Russell Hirsch

Last post, I dove into an investigation of Middle Grade fantasy word counts using a random selection of novels from my own shelf. The...

If you’re an over-writer like me, you probably agonize over word counts. If you’re an under-writer, you probably also agonize over word...

Great writing has two main components: The “storytelling” component — big, structural things, like an exciting plot, good pacing, and...

Today, we continue to unravel that most dreaded of all fantasy writing phenomena… EXPOSITION! Oh, so messy… Writers know that getting...

Exposition. Few words strike more fear into writers. Not exposition! Noooooo! Exposition is the explanatory stuff within a story. The...

Ten years ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing a great Canadian children’s author who described his books as full of “running and...

Come with me and delve into the deep, dark woods of William Ritter‘s magical middle grade fantasy, The Oddmire, Book I: Changeling....

Happy Hallow-week! With leaves falling, fireworks flaring, and pumpkins grinning, I’m very excited to welcome booktuber Emily of Page...

Six years of silence. Magic as dark as black swan feathers. Sacrifice, struggle, and the interweaving of worlds. Today Storythreads hosts...

The Civil War meets dinosaurs in Daniel José Older’s new Middle Grade novel, Dactyl Hill Squad. You heard that right. Civil War +...

Today, we’re diving back in time to 17th-century Prague! Getting historical? We’re getting there through the historical fantasy novel...

As a kid growing up in the Harry Potter generation, I devoured fantasy novels—and since a new HP book only landed on the shelf every two...

Happy Canada Day! This July, I highlight underrated Canadian fantasy novels for kids, especially those from decades past that still stand...

***Onward, there be spoilers!*** Although the series is beloved first and foremost for its powerful and deep-feeling heroines, a central...

Last month, master storyteller Philip Pullman, published The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage, marking a return to the world of His Dark...

Happy New Year to all! We have reached the 10th and final stage of a hero’s journey plot line and a fitting stage it is for January 1st...

Huzzah! We have reached the Climax, the grand hurrah, the big shebang, a moment so exciting that only funny-sounding words can express...

The beginning of THE END! We enter the third and final phase of a hero’s journey plot line. Act 3 Propelling Event Climax (aka Death &...

As I see it, there is no conflict between science and religion, or at least, between science and spirituality. And stories—especially the...