For a publishing site, there aren't really a whole lot of published works here on IGC. We have The Grounds Warden, which is just a stand-alone short story, and we have Zombies in a similar vein. Of course, we also have half a season of Blood Magic, with new episodes coming out at the end of each month. It's this last that I want to address, because I alternate between being excited about how well our library of Blood Magic stories is developing, and worried about how working on Blood Magic stories has led to drastically less work on my other projects.
Uniting Contradictions
Perhaps it’s not terribly surprising then that I try to avoid introducing contradictions into my fictional worlds. For most of the time that I’ve been writing, I’ve operated in world creation under the premise that contradictions in world-building will drive readers away and make the world less believable. After all, overt contradictions would seem to undermine the idea of plausible impossibility, and leave the reader less immersed in the world. A contradiction can act like a sort of car accident that abruptly stops the flow of traffic and ejects the reader from the story.
Understanding Belief
It is absolutely essential that we keep our minds open to alternative explanations for the universe in which we live and with which we interact. Just because one explanation is the accepted explanation doesn't mean it is "right" - there may not even be a truly "right" answer to a lot of the deep, probing questions about the universe. If we hew too strongly to a single explanation simply because it is the one that is commonly accepted, then we will inevitably be scoffed at by our ancestors the same way we scoff so readily at those who did not accept Copernicus's teachings.
Blood Magic Update (Again)
There are a lot of last days of the month falling on a Tuesday or Thursday this year, or at least it seems that way, and while I haven't use all of them to talk about Blood Magic (which as you know releases a new episode on the last day of every month), I did want to do so this time, for a couple of reasons. For one thing, it's been awhile since I posted about the series, and for another, this is the halfway point of the first season. Six episodes are now live, with six more to go to round out the first full season. So it seems worthwhile, at this point, to pause for a moment and take stock of where we're at in the series, both within the Blood Magic world, and in our own.
Futility or Utility?
I have a lot of interests, especially when it comes to learning, which is a large part of why I try to read so broadly. One of those interests that is especially conducive to indulging through books is philosophy. Although I don’t have any philosophy book reviews on the site yet (maybe someday I’ll make … Continue reading Futility or Utility?
Blood Magic Progress
Just last week, we posted the fourth episode of Blood Magic. If you haven’t read it yet, you can find it here, and if you’re not familiar with the series, you should probably start back at the beginning. However, I don’t want to talk about episode 4. I’d really like to talk about episode 5, and where the series is going. As you may recall, the concept for this is one short story released at the end of each month, making for a twelve episode season over the course of one year. That means we’re quickly approaching the halfway mark of the first season (there are currently three seasons outlined).
Thicker Than Blood
With the end of the month falling on a day when I normally would write a post, I couldn't resist taking the opportunity to talk about Blood Magic's third episode. Although I will do my best to keep spoilers out of this post, if you haven't yet read Thicker Than Blood, I highly recommend heading over to the season 1 page and reading the episode, and any other episodes you haven't yet read. For now, let's assume that you've done that, and talk a little bit about episode three.
Blood Magic Episode 2 Preview
If you recall, these episodes go live at the end of each month, so we're gearing up already for the launch of the second story in the series, titled Here There Be Dragons? Just in case you weren't eagerly awaiting it because you didn't get enough Blood Magic in the first episode, here's a preview of what you might see in the second one.
Blood Magic and Other Updates
Writing on the third episode is coming along, although more slowly than I would prefer; I've been pretty busy recently. Still, I'm about 1/3 done. I've also been working on some other projects, which I'll detail below. Hopefully this will reassure those of you who have read some of my rough drafts that I haven't forgotten about these other stories, and give all of you a better idea of what some of the features on the My Works page are all about.
Blood Magic Concept
We're gearing up for the release of the pilot episode of the Blood Magic series. This has been something that I've been working on for quite some time, and if you've been following IGC for awhile, you've seen some of the steps we've taken to make it into a reality. With only a handful of days before the first episode is up on the website, I wanted to bring everyone up to speed on what this project is, where you can expect it to go, and hopefully drum up some excitement amongst you readers, so that you'll come to the site after January 31st to read it.
IGC Publishing 