In our latest episode, we talked about Lagertha, the historical stories of her as a shield maiden who came to Ragnar's rescue *twice*, and the character from the TV show Vikings. If you're interested in our take on how the show Vikings handled Lagertha, give it a listen! linktr.ee/womenoftheno...

One of the simple pleasures of my life was doing the NYT Mini Crossword with friends. Every day we'd share our times, and in these times of stress, it was something I looked forward to doing. Now, the Mini is behind a paywall. Really, NYT? You can't give us that small pleasure?

Good. If your business is built on stolen property, you deserve to lose it. "They've warned that a single lawsuit raised by three authors over Anthropic's AI training now threatens to "financially ruin" the entire AI industry...."

Saying this again: there is a scammer out there targeting newbie authors, claiming I'm one of their clients. They use different names, and I'm already pursuing legal action. But I have never worked with a PR company, editing service, or book packager, so anybody saying so is lying, period full stop.

New podcast episode out! In this one, Johanna and I talked to historian and author Pamela D. Toler @pdtoler.bsky.social about her book Women Warriors: An Unexpected History. Fun fact: there were women warriors all over the world and in many different time periods. linktr.ee/womenofthenorseworld

On the July episode of my podcast, my cohost and I talked to Megan Formanek, author of the Viking Trading Lands series. We discussed her research about women of the Viking Age with a focus on the trade routes through what is now Russia and Ukraine. Plus, a lot more! linktr.ee/womenoftheno...

I’m no computer scientist, but I’m pretty sure that if your AI starts calling itself “MechaHitler” you kill that shit with fire post fucking haste.

Gee, if only we had an entire genre of speculative fiction warning us of this exact scenario for the past century or so. fortune.com/2025/06/29/a...

I definitely needed a video of a Red Panda eating grapes.

😭

Hoarding wealth is a sickness

If you use AI to create your art, your story, your whatever, I immediately know you don’t care about making things — you only care about selling them.

Good for them.

my dudes there's no such thing as "too late" to regulate AI, that's a fake idea. AI models aren't untouchable data gods, they're algorithms hosted in cloud storage. Saying we can't regulate AI is like saying we can't deplatform Child P*rn bc "it's already out there". Like, 1s and 0s can be deleted

Storytellers have been warning us for decades.

Jaws is 50 today! I can speak for many of my generation that seeing Jaws ruined swimming in the ocean for me for a long time! Every time a piece of kelp brushed my leg, I thought for sure it was a shark ready to take me down. 🦈

The tech industry wants you lonely, disconnected, friendless, and utterly dependent on them for information, transportation, employment, entertainment, and emotional engagement. Ask yourself why.

The June episode of my podcast is out! We talked with bestselling author Melanie Karsak! It was a great discussion. We talked about her Vinland to Valhalla series, Freydis Eriksdotter, and about why it's important to her to write strong female heroines. linktr.ee/womenoftheno...

When I dread opening up the file and can't bear to look at it anymore.

#HistFicMay - what book am I going to write? Right now, I'm working on the first book of a trilogy, tentatively titled, The Lost Circle. That's all I'm willing to divulge for now! Fingers crossed, it will be ready for release later this year.

#HistFicMay #writinghabits - favorite time of day to write? Mornings. Maybe not as early as this picture shows, except in the winter when it gets light later. My preferred time to start writing is about 7am. with some breaks until noonish.

#HistFicMay #writinghabits - does my story have a song or playlist? YES! Every book and short story I've written has a specific playlist of songs (or one song) that fit the mood I want. For the book I just finished, I listened a lot to the soundtrack to the show Arcane.

Boo hoo. If your business model doesn't work unless you're stealing from others, then it deserves to die.

New on Substack: tinyurl.com/yeypaau5

#HistFicMay #writinghabits any pictures or items as inspiration? I have a few items, including the Valkyrie figurine, a replica from one found in Denmark and a raven a friend gave me. Then there is my set of LOTR books that I've had since I was in about third grade. Tolkien is always an inspiration.

#HistFicMay #writinghabits where do I write and on what? I am privileged to have my own home office where I write most of the time, and I do most of my writing on a good old-fashioned desktop. When I write by hand with paper and pen, it's usually to jot down notes. The notes are very messy!

Hoarding wealth is still hoarding. Maybe we need to treat it the way we treat any other illness.

#HistFicMay biggest research surprise. I knew the Vikings had traveled widely raiding and trading, especially West. I was surprised by their extensive movement East. Kyiv, Constantinople, even Baghdad! We are learning more and more about the Viking's Eastern route and settlements.

Sounds illegal to me. The U.S. is going to suffer a terrible brain-drain. It's sad.

#HistFicMay research advice for newbies. Be careful about what sources you use, especially getting stuff off random sites on the Internet. And be REALLY careful about using AI for your research. It's often not right. Find academics who have spent their careers studying your time period.

#HistFicMay historian whose work I would be lost without. Neil Price! If you want to know about Viking age magic, then The Viking Way is the book to get. It contains so much information. Children of Ash and Elm is a great all-purpose read. I can't tell you how many times I've referenced his books.

#HistFicMay research gems, part two - if you're interested in learning about the four parts of the Viking soul, check out my podcast with my co-host, author Johanna Wittenberg. We do a deep dive into it!

#HistFicMay - research gems. The Vikings believed there were four parts of the soul. The hamr (physical part of a person), hugr (essence or personality), hamingja (luck) and the fylgja (guardian animal). This grabbed my interest early on and it hasn't let up since!

#HistFicMay - best research trip. A few years ago, I visited Sweden. It wasn't a research trip but I was able to visit the historical island of Birka, located on Lake Malaren near Stockholm. Birka was the site of a bustling Viking town and garrison, so it was exciting for me to be there.

#HistFicMay - historical accuracy, how much matters? This is a BIG question, and I don't have space here to adequately say what I want to say. If you're interested in my thoughts about historical accuracy, sign up for my newsletter. I'll write about this issue in June. ksbarton.com/free-story/

#HistFicMay Day 17 - ever written a character based on yourself? Short answer: no. Most of my characters are based on some part of me. After all, they came out of my head. However, the characters from my 1980s series are much more like me than my Viking characters.

#HistFicMay - favorite secondary character. Turns out I liked my secondary character, Helgi, so much in the Norse Family trilogy that I turned him into the main character in the Helgi the Marked books! Little secret - Helgi was inspired by Ponyboy in The Outsiders.

Why are these authors not disclosing they use AI? Maybe they know deep down it's unethical? I do not use generative AI in my books.

In our May episode, I mentioned a game that Vikings played that I'd included in one of my books. I couldn't remember the name. It's jomswikinger. The participants are blindfolded, try to hit each other with laden sacks, and it's pretty funny! I'm sure this game was (and is) played while drunk.

Generative AI is like a rash, it just keeps popping up where you don't want it, which is everywhere.

The May episode is out! This month we talk about our research and how that is woven into our books. We both love doing research and love talking about it, so it was a fun chat. Since we were simply chatting, the conversation went in some unexpected directions! linktr.ee/womenofthenorseworld

So true! There was no debate that the person buried in that grave in Birka was a warrior until they found out the skeleton was a woman. It's kinda sad how predictable it all turned out to be.

Hate this a lot. Value human creators, writers, artists, narrators, editors -- everyone in the chain of making a book and putting it out into the world should be a human being. Humans make art for humans. P.S. fuck AI -- eat shit, artbarf robots www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...

#HistFicMay Day 13 - antagonist's biggest fear. Like a lot of powerful men, chieftain Harald Olafsson fears losing his power. But he's not the only villain in this trilogy. Astrid and Bjorn must contend with two more and both are a threat to their lives. Enemies are in every corner.

😆

#HistFicMay - protagonists greatest fear. Astrid fears a Viking attack, and I don't blame her! She fears this because it will tear her family apart. Her fears are not only that raiders will attack her home but that her father, brothers, and other loved ones will not make it back from their battles.

So much for copyright protection.

#HistFicMay Day 9 - antagonist. In my Norse Family trilogy, the antagonist is Harald Olafsson, the uncle to Astrid and foster father to my male protagonist, Bjorn. Harald is a nasty, brutish, controlling Viking warlord. He's the most stereotypical Viking in all of my books!

I agree! It's an excellent book.