Blog Archive

Tim Marshall’s Prisoners of Geography argues that mountains, rivers, and coastlines shape nations far more than ideology or intention. The maps in this book explain so much about the world we live in but also make me wonder how much room is left for self-determination.

Patricia Crone’s book about pre-industrial societies raised unexpected questions about Europe and the Roman Empire, and it nudged my novel’s worldbuilding in ways I hadn’t considered before reading it.

To forget or not to forget? It depends on whether not forgetting can lead to healing, and whether forgetting can stop the hurting. David Rieff’s book is unsettling in more than one way. Not only does it destroy one of the quotes that pops up everywhere on political blogs, it even questions history itself.

How a scuffed copy of The Art of War by Sun Tzu became my battlefield guide and inspired character flaws, plot turns, and worldbuilding insights for The Exiled Queen, my Roman Era historical fantasy.

Trajan’s bridge over the Danube was a major Roman engineering feat and plays a central role in the conflict between Rome and Dhawosia in my historical fantasy The Foreign King. Here are some fascinating facts about it.