Venice is everything you've ever heard.

Well, sort of. For instance, if you hear Venice and imagine a city of broad piazzas and narrow alleyways, you've got the right idea. But if you then go on to envision yourself walking through the alleys and suddenly stopping, seeing men in black robes, bearing knives that gleam in the moonlight and even now ( Read more... )

Plot bunny: Iceland goes fascist and evil. Why Iceland? Because, simply, no one would expect it. Like all the post-Viking nations, it's a socialist semi-utopia, with citizens that display a Tolkienesque obsession with genealogy, a GDP per capita at purchasing-power-parity that is sixth to none, and one of the largest geothermal heating systems the ( Read more... )

I think an interesting novel would be one in which Catherine of Aragon gave birth to a healthy son, instead of a healthy daughter. Because it would be a ridiculously simple and plausible change in the way the world worked out (unlike, say, Charles Lindberg running for President), but could completely change the course of Western history. No ( Read more... )