M.D. Presley's Blog, page 3

Fantasy Worldbuilding Survey Results

At last, the post at least three people have been waiting for (if I count myself. Twice). Time to see what all the fuss has been about as I’ve been researching for my worldbuilding book. But before we get to the results, a few tidbits. This poll was preceded by a focus group over at /r/worldbuilding, where I got a little over 50 answers. To these I added all the author interviews from the beginning of the year and the questionnaire I did with them to create the final survey. It was answered by 4...

Fantasy Worldbuilding Survey Results

At last, the post at least three people have been waiting for (if I count myself. Twice). Time to see what all the fuss has been about as I’ve been researching for my worldbuilding book. But before we get to the results, a few tidbits. This poll was preceded by a focus group over at /r/worldbuilding, where I got a little over 50 answers. To these I added all the author interviews from the beginning of the year and the questionnaire I did with them to create the final survey. It was answered by 4...

Free Book, New Book, and TV Show

What, a second blog post in as many months? It must mean something’s brewing, and indeed that’s the case. As I said last time, I have not been idle, which is why I have a whole slew of news for you today.

Firstly, here’s a FREE BOOK aimed at fantasy worldbuilders. In it I’ve compiled 101 worldbuilding prompts that I’ve compiled over the last few months working on my big, overview book. In truth, there’s a lot more than 101 questions since the vast majority of them have subquestions underneath th...

The Worldbuilding Pivot

Well, it’s been a while. So long, in fact, that I feel guilty. Not that anyone reads this, mind you, but guilty in that I haven’t been keeping up in that whole writerly endeavor I’ve been attempting the last several years. So, with that in mind, I’m just going to barrel on with updates without looking it up to see how long it’s been since I’ve updated.

I don’t think I’ve made any secret that it’s been a hard year for me. At the end of May will mark one year since my immune disorder first manif...

New Year, New Room, Same Old Shit

I was going to start this post off with the old joke about how if you play a country record backwards you get your dog back, your job back, your wife back, etc., then realized most folks are probably too young to even know why you would want to play a record backwards in the first place. And then I felt old. Like real old. Which feels pretty fitting now that I think about it.

Anyways, 2019 was a hard year for me. I got sick, lost my job, and even my dog (RIP, Bonze). The job I sort of miss,...

Pikachu Belly

Ah Pikachu, the meat that proves correct the old adage “the cuter the creature, the more delicious the dish.”And while undeniably cute, what few people realize is that Pikachu are incredibly obnoxious due to incessantly repeating their names like squeaky little Steve Holts. This, coupled with their shockingly common nature, meant the people of Pallet Town were entirely inundated by these little beasts. With pokeballs in short supply and animal control at their wits’ end, the people of Pallet...

Ratskin

[excerpt from Myths of Old, collected by David Hooper]Long ago when glass was still new, there lived a lazy Dobra who would always sleep until the sun set. Tired of his shiftless ways, his tribe packed up during the day and set off without him. Awakening with the dusk, the lazy Dobra found no one there to cook his meals or give him wine. And soon his belly rumbled and he called out for aid.To his surprise, an old woman stepped from the woods, her face covered in mud and wearing a tattered clo...

Loglines (Taglines and Blurbs to Follow)

This post is another that initially started out as one, then multiplied into two like some ever-divvying amoeba newly-enamored with mitosis. So let’s start out withLoglinesbefore we delve intoTaglinesandBlurbsnext go around.Now there are loads of articles out there defining what all should go into loglines, and a quick google search will give you much more in-depth info than you’re about to get here. But I’m all about maximum effectiveness for the minimum effort, so hopefully this short(ish)...

Superman VS Wolverine: Best Superhero

Well, we lit a bit of a nerd firestorm as toLOTR or Star Warsbeing the greatest trilogy of all times. And in the process we uncovered another diametrically opposed avenue, and that was of the comic book superhero. DC and Marvel battle it out for superiority in their separate paneled universes (and movie screens), while the independent comics hunt for sustenance in their scraps. And while these indies usually eschew the superhero, comics themselves were (and are) cemented around the concept of...

Unicorn Burgers

This is another cheat post in that fellow fantasy authorPete Suttonwas kind enough to host another Bugbear BBQ recipe over at his site in celebration of The Woven Ring being free to download this week (Feb 20-24). So check out how to makeUnicorn Burgersif you have the stomach for it...