Cori's Corner

I'm Cori Palladium, an author and artist from Missouri. I write books with strong fantasy and sci-fi elements, particularly though the Last Train to Blazes series. I have a love of late 19th and early 20th century history, all things Americana, and of trains, plaines, and autmobiles or anything else that moves.

My favorite books are All Quiet on the Western Front, Cannery Row, Of Mice and Men, the Monk and Robot books. I have taken a lot of influence from Fullmetal Alchemist, as well as the works of pholosophers such as Albert Camus, Jean Baudrillard, Guy Debord, Antonio Gramsci, and Karl Marx.

Politically I consider myself to be a progressive in the tradition of FDR. While I do hope these opinions will show through my literature, I do plan on writing essays that will make more specific policy opinions more clear. I have worked with Marxist organizations in the past, and I consider that to be an experience that lends a lot of credibility to my objections to Marxism. Maybe someday I can write some of that story down.

Last Train to Blazes is a project I started in 2010, originally just for world building and exploring political ideology. Over the years, it turned into a writing project that mostly followes Enya Warden-Ernest, a Chunish civilian worker for her local Militia, and a mother. I take a lot of inspiration from John Steinbeck's work, the very setting and character driven explorations of the conditions of common working people, only I explore these themes through the lens of a fantasy.

The Chunish people are a heavy focus for my work. They are a fantasy race of my own creation. They are smaller than humans, but bigger than halflings, about the height of a dwarf but nowhere near as husky. They are a marginalized minority within greater Republc of Motornin society, and tend to form closely knit communities. They tend to be deeply religous, following their own polytheistic religion. Most chunes are female, and their society is highly matriarchal. They organize along the lines of clans, the last remnants of the old pre republican monarchy. They aren't interested in a new monarchy, only in protecting themselves through robust organization.