“I can resist everything but temptation.”
— Oscar Wilde

I admit to have sinned, in an authorial sense. A story should avoid anything that draws a reader out of the narrative. Each word should immerse. Nothing should remind that this is but a book full of ink symbols, rather than a dazzling mind adventure.

Fantasy stories whisk the reader even further from reality. It’s even more critical nothing should puncture the world-building bubble. For this reason, what I’ve done in my new epic fantasy...