After completing Security Audit and Warrant’s Execution, I turned my attention to the final story of the month for my patrons, a tale of science fiction. Shortly after pulling the results of the genre poll I sat down and came up with the rough idea for all three stories, granted I abandoned the initial idea, but when I was ready to work on the final seed, a previous story of the Drifter’s crew flew into my mind, and competed with a story from Firefly...

With Security Audit finished, I turned my attention to the second story for my patrons, a mystery. When I sat down to create the prompts for all three stories, I originally wanted to go down one direction, but after the alteration of Security Audit’s ending, I revisited the first prompt I had for this mystery. So instead of an unconnected tale, I chose to highlight the tail end of Kyle Rickman’s investigation. While I could have detailed the entire process, I bypassed the actual investigation, which would have been a little dry, and focus on an interaction with the primary suspect...

A couple of years ago, I logged into my KDP portal and explored the system, searching for a way to retrieve a manuscript. I needed to do that because I’d lost it a long time ago. Thankfully, my search proved useful, and I scrapped the contents of the kindle edition several pages at a time. However, instead of trying to create a hardcover edition, the grammatical and structural issues looming over me depressed me. At that moment, I knew I needed to redraft the book, but I didn’t know how I was going to accomplish that, so it languished in the back of my mind for some time...

After completing Delivery and Resupply, I turned my attention to the last story for my patrons, a horror tale. While I didn’t know what kind of story I would craft, I knew the character who would help me explore this upcoming narrative. While I’m lucky to have fallen into this character, thankfully, I’ve fallen into a wonderful one when I penned Open House. Despite not naming him in that installment, the next time I needed to write a horror story, he jumped to the front of the line and, by his third story, he warranted a name...

With Delivery finished, I turned my attention to the second genre selected by my patrons, a historical fiction. The moment I found this genre amongst the top three for the month, my mind started whirling, seeking to find a story to explore the world of my dragon riders, such as Solomon. Despite grounding this series inside America’s past, specifically the late 1800s, I’ve injected some color by weaving both magic and dragons into the narratives. While these allow me to leverage some flair and a slight shading of the historical norms, I try to lean into the history...

With yet another fresh start, I’ve mostly followed my schedule, and that’s only because the first Patreon exclusive was delayed by a couple of days. While I still have a long way to go to juggle all the things I’m trying to keep afloat, this early success gives me hope that I’ll be able to get there provided I improve a little each day. However, with that said, let us turn to the topic at hand, the Drama for my patrons...

It has been far too long since I’ve posted an update to my stories over at WattPad. However, a simple to-do list uncovered extra time buried deep inside my hectic days. And with that discovery, I took hold of those precious minutes and dove into the latest installment in my Mounting Tensions series. Luckily, revisiting the storyline revealed both unexpected progress paired with major holes in the brief story. It’s strange to be ahead and behind, but armed with my to-do list, my overactive imagination, and a determination to resume work on these stories, I completed the final editing rounds to complete the tale while also propelling the larger narrative of the series...

With both of Darren Gilbert’s tales, Wanderer and Successor, finished, I turned my attention to the last story of the month, a Ghost Story. While I enjoyed exploring the note tales, I wanted to return to the world of Benjamin and Marcus. Despite having a base understanding of their last tale, I had nothing more than rough guidelines as to the shape of the narrative. In the end, I knew I needed to flesh out the results of the ghost’s surveillance, but that still gave me a lot to think through...

Upon the completion of Wanderer, I turned my attention to the second tale for July, a Drama. There are times, not all the time, when I have a compulsion to use specific characters for multiple prompts for a given month. Sometimes I don’t know what connection will be when I start, though they typically are connected in some way. While I knew I wanted to delve into a second story revolving around Darren Gilbert, I didn’t know what that was going to be until I sat down to sketch both Wanderer and this tale out...

Another month down in 2024 and once again, I’m scrambling at the end of the month to submit the flash fiction to my patrons. While I grabbed the response from the poll, in short order my current project and life in general have been stealing the time I want to dedicate to both my writings, whether they be for Patreon, Wattpad, or these digital pages. I will once more try to knuckle down and focus on improving my time management, required to ensure that I have more time to craft the stories I want to bring to the world...

Having wrapped up Old Debts and Ruined Flight, my attention turned to the last story of the month for my patrons, which was a horror story. Before commencing the crafting of this tale, I tossed my story cubes, and received a trio comprising a trident, a troll/ogre, and a bow and arrow. Despite my initial desire to highlight my hunter, Solomon, I faced the challenge of finding a cohesive narrative. So, turned to ChatGPT for inspiration...

After completing Old Debts I turned my attention to the next story for my patrons, a tale of suspense. Fresh off the success of utilizing ChatGPT for Old Debts, I piped in the prompt into the AI tool and skimmed through the resulting idea. While I ignored huge swaths of the micro tale, the kernel of an assault on the plane was interesting. So, I plucked that idea and went back and massaged images of a prisoner, an Icarus figure or a paratrooper, and a plane into a new installment for my monster hunter, Solomon...

With the end nearing the project that has been weighing upon me in sight, I hope that I’ll be able to resume the cadence I want to have with these stories. However, as always, I’m determined not to disappoint my patrons. So, I sat to think about what I was going to write. After much thought, I couldn’t think of a thing. As a result, I reached out to my story cubes and gave them a toss. Thankfully, I pulled three out that formed a logical thought, a well, a cat, and a set of trees. While those formed a thought, my creativity refused to come up with anything. Fortunately, while I was at my day job, I spoke with someone who has enjoyed my writing and he asked me if I’ve used AI in my writing process...

The moment I finished Detained and Securing Secrets, I turned my attention to the final story for my patrons, a ghost story. While I’ve created some exciting characters who are capable of exploring this genre, I have a special place in my heart for the ghost stories that focus on a guiding note. As with anything that you develop, the core concept that I stumbled into with Journey of Thanks has grown and developed over the almost five and a half years...

After completing Detained, I dove headfirst into the next genre selected by my patrons, a drama. Despite being willing to blend most of the genres my characters inhabit with a drama, selecting one is always the trick. I’ve come across a saying that I think has some relevance to this issue: “paralysis by analysis”. The rough meaning of the saying is that as we over analyze any situation, we ultimately lose the ability to make a choice. In fact, we usually let the opportunity pass us by...