Many of the conversations online that concern “genre fiction” generally mean sci/fi, fantasy and horror. This stuff is distinguished from “mainstream” genres like contemporary dramas and comedies, and period pieces that are…well, dramas and comedies. it also doesn't include big genres like romance and psychological thrillers.

The ...

When constructing your world, be it in fantasy or within a realistic/historical/existing place, the names you pick are very important.

They are important for suspension of disbelief and immersion: how consistent the names are, how congruent with what reality the audience reasonably comes to expect within the framework ...

Picking a name for your character is a pivotal moment. Almost like breathing life into them, the name you pick for them will give their identity a hue, a flavor that wouldn't be the same with any other name. Yes, a Rose by any other name would smell as ...

What is real, really?

Can we trust our senses that what information they are giving us is objective? There are many thinkers and philosophers that posit we cannot. That as long as the messages get to our brains, it feels real even if it isn't.

If we can't ...

Halloween, aka Eve of All Saints, is a Day of the Dead.

Days of the Dead exist in nearly every culture. There's the famous Dia de Muertos from Mexico, but there are also less known ones.

For example, in Greece we got “Soul Saturdays” which are basically two Saturdays ...

Who doesn't love pirates?

Kids love to dress up as them in Halloween or during carnival season. There was whole a whole era of Hollywood where pirate movies were the blockbuster vein of gold. Pirates in fiction are charming, fun, dastardly, and the epitome of adventure.

Pirates in real ...

Inktober 2020 (October 18) Submission. “Trap” by Andreas_Helixfinger. Traditionally drawn with pencil and inked with fine liners and brush.

A freshly drawn picture for the “TRAP” Inktober theme on this corresponding day of Oktober 18th. A scene of my comic anti-heroine Molly Lusc at a museum, trying to steal a ...

We live in a world of routine, predictability, and pedestrian problems. (2020 doesn't count. Much.)

Magic doesn't really seem to exist in our world.

Or does it?

Perhaps we live above a very thin surface, like floating on a tranquil lake, and just underneath it there are ghouls ...

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This week we're talking about cultural appropriation, cultural adaption and adoption, also stereotypes and all sorts of related stuff. It was inspired by a newspost from ...

Seven months into this new reality and coming to terms with this idea that the world is becoming more digital is a lot to wrap my mind around. Just last week when I reported (in-person) at my job, I overheard a conversation about a person who had shown up to ...