2019 might have had some real low notes in it, but it ended well: I finished the second book in the Commonwealth Empire series, and booped it off to Swati Daftuar at HarperCollins India. I’ve written about this particular beast before. I had a great deal of trouble with the thing. I finished the first version quite early – somewhere in March – but it just didn’t feel right: there… Read More »The second Commonwealth Empires book is done!
A friend of mine recently posted this article, rather boldly titled “How French “Intellectuals” Ruined the West: Postmodernism and Its Impact, Explained“. It was either read that or watch that man eat a $120,000 banana, and any attack on intellectuals seemed slightly less depressing than wondering how the hell a banana is worth $120,000. The article opens with “Postmodernism presents a threat not only to liberal democracy but to modernity… Read More »On the destruction of metanarratives: the map is not the territory, but . . .
In which a Twitter argument forced me to think about my evolving personal definitions of science fiction.
In which I read the Malazan Book of the Fallen as a writer and talk about the things I’ve learned, from handling themes to the tradeoffs of branching storylines to shaved knuckles in the hole.
Saturday. Powercut. I’ve been lying in bed going through the editor’s feedback on the Inhuman Peace (book two of my Commonwealth Empires trilogy).* The feedback for book one and two has has been largely the same: “show us more of this alternate Ceylon!” I had intended the first book to be short, sharp, a setting of the gameboard, as it were, and I was wary of over-writing and over-describing. I… Read More »Update on the Inhuman Peace (Commonwealth Empires #2)