In sociological terms, it has been said that these cultures tried to replace theistic religion with religion of the state. The state itself, and its leaders, became the sacred objects around which beliefs and practices were established. For example, in Communist China, a portrait of Chairman Mao...
I was a sociology major in college, so we studied this question pretty extensively. You can certainly have a culture without gods or spirits, but it is very unlikely that you would ever have a culture without religion. Religion - a separation of life into sacred and common (profane) spheres, and...
Since I've never self-published, I can't speak from personal experience, but from what I've read about self-publishing, I'd say...
Upsides of self-publishing:
-Absolute control over the entire creative process. Editing, layout, art, etc. All of it is determined by the author, so the final...
Without having read your "spoiler alert," I'd say that I'd expect to meet him in one of two places. Either in a well-furnished upstairs room in one of his (many) bars, or out and about somewhere as he's on his way to a meeting with someone (likely someone who owes him money). I would expect him...
My novel, "The Quest of the Unaligned," went direct to a small publisher, and the process has had both upsides and downsides. For me, personally, they are as follows.
Upsides:
-Actually getting published(!)
-No waiting time for getting an agent first. (From submission to the publisher to actual...
To be a bit more precise, what I heard a long while ago was that the publishers were saying that Harry Potter's target market - preteen to teenage boys - wouldn't be as willing to read a fantasy book written by a female author. I think that that's still probably a fair statement.
And just to tie up loose ends from the previous page, here's today's news: the reveal of JK Rowling as Robert Galbraith was NOT a marketing plan, but an actual unintentional error on the part of her litigative firm. She's ticked.
JK Rowling Leak: Tweet About 'The Cuckoo's Calling' Came From Law...
Thanks for the clarification. I'm not as up on the nuances of Hinduism as some of the other world faiths. Even so, the point about having non-contradictory religions if the same God is behind all of them still stands. At least, if God has a personality and isn't schizophrenic.
Not looking to...
One thing to consider, as mentioned above, is whether religions in your world present conflicting views of God. Unless your god is literally schizophrenic, it wouldn't make sense for one religion's god to have completely different priorities than another religion's god if they're actually the...
I agree, Steerpike. The problems aren't because it's "Prologue" vs. "Chapter 1" instead of "Chapter 1" vs. "Chapter 2." It isn't the time gap that's confusing per se - it's the switch from one MC to another, or from one expected plot to another. Just like it isn't expected practice for an author...
My first (unpublished) novel used a prologue of that kind - a "happened a long time ago" brief scene that set things up for the entire novel. I really liked it: it was exciting, full of action, and promised dark things to come. The problem that was pointed out to me, however, was that it made...
Hello, artist types!
I have a question for you.
I definitely don't draw, but I have a friend who does. She's willing to draw some illustrations for a set of short stories I'm writing, and I want to pay her for this service. However, I don't know how much is reasonable. She's a college...
Alternatively, you could have all three be native to the Earth, with only divinity or divinity and magic also being extra-terrestrial. That would give rise to little pockets of divinity (living trees, air-sprites, etc.) at various places on Earth, and also to magical outlets (healing springs...