Self-Identity: Who am I?
“Never forget who you are, for surely the world will not.” – George R. R. Martin Who am I? It’s a question everyone struggles with at some stage in life. But self-identity is not a simple construct. It’s a blend of influences that incorporates our experiences, relationships, values, and beliefs. I’m not talking about identity…Read More
Coming in 2021: The Sequel to Graëlfire
“I never actually plan sequels. They demand to be done.” – Ellen Hopkins The follow-up to my fantasy novel, Graëlfire, has just reached a milestone—at least in my mind. I’ve finished writing the manuscript and will send it off to my editor in the new year. Barring unseen circumstances, I’m aiming for publication in the…Read More
Liminal Time: Into the Void
“[Liminal time] is when you have left, or are about to leave, the tried and true, but have not yet been able to replace it with anything else. It is when you are between your old comfort zone and any possible new answer.” – Richard Rohr October is here! The days are getting short. Nights…Read More
All for One and One for All
“We need a spirit of community, a sense that we are all in this together. If we have no sense of community, the American dream will wither.” — William J. Clinton World Gone Viral 2020 has been bizarre. A kind of liminality has descended on the world with two billion people locked down in…Read More
Imagination: The Mother of Invention
“All that is the work of the human hand, the whole world of culture, is distinguished from the natural world because it is the product of human imagination.” – Lev Vgotsky (1836-1934), Soviet Psychologist My first recollection of owning a book goes back to a set of children’s classics I received one Christmas: Gulliver’s Travels,…Read More
Fairy Tales: The Moral of the Story
“Fairy tales are more than true — not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” – Neil Gaiman Fairy tales — we can’t get enough of them. New movie and book versions are released every year. Whether a classic retelling or an adaptation with a…Read More
Fear of the Dark And Why We Like to Be Scared
“Like one, that on a lonesome road Doth walk in fear and dread, And having once turned round walks on, And turns no more his head; Because he knows, a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread.” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” The nights have drawn in, and it’s cold…Read More
Shape-shifting: Fantastic Metamorphoses
“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” ― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis All Change Imagine you could change your shape—or even better—become someone or something else. Though it may sound incredible, this happens to countless creatures that transform their body parts into…Read More
Life’s Big Questions
“Good science fiction is intelligent. It asks big questions that are on people’s minds.” – Nicholas Cage The Search for Truth Thinkers have always sought answers to big questions in life. What is God? What is consciousness? Do we have a soul? What does it mean to be human? Matters beyond the realm of science…Read More
The Dark Side of Human Nature
“If only there were evil people somewhere, insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us… But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” – Alexander Solzhenitsyn A…Read More
