It would be a disaster to not give me a read!
Image by ipicgr from Pixabay One of the most overdone tropes in fantasy, ever, is the concept of 'dark bad' and 'light good'. I'm so utterly tired of it, and I bet much of the world is as well. Yes, humans are a diurnal species and trust the sun to be 'good' for us. It…
Continue reading ➞ Darkness versus “The Light” – We need to twist things up more.
Image credit here This one might be a controversial opinion with regard to writing, but I feel it needs to be said. A definition of 'contemporary' is: "belonging to or occurring in the present." While you can sprinkle your world with vague references, directly talking about a piece of pop culture is perfectly fine. I…
Continue reading ➞ Unpopular Opinion: Some Pop Culture References in Contemporary Fantasy are Okay
Photo credit here Greetings everyone, today I'm going to write one of my most abrasive articles since starting this blog, because honestly, it needs to be said. As someone who would like to take pride in my Nordic background and share it with everyone interested, there's an elephant in the room we need to address.…
Image by lisa runnels from Pixabay It's no secret that I support women for wearing what they wish, including skimpy clothing, while I don't tend to do so myself. We need to support each other, after all, and sadly there's been a puritan ideology rising up again. The decision by Tumblr, for example, a while…
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay I present to you, upon entering this article, the bleached version of a pigeon. Or, as some know them, doves. Not the soap company, not the chocolate company, but the bird that supposedly represents 'purity', which is, plainly put, a ridiculous notion. This article will ruffle some feathers for…
Continue reading ➞ The Problem with “Virgins” & “Purity” in myth/stories
This should be a given, and I really should not have to say it. Naturally, people will accuse me of bias here, being a self-published author, but I should have a voice in this as well. Self-publishing is an avenue for people to not write 'to the meta', and for diverse authors to get their…
Continue reading ➞ Self-Publishing is just as Valuable as Traditional Work
Des M. Astor 