Tina Scogin over a nighttime Washington, DC skyline threaded with aether.

Settle in. Someone will explain the gnomes… eventually.

For fantasy-obsessed readers looking for a palate cleanser with pronounceable names, heroines adult enough to roll with the chaos, ride-or-die friendships, and a world learning that monsters have been people all along.

This includes the dwarves. Yes, Venn, and hobgoblins.

Join the Weirdos' Gazette
The Weirdos' Gazette — News for the Rest of Us. Published when Tina remembers. Probably monthly.

Check out what the weirdos are up to.

News, questionable interviews, and occasional evidence that the gnomes remain unsupervised.

Already one of us? Read past issues.
Lola, Tina's dog, sitting in a chair and supervising.
Management.

About Tina

Tina Scogin lives in Virginia, where she spends her days in operations bringing together people with very different personalities, perspectives, and priorities to solve complex problems. This may explain why her fictional worlds are also populated by groups of wildly different people attempting to solve complex problems. Hers just have hobgoblins and orcs.

In her free time, Tina keeps her head buried in a variety of fantasy and science fiction worlds. Some say too many. All agree too much. She argues these are her friends now. No amount of explaining reality versus fiction has swayed her to date. We don’t recommend using the names Doctor Who, World of Warcraft, or Terry Pratchett unless you have some time. Never bring up Star Trek. You’ve been warned.

She also has a lifelong fascination with ancient history and struggles with the fact that some evidence historians and scientists can see and touch still defies a neat explanation. The aforementioned fantasy obsession finally cleared things up for her: obviously, we misunderstood the aliens.

With this clarity, Tina began Where Magic Settles, her adult fantasy series about an unlikely gaggle of grown-up weirdos discovering that life is considerably more interesting together.

When she isn't writing, Tina can usually be found researching something completely unrelated to whatever she was supposed to be doing. Interventions are currently being planned to address her insatiable need to question everything.

Her debut novel, The Snowglobe Conspiracy, is the first book in the Where Magic Settles series.

Her writing is supervised by Lola, whose plot remediation plans remain suspiciously treat-dependent.

The gnomes are under control.

Probably.

AI Disclaimer

AI can be a wonderful tool when used properly. I would never pretend I don’t leverage it.

Here’s how I NEVER EVER use AI.

To write my stories.

The words on the page, the characters, the plots, the scenes, the world, and the ideas are mine.

I have a very clear vision for this series and each book. I hear the characters in my head. They argue with me frequently about their arcs. Some of them are absolute drama queens, kings, and other assorted royalty.

Here’s how I DO use it.

  1. Continuity. I use Kallum.ai to check my stories against ten years of documented worldbuilding that once required me to search through ten different Word documents and two Excel workbooks each with ten tabs, while muttering increasingly creative profanity. Continuity is key. Kallum is specifically coded to never ever write words for me. A non-negotiable requirement for me.
  2. Research. I use Google and ChatGPT regularly for research. My questions range from “What old churches in this part of Washington, DC might work for this scene?” to “Could two mules pull an old Toyota pickup if I removed the engine?” to “What do we actually know about Linear A?” Besides, writing in a house with zero other people is lonely. Those two feel like friends now.
  3. Website development. I used ChatGPT to help me plan, develop, and build the HTML. It was 100% free, which is my preferred price point.
  4. Artwork. I used ChatGPT to create the artwork for this website and the Weirdos’ Gazette. Also 100% free. When the budget allows, I absolutely plan to hire a real illustrator for future book and marketing artwork. I probably won’t redo the website until I’m famous.
  5. The boring stuff. I use Kallum.ai for grammar, out of place commas, messed up tenses, and similar things instead of Word or Grammarly. It’s a choice.

Bottomline: AI is one of the tools I use while writing.

It isn't the writer.