James Mills from the fantasy e-zine The Arcanist has posted a new, in-depth review of King of the Forgotten Darkness over on his website, and it's very insightful. James is a true writer at heart, and has understood a great deal of what I was going for with this first installment of the Raven's Tale. "You can read this book for surface level enjoyment, and you’ll have a great time. Soo too can you read in deeper and see a plethora of intentional mythological and psychological

On The Drowned Kingdom Saga, the craft of writing Fantasy, and how every author invests themselves into their writing Hey Imaginarians! A special treat for you on this super busy July weekend. I had the special privilege of welcoming author P. L. Stuart to the Imaginarium for a fantastic discussion not only on his outstanding indie fantasy series, The Drowned Kingdom Saga, but on many other fascinating topics. P. L. is, like myself, an author with a story to tell--he has been

In early June, I joined biologist Robert Prinz at the 13th annual Code Biology Conference in Portugal--I was zoomed in (unfortunately I couldn't make it to be there in person--sad face!). Anyway, for years, there has been debate among Jungian scholars as to how much of a contribution biology actually makes to the concept of the archetype. While it's important not to reduce the experience of an archetype to this or that biological mechanism, at the same time, there is a LOT of

Elves, dwarves, Moranth, Minotaurs, Tieflings…fairies, “fae”, dragon-kin…so what is all this stuff really about? And hey gang, welcome back to the Imaginarium. I got lots of dreams, fantasy, and the mind stuff for you as always. So, as you all are aware by now, I like to show how dreams and all their interesting mysteries are connected very much to both mental health, AND to popular fantasy fiction, although fantasy fiction has for a long time now gotten the reputation for be

All right imaginarians, Dr. G here, so wanted to share a couple of things going on this week and later this month. United Public Radio Network! So this thursday, at 610pm EST, I will be the guest on the United Public Radio Network 107.7FM! We will be discussing dreams and how to make sense of them, and this is not coming from astrology or crystals or tarot–although I’m not really opposed to such things–but from dream science as well as clinical work. I’ve been a psychiatrist

P. L. Stuart, author of the Drowned Kingdom Saga (a book I've reviewed before, check that out here: https://youtu.be/jsLgqEj78eU?si=nCpkDCvWAv1ax5MJ Paul is a fascinating guy and he and I discuss (in non-spoiler fashion), the deeper mysteries of my novel King of the Forgotten Darkness: a Raven's Tale Fantasy. It was an immense pleasure to speak with Paul, and I definitely will be inviting him to discuss A Drowned Kingdom on The Imaginarium, so stay tuned for that real soon. C

So, I recently posted a short video about the ‘damsel-in-distress’ trope, and I was griping about how it seems as though Hollywood thinks that this comes from fairytales. And of course, the problem with this trope is that when its in a story, the female character is essentially a treated like a prop. She has very little agency, and mainly is just a pretty prize for the male character to win through various adventures. That’s obviously not great storytelling and more than a li

So, I have done a few book signings since the release of King of the Forgotten Darkness last year, and one question I’ve gotten is whether or not my book is “like Fourth Wing”? At the time I was like, well…I dunno. I looked up what it was about–a dragon rider college mixed with enemies-to-lovers romance with quite a bit of spice. What could go wrong? Not only that, but Fourth Wing is incredibly popular, I think there’s talk of a TV show or movie, I dunno. That said, it’s also

DREAMS, NIGHTMARES, AND THE IMAGINATION In this podcast over at James Cussen's "The Living Philosophy" podcast, I return to James' channel and we have a fun time discussing ways to understand the meaning of dreams and how best to explain them. After our last podcast, James picked up my book Understanding Dreams and Other Spontaneous Images: the Invisible Storyteller, and well, let's just say, James had questions! So sit back, tune in and have a listen while we discuss the dee

Hey Imaginarians and fellow misfit toys, I just had an interview with The Statesman of MSN.com , where I talk about the importance of mythic fantasy in psychological healing and transformation. The original article can be found here: https://www.msn.com/en-us/society-culture-and-history/books-and-literature/reclaiming-the-soul-author-erik-goodwyn-on-healing-trauma-through-mythic-fantasy/ar-AA1YRnre?fbclid=IwY2xjawQnw7dleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFhSDRINDhiWDNVVmhqREllc3J0YwZhcHBfa

Obsessed with Death, Fantasy, Dreams, and More! So, this week, I discuss death, dying, the mind, and ritual with Rob on the "Obsessed with Death" podcast--click HERE for more: https://podcasts.apple.com/no/podcast/when-the-dead-visit-our-dreams/id1478296198?i=1000755367378 . Rob and I cover a lot in this episode, including: Why modern Western culture has largely lost meaningful death rituals How traditional grief rituals help people move from overwhelming grief to “integrated

It's book review time! So this month I am reviewing A Drowned Kingdom by P.L. Stuart--a somewhat divisive beginning to an epic fantasy series that blends elements of medieval chivalric adventure tales and modern political fantasy to make a tale about Othrun, second Prince of Atalantyx. Othrun is a consummate knight, honorable, noble, and skilled...but also bigoted, sexist, and racist. Hence the divisiveness! In other words, Second Prince Othrun is kind of a jerk, but also wi

Greetings Imaginarians, Soul Journeyers and Fellow Misfit Toys! Please join me in welcoming award winning fantasy and science fiction author Janny Wurts. If you don't know who Janny Wurts is, she is a very prolific writer who wrote To Ride Hell's Chasm , which I reviewed recently on my YT and TikTok channel, but she is SO much more than that. Janny is not only a professional author, she is a professional painter as well, and she has had an incredibly rich journey throughout h

Back in 2020, I and Dr. Jessica Reis published a paper on the importance of teaching psychiatric residents dream interpretation, and you can email me if you want a copy of that paper, but turns out there is a lot of literature on how important dream work really is–and yet despite that, most institutions don’t have a dedicated course in it. Why is that? And what is the problem here? Let’s get into it! Why Don't We Teach More About Dreams? So, with only a few exceptions, why do

Today’s post is for all you writers out there, or fantasy lovers who just love to talk story and storytelling. I’m going to share a scene-structure technique that I’ve developed over the years of my own writing journey. No, I’m not a best-selling author or anything (yet), but I hope you’ll at least find it interesting. Dreams and Carl Jung's 'analytical psychology' So in this book, the Chidren’s Dreams seminar, the famous psychoanalyst Carl Jung, in his prime at the time duri

So, I finished Philip Chase’s Edan Trilogy and I have thoughts - quite a few of them! So, if you don’t know, the Edan trilogy was written by Philip Chase, a professor of English Studies. So, he is an expert on Old English literature as well as other works such as the Icelandic Sagas, Irish and Welsh myths. Given that I've read a LOT of that material, although I am not an expert in it like he is, we nevertheless have a lot in common since we're also both major fantasy nerds.

What if you slept And what if In your sleep You dreamed And what if In your dream You went to heaven And there plucked a strange and beautiful flower And what if When you awoke You had that flower in you hand Ah, what then? So this poem by Coleridge, written in 1834, expresses a common theme in fantasy (and sci-fi and horror) stories - the distinction between imagination and reality. What is the boundary, and is it as hard and rigid as we commonly think it is? The Boundary So

Hey Imaginarians! Especially to all my subscribers interested in creative writing and fantasy fiction, I have a special treat for you today: an interview with Filipa Roque of Fantasy Wordsmith! Filipa is a professional developmental editor and beta reader, and she has graciously agreed to share her insights with us today! Meet Filipa Roque: The Fantasy Wordsmith Hi Imaginarians and all subscribers of this talented author. I am a Portuguese fantasy fanatic with a degree in the

Greetings Imaginarians! Some news for you--I have another book signing coming up on November 15th at the Elizabethtown, KY Barnes & Noble. I will be there signing copies of King of the Forgotten Darkness from 1pm - 5pm, come one come all! If you get a chance, I'd love to meet and greet. Next up, I just posted a new podcast discussion on my Youtube channel, the Imaginarium. This one is with fantasy author and professor of English literature, Philip Chase. Be sure to hop over t

No doubt you’ve heard about the standard choices, first person present or past tense, third person limited, third person omniscient, and all that. So, if you’re a writer, which one do you choose? Do you just go with “well, I’ll just pick this one because it just feels right”. What are we a bunch of hippies? No, if you’re going to pick a POV, you should know what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and what the tradeoffs are. If you're new here, welcome to the Imaginarium! I’m