As a kid, I was taught that certain spirits lived just beyond the edges of the path. In Filipino folklore, the nuno sa punso might curse you for disturbing its mound. In Finnish folklore, a type of haltija called a tonttu could guard your house and required certain behaviour. I grew up saying “tabi tabi […]
Boundary keepers & path shifters: forest spirits in Filipino & Finnish folklore Read More »
For my spring Undone Rituals Mixtape on Patreon, I made a zine! That sentence got an exclamation mark because I haven’t made a zine since I was 24. That’s over 20 years ago! Making a zine in 2025 was different in two main ways: 1) No longer having an office job where I could sneak
My first zine in over 20 years! Read More »
I’m excited to be appearing (virtually!) on a panel at the first Filipino-Canadian Book Festival next month. My event is on Saturday, July 13 at 10.15 am PT. Here are the details: World-building and Cultural Research for Storytelling Join us for this insightful author panel on creating immersive worlds, grounding them in reality, and ensuring
Event alert! Filipino-Canadian Book Festival on July 13 Read More »
I’m excited to have the chance to geek out about both character development and video games at the SFWA Blog! In my article “Character Development Lessons From Video Games,” I talk about some of my favourite character-driven fantasy and role-playing video games, and the lessons they taught me in developing characters in my sci-fi/fantasy books.
SFWA Blog: Character Development Lessons From Video Games Read More »
In writing The Quiet is Loud, Seeker of the Lost Song (now known as Twist the Branch, and two other works-in-progress, I’ve noticed a few resources I return to often. These resources might be useful for other sci-fi/fantasy authors, so I thought I’d share them. Let me know if there are any that you use
The top 5 resources I use in writing SF/F novels Read More »
Today is Peter Gabriel’s 74th birthday, and it’s good timing. Lately I’ve been thinking about the way his Genesis years influenced my writing. Ed. note: This post was updated with more content in September 2025. It might not be obvious mainly because he’s a singer and I’m a writer. Of course, though, in Genesis he
The inevitability of Peter Gabriel: creative inspiration Read More »
⫸ (AKA If you like one or more of them you’ll probably find something you like in my work):⫷ ⌯ Robin Hobb: Thoughtful examinations of character and a wide range of relationships. Major events happen in the world but her books feel somehow intimate. Her “Fitz” books were a major inspiration for the tone and
My 5 most influential authors Read More »
You may have heard that Substack recently came under scrutiny (to say the least) for its position on platforming/making money off Nazis – namely, they don’t see a problem with it. So I want to get out of the Nazi bar. I’ve spent the past few days trying out alternatives to Substack, and I’ve settled
Why I left Substack Read More »
I’m having a lot of fun with my newsletter. It’s been nice to return to slightly longer forms of expression considering, you know, *gestures vaguely at the state of social media*. I realize that this blog/journal can count as a longer form of expression, but honestly I’m still not sure how to best use this
Want more journal stuff from me? Read More »
Recently, I heard Jeanne Dielman described as “three and a half hours of a woman in her apartment going about her daily life. I watched it once in college when I was really depressed.” I decided to watch it based on this description alone. A couple of the IMDB tags for the film are “peeling
Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) Read More »
