The New Worlds Patreon promises peace between us and favorable terms of trade if you go read this week’s essay, on treaties. Comment over there!

Why do governments have ministers, and what kind of work do they do? That’s the question the New Worlds Patreon takes on this week — comment over there!

No, not the popular genre of romances. The New Worlds Patreon is taking a look at the practice that era was named for, having a formally recognized mismatch between the person on the throne and the person actually running the country. Comment over there!

The theme for the New Worlds Patreon this month has been the performing arts, so to close it out, we’re taking a look at something very challenging: how you can write down performances to be read by other people later. Comment over there!

The New Worlds Patreon is ready to strut its stuff upon the stage! Or at least to talk about the people who do so, and the types of stages they use. Comment over there!

The New Worlds Patreon will be talking about theatre very shortly, but first, a detour into a specific subcategory thereof: puppets! Comment over there.

To launch the New Worlds Patreon into its next year, my loyal patrons have voted for a topic I’m very fond of: dance! Comment over there . . .

It’s the end of the eighth year of the New Worlds Patreon! To close that out, we’re gonna be super classy — nah, just kidding. We’re going to talk about lying, boasting, and insulting people for fun. Comment over there!

Since this month’s New Worlds Patreon theme is (this is genuinely how I listed it in the poll) “A Verbal Miscellany,” we’re segueing from mottoes and proverbs to the serious business of oaths and vows. Comment over there . . .

Hey, remember how I had a book out just a couple of days ago, about the proverbial wisdom that gets passed around among authors? Now the New Worlds Patreon is taking its own look at such adages, for use in writing rather than about writing: comment over there!

The motto of the New Worlds Patreon is . . . okay, you got me; I don’t really have one. But other people and organizations do! Comment over there.

Back in November, the New Worlds Patreon theory post broached the topic of how to record your worldbuilding. Now it’s time to loop around and talk about specific tools and techniques for that — comment over there!

Sometimes it’s fun for the New Worlds Patreon to take a look at pseudoscience. But the ideas behind physiognomy and phrenology are pretty ugly . . . comment over there.

Pivoting slightly from where this month’s New Worlds Patreon theme started (clothing) to other aspects of appearance: it’s time to take a look at the bodies underneath the clothes, and what we want them to look like. Comment over there . . .

Continuing with the clothing theme, the New Worlds Patreon is asking: what makes fashion change? Who drives that change? Comment over there!

Six years after starting the topic, the New Worlds Patreon returns to other aspects of how clothing can communicate something about the person who wears it! Comment over there.

For the last essay of December, 2024, and this particular sub-topic, the New Worlds Patreon turns to the top brass of a military force — and more specifically, what a good general does. (Hint: very little of the nonsensical “genius” moves TV and movies love.) Comment over there!

This week’s New Worlds Patreon essay blends a bit into the previous, split apart mostly by the semi-arbitrary standard of having each piece be about a thousand words long, give or take. Having acquired our officers, how do we organize the authority they hold? Comment over there . . .

The New Worlds Patreon continues its military tour with a look at officers: how many of them there might be, how they’re chosen, and how they’re promoted. Comment over there!

It’s not exactly tailored to the holiday season, but the New Worlds Patreon is looking at military matters this month. We start with “how big should that army really be?” — comment over there!