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 makes sense, biologically, we’d likeContinue reading “Darkness versus “The Light” – We need to twist things up more.”
Category Archives: Worldbuilding Topics
Why are Vampires so sexy?!
Love or hate sexy vampires, they exist, and they have a huge impact on the paranormal genre. We all know the answer to the question above. It’s due to the haunting allure of vampires, and there’s a huge amount of ‘sexual fixations’ (Like my euphemism for ‘fetish’?) surrounding them. They are the monsters that lookContinue reading “Why are Vampires so sexy?!”
Why Liminal Spaces have a soft spot in horror for me & in Defense of adding Monsters to the Backrooms
Gods, I love liminal spaces. I tend to talk about them a lot, and may have an article similar to this somewhere… wait… let me search… nope, nothing comes up when I look up ‘liminal’. I’ve written so many articles that sometimes I need to check. I get passionate about topics a lot and wantContinue reading “Why Liminal Spaces have a soft spot in horror for me & in Defense of adding Monsters to the Backrooms”
Build a Vampire for nearly ALL magical settings – including MMORPG roleplay (Yes, this means World of Warcraft & FFXIV); How I take Vampires with me everywhere (Games & Writing)
It’s no secret that I absolutely love vampires, and if there’s a magical universe I either write or play a video game in, I will find some way to create them if there isn’t already established lore. Heck, I can pull this even if there is established lore and I simply don’t like it. It’sContinue reading “Build a Vampire for nearly ALL magical settings – including MMORPG roleplay (Yes, this means World of Warcraft & FFXIV); How I take Vampires with me everywhere (Games & Writing)”
Wait… I DO write sci-fi!
For the longest time, I denied really enjoying sci-fi, because there’s plenty of tropes and things in the genre that don’t interest me. As it turns out, however, I actually have a strong love for it, but not anything involving spaceships. I’m not a huge fan of the setting of a spaceship, it really isn’tContinue reading “Wait… I DO write sci-fi!”
Monster Biology – Yay or Nay? (Magic v. Biology to explain your lore)
I adore these two things: magic and biology. Honestly, the two go hand in hand. After all, Biology is magic to me. However, sometimes people in fantasy explain their monsters with ‘it’s just magic!’ without really looking into the biological aspects of it, because you can do pretty much anything in fantasy without thinking tooContinue reading “Monster Biology – Yay or Nay? (Magic v. Biology to explain your lore)”
5 Fun Ideas for Technomancy!
The marriage of sci-fi and fantasy is technomancy– or the magical modification or use of tech. It’s a concept I enjoy, because the idea of blending sci-fi and fantasy is fun. However, I prefer leaning far more into the fantasy aspect, with technology influenced by said magic. Therefore, technomancy scratches a very fun itch, andContinue reading “5 Fun Ideas for Technomancy!”
Put that Weapon Down -ways to avoid using overpowered modern weapons in Urban Fantasy
Urban fantasy has its fun points, but it can also get a little bit annoying to balance magic and technology. Questions often come up on: “Why use magic when you can use tech?” and such like that. I’ve been told that’s why cyberpunk + fantasy might not work as well, however I personally disagree withContinue reading “Put that Weapon Down -ways to avoid using overpowered modern weapons in Urban Fantasy”
5 Ideas for Utilizing Social Media in an Urban Fantasy Setting
Social media is a huge part of our lives in the modern era. Below I’ve shared some graphs for active twitter and Facebook users, some of the biggest social media websites in the world. I myself use Twitter quite frequently to both share my feelings and promote my writing. It’s important for businesses and friendContinue reading “5 Ideas for Utilizing Social Media in an Urban Fantasy Setting”
5 Ideas for Redeeming a Villain and turning them into an ANTIHERO!
I absolutely love antiheroes, and it’s a trope I consistently use in every novel I write. There’s just something about bad guys double crossing other bad guys and joining the heroes that I adore. This can also go hand-in-hand with the enemies-to-lovers ship, another one that I adore. In my series, the male vampire picturedContinue reading “5 Ideas for Redeeming a Villain and turning them into an ANTIHERO!”
Des M. Astor 