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Blog June 2024

Blog June

For the last 30 days, I’ve been engaged in a communal activity called Blog June. Its purpose is to promote bloggers to post. At least every day, if possible, but it’s not a requirement, just a goal. People are generally time poor and so garnering enough energy to blog can be difficult. Plus, coming up with thirty different ideas for a blog post can be a challenge. But this year, […]

The Glyphs 5 – Saerk! That’s a Lot of Gánc

Symbol of the sewer Tunnel from The Glyphs

The Glyphs is a multiple-choice game where you control the fate (and demise) of a gong farmer, as they explore the sewers beneath the Ancient City. Just choose an option from the poll below, and the most popular option will decide what happens next. I’ll put out one of these every week. New here? Check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

Words: Kza-Lan

Words meaning 'words'

For much of its history, the language of the Kza-Lan used an abjad script. It is for this reason that there is some speculation about the exact spelling of most of the words in the language. In this article, we’ll be using the convention employed by the linguists and historians from the Second Armen Kingdom, while also including various alternatives used through history.

The Rice Dessert Asians Despise

Rice, milk, and sugar. A simple dessert Asians despise.

South-East Asia generally, and Singapore specifically, is a gourmet’s delight. The food here is diverse in style and taste. There is so much variety it can be hard to decide which glorious dish (or ten) to eat, when given a choice. Many of them involve rice. However, there is one rice dish that the people here despise, and it’s the one that my mother taught me to make.

Surprising Win in Family Night Cycling

A ship we saw while out cycling

As has become something of a trend of late, we went cycling again last Friday. We rode to the North-East coast of the island. For the last kilometre or so, I raced the kids. They’re still teens and more than up for the challenge. Or so they thought. I won by a comfortable margin, which surprised me. I’ve still got some level of fitness, it seems. Unfortunately, it’s likely the […]

3 Ways to Avoid Secondary World Anachronisms

A knight in shining armour standing on a street in a futuristic city. An example of a secondary world anachronism.

A few days ago, I read a post asking readers what elements took them out of the story. The reason might be stylistic or a functional decision the writer had taken. Amongst the more popular reasons for being taken out of the moment were secondary world anachronisms. For example, the characters cry out the name of a present-day primary world deity, or the world has the same days of the […]

Making Maps: Techniques and Tricks

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I love making maps. I make a lot of them. Some are continental-sized, some regional, city or town-sized, and others as small as individual houses or even rooms. While this won’t be a tutorial (although I will provide links to some of the tutorials I learnt from), I will detail some of the many tools and techniques I use when creating my maps.

Creating Maps for Novels: Challenges and Solutions

Milardus maps

I like making maps. The first thing I usually do when beginning a project, long before I start writing, is to make a map (or several). It might not be a continent-sized creation. It might just be the floor plans where the main scenes are set. Or an adaptation of an existing map. For instance, on one recent project I adapted the street map for a place but set in […]

The Glyphs 4 – Where the Saerk Are We?

A small reservoir as seen in The Glyphs

The Glyphs is a multiple-choice game where you control the fate (and demise) of a gong farmer, as they explore the sewers beneath the Ancient City. Just choose an option from the poll below, and the most popular option will decide what happens next. I’ll put out one of these every week. New here? Check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Religion: The Scroll of Choalú and Wúrnúr

Wúrnúr and Hématnar.

This is a continuation of The Scroll of Decular. Wúrnúr being the elder warrior was named chief of the Onghaor, and while he had many duties, including teaching the boys and girls how to war and hunt, for the tribe was too small now to rely on just the boys, and collecting meat for the empty stomachs, he was constantly badgered to take a wife and sire children, for what […]

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