It was destined that sooner or later, the New Worlds Patreon would get around to talking about fate. Comment over there — or not, if it is written that you shall not do so . . .

The New Worlds Patreon continues this month’s journey through folkloric topics with a look at the shapeshifting, untrustworthy trickster! Comment over there . . .

Apologies for the lack of notification posted here for last week’s New Worlds Patreon essay; due to being smacked down with covid, I did the bare minimum of posting the essay to Book View Cafe and notifying my patrons, then went back to sleeping inhuman amounts. But you can still take a look at the August theory post, What to Read, and then continue on to the first essay of September, on dragons in folklore and fiction. Comment over there!

A month of communications essays at the New Worlds Patreon wrap up with a look at newspapers and other methods of spreading news. Unlike a newspaper website, my comment threads are not toxic, so leave your thoughts over there!

This week New Worlds Patreon takes a look at non-mail ways to communicate over distances — of which there were quite a few, even before industrial technology intervened! Comment over there.

Since postal services turned out to be too complex to fit into a single essay, the New Worlds Patreon is taking a second week for that topic, this time turning to the more formal, state-run systems. Comment over there . . .

As the calendar rolls over into August, the New Worlds Patreon switches to a fresh theme for the month: communication! We’re starting off with the early days of mail, when there was little to nothing in the way of formal systems for its delivery. Comment over there!

The final July essay for New Worlds Patreon takes us into the realm of spirits and exorcists. Comment over there . . .

This week on the New Worlds Patreon, we’ve got brainwashing, telekinesis, and bilocating Franciscan nuns — in other words, it’s time for psionics! Comment over there.

Alchemists, faeries, vampires, a callback to the old Highlander franchise: the New Worlds Patreon is taking a look at various kinds of immortal creature . . . comment over there!

The loyal patrons of the New Worlds Patreon have voted for certain specific magical traditions as the theme for this month’s essays — which means I finally get to unleash my rant about how most “alchemy” in fiction has bugger-all to do with the real-world traditions associated with that term! Comment over there . . .

The New Worlds Patreon is wrapping up this month’s look at sex on the high end of prostitution — so high, in fact, that it can sometimes leave prostitution behind entirely. We’re turning to courtesans: comment over there!

Prostitution is (unsurprisingly) a complex enough topic that it’s getting more than one essay from the New Worlds Patreon. This week we turn our attention to where and how it’s conducted; comment over there . . .

A combination of my choices around what to put in the topic polls and what my patrons have voted for means it’s taken until Year Eight for the New Worlds Patreon to get around to the topic of prostitution. But we’re finally getting started, so comment over there!

It’s gonna be a racy month at the New Worlds Patreon, as we turn our attention back to the topic of sex. Even discussing virginity requires us to get very frank about people’s bodies — comment over there!

Another fifth Friday of the month, which means another bonus theory essay for the New Worlds Patreon! Today we take on the question of whether you can have potatoes in Middle-Earth — which is to say, whether you’re allowed to mix and match your worldbuilding influences. Comment over there!

Wrapping up a month of the functional arts, the New Worlds Patreon is taking a look the wonders we have wrought with metal! Comment over there . . .

I’m a big fan of weaving, embroidery, and the various other textile arts that are the subject of this week’s New Worlds Patreon essay. Comment over there!

Our second “functional arts” essay for the New Worlds Patreon is kind of a twofer, maybe a threefer: ceramics, glass, and a side diversion into the more decorative topic of mosaics! Comment over there . . .