Buy The Battle for the Black Fen!
On Ravens
  If you asked me what my favorite bird is, I would probably say the crow — all that intelligence,
SOLARPUNK: REAL SOLUTIONS FOR THE TWENTY-TEENS
I have called this blog, “The Worlds We Long For” to ask how we can create communities more in harmony
Winter Blahs
I am having the winter blahs; how about you? Although we've had an open winter without a whole lot of
Real Life, Invented Worlds: The Marsh Arabs
When you are writing speculative environmental fiction about future worlds (as in the solarpunk and cli-fi genres) you embellish present-day
Mollusks and Mathematics
Did you know that the chambered nautilus, unfurling in iridescent spirals, was “one of the first shapes in nature to
A FROLIC OF FOOLS
Funny Jokes? Charades? Wild Dancing? Silly Games?  Feeling Foolish? People have always used winter holidays to set seriousness aside and act silly. Games like "Peanut Butter"
Father Robin’s Solstice Sermon
I don’t preach when I write fiction: it’s all derring-do and story telling. But, just once, I let Father Robin
Eels!
My original encounters with eels were not pleasant. My mother, fond of roasted eel, liked me to catch them for
Real Life, Invented Worlds: Ocean Sailing
  When a schooner shifts and then tacks into the wind, heeling steeply, how does it feel down below? “Clare woke
Solarpunk! Who’dathunk?
Dystopian novelists create worlds so deep in disaster that, by targeting the horrors, they nudge their readers to think about better solutions,  You wouldn't think it,
CLI-FI! Oh My!
Exploring the blogosphere last week, I found a forum sponsored by Science Fiction and Fantasy World  on a whole new genre –
Nature as Paradise
When we think of nature as paradise, we envision our ideal first home, the Garden of Eden, in all of its
Plotting Evil
Once I suspended my descriptions of ideal communities every couple of chapters to insert thoroughly bad goings on, I found
Writing Evil
“Bring your evil closer in,” remarked my agent. “You are keeping it too much at a distance.” “You need to
HOW I BECAME A CITIZEN SCIENTIST, AND YOU CAN TOO
Review of Sharman Apt Russell, Diary of a Citizen Scientist: Chasing Tiger Beetles and Other New Ways of Engaging the
Children’s Games
As far as children are concerned, adults belong to another species entirely, possessed with this crazy idea that that children
A Game of Hopscoth
  Do you remember games you played when you were a child? I looked forward to recess so much that
That’s What I’m Writing — Speculative Fiction!
I must be the only writer in the world to finish two novels with no idea  what genre I was writing! However,
Coracles!
Ever since the summer when I was nine years old and my family lived on a boat moored in a
Welcome to The Worlds We Long For
Welcome to my new blog! I will be posting every week about the themes, folklore details, games and dances, environmental