Short Archive
Sometimes I just want a short, text-based archive rather than the thumbnail archive that Substack gives by default. In case anyone else’s like me, I’ve made this.
This needs to be kept up to date manually, so it’ll sometimes be slightly out of date.
2025
Storytelling, Prophecy, and Character Agency - April 19, 2025
The Battle of Lexington and Concord - April 12, 2025
Short Reviews for April 2025 - April 5, 2025
The Standard Fantasy Setting and the Tradition of Inspiration - March 29, 2025
Liberty or Death: The Last Speech Before War - March 22, 2025
Short Reviews for March 2025 - March 15, 2025
It’s Been Two and a Half Years - March 9, 2025
Timekeeping As We Wish It - March 8, 2025
Solution Unsatisfactory, Part One and Part Two - February 22 - March 1, 2025
The Spanish-American War - February 15, 2025
Short Reviews for February 2025 - February 8, 2025
Parliament’s Missed Chance for Peace - February 1, 2025
Fixing-up the sci-fi short story - January 25, 2025
The Louisiana Purchase - January 18, 2025
Short Reviews for January 2025 - January 11, 2025
Historical Fiction Pre-Spoiled by History - January 4, 2025
2024
Ideas about Reforming Copyright - December 28, 2024
Medieval mystery plays and church dramas - December 21, 2024
The Portsmouth Powder Alarm and Battle - December 14, 2024
Short Reviews for December 2024 - December 7, 2024
The Disconnected Quests of Oz - November 30, 2024
The Building Blocks of My Imagination - November 23, 2024
Short Reviews for November 2024 - November 16, 2024
Teaching to Read Whole Books - November 9, 2024
A Tale of a Lost Heir - November 2, 2024
Luther and the Spark of the Reformation - October 26, 2024
Short Reviews for October 2024 - October 19, 2024
Across the Divide: What It Means to Be American (guest post) - October 12, 2024
A Lawful Insurrection: The Massachusetts Provincial Congress - October 5, 2024
Robots, Three Laws, and the Art of the Short Story - September 28, 2024
Failing like Tolkien in Constant Revisions - September 28, 2024
The Birth of the Bill of Rights - September 21, 2024
Short Reviews for September 2024 - September 14, 2024
It’s Been Two Years - September 8, 2024
Cold Equations, Cold Awakening - September 7, 2024
The First Continental Congress - August 31, 2024
Pirates in the Gaps - August 24, 2024
Short Reviews for August 2024 - August 17, 2024
Life as Part of a Story - August 10, 2024
Railroads and Technology in the Civil War - August 3, 2024
How Not To Make Up A War - July 27, 2024
Short Reviews for July 2024 - July 20, 2024
The Tragedy of the French Revolution - July 13, 2024
Historical Fiction Entering into History - July 6, 2024
How the American Revolution Wasn't a Revolution - June 29, 2024
Short Reviews for June 2024 - June 22, 2024
Tuning the Morals and Economy of the Shire - June 15, 2024
The Glorious Revolution, Part One and Part Two - June 1-8, 2024
An Attempt at Cuckoos - May 25, 2024
Short Reviews for May 2024 - May 18, 2024
Why the Founders Founded DC - May 11, 2024
AI and Storytelling - May 4, 2024
The Road Often Taken - April 27, 2024
Short Reviews for April 2024 - April 20, 2024
The Assassination of President Lincoln - April 13, 2024
In Memoriam: Vernor Vinge - April 6, 2024
Shakespeare and Tragedy in Light of Easter - March 30, 2024
Short Reviews for March 2024 - March 23, 2024
The History of Copyright - March 16, 2024
Columbus Turning the Tiller of History - March 9, 2024
It's been a year and a half - March 8, 2024
Friendship as Strong Reality - March 2, 2024
Short Reviews for February 2024 - February 24, 2024
Wikiwalking in Roman Schools - February 17, 2024
Against Elleman on Japanese Internment - February 10, 2024
Offstage Villains and Telling a Balanced Story - February 3, 2024
Short Reviews for January 2024 - January 27, 2024
Medieval Historical Fantasy - January 20, 2024
The Short Fairy-Tale - January 13, 2024
Framing the Reconstruction Amendments - January 6, 2024
2023
Short Reviews for December 2023 - December 30, 2023
Theology in Story December 23, 2023
The Boston Tea Party December 16, 2023
Cross-Country Cutscenes and Dramatic Unity December 9, 2023
The Treaty of Versailles December 2, 2023
Short Reviews for November 2023 November 25, 2023
What Talking Animals Can Say November 18, 2023
When the Guns Fell Silent November 11, 2023
In-Universe Metafiction November 4, 2023
Short Reviews for October 2023 October 28, 2023
In Defense of Reading Whole Books October 21, 2023
What Makes a History Book Good October 14, 2023
Narrators and Perspectives October 7, 2023
The Burr Conspiracy in History and Story September 30, 2023
Short Reviews for September 2023 September 23, 2023
The Spirit of Exploration September 16, 2023
Early-Installment Weirdness September 9, 2023
It's been a year September 8, 2023
The Thin Line Between Science Fiction and Fantasy September 2, 2023
Short Reviews for August 2023 August 26, 2023
Augustus Caesar and the Masquerade of the Republic August 19, 2023
Don’t Deride the Masses August 12, 2023
Goodreads and the Hard Problem of Book Recommendations August 5, 2023
Short Reviews for July 2023 July 29, 2023
The Whiskey Rebellion and the Tensions of the West July 22, 2023
Imagining Traffic Jams In a Far Universe July 15, 2023
Constraints as the Writer's Friend July 8, 2023
The Madness of Yankee Doodle July 1, 2023
Short Reviews for June 2023 June 24, 2023
Emancipation on the Ground Level June 17, 2023
Boston and the Changes of Modernity June 10, 2023
The Late Partial Redemption of Stephen A. Douglas June 3, 2023
Golden Age science fiction May 27, 2023
Short Reviews for May 2023 May 20, 2023
A Modern Kids' Adventure Story May 13, 2023
Paul Revere in the Story of History May 6, 2023
Abandoned Series April 29, 2023
Short Reviews for April 2023 April 22, 2023
How It Allegorically Happened April 15, 2023
Visions Towards Utopia April 8, 2023
Guest Reviews by Hobbits April 1, 2023
Short Reviews for March 2023 March 25, 2023
The Advantages of Fantasy March 18, 2023
Helping Your Protagonist Shine March 11, 2023
It's been six months March 8, 2023
Why Did France Fall? March 4, 2023
Poor Lenses For a Story February 25, 2023
The Election of 1800 February 18, 2023
Short reviews for February February 11, 2023
Some Thoughts on Sequels February 4, 2023
The Kings Who Didn't Do Anything January 28, 2023
Rigging a Thought Experiment January 21, 2023
Memories of Childhood Storytelling & Memories of Childhood Storytelling, Part Two January 7-14, 2023
2022
Transitions in History December 31, 2022
Speculations about a "Last Battle" movie December 24, 2022
Short reviews for December December 17, 2022
Memories of Mid-Century Kids' Books December 10, 2022
Gaps in History December 3, 2022
The Extravagant Details of Biography November 26, 2022
The Story of Thanksgiving As a Story November 19, 2022
Local or Systemic Moral Ambiguity November 12, 2022
Showing Shakespeare's Talent Without Meaning To November 5, 2022
Constantine and his Legacy October 29, 2022
The Smallpox Eradication Campaign October 22, 2022
So Many Worlds, So Few Good Books About Them October 15, 2022
Impure Gold, But Still Gold October 8, 2022
The Giver: A Simple, Cozy Dystopia October 1, 2022
Gangster Government September 24, 2022
Telling the Story of a Social Movement September 17, 2022
The Depths of Middle-Earth September 10, 2022
On Story September 9, 2022