Early Spring

         It’s that time when Spring is shifting and stretching in her bed, and thinking about rising.  Sprouts of daffodils are pushing up, snowdrops are blooming, and buckets hang on the sugar maples.  There may be more snow to come, but the sprouts will keep sprouting, and soon the last snow will give way to rain and mud, and sunshine scattering itself in crocuses.  Here are a handful of relief block prints to celebrate.

        First up are “Seven Herbs of Early Spring,” looking as if they’re growing right up out of a snowdrift.  I don’t know the identities of these herbs and whether they have the same sort of resonance for people in Japan as daffodil sprouts and snowdrops have for me.  But they seem to be conquering the snow quite boldly.

        Another piece in which the snow still covers the ground is this view of maple sugaring.  These buckets are about full, so we might get a quart of syrup from all this.  I love maple syrup, and the sight of buckets on local trees always makes me smile.

        Here’s a March hare, along with primroses, violets, and daffodils.  We’re still pretty far from any of those flowers here, but March can shift quickly between winter and spring (and sometimes back and forth several times!)  For a little more about March hares, you can read my prior post about Fantasy Rabbits.

        The flowering trees in this next piece also place it a fair bit later in the season, but the grey color scheme seems about right for today.  I like how the grey has a soft texture, and how the distant windows and the white blossoms seem to sparkle.

        Finally, more color on a dark day.  Here’s one of those heavy, dark March rains, given rich color in a reduction block print in which not one of the umbrellas is the classic black.  There’s a lot to like about this piece, but one particularly interesting choice is the mix of colors where I wouldn’t have expected them: the facades of the buildings and the women’s hair.  But this, too, seems fitting for early spring, in which every touch of color is an interesting surprise!

        T.S. Eliot thought that April was the cruelest month, but I’d definitely go with March.  Still, all that exciting spring burgeoning is right around the corner, and each little early hint of it is a treat that I savor.

        For views of early spring by another of my favorites, Asa Cheffetz, see my post Spring Forward.

[Pictures: Seven Herbs of Early Spring, color woodcut by Kamisaka Sekka, 1909-10 (Image from Cleveland Museum of Art);

Maples, woodcut by Nick Wroblewski (Image from nickwroblewski.com);

March, linocut by Jenny Portlock (Image from jennyportlock.art);

Lake Kawaguchi in Spring, wood block print by Okuyama Gihachiro, 1953 (Image from Artelino);

London Rain, reduction linocut by Diana Croft (Image from Kevis House).]

Words of the Month - Ophidian Etymologies

         In honor of the Year of the Snake (which we celebrated with block prints here), today’s words of the month are all words for snakes.

        ophidian - Not exactly in common usage, this is a fancy word meaning “snake-like.”  It comes from the Ancient Greek word for “small snake.”  It now also refers (scientifically) to a group of reptiles including all snakes and a few other reptiles that are more closely related to snakes than other lizards.  But let’s get back to the basics…

        snake - from Old English, from a root meaning “to crawl; creeping thing”

        serpent - from Latin, also from a root meaning “to creep.”  This is the same ultimate root that in Greek became herpeton, which gives us our scientific word herpetology, the study of reptiles and amphibians.  Serpent is the word that was used to translate the tempter in Genesis, which certainly hasn’t helped its reputation.

        viper - from the Latin word for “snake,” which comes ultimately from the same root meaning “to live” as in vivacious.  In English (in the early 15th century) the meaning narrowed to refer only to venomous snakes.

        venom - this comes by way of French, from Latin, in a long series of shifts in meaning: poison, from drug or medicine, from charm or seduction, from love potion, from a root that meant “to desire” and also gave us Venus.

        adder - from Old English, originally a word for “snake” in general, the sense narrowed to the venomous viper of Britain.  However, the word was originally nadder, and lost its N through faulty separation, which you can read about in the post The Wandering N.

        python - This was the name of the individual giant serpent that Apollo vanquished near Delphi.  The name became the word for particularly large tropical constrictors, beginning via French around 1580.  You can see a post about some other eponyms, What’s in a Name.

        boa - The boa was a kind of large snake mentioned by Pliny in the 1st century CE, but no one knows where that name came from.  By the 1620s the word referred to South American constrictors, and in 1836 it was applied to the scarf of fur or feathers wrapped, like a boa constrictor, around the wearer’s neck and shoulders.

        cobra - This means “snake” in Portuguese, being just the “snake” part of the Portuguese name meaning “snake of the hood.”  The Portuguese came from Latin colubra, another word for “snake,” which is “of uncertain origin.”  The Latin word also gave us colubridae, the scientific name for the largest and most diverse family of snakes, colubrine, which is another fancy word meaning “snake-like,” and Coulobre, the name of a monstrous serpent you can learn about in my post Unique Named Dragons.

        asp - The name of this venomous snake of Egypt entered English around 1520, ultimately from Greek.  Its name meant “round shield,” presumably because of its neck hood.

        From “creeping” to “living,” and from the Fall of humanity to the love potions of Venus, snakes have developed from some interesting roots.  I’m certainly glad not to live in a place where I have to worry about the dangers of snake bites, but I’ve always liked snakes.  How about you?

[Pictures: Rattlesnake, lino-cut by Christopher Wormell, from Teeth, Tails, and Tentacles, 2004;

Viper, linoleum block print by Sebastien G. Orsini from Dans le Mystere des Animaux Sauvages, 2011 (Image from Sebastien Orsini);

Cobra, lino-cut by Christopher Wormell, from An Alphabet of Animals, 1990.]

Intriguing Architecture

         Sometimes architecture is one of the ways that the world tickles my imagination and draws me to curiosity and wonder.  Today I’ve got a few relief block prints that depict magical architecture in various forms.  First is a wood engraving by Kouki Tsuritani that depicts a strange spiral building.  There’s nothing about this that would require magic, but it certainly is not an ordinary building.  Not only is the spiral shape mysterious, but the perspective lends ambiguity to the height, as well as to the form.  Is it an enclosed building with tall windows, or is it more of an arcade or colonnade?  Like many wood engravings, this is quite small and the lines are very fine, so that it looks very precise and detailed, but when you try to look at the little person in the doorway, you discover that it’s really very simple.  Still, with that conical hat in that mysterious building, it must be a wizard!

        Next are two linoleum block prints by Brian Reedy.  These are both much more explicitly fantastical, and both are cities in the sky.  Even so, they are quite different.  The castle on the cloud has a pleasing array of turrets and towers in the European style, and is a very satisfying  example of a classic idea.  Who wouldn’t want to explore this magical castle?  The castle on the moon, on the other hand, is Moroccan in style, and includes some interesting twists.  For one thing, the fact that the crescent is the solid shape of the moon, and not simply an illusion of shadow, leaving no doubt that this is created by magic.  Then the different scales of the moon, the buildings, and the lamps leave me wondering how a human would fit into the scheme.  There are also a few palm trees, which are sure to make living there much more pleasant.  I particularly like the windows poking out of the other side of the crescent, implying that the whole moon has rooms or at least passages inside.

        I’m also throwing in a wood engraving by Hilary Paynter, which is not really fantasy, although I can't believe that it's a real place, either.  Either way, it definitely tickles my sense of adventure and desire to explore.  This one is quite large and extremely detailed.  It’s possible that it’s a real place, but if so it certainly includes more than its fair share of cool stuff!  There’s that enormous ammonite fossil above the beach, and the stone staircase leading up over the boulders.  As you follow the path up, there’s the tunnel door, and the ancient arches, and the array of enticing architecture, including the building on the right that’s cantilevered out over the edge of the cliff.  I’d love to explore this island, but I’m glad I don’t have to make this hike every day if I lived there!

        Which of these magical places would you most like to explore?

[Pictures: Spiral, wood engraving by Kouki Tsuritani, c. 2022 (Image from Society of Wood Engravers);

Castle on a Cloud, linocut by Brian Reedy (Image from Brian Reedy’s web site);

Moroccan Moon, linocut by Reedy, (Image from Brian Reedy’s web site); 

Seal Island, wood engraving by Hilary Paynter, c. 2022 (Image from Society of Wood Engravers).]

Big Botanicals by Kubish

         I haven’t had a chance to do this in a while, but one of my favorite winter activities is visiting a greenhouse, where it’s warm, humid, green and growing inside, while outside the glass everything is monochrome ice and snow.  Aga Kubish is an artist based in the UK whose huge block prints capture a little of that spirit.  She makes huge linoleum block prints which take days to sketch and weeks to carve.  Her style is the traditional use of fine lines, cross-hatching, etc., but the size of the pieces gives them a different impact.

        This first one is the view that made me want to feature Kubish’s work on an icy February day: the Palm House I wish I had attached to my studio right now!  At 70x100 cm (27.5x39.5 inches) this piece would definitely make you feel like you were there.  And I always love a spiral staircase, too.

        This carpet of ferns is a little smaller (76x56 cm), but it’s still a fair bit larger than any piece I’ve ever done, and the fern fronds are about life sized.  I love how the many layers of shaded ferns give the piece depth.  I’m also interested by the composition with no obvious focal point, which is something I’m not bold enough to do in my own work.  I’ve always had a thing for ferns, so I find this really beautiful.

        Although most of Kubish’s work is botanical, I also thought I’d share this portrait of an incredibly curly, twirly, tangled jellyfish.  I imagine it was a lot of fun (and a lot of work) to sketch out all those interlaced threads.

        Sometimes I think about making larger pieces, but so far I’ve been daunted not only by the work, but even more by the thought of having to carry huge pieces around with me to shows.  I’ve already stopped bringing my posters to shows simply because they’re a pain in the neck to transport and display.  Still, it’s fun to consider what I might do if I had 2x3 feet to work in!

        If you want to know more about Kubish’s process, click on the links and go to her web site, where she’s got lots of photos and videos of the making of some of these pieces.  Meanwhile, those of us in the northern latitudes can look at these pieces and dream of growing things.

[Pictures: Palm House, linocut by Aga Kubish, 2022 (Image from seanestart);

Ferns, linocut by Kubish, 2021 (Image from seanestart);

Jellyfish, linocut by Kubish, 2024 (Image from seanestart).]

Boskone Panel Signpost

         This weekend I’ll be off to Boskone, another sci fi/fantasy convention, at which I’ll be participating as an artist and an author in all the usual ways: art show, reading, and panels on art and writing.  So today is another signpost panel, to highlight links that may be of interest to attendees at any of the panels I’ll be on.

• Block Print Workshop

        Step-by-step - If you click here (or on the label in the sidebar), you’ll get to a whole bunch of posts that give instructions for specific projects or techniques, from mini tile blocks and Provincetown white line blocks to collagraphs and trace monotypes.

        Handout - If you need to see the handout of instructions and materials that I provide at workshops, it’s always posted here.

• Legends Reborn - Folklore is at the heart of so many fantasy stories, but each culture’s legends bring something new to the table. Why does folklore have such power over us? Why does it endure? And how do authors honor these stories while making them their own?

        The Mythical Creatures label in the sidebar links to over 200 posts about creatures from folklore all around the world and through history, but if you want to focus it slightly, you can start with Mythical A-Z, and How to Make a Fantastical Creature.

        Magical Botany - 26 posts featuring magical plants from folklore

        Mythical and Imaginary Places - 26 places of folklore from A to Z

        The Beast - A post showing how 10 different artists have portrayed Beauty’s Beast.

        Some Favorite Fairy Tales - A post about what I personally find so enchanting about some of the iconic fairy tales.

        Selkies - A post touching on why shape-shifter stories are so universally fascinating, and how I used elements of this folklore in one of my own books.

        Baba Yaga Village - A case study of my adapting folklore in a block print.

        Cold Iron - A case study of my struggle to figure out how to adapt some traditional folklore into the modern world.

• Broad Universe Rapid-Fire Reading (plus Autographing and Book Launch Party.)

        I’ll be reading from Bittersweetness & Light, which you can learn more about here, and in these posts: launch, some art, and some full stories and a poem.

• The Art of Creating Fantastical Creatures - Dragons, griffons, and mermaids. What does it take to create a lifelike being that only exists in the artist’s head? What does an artist have to keep in mind when drawing imaginary beasts? How do you choose the right color palette? And how do you put personality into creatures who have no analog in real life to draw from?

        Chimeras - A post related to the “Chimera Principle” of creating creatures from elements of other creatures.

        Symbiote City - A post related to the “Jabberwock Principle” of balancing alienness with familiarity.

        A Touch of Science and Dracopedia - Two posts listing some books that offer inspiration and lessons in drawing fictional creatures.

        Working from Photographs - A post with case studies in how I use reference photos.

        On the Virtues of Beasts - My own book of fantastical creatures, plus lots of images to be seen here and here, including some discussion of how I came up with my versions.

• Selling Art Without Selling Out - From executing commissions for clients to selling prints online or at conventions, there are a wide array of ways to sell one's art. There is no one perfect way that fits each artist, and it can be important to maintain your own personal vision. Our panel of creators will discuss the pros and cons of different approaches and answer your questions.

        The Price of Art - A post on how I think about my pricing.

        Limited Edition - A post on the history and practice of limited editions of original art.

        Art Show Checklist, Show Preparations, and Portrait of an Open Studio Weekend - Three posts on the nitty gritty of participating in weekend art fairs.

[Pictures: It Takes a Flock, rubber block print by AEGNydam, 2021 (originals sold out, Image from NydamPrints.com);

Pet Peeves, rubber block print by AEGNydam, 2023 (Image from NydamPrints.com).]

Year of the Snake

         Welcome to the Year of the Snake.  It’s the year of the wood snake, to be specific, and while I was going to celebrate with wood block prints anyway, this just makes it even more appropriate.  Snakes are not as popular in art as, say, horses, and often when they do appear they’re cast in the role of the villain.  You can see some examples in my previous posts on the Oillipheist, the Serpent in Eden, and a sea serpent.

        Serpents have also appeared with many variations in mythology and fantasy, including amphiptere, ouroboros, amphisbaena, and basilisk.  Fantasy snakes are the only ones I’ve actually done block prints of myself, although I keep thinking I may get around to a garter snake at some point.  Today, though, I wanted to share some real life snake block print goodness.

First up is this amazing piece by M.C. Escher, which certainly has a touch of the fantastic, but with beautifully life-like grass snakes.  This piece is printed with three blocks, green, orange, and black, but even more interesting to me is that each block is only a third of the circle, and was printed three times to complete the whole 360°.  You can’t see the seams at all!

        The next piece seems very appropriate to the Lunar New Year, since it includes peonies and has the look of a paper cutout, both of which are auspicious symbols associated with New Year celebrations.  The snake is a garter snake, which is the kind I see around my house.  I’m very fond of them and I think this piece is particularly beautiful.

        Our next snake is out in the wild in a more tropical setting.  It comes from Robert Gibbings, who did a number of wood block prints in South Seas settings.  I find the composition interesting, as it is full and varied to suggest a jungle, but simultaneously very even and measured in the placement of each element.  Just like in real life, the snake doesn’t necessarily want to be a focal point, and blends with the lines of branches.  I don’t know what exact species it's meant to be, but it looks like some sort of boa.

        Today’s oldest snake comes from the Japanese Picture Book of Crawling Creatures from 1788.  Personally, I love to see these crawling creatures getting some love, and in the book they’re accompanied by poems.  This is a rat snake and looks quite masterful, although interestingly, its tongue is not forked.

        Finally, a dramatic snake among nettle leaves.  This one is a puzzle block print, which means it was carved as a single block, but the different colored areas were then cut apart, like pieces of a puzzle, in order to be inked separately.  The species of snake isn’t specified for this one, but it’s certainly a very handsome creature.  I hope it will be up to the task of bringing some good fortune this year.

        Plus, by all means revisit a very dramatic snake here in Lino Prints by Harris.

        You can’t get much more grounded than snakes, and this will be a year to keep yourself firmly supported by all the truly important things.

[Pictures: Snakes, woodcut by M.C. Escher, 1969 (Image from Escher in het Paleis);

Oracle, woodcut by Maarit Hänninen, 2025 (Image from MaaritHanninen.com);

Snake in Trees, wood engraving by Robert Gibbings, 1934 (Image from Burstow & Hewett);

Rat Snake, color woodblock by Kitagawa Utamaro from Ehon mushi erami, 1788 (Image from The Met);

Snake and Nettle, linocut by Kerry Pagdin (Image from the artist’s Etsy shop WaywardCitizen).]

Words of the Month - Non-Binary They

         Today’s episode of Words of the Month is both a post about grammar and a confession.  I have a number of friends who use they pronouns, and sometimes I get it wrong.  These are people I respect, admire, and have great affection for, and yet I still sometimes get it wrong, and I’ve been thinking a lot (and beating myself up a bit) about why I have this difficulty.

        Point 1.  I wrote a post about they as a gender-neutral pronoun for indefinite use, which you can read here.  I’ve never had any difficulty with that, but that was 13 years ago and since then they has come into more common and mainstream use as a specific pronoun for specific individuals.  That’s what I’m talking about today.

        Point 2.  I’m in my mid-50s, and while that may not be ancient, it’s certainly old enough to have a pretty solidly set internal grammar.  And when it comes to they pronouns, my internal grammar has a way of acting like autocorrect.  You know how autocorrect goes: you type “I hope to be by in ten minutes”, hit send, and see, to your annoyance, that your text has popped up on the screen not the way you could swear you typed it, but instead as “I hope you die in tenements,” because autocorrect oh-so-helpfully figured that obviously that must be what you really meant.  I feel the same way sometimes when I know perfectly well that someone uses they pronouns, and yet I hear the pronoun she come out of my mouth.

        Point 3.  Just because I’m old and set doesn’t mean I can’t learn.  In fact, when I’m talking about someone who isn’t there at all, I actually do fine.  Sometimes when I read or hear a sentence with they pronouns, it leads me astray and I have to do a quick recalculation.  For example, on the back cover of a book I might read “Writing this book was their lifelong dream” and for a moment I wonder who the second author is.  But I’ve reached the point where once I get into the rhythm of it, my grammar accepts they as a singular pronoun for a specific individual and I carry on without difficulty.  But there is one situation in which I just keep getting it wrong…

        Point 4.  The thing I keep messing up is when I’m in a conversation with multiple people so that I’m mostly using second-person pronouns.  Then within that conversation, when I need to refer to one of those people in third person, that’s when my autocorrect insists on picking he or she even if I know they use they.

        Point 5.  I assume that all I need is sufficient practice to get this through my not-quite-ancient head and teach my internal grammar the new rules.  But although I know lots of people with they pronouns, there is no one in my immediate circle of family or friends whom I speak with on a daily basis, so I just don’t have that daily reinforcement and practice to speed the process along.  My children, of course, are fully fluent in this new English, but I was a speaker of English for nearly 50 years before this entered my grammar, and it’s still not coming as naturally as I’d like.

        Any living language is constantly changing, and since I’m a pedant there are plenty of changes that I resist kicking and screaming.  This isn’t one of them.  Non-binary they serves a purpose and fills a need, so there’s no reason to object to it - but my autocorrect objects anyway.  I hate that I do this, as it’s never my intention to make anyone feel that I don’t acknowledge or respect who they are.  I know that it can be hurtful to them, as if I don’t care or don’t accept their identity.  To them it seems like it should be easy, but I do hope they can be patient with my unhelpful autocorrect, and know that my spirit is willing, even if my internal grammar is weak.  And in the meantime, I truly do apologize, and I really am trying to work harder get it right!

[Picture: Perspectival Fantasy Landscape with an Obelisk, wood block print from Geometria et Perspectiva by Lorenz Stör (block cut by Hans Rogel), 1567 (Image from The British Museum.)]

Winter Wonderland

         It’s been cold enough that last week’s snow is still covering the ground, and that means that it’s time to freshen up the snowscape with a little fantasy!  Today I’ve got three pieces that add just a touch of something surreal or magical to the wintry scene.  The first is a new one of my own.  Did you know that yetis have backwards-facing feet, so that their footprints appear to be going in the opposite direction from where the yeti actually went?  This is a myth that has been told about a number of fantasy creatures, especially ape-men types.  I wanted to capture the mischievous glee this yeti feels as he leads any would-be trackers astray.

        Next up is a wonderfully surreal piece by Frank Moore.  Moore is known for erotic performance art, but this uncharacteristic piece is definitely more my jam!  It takes the cliché “a blanket of snow” and makes it fresh and crisp, turning the white-sheeted bed into a plain inhabited by tiny bison.  The pillows become mountains, and fresh flakes are falling, playing still further with the scale.

        One more snowy scene with marvelous beasts, this one by Wharton Esherick is technically historical rather than magical, since it depicts megafauna of the Ice Age.  Still, its quirky, humorous tone makes it seem like more than a mere textbook illustration.  It’s one of Esherick’s earliest prints, and is much simpler and rougher than his later style.  I think it’s got a lot of charm.

        As I look at the snow out my window, the scene is utterly lacking in mammoths, bison, and yetis.  Perhaps that’s for the best, but I’m still glad I can enjoy them in block prints.

[Pictures: Yeti Tracks, rubber block print by AEGNydam, 2024 (Image from NydamPrints.com);

Prairie, color woodcut by Frank Moore, 1999 (Image from Cleveland Museum of Art);

Change, Change, Change, woodcut by Wharton Esherick, 1922 (Image from Wharton Esherick Museum).]

Under Snow

         Every time we have a beautiful snowfall of course I think of block prints, and there seems to be an inexhaustible supply of block prints that celebrate snow.  Today I had to start with “Dublin Under Snow” by Robert Gibbings (Ireland, 1889-1958) because I had a recent encounter with this piece.  At Christmas my daughter got nice little hardcover copies of two books by Claire Keegan, and I was delighted to recognize a familiar

friend of mine on the cover of each: block prints.  If you’ve read Small Things Like These, you might recognize this one.  (The other cover, So Late in the Day, featured a piece I shared here, back in 2015.)  This evocation of rooftops in the snow manages to be simultaneously starkly geometric and lushly poetic, and I absolutely love it!

        I thought I’d continue the theme of snow scenes involving towns rather than pure nature, and here’s a cinematic one by Gwenda Morgan (UK, 1908-1991).  Instead of just one scene it includes roughly seven vignettes, all blending into each other.  Notice how the sky above the bay becomes the snowy hillside below the lake.  I like the beams of light at the top, and all the little details, including the snowman at the lower left.

        Hiratsuka Un’ichi (Japan, 1895-1997) gives us a view after the storm, with everything still and impassive under its weight of snow and sky.  I always love when the wood grain shows in block prints, and I also like the low perspective, as if we’re standing among the stubbly grasses, looking across the frozen lake.  The colors, yellowish brown and purplish grey, are almost complementary, and yet read as if they blend softly.

        And finally, here’s someone staying safely out of the cold, in an engraving by E. Hubert Deines (USA, 1894-1967).  This is a rural scene rather than the suburban view from my own window, so my road is plowed and nor are our drifts so high.  Nevertheless, it’s always satisfying to look out at snow when you don’t have to go anywhere.

        If you’re living anywhere in a current cold snap, stay warm.  This is a time to breathe, relax, and gather strength for the digging out.

[Pictures: Dublin Under Snow, woodcut by Robert Gibbings, ca. 1921 (Image from V&A);

Midwinter, wood engraving by Gwenda Morgan, 1962 (Image from Kevis House);

Shinobazu Pond in Snow, color woodblock print by Hiratsuka Un’ichi, ca. 1925-35 (Image from Art Institute Chicago);

Maria Gazing Out of Window at the World Outside, wood engraving by E. Hubert Deines, 1936 (Image from Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art).]

Arisia Panel Signpost

        Everything’s packed and I’m about to head to the annual Arisia sci fi/fantasy convention, so today I’m putting up a signpost to content that relates to the panels I’ll be participating on this weekend.  Whether you’re attending Arisia or not, if you’re interested in any of these topics, here’s where you can find some relevant posts I’ve made in the past.

        Faiths of Fantasy and the Future - How can writers incorporate contemporary or invented belief systems into fantasy or future worlds, without replicating cliches about clergy, faith, and spiritual practice?  • My top thought is that when you’re making up religious systems in a fictional universe you actually get to (indeed, have to) make up two levels: what the people in this world believe, and what is actually true in this universe.

Apparently I haven’t yet posted on writing religions in fiction, even though it’s something I’m deeply interested in and have done a lot of in my own work.  (I guess I need to get on that!)  The resource I can share today, though, is the “religion” slide from a workshop on world-building that I presented for Broad Universe in 2020.  Also, beware these two pet peeve stereotypes that I personally am eye-rollingly bored of seeing:

1. the only possible ways to conceive of “God” are as a big old man with a beard up in the sky, or as a dark, evil (probably tentacled) Old One in the depths

2. religion is always opposed to science, and vice versa

        Creating Relatable Non-Humans - How do writers find the sweet spot when creating non-human sentient species: similar enough to be relatable, but not alike enough to be humans in bug suits?  • My top thought is to start with biology and consider what effect that could have on individual personalities and collective cultures.

Symbiote City - This post is about my making of a block print depicting Venusian medusae, but it does discuss the challenge of balancing too alien versus not alien enough when depicting imaginary worlds.

People of All Possible Forms - This post is about Camille Flammarion's work on the infinite variety of alien beings.

Also, above is the slide on sentient non-human people.

        Invented Languages - Snippets of invented languages add depth and interest to speculative fiction, but when is it too much of a good thing? Get tips about language creation with results that even an expert would believe.  • My top thought in the case of fantasy set in a secondary world or any place in which 21st century English is not in use, is to remember that your entire story is in a sense “in translation” from another language.  And then consider where translators tend to retain words from the source language.  Those will be places you can use your made-up language.

Character Names in Fantasy - The title says it, but remember that proper nouns are one of the first and most obvious places to use your invented language.

Indigenous Roots - This is about real English borrowed from real Indigenous languages, but the post is organized by categories of words that get borrowed when there’s contact between new places and peoples.

Words of the Month - If you’re interested in linguistics more generally, and especially in etymology, you can browse through all my monthly posts on tidbits of language.

        Readings - I’ll be reading a short snippet with the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading on Saturday, and a longer excerpt in an author reading on Monday morning.  For both I’ll be featuring Bittersweetness & Light to launch it upon its release.  Anyone interested in finding out more about this book and the short stories, poems, and art therein could, of course, purchase a copy of their very own.  There are also lots of posts featuring information about the book and its contents...

A Desperate Little Exhortation About (Bitter)Sweetness and Light - Why “happy” books are not necessarily “fluffy” and unserious.

An Overview of the Book

BOOK RELEASE! - Includes a few illustrations, along with their background and relationship to the stories in the book.

“Love Potion” and “A Life for a Life” - You can hear me read these two complete stories aloud on the December 11, 2024 episode of “Story Hour.”

“Knitting” - read it as originally published in New Myths, Winter 2024

“The Conduits” - read it (and a link to hear me read it aloud) as originally published in Friends Journal, November 2022

“Some Assembly Required” - read it as originally published in Fantasy Magazine, May 2023

        Art Show - As always, I’ve got a whole bay in the art show which I will cram full to the gills with relief block prints.  Here are posts that tell about my process for a few of them.

Autumn Fairy (Oaky Nutkin)

Beware the Jubjub Bird!

Bunyip’s Land

City I and City II

El Tenedor, Reading Glasses, Little Cyclops, and Kunchorn Waree

Fiery Salamander

Freedom

The Grand Marhoot

Keeping Off the Grass

Love Potion

Night Flight and Hatching Dreams

Parade

Portrait of the Artist

Seeds of Love

Singin’ in the Rain

Spring Fairy (Winged Peeper)

Steam-Powered Insectivore

Summer Fairy (Monarch Finch)

Sunbunny Loves You

Yale and First Flight

[Pictures: 3 slides from my presentation “World Creation for Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers,” 2020;

Riddle in the Sand, rubber block print by AEGNydam, 2023 (Image from NydamPrints.com);

Poster for Bittersweetness & Light, 2025.]