Historical fantasy is a kind of mash-up. Take my third novel, Water Folk, which debuted in December. Among the historical events it depicts are David Crockett’s last stand at the Alamo, the contributions of Robert E. Lee...| FolkloreCycle
Our online world is already crowded with AI images — and our robotic soon-to-be-overlords are just getting started. But the nearby image is, I promise, nothing more than a standard photo of a very real thing that just h...| FolkloreCycle
As the 19th century begins, the new American republic struggles to reconcile its lofty principles with the practical realities of a rapidly expanding nation. Three fairy rangers who helped the country win its independence — Goran the Sylph, Har the Dwarf, and Dela the Water Maiden — now find they must seek new alliances with the likes of Davy Crockett, Ichabod Crane, and the Cherokee hero Junaluska to combat a monstrous new conspiracy against peace, justice, and freedom on the frontier.| FolkloreCycle
Goran is one of the rare fairies who can live without magical protection in the Blur, the human world where the days pass twenty times faster than in fairy realms. His missions for the Rangers Guild take him across colonial America — from far-flung mountains and rushing rivers to frontier farms and bustling towns. Along the way, Goran encounters George Washington, Daniel Boone, an improbably tall dwarf, a beautiful water maiden, and a series of terrifying monsters. But when Goran receives...| FolkloreCycle
Among the most powerful influences on my development as a writer were the robot stories of Isaac Asimov — although even as a young reader I disagreed with his worldview and recognized that his character development was p...| FolkloreCycle
Because of what you’re doing right now, I know you don’t mind reading content on a screen. But when you sit down to enjoy a full-length novel, do you prefer a digital edition or a physical copy?| FolkloreCycle
I once wrote a musical play with a character who spoke almost exclusively in words beginning with “a.” The practice was, in her own words, “awesome” and “awfully annoying.”| FolkloreCycle
Season’s Greetings to you and yours! Yes, I mean that broadly. If you celebrate Christmas, as my family and I do, then we wish you a joyous commemoration of the Nativity as well as the merriest of Yuletides.| FolkloreCycle
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that for the first two books in the Folklore Cycle, Mountain Folk and Forest Folk, I worked with some technically proficient pals to produce a series of short videos...| FolkloreCycle
C.S. Lewis once wrote that one could “never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” I wouldn’t go quite that far, but I do believe that works of epic fantasy ought to feel, well, epic.| FolkloreCycle
Welcome to September — National Square Dance Month!| FolkloreCycle
I just got back from attending PulpFest for the first time. No, this isn’t a gathering of maniacal orange-juice fanatics (Freshly Squeezed For Me or Fight!) PulpFest caters to a rather-different fan base: aficionados of...| FolkloreCycle
Who doesn’t love a good origin story?| FolkloreCycle
A while back, Smoky Mountain Living magazine published a review of my first novel.| FolkloreCycle
“It is a delight!”| FolkloreCycle
What’s historical fantasy?| FolkloreCycle
Are you having a good Leap Year so far?| FolkloreCycle
I hope your 2024 has gotten off to a good start. I’ve been hard at work on several projects, professional and personal, including the final chapters of Water Folk, the forthcoming third novel in my Folklore Cycle series ...| FolkloreCycle
Got a whale of a tale to tell ya, folks, a whale of a tale or two!| FolkloreCycle
Ray Bradbury was one of the greatest pioneers of speculative fiction. While he authored popular novels such as Fahrenheit 451, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes, he was at his best when writing short fi...| FolkloreCycle
In her classic novel Little Women, Louisa May Alcott has her character Margaret gaze bitterly through the window at the family’s frostbitten garden and proclaim that “November is the most disagreeable month in the whole...| FolkloreCycle
I’m currently working on the final chapters of my third novel, Water Folk. Set primarily during the 1830s and 1840s, it depicts such events as westward expansion, the Texas War of Independence, the Mexican War, and adven...| FolkloreCycle
Part of the fun of writing my Folklore Cycle tales has been exploring traditional European, African, and Native American folklore to find magical beasts to fill out my menagerie. A Minotaur from Greece. A Kraken from Sca...| FolkloreCycle
Did you ever drive 12 hours straight without stopping for the night? That’s what Mrs. Hood and I did a couple of weeks ago — though it was never our plan.| FolkloreCycle
Was there ever a voice talent like Casey Kasem? As a child of the 1970s, I grew up hearing his cartoon vocalizations of Robin (the Boy Wonder) and Shaggy (the Teen Blunder) as well as his “American Top 40” program. As a ...| FolkloreCycle
When my first book, The Heroic Enterprise, was published by Simon & Schuster’s Free Press imprint in 1996, I asked about releasing it on audio. “Let’s see how it goes,” my editor replied, explaining that while there was...| FolkloreCycle
On May 4, 1699, a Cambridge-trained physician and married father of two left the English port of Bristol as a ship’s surgeon on the Antelope, bound for the South Seas. Several months later, while the vessel was traversi...| FolkloreCycle
I’m delighted to announce the publication of the latest installment of my Folklore Cycle of historical-fantasy tales set in early America.| FolkloreCycle
One of my favorite fantasy series is George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice & Fire. I haven’t just read Martin’s books multiple times. I wear Game of Thrones t-shirts. I even play the Game of Thrones boardgame! As a writer of ...| FolkloreCycle
A former student of mine once announced plans to create the “Society for Those Who Learned English from John Hood.”| FolkloreCycle
As a kid growing up in the 1970s, I fell hard for superheroes — but not through the medium of comic books. My love affair began as a watcher, not a reader. Every day after school, my brothers and I would watch reruns of ...| FolkloreCycle
Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, I was part of the last generation to come of age when long-distance calling was hugely expensive and email virtually nonexistent. Letters and postcards were how we kept in touch with ou...| FolkloreCycle
When I made the transition two years ago from political pundit and author of Very Serious Books™ to a spinner of historical-fantasy stories, many people asked me why I started writing fairy tales (though some accused me ...| FolkloreCycle
I wear more hats than Bartholomew Cubbins.| FolkloreCycle
Mind if I talk a bit about dreams? Literary scholar Jonathan Gottschall writes fascinating books and articles about the history of myth, folk tales, and epic literature. “We are, as a species, addicted to story,” he obse...| FolkloreCycle
The butterflies always come.| FolkloreCycle
I feel compelled to share some family drama.| FolkloreCycle
When my Revolutionary War-themed novel Mountain Folk came out last year, I summarized my reasons for writing the novel in four words: History, Heroes, Heritage, and Humanity. In the latter case, I explained that “althoug...| FolkloreCycle
On this date in 1813, a young Army colonel was making his final adjustments to an audacious plan: one of the first large-scale amphibious operations in the history of American armed forces. The following day, May 27, Win...| FolkloreCycle
Today's sample from the Forest Folk Character Gallery is the Hon. David Crockett of Tennessee. I depict him in the very first chapter of Forest Folk as a boy in 1798, then later as a scout in General Andrew Jackson’s arm...| FolkloreCycle
Among the historical characters in my new fantasy novel Forest Folk, one of the most familiar to modern audiences is Tecumseh. With his brother Tenskwatawa, Tecumseh formed the largest Indian confederacy in American hist...| FolkloreCycle
Among the characters from my new novel Forest Folk for whom I’ve produced a Hero Forge miniature is John de Conquer. A trickster figure adapted from African-American folklore, John plays a key role in the plot of the nov...| FolkloreCycle
Today's entry in the Forest Folk Character Gallery is Sam Houston. This Hero Forge version of the character depicts Houston as a young man, long before he commanded troops in the Texas War for Independence and became the...| FolkloreCycle
As I did for the first book in my Folklore Cycle series, Mountain Folk, I used the Hero Forge tool to depict characters from my new historical-fantasy novel Forest Folk as painted miniatures. Today’s example is a charact...| FolkloreCycle
This seafaring character makes his first appearance in the second chapter of Forest Folk — the same one that depicts Dela the Water Maiden taking a schooner up the Hudson River. “Standing next to Dela against the rail, l...| FolkloreCycle
Today's example from the Forest Folk Character Gallery is Dela the Water Maiden. She was introduced in Mountain Folk, the first novel in my Folklore Cycle series. Dela's folk are called the Gwragedd Annwn in Wales, where...| FolkloreCycle
One of the central characters of my latest historical-fantasy novel Forest Folk is Bell, a young woman who worked as a slave for several Dutch and English families in the Hudson River valley during the early 1800s. You m...| FolkloreCycle
A few months after my first novel, Mountain Folk, was published, I polled readers and followers about their favorite characters. The top vote-getter was Har the Tower, an improbably tall Dwarf ranger whose exploits revea...| FolkloreCycle
One of my recent syndicated columns, published April 20 in Carolina Journal, explains my extensive use of local legends and folklore to populate my latest novel Forest Folk with characters, monsters, situations, and adve...| FolkloreCycle
One of the characters I most enjoyed creating for my new novel Forest Folk is Betua, a leader of the Goblin village that lies magically concealed beneath what is now Detroit, Michigan. Elements of her appearance, charact...| FolkloreCycle
Last year’s Mountain Folk was the first book in my Folklore Cycle series of historical-fantasy tales set in early America. In conjunction with the release of the novel, I used an online tool called Hero Forge to depict s...| FolkloreCycle
