How can I be more innovative in my writing? One time-honored way used by artists of all kinds is exploring and borrowing from other genres.
“This is one of the things that I think is just about as important as it could be. Because a lot of the time when you’re creating an innovation in an art form, what you’re doing is borrowing from another art form,” says New York Times best-selling author, Carlos Hernandez in this excerpt from a recent workshop with award-winning author, C.S.E. Cooney.
C. S. E. Cooney (she/her) is a two-time World Fantasy Award-winning author: for novel Saint Death’s Daughter, and collection Bone Swans, Stories. Other work includes The Twice-Drowned Saint, Dark Breakers, and Desdemona and the Deep. Forthcoming in 2025 is Saint Death’s Herald, second in the Saint Death Series. As a voice actor, Cooney has narrated over 120 audiobooks, and short fiction for podcasts like Uncanny Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Tales to Terrify, and Podcastle. In March 2023, she produced her collaborative sci-fi musical, Ballads from a Distant Star, at New York City’s Arts on Site. (Find her music at Bandcamp under Brimstone Rhine.) Forthcoming from Outland Entertainment is the GM-less TTRPG Negocios Infernales (“the Spanish Inquisition… INTERRUPTED by aliens!”), co-designed with her husband, writer and game-designer Carlos Hernandez. Find her website and Substack newsetter via her Linktree or try “csecooney” on various social media platforms.
New York Times Bestselling author Carlos Hernandez is the author of The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria, Sal and Gabi Break the Universe (which won the Pura Belpré award in 2019), and Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe, along with many short stories, poems, and works of drama. By day, Carlos is a CUNY Professor of English and a game designer and enthusiast. He is co-creating a TTRPG game, Negocios Infernales, with C. S. E. Cooney. Find him on socials @writeteachplay
