Often when I’m developing a character or a story, I get lost in my own head with all the possibilities available to me, and I need something to anchor me and narrow my choices in a simple, direct, and progressive way. To help me think through a character’s inner struggle, I developed this 10-point questionnaire…
I didn’t realize I was a Goth until I moved to the US to go to NYU. Growing up in the UK in the early 80’s the music of bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, and Cocteau Twins was just what was played on the radio. I remember walking into the dining hall freshmen…
Excerpted from a curious book I found hidden in the back of a dusty shelf in a used bookstore on Cape Cod: As we all know, we witches are never the most welcoming of people, save to the needy visitors to our kitchens, and the witches of Cheyne Heath are more unwelcoming than most, so…
Sometimes inspiration doesn’t come to me spontaneously and I need external prompts. The divinatory system of the tarot offers a complex map of human psychology, archetypes, and challenges that I’ve found a great starting point for understanding and developing characters and stories. In trying to harness all that intuitive potential planning my books, I came up with this approach to using the cards as a storyteller.