Historical inspiration for my fantasy novel: foreign rule in Finland & the Philippines

Why do I write historically-inspired SF/F set in societies that disregard personal autonomy? I admit, when I first noticed it I got a little concerned.⁠ Shouldn’t I be writing about dragons or something lighthearted and fun? ⁠ Then I took a step back and looked at the broad strokes history…

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Honoured to be the inaugural Captured Phantoms “Pay It Forward” Scholarship Award recipient

I'm honoured to be the inaugural Captured Phantoms "Pay It Forward" Scholarship Award Recipient. The fund was established by the wonderful book coach and editor Karen A. Parker, and I'm excited to work with Karen on developing Seeker of the Lost Song! The fund helps subsidize the cost of coaching,…

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Get a free fantasy short story!

Something exciting in the world of my newsletter: a free fantasy short story as a thank-you gift for subscribers! ⁠Stone Grown is set in the greater world of my latest fantasy novel Seeker of the Lost Song and its sequel-in-progress. It’s historically-inspired, character-driven, and draws on Finnish and Filipino folklore…

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How I start my worldbuilding process as an SF/F author

At my recent “World-building and Cultural Research for Storytelling” panel at the Filipino-Canadian Book Festival, one question asked where we start our respective worldbuilding processes. Here I'll go into more detail about how I start worldbuilding as a sci-fi/fantasy author. /// Note: A slightly more detailed version of this post…

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Historical inspiration for my fantasy novel: Early Finns, Sámi, and “unnatural” magic

By April 2022 I had almost entirely lost steam with Seeker of the Lost Song. I had already changed the setting once, from a generation-ship in space. For the type of story I was writing, the characters needed movement. They needed a quest. Deciding that the closed environment of a…

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