Fantasy characters come to life! With music videos, sword dancing, and free books!

My characters are not only imaginary, they exist in an imaginary fantasy world. But they still have real-world prototypes or examples. Although I thought them up on my own, I’ve found some real-world examples of what they might look or be like. My main country in The Zemnian Trilogy is, of course, Zem’ (“Earth” or “Land”). But […]

What do you call a male ingenue, anyway?

Last week I wrote about how Valya, the heroine of my upcoming release The Dreaming Land, was a “bad girl,” both by the standards of her society and of ours. She’s a bit–well, more than a bit–of a femme fatale, at least in the minds of other people. In fact, I have an ad going right […]

Bad Girls: Writing a Sympathetic Anti-Heroine

When I conceived of Valya, the heroine of The Dreaming Land, I knew I wanted her to be…bad. You know, like a bad girl. And really bad, not just fake bad. But I also wanted her to be sympathetic, which created a challenge. You see, while there are plenty of literary tropes and lots of good […]

More #FreeBooks! The Midnight Land I is free on Kindle, plus more giveaways

It’s my birthday tomorrow, so I thought I’d celebrate it with a freebie! Today and tomorrow The Midnight Land I is free on Kindle. The cover for TMLI And if you’re in the US, The Midnight Land II is just 99c for the next two days as well! The cover for TMLII AND, if you haven’t […]

Free ARC of The Dreaming Land II, plus more giveaways!

Hurray! It’s here! An ARC of The Dreaming Land II, which you can pick up completely free (for a limited time) here. Here’s the current cover: And here’s the blurb: Valya has won permission to hunt down the slave traders defiling her land and stealing its children. Now begins the most difficult part of her […]

“Whatever I say is a half-truth”: Arkady #Babchenko and the Hybrid Truth of War Writing #BabchenkoAlive

As I posted yesterday, I’ve been caught up in the crazy, crazy, crazy story surrounding Russian writer Arkady Babchenko’s alleged murder and subsequent “resurrection,” , with the dramatic revelation at a press conference that the whole thing had been a sting operation and that Babchenko was still very much alive. Although I had not guessed in […]

Arkady Babchenko, One Soldier’s War, and Holy Fools

Arkady Babchenko As crazy fate would have it, today was the day that the article I co-wrote with WFU student Logan Stinson, “One Soldier’s War and the New Literary War Hero,” about the memoir by war correspondent and journalist Arkady Babchenko, was scheduled to come out. Crazy fate because yesterday afternoon a notification popped up […]

“The Five Daughters of the Moon” by Leena Likitalo

The Five Daughters of the Moon Leena Likitalo It’s exciting to me to see how many authors are out there writing Russian-themed fantasy. “The Five Daughters of the Moon” is a recent addition to this sub-genre. The setting is clearly an allusion to the Russian Empire just prior to the 1917 Revolution, but the setting […]

New FREE Book Release! “Winter of the Gods and Other Stories” is here!

Hi All! For the past few weeks I’ve been working away on putting together a collection of my old stories that are sort of prequels/alternative timelines to “The Zemnian Series,” with a general introduction and little intros for each of the stories. I’m thrilled to say that the book is now ready and can be […]

#Free #Books and More #FreeBooks!

Goodness! Is Maslenitsa week already almost over? I guess that means that spring is almost here! Of course, in parts of the world early “spring” looks, or at least looked, a lot like this: While down here where I’m currently living, I’m pleased to say that the daffodils burst into bloom yesterday, and this time […]

E. P. Clark: Author, Book Reviewer, and All-Around Literary Handiwoman

Russian literature