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 …
Happy Semiquincentennial to the United States of America: Gratitude for Our Nation
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 …
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Reading Recap 2026 – Part 1: Of Medieval Adventures and Time Traveling Coffee Shops
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 …
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Novel-Writing Lessons From Video Games: Themes
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. …
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Novel-Writing Lessons From Video Games: World-Building
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 …
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Easter Post 2026: A Lesson from Gideon
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 …
Novel-Writing Lessons From Video Games: Plot
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 …
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Novel-Writing Lessons From Video Games: Characters
Video games have some of the most iconic characters in all of storytelling: Mario and Luigi, Link, Zelda, Pikachu, Master Chief, Lara Croft, GLaDOS—and I could keep going. Many games have you make your own character, projecting a digital avatar of your choice (whether true to yourself or a projection of a role you’d like …
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Novel-Writing Lessons From Video Games: Introduction
The notion that video game storytelling can teach novel writers something is not a new concept to this blog. In the past, I’ve given mini-summaries of different tips I’ve picked up from playing some of my favorite Nintendo games, and I’ve discussed at length about the impact of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 on my own writing, …
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Writing Update January 2026 + State of the Blog
Okay, I was shocked to realize that my last writing update was in May 2025. Whoops. But to be fair, life is unpredictable, and as I mentioned in my Thanksgiving Post, 2025 was a hard year. Plus, my other commitments—namely those that my financial livelihood depend on at the moment—took up a lot of my …
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By Madelynn Orion 