Recent content by Jesse

Well, this might show my age a bit, but I'm not much of a Dragon Ball fan. So rather than Saiyajin, these sound kind of like Klingons as well. And the Avârí's (BTW: do you just leave that word in your clipboard and paste it each time like I do? That would drive me nuts trying to write a...

Sounds like you've already gone pretty deep, Kei. What exactly are you asking for? One thing I might note: we tend to value that which is rare. So if you've got one dude Avârí for every two gal Avârí, then the men might hold more prestige than I'm seeing in your description. I'm curious...

I don't know if this idea would work for you or not (and as you say, this is Fantasy, not Sci Fi, so it just may not matter at all) but if your planet were actually a moon circling a gas giant then you could see all sorts of weird interactions between the planet's other moons, and all the orbits...

I work for the environmental office at an Indian Tribe. Several Tribal members brought me rabbits they'd killed with black tumors in them. The folks at EPA said that at certain times of the year, wild rabbits can have trichinosis tumors, and that's likely what they are. I would think that...

Yes. Technically, one planetary body doesn't orbit the other, they both orbit a point directly between their two masses. This is how early exoplanets were discovered - by the wobble a large gas giant creates as it pushes and pulls on its star. Four moons and a planet would work the same way...

I guess that was actually kind of my point. I enjoyed the books a great deal for all of the reasons you listed, skeletal prose be damned. But the trope subversion was something that everyone talked about - even Sanderson himself! And I just wasn't seeing it. I sure hope I didn't come across...

Sounds like an interesting story. Seems to me like you've already said that the story will start in just one realm (I assume Magic Spirit is the name of one of the spirits?) so I would start there, explaining the rules of just that one realm through observations of your POV character, who I...

I totally agree that trope twisting isn't the only way to create a fresh story - or in fact a guaranteed way at all. I don't feel like I'm obsessing over trying to twist a trope myself, I was really just trying to understand what everyone else is saying about it. In the examples I gave, which...

True. If the great lakes were fed from the ocean they would 1. be saltier, and 2. be at a lower elevation than the ocean, which would mean that Chicago would get quite wet.

I suppose it could have something to do with how you spent your time not watching TV. Did you use the fact that the TV is off as an excuse to watch more movies? Play more video games? Screw around on the Internet? (I use these specific examples because they're all things I'm guilty of)...

I know this isn't the most timely topic, but it's something I've been wrestling with lately. Let me start by saying that I'm a big fan of Brandon Sanderson's work. I find his characters to be engaging and believable, his stories fun. I, for one, actually appreciate his transparent (I've heard...

Generally speaking, a species doesn't evolve resistance to something that kills individual members after they procreate. We're all exposed to fecal coliform far more often than we like to think about, with the most common reaction being no reaction at all. Fatal exposure occurs most often to...

I wish I knew! Honestly it was probably more like 25 years ago and I was too young to understand or care what part of the world, just that the custom captured my imagination as a neat bit of world-building. I'm reasonably sure it's not a Native American tribe, as I've worked for one for almost...

20+ years ago I heard an NPR article about a tribe (I think) of people in which marriages were arranged thusly: A fairly young woman or man would be wed through an arranged marriage to an elderly person of the opposite sex. They would then learn the ways of their ancestors, etc. Then their...