I’m a Trekkie. But… I’ve only really watched the new Trek shows and films. This past summer, I decided to change that by watching Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) in its entirety. Okay, technically, I decided to watch TOS a couple years ago. But my few halting attempts usually ended in the early first …
Continue reading Watching Star Trek: The Original Series 60 Years Later
[Slight spoilers for Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender] On the day it (officially) released, I FaceTimed by brother and sister-in-law and “together” we watched the new Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender movie. The three of us drank in the rush of nostalgia and beautiful animation, a retread of familiar paths from our childhood. And it …
It only took 7 months, but at last: I’ve got a readable draft of the first Myth-Keepers book. Huzzah! As mentioned in my writing update from the beginning of the year, I revised The Myth-Keepers in an unusual way: I started at the end. I rewrote the third act of the novel, which amounted to …
38 seasons. Nearly 450 episodes. 2 years. And countless minutes. I just finished watching The Amazing Race in its entirety. I first watched The Amazing Race (TAR) in high school with my family, and even wrote one of my freshman composition papers in a dual credit class evaluating the show’s level of “realness” as a …
I grew up in a military household decked out year-round with Americana. USA patriotism pervaded my house growing up. I was (and still am) proud of my dad’s service to the country and extremely proud to be an American. However, presently, I live in a world of academics in the humanities who don’t have a …
Continue reading Happy Semiquincentennial to the United States of America: Gratitude for Our Nation
While 2026 started as a slower reading year, the later part of Spring and into the summer months have been full of 5 star reads. From medieval history to sci-fi adventures to fantasy romances, I’ve covered a lot of genre-ground in the first part of 2026. Let’s dive in. Le Morte Darthur by Sir Thomas …
Continue reading Reading Recap 2026 – Part 1: Of Medieval Adventures and Time Traveling Coffee Shops
For the last entry in this series, I must address briefly what is at the heart of every story: themes. Depending on whether you’re a gamer or not, you may be wondering: do video games even have themes or a “moral to the story”? And yes, there are, as there are themes to every story. …
Continue reading Novel-Writing Lessons From Video Games: Themes
I’m typically a fairly self-controlled person when it comes to video games. I’m decent at managing my time and turning the game off after an hour or two. But I’ll admit: I’ve had a few 2am gaming sessions, and it’s always because of one thing: getting lost in the world of the game. Exploring Hyrule …
Continue reading Novel-Writing Lessons From Video Games: World-Building
2026 started off pretty rough for me. My season of isolation, brought on by living on my own and struggling to find a sustained, committed community over the first year and a half of my PhD program, compounded into an emotional knot that was difficult to work through. Couple that with feeling defeated and despondent …
It’s time for the next level in this series on Novel-Writing Lessons from Video Games: plots. Many of my favorite games tell compelling and engaging stories: Xenoblade Chronicles, The Legend of Zelda, Kingdom Hearts, etc. Even games that don’t have a storyline, like Mario Kart or Super Smash Bros., have a sense of progression to …
Continue reading Novel-Writing Lessons From Video Games: Plot
By Madelynn Orion 