Moth Songs, out now at Amazon and elsewhere, you may be wondering where in the world an idea like the Moth Plateau comes from. A place where the moths are so thick they block the light? Why would I even imagine such a thing?…

  • Pursuit and Moth Songs released!

    Pursuit and Moth Songs released!

    The Moth Plateau novella 2 is out now. I love how this one came together–whereas the first novella is a relatively straightforward narrative, this one plays around with POV to tell the story of the mysterious masked woman from the Upper Plateau. Rahel…

  • Moth Plateau series overview

    Moth Plateau series overview

     So, now you’ve had a chance to know a bit about the setting and characters of the Moth Plateau novellas. But what’s the actual story about? There isn’t exactly one overarching narrative. In fact, each novella stands on its own, in a way. It is……

  • The People of the Moth Plateau

    The People of the Moth Plateau

     At one point during brainstorming and planning, my working tagline for the Moth Plateau series was “Young Riders, but make it Weird.” The story certainly evolved away from that as it went, but that (a TV show from the…late 80s/early 90s? about …

  • Welcome to the Moth Plateau!

    Welcome to the Moth Plateau!

    This week (today as I write this, in fact) marks the release of the first novella in the Moth Plateau series, Riding the Moth Plateau, so it’s fitting for me to give you a sense of the place, the plateau itself.Each novella introduces you to the platea…

  • Moth Plateau, novella series

    Coming…very soon, so I’d better start getting the word out. This is a series of weird western-fantasy novellas, starting with Riding the Moth Plateau:The Moth Plateau is a land of cattle drives and cowpokes, of bicycle-riding messengers and recluses …

  • Five Things “Everyone Knows” About the Pre-Modern World

    Five Things “Everyone Knows” About the Pre-Modern World

    Most fantasy secondary worlds tend to be inspired by pre-modern society in our own world. In theory, that shouldn’t be a problem. The trouble is that, whatever in-world details you put in, someone will object that it’s wrong — because everyone knows it wasn’t like that in the old days. Well, it’s a useful…

  • New Years poems published

    New Years poems published

     Not poems about New Years, just on/near the start of the year.First, there were two poems that technically came out on the last day of the year in the third issue of SpecPoVerse. “Six images in the mist” is a horror (ish) poem of the spooky …

  • "The Sea Harvest of Moonlight" out in Sally Port

    "The Sea Harvest of Moonlight" out in Sally Port

    Trying to catch up on various news items from the past few weeks, I’m happy to announce that this story came out in the January issue of Sally Port. “The Sea Harvest of Moonlight” is a story I wrote to experiment with the kishotenketsu narrative struct…

  • Writing Goals for 2026 — Same as 2025, Really

    Writing Goals for 2026 — Same as 2025, Really

    About this time a year ago, I was setting my goals for 2025, and I was pretty sure what I was going to achieve in the following twelve months. After finally finishing the first draft of The Empire of Nandesh, the second novel of my octology, in the dying days of 2022, I’d spent…