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New short story: Short and Jagged

New short story: Short and Jagged

Shenandoah was kind enough to publish one of my short stories:

Short and Jagged

A few readers have asked me questions about the motivations/inspiration for the story, and as I reflect on it, I realize that we writers tend to compose our work in an oneiric/dreamlike state. I find myself speculating, alongside these readers, what certain things in the story might mean. I put on my English major hat…

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(Featured image in post by Veronica Weser.)

In Valdis, it’s said that knowledge is prized above all things. And indeed, there are several key factors that at least appear to support such a claim:

Valdis is home to many of the centers of knowledge in the world, such as the North Star Library, which is composed of over a hundred squat, chilly buildings that collectively house the largest collection…

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The Feylands up close

The Feylands up close

There are no “magical races” like elves, dwarves, imps, and so on in Raea. However, the Fey do not consider themselves to be human, and the vast majority of them claim to be immortal. To emphasize their otherworldliness, they practice what outsiders consider to be extreme forms of body modification, such as surgically attaching large albatross wings onto their backs, growing bioluminescence moss…

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My most helpful creative writing "rule"

My most helpful creative writing “rule”

The aesthetic contract

For many writers that I’ve worked with and certainly for me, the most helpful “rule” of creative writing is this: be true to the aesthetic contract you set up with your reader. You can create any contract you wish and put in any clauses at all. Your aesthetic contract might simply be, “This is a romance novel that inherits all of the genre’s conventions regarding…

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The Stardowns

The Stardowns is a large expanse of unclaimed, unsettled prairie. Shooting stars arc across its sky without surcease, dozens to hundreds at a time. It borders Gallant to the north, Ravel to the west, Genji to the east, and the mysterious, bone-white forest of the Feylands to the south. Though its very center may have a great concentration of coalpure, no one is excavating it anymore. The…

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Ravel up close

Ravel has a contradictory reputation: on the one hand, it is the technological center of Raea. It’s a place of machinery, engineering, steam works, and innovation. But on the other hand, its capitol is also known as the city of love, with its many waterfalls adding to that summertime sense of romance in the air. Though Ravel is one of the three major countries making up the Heartlands (along with…

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The Medusa and the Prophet

The Medusa and the Prophet

The Story of the Medusa and the Prophet

It is said that a thousand years ago, a child named Ko Irasu was born in a ramshackle tugboat making its way down the Specklar River through the heart of what was then called Gelaiden and what is now called Genji. Ko was born among fish heads, trade animals, and fishermen. His mother was the wife of a working man who’d bought passage for the two of them…

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Genji up close

Overview

Genji is a feared world power that dominates the southern portion of Raea. Someone from our own world would probably see it as a cross between a medieval Venice and a feudal Japan…except crisscrossed with railroads, swift river boats, and stonelace bridges made by expert artisans. Much of Genji is either farmland or wetland, and the crops grown are quite diverse because this part of Raea…