May 2nd marks the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts—one of the rare moments in fantasy with a date you can circle on a calendar. But most fictional battles don’t come with anniversaries. Some feel like they should. Others might not have happened at all. And a few… aren’t the sort anyone would want to remember too closely. Which raises an interesting question: in fantasy, what actually makes a battle worth remembering?
Your writing system probably won’t fail all at once—it’ll decay, one small glitch at a time, until the tool you rely on starts slowing you down instead of supporting you. When that happens, the real solution isn’t finding a replacement that works the same way—it’s rethinking how your system works entirely. Here’s what OneNote’s decline taught me about rebuilding a writing workflow that’s faster, more flexible, and far more resilient.
Star Wars has been part of my life for as long as I can remember—and, in a very real way, it helped shape my career as a writer. But decades on, the question isn’t why it began. It’s why it never seems to end. As new generations discover it and older ones drift away, Star Wars continues to renew itself in ways that are both familiar and puzzling.
Something ambitious is taking shape behind the scenes at Stories Rule Press. Four authors. Four carefully chosen books. One extraordinary collector’s edition project designed for readers who love beautiful books as much as unforgettable stories. We’re not revealing everything just yet—but this is one announcement you won’t want to miss.
Why do some stories grip you from the first page while others feel oddly lifeless, no matter how much “happens”? Robert McKee’s Story digs beneath surface action to the real engine of narrative—where pressure, choice, and consequence reveal character and create momentum that readers can feel, even if they can’t name it.
Books are usually better—at least, that’s the pattern Mark keeps coming back to after years of reading first and watching later. But every now and then, a film breaks the rule…
Vampires are supposed to be timeless—but what happens when fashion isn’t? From immortal bad hair days to the evolution of vampire fiction itself, this post revisits an old idea with fresh eyes…and proves that no matter what publishers say, readers will never fall out of love with a good vampire.
Beltane, the ancient Celtic fire festival marking the beginning of summer, once stood as a powerful turning point in the year—a night of bonfires, fertility rites, and thinning veils between worlds. Though largely forgotten today outside neo-pagan circles, Beltane still echoes through Celtic-inspired fantasy, where it often serves as a moment of magic, transformation, and looming consequence. In this post, we explore the origins of Beltane, how it was celebrated, and why it continues to shape modern fantasy storytelling—including its pivotal role in The Rivers Ran Red and other Celtic-influenced works.
Barnes & Noble didn’t send a warning shot—they sent a deadline. Raise your paperback prices to $14.99 by May 14th, or your books are gone. For indie authors working in short fiction or maintaining deep backlists, that’s not a tweak. It’s a hard stop. And it’s only the latest move in a pattern that’s quietly reshaping who—and what—belongs on the platform. The question isn’t whether these changes are fair. It’s whether your publishing strategy can survive them.
On Earth Day, science fiction reminds us that environmental collapse is not the only possible future. From Frank Herbert’s Dune to modern Solarpunk stories like Winds of Change, SF has always offered both a warning and a hope: that science, ingenuity, and the human spirit can help us protect our one blue world—and perhaps one day carry that wisdom to the stars.
