When last year ticked away, I pulled my old Nikon D300 from my closet and started taking random pictures around my house. None of them resulted in a decent photograph. However, it rekindled my desire to capture the world’s beauty. With the fresh desire coursing through my veins, I turned to the internet and found some tricks and tools to help me convert my existing pictures into watercolors. Once I tweaked my fluke capture of a squirrel chowing down on a discarded slice of pizza, my passion rose to new heights...

With Subtle Defense finished, I turned my attention to the next genre on my list, a Horror story. Before I could reach for a prompt, my monster hunter flooded into my mind, complete with a partial skeleton. While certain aspects filled my mental landscape, others were as barren as a dessert. However, deadlines, especially looming ones, are wonderful for the creative process...

With a new year, I’m reaching into the depths of my past and dusting off a couple of skills. With the first one, I can only make strides when I’m home alone, because the saxophone is not a quiet instrument and everyone in the house would prefer not to have its unique sound carry throughout and disturb them. Fortunately, that skill has some training that I’ll be able to build upon...

With two of my micro tales finished, I turned a portion of my imagination towards the dice I rolled for the Sci-Fi narrative. At first I didn’t know what I was going to do with a man using a parachute. Ultimately, I dismissed the second dice from the story and focused on an alternate rendition of my problematic skydiver. As the core concept percolated, I latched onto the slick harness inspired by the ones in Tron: Legacy with a dash of teleportation tossed in to achieve the initial height...

Sitting behind my desk, I stared at the zones arrayed before me. While I’m attempting to weave all my responsibilities (required and voluntary) into a unified cadence, certain hopes have been sliding a bit. Fortunately, my subconscious appears to have been processing the outstanding storylines percolating in the confines of my mind. So, after a momentary pause, I slammed my mental pry bar into the cracks of my mind and teased the fantasy micro-tale from the depths of my mental landscape...

Despite my routine resolution to do a better job of completing my stories on a schedule, a new/revived hobby has already derailed those efforts. While I’m eager to get my writing on a schedule, I am pleased to delve into photography, using the Nikon D300 that was gathering dust. With every trip to nearby parks, my skills behind the camera will improve and eventually some of those images will be the basis for future stories. Keep an eye out for upcoming artwork roundup posts which will highlight these images...

With Roaming Bug and Reviving Droplets finished, I set my sights on the last story for the year. According to the poll, the year will round out with a Historical Fiction. Fortunately, I have a wonderful set of characters to explore the past (well, an alternate history with dragons) with Samuel and Pearl. For this tale, I grabbed the final three Rory’s Story Cubes: Fish, Plane, and a Sheep...

With Roaming Bug complete, I turned my attention to the next story for December, a Fairy Tale. Fortunately, when I went to outline the tale, I pulled three dice from the remaining six available and began thinking about how to craft a story with a bee, a fountain, and a phone. As my mind began piecing the strands of the story together, the tapestry came into focus...

I hope everyone has had a Merry Christmas, and I wish everybody a Happy New Year. As I sat with family on Christmas Eve, we all took turns opening our presents. While I’m thankful for each present I received, there were two that I’m hoping will help me further my writing skills. The first is a journal entitled Write The Story. Each page has a story prompt and a list of items I have to include in the story. Despite dealing with a lot of issues that crept up on me during the month, I did not reach for this gift to create the exclusive stories for my patrons. Instead, I grabbed a different present, Rory’s Story Cubes, to provide the prompt for my writing...

With Ethereal Insight and Inquiry published for the enjoyment of my patrons, I turned the entirety of my attention to the final remaining piece of flash fiction for November, a Science Fiction romp. With the month ending today, I buckled down and finished the latest tale in the world of the Drifter II. Though when I first pulled the genre poll, I didn’t know what storyline I would focus on. However, after bouncing a number of ideas off the wall, I realized that continuing Charles and Lucile’s storyline would be the right call...

With Ethereal Insight finished, I turned my attention to its follow-up. Despite time rapidly running out on me I focused on the second installment for the Partners. Fortunately, this tale sprang forth from my mind in a mostly ready state, given that it sprang to life in unison with Ethereal Insight. After several rounds of editing, I was happy to bring Inquiry to my patrons...

First, I want to thank all of my patrons for their patience. I know waiting till the final few days of the month to read the exclusive flash fiction can be annoying. However, despite the issues I’ve had with NaNoWriMo, once again I’m bringing you the unique tales in the last days of November. Normally, I take these genres in alphabetical order, but this time because of the nature of the stories, it makes more sense to bring the true ghost story first...

Despite November having five weeks (specifically five Wednesdays), given the mix of NaNoWriMo, Patreon, and my other projects, I couldn’t squeeze in the fifth entry. That said, my last entry for the month is a comedy. While I will try my hand at comedy for my patrons, there is a single reason I’m willing to take on comedies for those who buy me a croissant. The extremely limited word count of micro fiction helps me focus on the comedy. Instead of having to fill out a thousand words, I can focus on a singular moment in time and craft and tease something I find funny to the surface...

With my Thanksgiving turkey brining away, I need to take a step back and breathe deeply. Despite life reigning its craziness down upon me, I’m plugging away with my work, both my day job and my writing. Thankfully, I was able to spend the weekend and recoup a portion of the time I lost for the NaNoWriMo challenge, though it’s too soon to tell if I’ll be able to make up the lost ground. All that said, when I carved out some time to create this piece of Micro Fiction, I was eager to return to the world of Wanderings...

Ever since I stumbled into NaNoWriMo, I haven’t been able to keep any kind of schedule with this blog. I’ve had the occasional spurts, but it’s never been consistent. Hopefully, over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be able to fall into a semblance of a decent schedule. However, let’s step away from future endeavors and focus on this micro tale. After selecting the various seeds for my Ko-Fi posts, I was eager to delve into a fresh tale featuring Samuel and his dragon Pearl...