New Worlds: Debt
They say love makes the world go round, but after writing this week’s essay for the New Worlds Patreon, I think it might actually be debt instead. Comment over there!
Posts Tagged ‘new worlds’
New Worlds, Year Three: now available in convenient ebook form!
You can tell I’ve been busy with writing Night Parade and copy-editing The Mask of Mirrors, because I completely forgot to mention here that New Worlds, Year Three was available for pre-order!
Well, now you can just go ahead and get it. As usual, it contains all the content from the third year of my Patreon — now revised and expanded — and you can get it from Book View Cafe (the publisher), Barnes and Noble (for Nook readers), Google Play, Kobo, and Amazon US or UK. (I don’t have it up on iTunes yet — I’ve been having some difficulties there — and for some reason Indigo isn’t carrying this one yet, though it has all my other BVC ebooks.)
A print edition will follow, but isn’t quite ready yet.
New Worlds: Before (and After) Money
I don’t know if it’s tax season that made the Topic Backers from the New Worlds Patreon vote for an economics theme this month — but voted they have, and so they shall receive! After all, that’s the trade we’ve agreed to. And certain kinds of trade are the subject of today’s essay: specifically, barter. Including how I previously said a wrong thing about it, and need to walk that statement back.
Comment over there!
about the Clarion West workshops
My apologies to everyone who wasn’t able to get into any of the free workshops Clarion West is offering. There was an initial delay, and then some technical difficulties that appear to mean people on certain browsers could see the registration links but others couldn’t, plus the overall demand was so high that courses filled up more or less instantaneously. I know a lot of people are disappointed.
The good news is, the CW staff are now aware of how much interest there is in this stuff, and are working to both set up future options and make sure it runs more smoothly next time. Apparently they were already intending to start offering more online options (since not everybody can travel in-person to their one-day workshops); the current situation just made them step up their timetable, is all. So if you weren’t able to register for the things that interested you, there will be more opportunities in the future — including my own workshops, because like CW, this is something I was thinking about doing anyway.
New Worlds: Evidence
The New Worlds Patreon wraps up this pass through legal topics with the question of evidence: what we accept as legally valid, what we don’t, why, and how that’s changed over time. Comment over there!
FREE Clarion workshops!
The Clarion West Writers’ Workshop is taking the extraordinary step of offering free online writing workshops for the next several weeks. (Extraordinary because they’re still paying the instructors, but not charging the students.) I had a splendid time teaching an in-person workshop for them last month, so I’m diving in to do a series of worldbuilding workshops inspired by the New Worlds Patreon. There will be four of them, each independent of the others, meaning that you only need to sign up for the one(s) that interest you. It’ll be first come, first served, with registration opening on Friday, March 27 at 12pm PST. The current list of workshops is here, so if any of them pique your interest, mark your calendars now!
New Worlds: Other Kinds of Trial
In this time of lockdown, the New Worlds Patreon continues! (I mean, my regular life is only about one step away from lockdown regardless. Though I do miss going to the dojo.) This week we move on to other kinds of trial — specifically, the various types of ordeal once used to determine guilt or innocence. Comment over there!
New Worlds: In the Courtroom
Do you like watching legal dramas? This week, the New Worlds Patreon goes into the courtroom for a look at how trials operate — which turns out to be quite variable depending on the circumstances and which legal system your country runs on. Comment over there!
New Worlds: Legal Systems
I’ve been putting off tackling the topic of law in the New Worlds Patreon for about three years now, because it’s so complex and interwoven with other things. But I finally made myself put it into the poll, and my patrons voted for it, so as a law-abiding Patreon creator, I have obeyed their wishes. Starting with the basics of legal systems — themselves rarely the direct subject of fiction, but a necessary foundation for what comes after. Comment over there!
New Worlds: Gambling
The New Worlds Patreon closes out its third (!!!) year on something of a dishonest note — because where games and sports go, gambling isn’t far behind . . . nor is its false-faced cousin, cheating.
Comment over there!
New Worlds: Sports
Quidditch may not be a very well-designed sport, but one thing J.K. Rowling got right — sports can be an important part of a fictional society. Comment on the latest New Worlds Patreon essay over at Book View Cafe!
New Worlds: Games
It’s a good thing I happen to have this month’s New Worlds posts written in advance, because I have been slapped flat by the Cold of Doom. But thanks to prep work, that doesn’t prevent me from sharing with you this week’s essay on games! Comment over there.
New Worlds: Toys
Another month, another theme for the New Worlds Patreon! To kick off our spin through leisure activities, we’re starting at the young end, with toys for children. Or, y’know, objects “for ritual use.” Depending on how much the archaeologists are throwing their hands up into the air and shrugging. 🙂
Comment over there!
New Worlds Theory Post: Where Do You Start?
Year Three of the New Worlds Patreon has had quite a lot of months with five Fridays, and this is the last one. Which means it’s time for a theory post! This time around, it’s the question of where to start the worldbuilding process — which parts of it should be high-priority, and which can be left until later. Comment over there!
New Worlds: Poison
As the New Worlds Patreon comes to the end of another month, we turn our attention to poison! Both the cause and the cure of suffering, depending on how it’s applied — as Paracelsus very wisely pointed out. Comment over there!
New Worlds: Other “Medicine”
Warning: this week’s New Worlds Patreon essay includes quite a lot that is squicky or horrifying. Not in a super-graphic way, but simply in the realization that the medical treatments of the past were often howlingly wrong at best — and lethal at worst.
Comment over there!
New Worlds: Herbalism
Before there were synthetic chemicals, there were medicines extracted from leaves, flowers, seeds, nuts, fruit, bark, wood, roots, and every other bit of plant matter you care to name. This week, the New Worlds Patreon discusses the ancient art of herbal medicine! Comment over there.
New Worlds: Elemental Imbalances
For the first month of the New Year, the New Worlds Patreon is turning back to the topic of medicine! Starting with elemental imbalances. Comment over there!
New Worlds: Special Cities
The New Worlds Patreon wraps up December and 2019 with a discussion of special cities: capitals, but also cities whose age and prominence gives them particular privileges among the settlements of the realm. Comment over there!
New Worlds: Cities II – Inside the Walls
More on cities! This time the New Worlds Patreon goes inside the walls (and a little bit outside them) to talk about how cities are laid out and why. Comment over there!
