Need Strength for the Winter? Read This Russian Poem. (Writing Prompt Included.)

Photo by Pawel Kadysz

Forget “Winter is Coming.” In Novosibirsk, it’s here. The golden leaves that made this past month so gorgeous have peaked and fallen, and street cleaners have already raked them up into sacks and hauled them away. On Wednesday we had our first snow. Granted, it’s not a real Siberian winter yet — we still have … Read more

RUSALKA by C. J. Cherryh

Rusalka (1989) is a fantasy novel by C. J. Cherryh that reworks Russian folklore into an alternate history of the Kievan Rus’. Sasha Misurov, a young and untrained wizard, and Pyetr Kochevikov, a drinking/gambling/screwing around “scoundrel” who doesn’t believe in magic, are forced out of their hometown of Vojvoda after one of Pyetr’s illicit affairs … Read more