Roderick T. Macdonald's Blog
August 23, 2026
The Red Palace: What it is and who it’s for. Today’s version, anyway!
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! (And my bot visitors!) Finished The Red Palace again today. How many times have I finished it since I last wrote that I’d finished it here? Not sure. It has been two full editorial passes and a rewritten ending, at least. I’ve done those recently. I want to …
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July 21, 2026
The Overdue Admission of Literary post-tention. A.K.A. “Oh yeah! This is who I am as a writer.”
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! I was chatting with a friend recently, about writing, and genre, and realized something. I write (mildly to moderately) literary fiction in fantasy clothing. Don’t get me wrong, I love fantasy, I live and breathe it, it is, as the kids used to say, my jam. But. When …
June 30, 2026
Stealing our dreams back from the machine
Have machines stolen our dreams? It was a line from a Queensryche song, long ago. Similar enough, anyway. It was hard enough dealing with the human. But of course our current AI is all too human, in design (hallucinations) and use (theft). There are voices in academia, and online, who confidently say every story has …
June 2, 2026
Finishing again, new tools acquired for next time.
I finished The Red Palace (TRP) again today. How many times does a writer finish a book? A lot, in my experience. But I’ve only done this a few times. The attributionless experiment is over, who says what is now clear. More than that, revisions and rewrites have been included, small excisions, small elaborations. I …
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May 5, 2026
Rules and Rebellion: An Attributionist’s Diary
Disclaimer: This was written for my own amusement and is not meant to be taken seriously as writing advice, only my opinion on some writing advice I want to ignore, perhaps because I’m lazy, so I’m going to rationalize my laziness into an act of courageous rebellion. He said guiltily. Just realized I haven’t put …
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April 7, 2026
The Red Palace: 1st Draft Complete
Hi folks. Another crazy day in the multiverse. The Armageddon tango twirls on, ever escalating. So, aside from civilization ending in Iran tonight, what do you have going on? I finished the first draft of The Red Palace over a week ago. Been sitting on it, letting it very briefly rest, because I don’t want …
March 21, 2026
The Armageddon Tango
I must have got to a certain age where the world appears to be ending. I’m in my mid fifties now. Historically older writers often see the end of the world coming as their own mortality marches steadily toward them, mistaking their own end for the end of everything, or to be more charitable, they …
March 10, 2026
Absentee action and the challenge of illogic.
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! I’m back, in a time of war. Of course, on this green earth it is always a time of war. Always. And every New Year we listen to Imagine, and every New Year it seems an impossible dream. Some years more obviously than others. Another war. More children …
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February 28, 2026
January 27, 2026
Blogging or Writing? It’s Writing For Me.
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! In January 2023 I started blogging regularly again, initially spurred by my concerns about AI in writing. You can read them here and here, and see how my concerns match up to where we are three short years later. I haven’t re-read them as I write this column, …
