New Worlds: Next in Line
The question of who inherits your money/land/title when you’re gone can get . . . complicated. This week, the New Worlds Patreon wades into the tangled thicket of inheritance and succession! Comment over there.
Posts Tagged ‘book view cafe’
New Worlds: Autocrats, Dictators, and Tyrants
They say the best form of government is a benevolent dictatorship — but of course there are all kinds of problems with that . . . This week, the New Worlds Patreon takes a look at absolute monarchs, dictators, and other individuals who hold supreme power. Comment over there!
New Worlds: Royal Dignity
Even though kings and queens are human beings like everybody else, they can’t always afford to seem like it. The New Worlds Patreon is taking a look at royal dignity and its role in maintaining a government — comment over there!
New Worlds: There Can Be Only One
One ruler, that is. This week, the New Worlds Patreon starts taking a look at those monarchies you see so often in science fiction and fantasy. Comment over there!
MAPS TO NOWHERE now in print!
One of my projects for 2021 is to start working my way through my backlist of BVC titles and get the majority* of them into print editions. That project starts now, with Maps to Nowhere!
It’s a slim little paperback, about the size of a novella, and you can get it now from Barnes and Noble, Book Depository, Bookshop.org (which, btw, has become one of my favorite places to order from — it’s the latest development in supporting independent bookstores), or Amazon US or UK. (Full disclosure: I get a commission from sales through the Amazon US link. Which is nice, but did I mention I really like Bookshop.org?)
The others will follow in due course — with the asterisk up above being that some titles (Never After, Monstrous Beauty) are too short for print editions, while others In London’s Shadow, The Doppelganger Omnibus) are too long. But the rest are Goldilocks-approved, and over the next year or so, I hope to roll them all out!
New Worlds: The Pace of Change
It being a fifth Friday, the New Worlds Patreon has a theory post for you! This week we’re looking at change over time, and the extent to which we may mis-perceive how fast and/or inevitable that is. Comment over there!
New Worlds: Bodyguards
The April tour of the New Worlds Patreon through interpersonal violence wraps up with protection from same, in the form of bodyguards. Comment over there!
New Worlds: Hostages and Ransoms
Would you beggar your kingdom to buy your king back? This week on the New Worlds Patreon, we take a look at hostages and ransoms. Comment over there!
New Worlds: Family Feud
In between the personal conflicts of individuals and the state-wide conflicts of wars, the New Worlds Patreon takes a look at feuds: long-running wars of retaliation (and sometimes escalation) between families and other such groups. Comment over there!
New Worlds: Interpersonal Violence
The lovely supporters of the New Worlds Patreon have opted for a bloody topic this month: interpersonal violence, i.e. the kind of thing we enact as individuals, rather than as part of an army. We start off with a look at the societal conditions that support or discourage that kind of thing, and how they’ve changed over time — comment over there!
New Worlds: Copyright and Intellectual Property
As the New Worlds Patreon wraps up its tour through the literary arts, we’re taking a half-step to the side to look at the concept of copyright (and intellectual property more broadly). Comment over there!
New Worlds: Poetry
In a show of appropriate timing (since I had to write several tanka and haiku for my short story “Speak to the Moon,” which came out this month), the New Worlds Patreon has moved on to the topic of poetry! Comment over there.
New Worlds: Literary Storytelling
From the oral telling of tales, the New Worlds Patreon goes to those which have been written down — and the many, many conventions we’ve built up around the “right way” to do that. Comment over there!
New Worlds: Oral Storytelling
I feel like it’s been ages since I posted one of these! Which it has been — but not from your perspective. In order to facilitate getting the Year Four collection ready as soon as possible, I wrote and scheduled the January and February essays back in December; now I’m getting back on the horse.
And the first piece up is on oral storytelling! Comment over there.
New Worlds: A Trip to the Dentist
I have not been blessed with good teeth in my life, alas. The New Worlds Patreon hopes yours are better, because going to the dentist isn’t fun . . . but it used to be much, much worse. Comment over there!
New Worlds: Our Crowning Glory
From the skin, the New Worlds Patreon moves on to the hair! All the things we do to keep it clean . . . and all the meaning we assign to it, too. Comment over there!
New Worlds: Skin Deep
Do you struggle with acne or wrinkles? The New Worlds Patreon is taking a promise at skin care and the promises the manufacturers of various products have made over the millennia . . . and what actually happens when you use some of them. Comment over there!
New Worlds: Cleanliness Is Next to Godliness
For the last month of Year Four, the patrons of the New Worlds Patreon voted for personal care! We’re starting off with bathing — or rather, the many methods we’ve developed over the ages for getting clean, only some of which involve a bath. Comment over there!
New Worlds Theory Post: Culture Contact
As you know by now, one of the funding goals for the New Worlds Patreon is a fifth essay in the months with five Fridays, this one looking at some topic of anthropological theory or writing craft related to worldbuilding. This time it’s culture contact — comment over there!
New Worlds: Prostheses and Assistive Devices
I’ve worn glasses since I was seven, and unfortunately I’m not a good candidate for lasik surgery. Which means I’m one of the many, many people in the world who benefits from an assistive device — the topic of this week’s New Worlds Patreon essay. Comment over there!
