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!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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!

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

For your Friday delectation, the New Worlds Patreon is taking a look at the ancient (and also very recent) history of surgery! Comment over there!

What do mummification, body-snatching, and anaesthetized pigs have in common? The New Worlds Patreon answers that with a look at how we’ve learned about human anatomy. Comment over there!

Happy New Year! The New Worlds Patreon is kicking off 2021 with a look through the more surgical side of medicine . . . but this first essay looks at the diagnosis of all kinds of ailments, disease included. So if that’s something you’d prefer not to think about right now, totally understood. If you do want to read, though, comment over there!

This week on the New Worlds Patreon, not all holidays involve a parade, and not all parades are for holidays — but let’s take a look at them! Comment over there.

Merry Christmas to those of you celebrating it today, and may all of you have a lovely day regardless! Keep safe, keep healthy, and I will see you next year.

This week the New Worlds Patreon acknowledges that we observe holidays in many different ways. Wherever you are and whatever holiday you may be celebrating, please stay safe, so that we’ll still have you around next year.

From the sacred we turn to the secular, with the New Worlds Patreon taking on holidays from the Fourth of July to Mother’s Day to International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Comment over there!