Welcome to The Lingual Fantast, a Writer's Blog

Way back in 2018, I found myself standing in a tiled shower in Vietnam, bawling like a baby. My writing was going nowhere. I felt like I had no future — like I'd squandered my past.

By saner measures, I perhaps ought to have felt like I was thriving. But nothing I had was enough. I didn't just want to scrape by — I wanted to feast. I was chasing perfection. I expected my efforts to reward me with a vague, billionnaire joy. It never came.

Failure is revelatory. When I think of that day in the shower, I still get chills. Strange, that those struggles as a writer ultimately brought me here.

Because of all things, this is a blog.

An austere hygiene cell from the grim darkness of the 3rd millennium. Not the same tiled shower I refer to above, but I promise you it was just as weepable.

The Lingual Fantast and Me: a Blog and a Writer

Forgive the in media res introduction. That moment was important in my life. I came very close to giving up on writing. That was one of many days I swore I'd get two part-time jobs and close the proverbial book on writing fiction.

I'll tell you what changed, one of these days. But first, let's do us a proper introduction, shall we?

I'm Noah Van Nguyen. You may know me as a writer of fiction for Black Library, the tie-in publisher for Warhammer: Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000. If you've stumbled onto this blog by brighter paths, just know that I've written stories set in two popular grimdark universes. Check them out using the links at the bottom of the page. If you like languages, fantasy, or anything I discuss on this blog, I daresay you'll like my work, too.

This website is The Lingual Fantast, my writer's blog. The name comes from my vast affection for languages, worldbuilding, storytelling, and arcane naming conventions. Here we'll discuss fantasy, science fiction, life experience — and honestly, whatever we feel like talking about.

The way I see it, that will probably include a lot of the following:

• Languages, and especially languages in stories. I've devoted a lot of my adult life to learning foreign languages. In the process, I like to think I came to understand some of the system and spirit of language. Tolerate my pontifications, if you will.

• Worldbuilding. If you've read my work, you know I love building worlds. (What fan of science fiction and fantasy doesn't?) We'll have plenty of opportunities to discuss how I've approached worldbuilding for my Warhammer novels.

• Writing and storytelling craft. I'm an informally trained writer who learned things as he went. I'll share the things I've learned and ask for your thoughts as well.

• Shorts and writing exercises. I often compose shorts as a writing exercise, so I'll publish those here. I'll also leave some commentary on them: what I think works and why — or what doesn't work and why — and so on.

To keep things interesting, I'll also throw some other topics into the mix:

• Personal stories and introspection. This is what blogs are all about, right?

• Politics, when appropriate. I pay close attention to politics and often wonder if things could be better. Wonder with me.

Eventually, I'm going to self-publish serialized stories here and elsewhere. If you like what I've written for Warhammer, I encourage you to take a shot at those when they're available. My long-term vision is to grow a sustainable career out of writing. This is part of that vision.

And finally, Reader, my promise: This blog will be minimalist. You won't see programmatic ads in the website's banners. If you sign on for newsletters, I won't spam you with news of every release unless you opt in.*

*As soon as I figure out how to configure that stuff.

Point is this: If we're going to share this time, let's keep it authentic. Consider this blog a campfire in the dark woods, like one of those Web 1.0 websites from the early '00s.

So shed your pack, spread your roll. Gather round and let the fire warm your feet. If you've got some time and interest, take a look at the links in the page footer to see what I've written and what others think of it.

Hell. Maybe you'll even think it's worth checking out.