Worldbuilding

The Fantasy Divide I Didn’t Have Words For—Until Now

4 Comments / Book Culture, Worldbuilding / / 8 minutes of reading

For years, I assumed my growing frustration with certain fantasy novels was a personal failing—shorter attention span, impatience, age. It turns out it wasn’t me at all. Fantasy has quietly split into two different kinds of books doing two very different things: story-first fiction and immersion-first fiction. Neither is wrong—but when you don’t know which one you’re reading, disappointment is almost guaranteed. This post is about naming that divide, understanding where it came from, and giving readers permission to stop blaming themselves when a “perfectly good” book just doesn’t work for them.

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Pretty But Wrong: The Problem With Fantasy Town Maps

2 Comments / Book Culture, Worldbuilding / / 5 minutes of reading

Towns don’t just pop into existence because a hero needs a tavern. They grow around water, trade routes, resources—and they carry the scars of their own history. As a writer (and a lifelong map nerd), I can’t help studying fantasy town maps like archaeological sites. If the layout doesn’t tell me why the town exists, where it started, or how it grew, then something’s missing. Let’s talk about crooked streets, suspicious bridges, and why Hobbiton is pretty but perplexing.

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Beautiful Lies: The Problem With Fantasy Maps (And Why I Still Love Them)

Leave a Comment / Worldbuilding / / 4 minutes of reading

I’ve been obsessed with maps since before I knew what fantasy was. The kind you unfold like treasure, with winding rivers, tiny illegible place names, and the promise of ancient secrets hidden in the margins. In my own stories, the map comes first—and sometimes refuses to budge. Which is probably why I have strong feelings about Tolkien’s very tidy mountain problem. Let’s talk about the beauty, the lies, and the suspicious tectonics of fantasy cartography.

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Inside Ash and Angel: The Birth of The Scorched Lands Saga

1 Comment / New Release, Worldbuilding / / 4 minutes of reading

I’m excited to introduce Ash and Angel, the first story in The Scorched Lands Saga. Released earlier this week, it marks the start of a spin-off series that branches from the Magorian and Jones books, stepping boldly into a dystopian fantasy world I’ve wanted to explore since completing The Divine and Deadly. This post isn’t

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