by msk | Mar 16, 2026 | Tropes & Worldbuilding
Let’s play a game. I am going to list several of the most favorite fantasy book tropes in YA fiction. You are going to read them. And at some point (probably sooner than you’d like you are going to feel personally attacked. That’s fine. That’s...
by msk | Nov 24, 2025 | Shifter Fantasy, Tropes & Worldbuilding
Readers ask me this from time-to-time: “Be honest. Did you write Moonshifter Academy (that’s my series about a young wolf shifter who is the last of her kind, trying to save a shifter academy) as a romantasy?” And every time, I give the same thoughtful,...
by msk | Oct 28, 2025 | Tropes & Worldbuilding
Every October, jack-o’-lanterns flicker on porches, costumes fill the streets, and bowls of candy wait by the door. Halloween feels like a holiday tailor-made for stories. It is already theatrical, full of masks, magic, and mystery. But behind the fun-size candy bars...
by msk | Oct 1, 2025 | Tropes & Worldbuilding
I get it, we all love a good monarchy. There is something so primally satisfying about a story centered on a crumbling kingdom, a lost heir, or a tyrant who needs to be deposed. The stakes are clear, the line of succession is a built in plot generator, and the drama...
by msk | Sep 22, 2025 | Tropes & Worldbuilding
Folklore has always given us monsters that reflect what scares us most. Spirits, demons, shapeshifters, and creatures lurking at the edge of the map weren’t just stories. They were ways of talking about danger, taboo, or the unknown. Modern fantasy is carrying that...
by msk | Apr 6, 2025 | Fantasy Deep Dives, Tropes & Worldbuilding
Let’s talk elves. Not the North Pole kind (that could be a whole other article, but best saved for Christmas). I’m talking about the tall, ethereal, flawless beings that strolled into pop culture via J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. They’ve since been...
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