The Silent Bell is a cozy Arthurian mystery: Camelot transplanted to the streets of thirteenth-century Oxford, rich with real medieval words, an invented Elvish tongue, and a heroine who is small, stubborn, and nobody's fool.
Translating Pathos Past: Invitation to Read The Silent Bell
If you're reading along in a book set in the Middle Ages, and a character is described as paranoid, does that bother you?
The Worldbuilding of Project Hail Mary, Part 2: Amazing Grace
You cannot break the contract with the reader without consequences. Is the book a troubling portrait of a psychopath?
The Worldbuilding of Project Hail Mary, Part 1: Here Be Dragons
The worldbuilding fails in the exact direction that flatters the lone genius.
The Linguistics of Project Hail Mary
Project Hail Mary breaks the contract with the reader by pretending to show rigorous and accurate science in action.
Worldbuilding Through Universal Fantasy: Creating a Cozy Mystery Setting in Arthurian Oxford
What happens when you drop King Arthur's court into medieval Oxford for a summer? And how do you, as an author, find out? Using Universal Fantasy in worldbuilding.
Creating Authentic Non-Human Characters
Beyond my philosophical and spiritual commitment, I wanted to portray true animism in this book. And that created specific, thorny writing problems that required concrete solutions.
Better Conlang Orthography: Inspiration from History
A reader suggested an excellent change to my constructed language's spelling system.
The Linguistic Legacy of Dragons: A Worldbuilding Case Study
A month or two ago, while writing Crown of Crows, I suddenly and unexpectedly found myself in desperate need of a language for dragons. Not really having time to come up with one completely from scratch, I asked myself if there were some quick way I could create something that sounded reptilian and exotic, but also grounded in linguistic theory and historical linguistics.
Summer Writing Sprint 2025
A bit of a curtain-peek, for those who like them. A little progress report, a little linguistic nonsense, and a few excerpts of recent writing.