I’m in a reading slump. It’s very difficult for me to sit down and read anything for an extended period of time. This isn’t because it’s hard to focus–which I think is the case for some people–but because there’s so much noise out there that it’s hard for me to make the decision to set […]
Is It Brain Rot or Saturation? What To Do When Your Brain Says “No” Read More »
It isn’t just recency bias that makes me say violence in our streets is getting worse. I don’t remember there ever being such a regular stream of news headlines about mass murders. I’m not here to talk about politics or gun rights. I’m here to talk about how this kind of violence may come from
Violence and Catharsis in Fantasy Media Read More »
Writers like J.R.R. Tolkien and Fyodor Dostoevsky, both of whom wrote genre fiction through the lens of their Christian faith, have inspired generations of readers and writers, myself included. Yet there’s an inherent risk in trying to communicate one’s experience with the transcendent in fiction: no one wants to be preached at. How can fiction
Secular Sci-Fi and the Transcendent Read More »
Whatever you might think of “Game of Thrones”, you’d be hard pressed to argue with the fact that it has huge cultural importance. But what’s going to be the new cultural story? This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support our authors, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. At one point, my
Time and Identity in Fantasy Literature Read More »
Today’s subject is difficult to approach. I don’t want to go off-brand from why we’re here—talking about our common love for stories—but because of the nature of globalism and social media, we’ve all been enveloped these last few years in a constant stream of information about global events like the Gaza/Israel war and the Ukraine/Russia
Communal Catharsis and The Last Unicorn Read More »
Back in 2020, I was collaborating on a screenplay for the life of St. Olga of Kiev, the first female ruler of what eventually became Russia. My co-writer and I got the chance to work with two prominent Hollywood screenwriters, Gregg Helvey and Bart Gaffigan. They began by teaching us how to introduce characters: the
Empathy vs Compassion: What Game of Thrones Gets Wrong Read More »
We hear the sentiment “It isn’t real, it’s just fantasy” floated a lot these days, even by novelists themselves. Today, I want to consider how people more intelligent than I relate to the hero’s journey to show that stories are not merely a form of entertainment but actually impact how we live. As a prime
Till We Have Faces: The Fulfillment of All Heroic Journeys Read More »
Why reading good stories may be the most important thing you do with your life Like many of us, I came alive to fantasy through Tolkien. I felt something so powerful when reading Tolkien that I’ve spent the rest of my reading life searching for that something, that magic, that “Inkling” that I first found
The Consolation of Fantasy Read More »
There’s an odd and, frankly, annoying trend afoot in publishing. One that, if unchecked, stifles creativity and makes it nearly impossible to give readers something that surprises them, something they didn’t know they wanted until they read it. Perhaps you guessed it: I’m talking about the micro-niche-hyper-genre-fication of fiction that is running rampant not only
What defines the stories we publish? Read More »
Our mission at Wood Between Worlds Press is to find, cultivate, and publish the best new writers of adult and young adult speculative fiction who are consciously working within the tradition of the Inklings. We already have a roster of really exciting authors we’re signing for future contracts, and we’re in conversation with several other writers who
The story behind Cantos of Arcadia, a thematic sequel to That Hideous Strength Read More »
