Chris DeMakes is King of the Downside Staying creative and productive during challenging times A year ago, the world shut down. For many people, work stopped, and doldrums set in as the world slammed to a standstill. Some people (like me) were left creatively paralyzed, and others, like Less Than

Chasing Books I don't read enough. This anxious judgement looms over me daily—a spectre watching me while I scroll on my phone, play video games, write, goof off with my kids, cook dinner. While I do anything that isn't reading. I’m a writer, a

Sudden Spotlight I am feeling it these days, y’all. The hours and energy, emotion and effort of creating content, writing articles, tweeting, promoting, streaming, making assets, editing, revising, reaching out, building a platform, draining everything I’ve got. The videos that get 10 views, the articles that don’t

The Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom The Hugo Awards are among the most prestigious honours awarded to members of the science fiction and fan community. What makes them so special to me is that they’re voted on by WorldCon members. Anyone can become a WorldCon member, so this gives every

Three Books You Should Know About For a variety of reasons (stemming from existential dread to an overabundance of amazing friends working on amazing books, review commitments, and personal projects), I haven’t read as many books this year as I normally do. Specifically, I haven’t had the chance

How Terry Brooks Changed My Life Everybody has a critical path through life. The points along this path are the unique moments that define us—whether they’re crossroads, or singular moments of inspiration, trauma, choices, roads taken, roads not taken. Without these, we would not—for good or ill—

Finally, that post about world building Since I was a kid, my hobbies have been equally divided between reading and gaming. I discovered fantasy fiction around the same time I discovered Japanese RPGs like Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger. And so, over the years, they’ve both become immensely

Announcing Fight, Magic, Items: A Personal History of Japanese RPGs* *Title pending. Actually, everything pending. I wrapped up Astrolabe #4 with a promise to write about world building in this issue, but I’m pushing that conversation to next issue because I’ve got some exciting news to share! I’

Pillow Fulla Scrilla The value of writing has been a hot topic in 2020, particularly in light of the brilliant #publishingpaidme hashtag that raised awareness about the pay gap between white writers and writers of colour. As I continue to carve a place for myself as a professional writer, I’

There's no write way No matter where you are on your personal journey, it’s so easy to look around and see others’ success as a polarized reflection of your own failure. We all face setbacks and triumphs, successes, doldrums, and doubts, but—especially in a world where

Where social media is like a house party with a few billion invitees, running a newsletter is more of a one-way conversation with a bunch of friends you can’t see. The inspiration for Astrolabe came from many places, not the least of which are some of the fabulous geek/

Welcome to the first issue of my irregular newsletter, Astrolabe! Each new issue will bring you all sorts of goodies—from personal news about my work to thoughts on SFF, fandom, and gaming, to my favourite reads, and some fun retro gaming coverage. I got an agent, y’all! So,