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Well, I've followed all the other cool kids ("baaaa!") and have now created a substack. I'm starting off with adding several hard-hitting posts on SFF from my blog ... this one's a classic, so if you haven't seen it yet, have at it! DEFENDING DEL REY BOOKS: open.substack.com/pub/stratofa...

Defending Del Rey BooksThe Misunderstood Heroopen.substack.com

In my book chapter on the launch of Del Rey Books, I came up with the following chapter title, and let us just say I'm quite impressed with myself: "In the Year of our Dark Lord, 1977." It's actually pretty crazy ALL the rantasy-related things that came out in 1977. Star Wars ...

Although I'd sooner gouge-out my eyes, Oedipus-like, before going to a conference on Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, their acronym LACK is genuinely hilarious and deserves kudos.

Le sigh. So, yeah, here's a direct quote from like half of all science fiction writers during the 1980s: "Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against fantasy . Some of my best friends are fantasy novels. My college roommate was a fantasy novel. So I'm not biased at all. Nevertheless ...."

just finished Nolan's THE ODYSSEY, and I loved it unabashedly. Maybe the single best adaptation of a classical/medieval story I've ever seen. The level of detail and writing were superb.

Well, I've hit a milestone in my research on Del Rey Books .... after spending the last six weeks organizing my copious notes, I've now printed them to help with outlining -- all 133,000 words. For those fatally curious on my working methods, here y'go. stratofanatic.blogspot.com/2026/07/upda...

UPDATE on my book on Del Rey BooksWell, I don't know how you write your books, but when I write books apparently, I seem to go more than a little overboard. So, as many of yo...stratofanatic.blogspot.com

Sometimes I feel that if literary critics could just stop believing, even for just a second, that a literary artwork's form has ANYTHING to do with its politics, then we can save our entire discipline from quite a bit of nonsense.

@Paul Deane is showcasing the MODERN ALLITERATIVE REVIVAL at #NYCPoFest this weekend. Poets of the world, unite!

Dear Sociologists, Currently reading one of your books published by Princeton UP, and just as a bit of friendly advice .... your chosen system of citation is useless and, actually, totally sucks eggs.

I've been looking at the reviews for Del Rey fantasy titles from 1977 (i.e., when they launched their imprint) .... and man-oh-man, the reviews for *The Sword of Shannara* are BRUTAL. The only positive review I found is where Frank Herbert praises SHANNARA. And that's in ...

I'm rereading Algis Budrys's BENCHMARKS series, a collection of his book review for F&SF, and I'm once again impressed with what a gold mine it is for literary historians. It's not only brilliant for anyone interested in reception history, but reading an old pro just ...

Everyone raves about Gene Wolfe's THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN, but I suspect there's a conspiracy afoot. I'm halfway through the third book, and I've never seen ANY author -- except maybe Steven Erikson -- so determined to avoid telling you what the hell exactly is going on.

Unpopular opinion: literary historians of fantasy NEED to come to terms with Piers Anthony. As much as anyone, he defined the genre for an entire generation of readers. But most fantasy historians can do little more than repeat lazy generalizations about him, mainly something...

This was nice!

Huh. So, I get a message from a publisher asking me to review a book proposal and sample chapters. The message looks perfectly normal, and is offering appropriate compensation .... but the contacting editor has a non-U.S. email address (India), and when I google them, I find...

"Are you an SFF author from the 1970s and 1980s? Did you ever receive a letter from Judy-Lynn del Rey where she was mean to you? You might be entitled to compensation!" Whoa, nelly. Just reading through some of JLDR's rejection letters for submissions that she considered sub-par. ...

If anyone's looking for a very smart article on how speculative poets could be using alliterative poetry in their work (and we all should, right?), then this will be of interest. @sfwa.bsky.social @sffreview.bsky.social @sfpoetry.bsky.social magazine.interstellarflightpress.com/an-introduct...

An Introduction to Alliterative Verse for Readers and Writers of Speculative FictionEpic Poetry from Beowulf to Todaymagazine.interstellarflightpress.com

What we really need is a good literary critic who's capable of explaining why David Eddings's THE BELGARIAD is such a *good* fantasy series. Currently, I'm reading yet another history of fantasy literature whose basic take on Eddings is, "Well, readers are idiots who ...

My long -- but immensely fun and hilarious (if I do say so myself) -- article on alliterative poet Pat Masson. One of the best personal stories of the modern revival, and for anyone still wondering what this "modern revival" we keep blathering on about IS, well, here's your chance!

And in the "Fun with Numbers" edition of today's post, I've calculated the numbers of weeks every major fantasy publisher spent on a New York Times or Publisher's Weekly bestseller list for the years 1981-1985. These numbers, I think, speak for themselves ....