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Worldbuilding is one of the great pleasures of writing science fiction and fantasy -- and also one of its greatest challenges. Award-winning fantasy author Marie Brennan draws on her academic training in anthropology to peel back the layers of a setting, going past the surface details to explore questions many authors never think to answer. She invites you to consider the endless variety of real-world cultures -- from climate to counterfeiting, from sumptuary laws to slang --and the equally endless possibilities speculative fiction has to offer.This volume collects essays from the first year of the New Worlds Patreon.

A light-hearted Regency folly, starring Miss Clarissa Harlowe who wants a quiet life-but falls in love with a smuggler, the marquess of St. Tarval. Tarval's sister, Lady Kitty, is determined to write a dramatic Gothic to save her brother's mortgaged estate-if she can reach London. Clarissa's much-pursued cousin, Mr. Philip Devereaux, is inexplicably intrigued by Lady Kitty, who is doing her best to encourage the match between him and Clarissa, except that Clarissa is now betrothed to . . . Lord Wilburfolde.And so the madness of changing partners begins in the dance of love.

Siamis said, "e;Your young friend Liere is not going to enjoy the trap she's walking into, I fear. But you figured that out, did you not? Why didn't she listen to you?"e; "e;To snap her fingers under your nose,"e; Senrid retorted. "e;Irresistible."e; Siamis smiled gently. "e;But it's going to cost."e; Fifteen-year-old Senrid is newly king of the difficult warrior kingdom Marloven Hess . . . just in time to lose it, and find himself running for his life with two kids who once were his enemies. When Senrid is captured he overhears a secret - one he can use against the enemy, if he can get to the right place at the right time. Now the enemy is from Norsunder, in the form of a charismatic, handsome man named Siamis who can read minds, and who enchants people just by talking to them. Liere has always known she was special, which just increased her loneliness and sense of isolation. She can hear others' thoughts, and she senses the real emotions below the facade. When a golden-haired man named Siamis comes to her village and enchants the entire town around her, she finds herself on the run. Liere and Senrid couldn't be more different, but their goal is the same, to locate the powerful magic that will unravel Siamis's world enchantment. Chased by powerful enemies, Liere and Senrid are tested to the max as they form an alliance of kids to aid them, and gain magical support from surprising sources. Neither ever expected to discover something even more powerful than magic: friendship. First written when Sherwood Smith was fifteen, this is the story of how Senrid and Liere first met.

Welcome back to Las Anclas, a frontier town in the post-apocalyptic Wild West. In this perilous landscape, a schoolboy can create earthquakes, poisonous cloud vipers flock in the desert skies, and the beaches are stalked by giant mind-controlling lobsters.The tyrant king Voske has been defeated, but all is not peaceful in Las Anclas. Ross's past comes back to haunt him, Jennie struggles with her new career, Mia faces her fears, Felicite resorts to desperate measures to keep her secrets, Kerry wonders if Las Anclas has really seen the last of her father, and shy Becky Callahan may hold the key to a dangerous mystery.In Rebel, long-held secrets of past and present are revealed, family ties can strangle as well as sustain, and the greatest peril threatening Las Anclas comes from inside its walls.

In March 1305, a group of Australians and Americans arrive in medieval France. To be precise, they arrive in the Languedoc, near a village called Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert.The scientists want to save the world. Dr Artemisia Wormwood wants to save her sister. If she joins the time-travellers as their historian, her pay would cover treatment that might give her sister life.Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert is a desert of souls. Village, monastery, pilgrimage path, and legend; that's all there is. Perfect for scientists who have promised their work will not interfere with history. Those scientists have nine months and a dedication that defies reason. They won't tell Artemisia about their research. They don't want to hear her explanations about the world around them and about its people. Some of the scientists don't even want her there. Who needs an historian when the village looks like a gamer's dream? The villagers are disturbed by the strangers. Most of the strangers don't really care.Prepare for a bumpy ride with bad coffee.

Welcome to the post-apocalyptic frontier town ofA Las Anclas, where the sheriff possesses superhuman strength, the doctor can warp time to heal his patients, and the distant ruins bristle with deadly crystal trees. In the deserts outside of town, teenage prospector Ross Juarez's best find ever - an ancient book he doesn't know how to read - nearly costs him his life when a bounty hunter is set on him to kill him and steal the book. Ross barely makes it to Las Anclas, bringing with him a precious artifact, a power no one has ever had before, and a whole lot of trouble.Originally published by Viking (2014)REVIEWS:"e;...The five dynamic narrators and action-packed plot deliver thrills while slyly undermining genre cliches. A first-rate page turner that leaves its own compelling afterimage."e; -Kirkus, Starred Review

First published as two books--Once a Princess, and Twice a Prince--this romantic fantasy has been revised and published as one book. It is set in the same world as Crown Duel, to which Sasha's mother, Sun, was once swept away by a real prince.But not to happily ever after. Her prince vanished, and a wicked king took the throne. Since then, Sasha and Sun have been hiding on Earth, both training in martial arts until Sasha is tricked into going back to Khanerenth. She's more than ready to kick some bad-guy butt, but is the stylish pirate Zathdar the bad guy? Or artistic, dreamy Prince Jehan, son of the wicked king? Meanwhile Sun is determined to cross worlds to save her daughter. She might not have been a very good princess, but nobody messes with Mom!

The best-laid plans, even of princesses, can go awry...very, very awry.Seventeen-year-old Saraid of Thekla is on her way to marry the ruler of far-off Mauburni. But she's not sobbing into her silk-curtained litter at the thought of leaving home, because she has plans-and The Book. She's studied this ancient treatise on the art of kingship for months to make herself the ideal queen for her adopted country. Once her new husband sees that, he'll fall madly in love with her. It will all be perfect. She knows it.But The Book is silent on what to do when one's journey across a cursed desert wasteland is halted by a mysterious young warlord. Cadel has plans of his own-plans that don't include her going to Mauburni. As she begins to unravel his secrets, Saraid will have to lay aside The Book and trust her own wisdom-and her heart-to navigate the treacherous shoals of politics and power and become the queen she yearns to be.

An escaped cannibal, a family curse ... and Reginald Worcester turning up on the doorstep. Could things get any worse for the Baskerville-Smythe family?As the bodies pile up, only a detective with a rare brain - and Reggie's is so rare it's positively endangered - can even hope to solve the case. But... there is the small matter that most of the guests aren't who they say they are, the main suspect has cloven feet, and a strange mist hangs over great Grimdark Mire. Luckily the young master has Reeves, his automaton valet, and Emmeline, his suffragette fiancee, on hand to assist.REVIEWS:"e;Jeeves and Wooster meet (or run face-first into) Holmes and Watson with a touch of steampunk in the hilarious first full-length Reeves and Worcester tale ... This laugh-out-loud parody works on several levels ... With razor-sharp wit and fast pacing that plays fair with the reader, this is an excellent genre mash-up that fires on all cylinders."e; - Publishers Weekly

"A fun blend of P.G. Wodehouse, steampunk and a touch of Sherlock Holmes. Dolley is a master at capturing and blending all these elements. More than fascinating, this work is also rip-roaring fun!" - SF RevuIt's 1903. An augmented Queen Victoria sits on the throne. Automata are a common sight below stairs. And all that stands between the Empire and a touch of unpleasantness is Reginald Worcester, gentleman's consulting detective, and his automaton valet Reeves.The book contains four adventures - a short novel, two novellas and the novelette that started it all - the WSFA Award finalist, What Ho, Automaton!What Ho, Automaton!Something Rummy This way ComesReggiecideThe Aunt ParadoxImmerse yourself in mysteries that only a detective with a rare brain - and Reggie's is amongst the rarest - could possibly solve. Missing debs, stolen time machines, re-animated regicides, and Promethean pigs. But can Reggie save the day and remain single? And can the giant steam-powered brain of Reeves, his valet, continue to curb the young master's excessive flights of fancy? "Dolley got me to laugh out loud near the end. Which, frankly, is VERY hard to do. Dolley's tone is spot on Wodehouse and the steampunk elements tie into both plot and silliness admirably." - Gail Carriger, author of Soulless

New York Times bestsellerAnimals behaving badly, other people's misfortunes and the most bizarre true crime story ever. International bestseller, French Fried, is the unfortunately true account of Chris Dolley's first eight months in France and has been described as 'A Year in Provence with Miss Marple and Gerald Durrell.Just when Chris and Shelagh think nothing more could possibly go wrong, they discover that Chris's identity has been stolen and their life savings - all the money from their house sale in England that was going to finance their new life in France - had disappeared. A bank account had been opened in Chris's name in Spain to take the proceeds. Then they're abandoned by the police forces of four countries who all insist the crime belongs in someone else's jurisdiction. The French say it's an Irish crime as that's where the money was held. The Irish say it's French as that's where all the correspondence came from. The British say it's nothing to do with them even though forged British passports were used to open the bank account in Spain. And the Spanish are on holiday - and can't even think about investigating any bank account for at least four weeks. So Chris has to solve the crime himself. But unlike fictional detectives he has an 80 year-old mother-in-law and an excitable puppy who insist they come along if he's going anywhere interesting - like a stakeout.