New Worlds: Circumcision
Nearly all of the essays for the New Worlds Patreon this month are going to be talking about genitals or other explicit topics, beginning this week with circumcision. You have been warned; now comment over there!
Posts Tagged ‘book view cafe’
New Worlds Theory Post: Real Biology Is Stranger Than Fiction
It seems fitting for Halloween that the traditional fifth-Friday New Worlds Patreon theory post should focus on weird critters — but in this case, real ones! Let’s talk about drawing inspiration for science fictional and fantasy species from the aliens we share a planet with: comment over there . . .
New Worlds: The Retired Life
How many people have ever been able to afford to retire, and what has “retirement” meant through the ages, anyway? The New Worlds Patreon has some thoughts — comment over there . . .
New Worlds: Are You Insured?
Insurance is rather a hot-button topic these days, especially (but not only) in the field of healthcare. How did it even get started? That’s the topic this week at the New Worlds Patreon — hint, it involved ships sinking at sea. Comment over there!
New Worlds: A Good Investment
I’ll admit up front that I am not the best person to talk about investments and the history thereof in any real depth. But it’s a topic I want the New Worlds Patreon to address, even if only briefly — so comment over there!
New Worlds: Greasing Palms
For October, my loyal patrons in the New Worlds Patreon have voted for a turn toward the field of economics! Though what we’re talking about this first week could potentially have gone into the “law and crime” category instead, as we’re talking about bribery . . . comment over there!
New Worlds: Quartering (No Drawing)
Every U.S. schoolchild learns about the Bill of Rights, but how many of us remember why the Third Amendment — the one about the quartering of soldiers — was so important to the Founding Fathers? The problems with housing soldiers, in war and in peacetime, is the topic of this week’s New Worlds Patreon essay; comment over there!
New Worlds: Camp Followers
As part of its current tour of military topics, the New Worlds Patreon is taking a look at all those other people involved: not the soldiers, but the secondary army of people who support and/or profit off them. Comment over there!
New Worlds: Foraging (and Pillaging)
The counterpart to the New Worlds Patreon‘s discussion of supply lines last week is “living off the land” — usually meaning off the backs of the civilian population. Comment over there!
New Worlds: Supply Lines
My New Worlds patrons having voted for a set of military topics this month, we’re taking a look at the logistical side of warfare! Not to the depth that an officer or military historian would study it, of course, but we can at least manage a top-level overview of how worldbuilding factors shape the way armies get fed. Comment over there!
New collection: A Songbooks of Sparks!
Years ago, I formed the idea of making novella-sized short story collections organized around particular subgenres. Sorting through the stories I had at that point, I determined that there should be six of these (or, well, seven, but one of those I set aside for a slightly different plan; it turned into Driftwood).
Today, the last of those six is finally published at Book View Cafe!
I was able to publish Maps to Nowhere and Ars Historica almost immediately; it took a little longer to do Down a Street That Wasn’t There and to decide that, really, I wasn’t going to write any more short stories set in The Nine Lands, so I could go ahead and publish that one. Because I became determined to balance out the regions featured in A Breviary of Fire, the fifth of the set came out only last year. And then secondary world fantasy lapped the pack with The Atlas of Anywhere a few months ago.
But it took a while to complete the sixth of the original set, A Songbook of Sparks, because its requirements were very particular. As the cover and title suggest, this is a follow-up of sorts to A Breviary of Fire (as Atlas is to Maps), likewise consisting of stories drawn from traditional folklore — but in this case, it’s specifically folksongs. Ballads and the like. And after a spate of writing those while I was in graduate school, I just kinda . . . stopped. Without having quite enough material to cross my minimum threshold for making one of these books. So it’s only quite recently that I wrote and published the last story needed to complete this set!
But now it is done, and out in the world: you may buy it in ebook or print, as you prefer. Within you’ll find nine stories, one unpublished poem that mashes up sources half a world apart, and — a bonus specific to this collection — the lyrics of the traditional songs that inspired the stories. Enjoy!
New Worlds Theory Post: The Worldbuilding On-Ramp
In obedience to long-standing tradition, in a month with five Fridays, the New Worlds Patreon turns its attention to matters of theory and craft! This time, we’re taking a look at the worldbuilding on-ramp — which is to say, the vital questions of how much to explain at the start of your story, and how choosing the right entry point can ease the reader’s way in. Comment over there!
New Worlds: Responses to Crisis
This week, the New Worlds Patreon pivots slightly from human migration and cultural contact to the question of how societies respond to crisis — a question whose list of possible answers unfortunately includes “turn on any perceived outsiders” among its historical and present-day options. Comment over there . . .
New Worlds: Cultural Mixing
The New Worlds Patreon can’t do more than touch on the incredibly complex topic of how cultures influence each other and hybridize — but even that brief touch is worth taking a moment for! Comment over there . . .
New Worlds: After Migration
The New Worlds Patreon has covered the reasons people migrate; now it’s time to look at what happens after they do. Comment over there!
New Worlds: Go West, Young Human
Migration, either as individuals or as populations moving wholesale, has always been part of the human story. The reasons why are the subject of this week’s New Worlds Patreon essay — comment over there!
New Worlds: Planetary Setups
Two moons? Two suns? Planetary rings, whether on your own ball of rock or the one nearby? The New Worlds Patreon is happy to wander away from planets like our own and consider alternative setups. Comment over there!
New Worlds: Directionality
I do like using the New Worlds Patreon to talk about the occasional really arcane topic — in this case, how languages and cultures approach the question of directions, spatial relationships, and how time relates to both these things. Comment over there!
New Worlds: Color Symbolism
Relatively few stories are going to get into the nitty-gritty of how paintings get made or clothes get dyed . . . but quite a lot of them are going to mention colors along the way! Thus the New Worlds Patreon is taking a look at the symbolism assigned to different colors — comment over there!
New Worlds: Pigments and Dyes
Here on this Fourth of July, the New Worlds Patreon is pivoting to talk about how we make colors. It’s more complicated than you may think! Comment over there . . .
