Recent content by Insolent Lad

When more than a few of the gods are LGBTQ+ (or the equivalent in their setting), humans are likely to be accepting of it. This hasn't prevented a few intolerant sects and societies from developing but they tend to be outside the mainstream. And the elves, of course, are a bit notorious (whether...

I'm old enough to be revisiting books I first read decades ago and feeling the need to reacquaint myself with them. I have to admit, quite a few have proven disappointing (most recently, a couple of Richard Adams titles). On the other hand, I reread most of Asimov's SF this summer and was more...

The greater part of Stephen King's output is fantasy (albeit frequently 'horror fantasy') in a modern setting. Not that I'm a King fan but he does seem popular. Gaiman's 'American Gods' is very much fantasy set in the contemporary world.

Off the top of my head and not necessarily in order: Brideshead Revisited — Waugh The Lord of the Rings — Tolkien Vanity Fair — Thackeray The Sun Also Rises — Hemingway Emma — Austen Niebla — de Unamuno The King of Elfland’s Daughter — Dunsany (not to mention all the short stories. Oh, I...

Can't say I do like the series. The first two or three books were fairly entertaining, despite a lot of 'junk words' and adverb abuse, but then the story devolved into stupid people doing stupid things to make the plot work. And Rowling's prejudices are not far under the surface, if one looks...

I think that might be the original 1918 silent version of Tarzan of the Apes with Elmo Lincoln in the title role.

I generally prefer a scientific (or pseudo-scientific or 'rubber science') explanation for this--and pretty much everything else of a 'supernatural' sort. My peeks into the future are more akin to what one might find in Dune or The Book of the New Sun. I suppose one might argue that, at its...

It is. OpenOffice doesn't keep adding as many 'bells and whistles' and might be a tad more stable. I use Libre mostly because it comes with most Linux distributions and implements more OpenType features. I need my small caps.

Being old-fashioned (or maybe just old) I do all my writing off-line, mostly using LibreOffice. Drafting on my laptop, comfortably on the couch, editing, formatting, and all the rest at my desktop in the office. Frequent back-ups via equally old-fashioned USB sticks. If you do need others to see...

Some world-building notes, mostly about gods: The Gods

Wrote quite a few when I was younger but they were mostly for fitness and bodybuilding magazines. The world has changed a lot since I was sending typewritten pages to editors.

Royal Road is supposedly better for fantasy-oriented writing (as well as, ah, 'spicy' stories) but it's hard to be noticed on any platform.

As much of Pratchett's writing, I think this should be taken as a tongue in cheek exaggeration. That doesn't mean there's no validity to it.

I can say I've never come up with a plot without first having a character to build it around. Only then can I figure out something for them to do.

Once I have a map I generally take the attitude 'this is your world, deal with it,' and build the narrative to match it. Just as I would when writing historical fiction. If nothing else, it makes it easier to move on with the story.