While June was rapidly ticking away, I stared at my second prompt for the month and nothing was springing to mind. Thankfully, with a moment of clarity, my mind snatched onto a bit of world building I did for a story that spawned from a piece of art I stumbled onto over on Facebook. I created a wonderful character for Siphoning the Stone and while I didn’t mention her lineage in the tale, I always wanted to connect her with another character, Leodor from Darren Gilbert: Journeys...

The summers of my youth consisted of lots of swimming. Unfortunately, all that swimming was for the local swim team, and I was very much in the middle of the pack. Despite that, I remember pushing myself so I could be a member of the first relay team. Towards the end of my time on the team, I finally achieved that goal. Even though my place on the first relay team didn’t last long, the fact that I reached that level meant a lot...

According to the plans I’ve devised, I should have finished this draft earlier in the month. However, after running around completing so many things that have vied for my attention, I returned to the story of Jarvis and his crew. During a brief lull in the siege between the never-ending horde and the crew of the Discovery, Jarvis seeks confirmation of certain claims from Tarian’s logs. Despite trusting the leader of the previous expedition, Jarvis is unwilling to spread the information about his crew without independently having key members of his team confirm the troubling truth...

From the moment I pulled this month’s Genre poll, I knew I wanted to have Jessica cross paths with Kyle Rickman. While these two briefly met in Knight’s Dual, they didn’t really interact. With that deficiency in mind and the fact that I’ve created characters perfectly opposed to each other, I knew they would eventually have to interact. As a result, I was eager to craft their true meeting. Unfortunately, I didn’t know the best way to narrate it...

With everything that’s going on in the world and my life, my fuse has been a little shorter than usual. Thankfully, I’ve kept it in check by focusing that frustration into my writing, specifically Ramas Caldwell. With the common thread between this loner and myself, I poured all the recent frustrations into him as he sought a drink at a local tavern...

Traveling overseas can be fun. I remember the trips I took during my high school years. Aside from the sights, especially in Greece, the most memorable aspect of the trip was a piece of advice I was given. I don’t remember who gave it, but I was told to barter with the shopkeepers, especially with dollars, rather than paying the listed price. Growing up in America, I was conditioned to check the price and pay it. But during those two escapades, I was surprised at the deals I could find with that practice...

Think about all the trips you’ve ever taken. Provided they weren’t solo expeditions, I’m sure you’ve dealt with a jerk who needed to make the trip miserable. It seems to be one of those inevitable rules of life: you will have to deal with someone who wants to ruin everyone’s experience. The flip side of that rule is one of discipline. If you’re willing to reign in your frustration, you can still find pleasure in the journey...

Over the years, I’ve created several characters for my collection of stories. While I made some of them for a single story, others brought me such joy that I couldn’t help but continue their stories. Aside from the central characters from Dead Man’s Hand and Drawing Thin, there are other individuals traipsing through my mental landscape, acting out their lives. Fortunately, when I set out to write this month’s micro-fiction, I plucked Jessica from the chaos and skimmed through her history and selected a fun story with another rival...

With Weighing Pillage and Baited Duel written and published, I turned my attention to the last piece of exclusive flash fiction for my patrons, a mystery. When I pulled the results of the poll, I knew I wanted to lean into some of my dad’s stories from his time as an FBI field agent. The most memorable one came from his time when he served with the FBI’s internal investigations. One attorney who prosecuted those wayward agents came to my dad and asked him why those agents never had a bad thing to say about my dad...

Throughout my life, I’ve always wanted to be the best at whatever I was currently doing. Usually, it was something trivial in the scheme of things. But I pushed myself until I grew tired of the hobby, and it dwindled from my mind. After years of searching, I’ve identified the handful of hobbies that make me smile. And with each passing day, I push my limits, seeking to become the best. With that desire pushing me, I continue to reach new plateaus of skill...

Fresh off the heels of writing Weighing Pillage, I turned my attention to another favorite character, Darren Gilbert. While I’m detailing his early life over on WattPad, he was a character I created for my patrons with Act of Heroism. When I finished that story, I knew I had a character that I couldn’t ignore...

After pulling the results from the monthly poll, I was eager to churn through these stories. While I’ve quickly come to love the new characters for my ghost tales, I was happy to return to some of my older characters I haven’t spent enough time with. The first one to get a refresher was my master thief, Jessica Calhoun. While I have a tentative nickname for her, I wanted to elevate her character. Despite pitting her against a top-notch private investigator, I wanted to ground her in the world...

It’s been a couple months since I’ve published an installment to my stories hosted over on Wattpad. Despite my endeavor to bring fresh stories to the world every month, there are months when my wants are knocked down. However, much like Jarvis and his expedition, I refuse to surrender. This month I carved out a few hours and dedicated that time to finishing the most recent tale for Discovery...

Sometimes, delving through random YouTube videos can be highly informative. Typically, I’m watching them to kill some time, but from time to time I stumble onto a gem. One such video highlighted the space battle from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Early on, it references Alfred Hitchcock’s definition of tension. While I could quote the man, I’d recommend watching the video so you can hear his full answer. But the important takeaway is about ensuring the audience knows something is wrong...

While it’s been a couple months since I’ve tried writing a comedy, I felt the itch to expand my skills, so I searched through past prompts for NYC Midnight’s Micro Fiction competition. When I read the prompt, the basic storyline thundered into my mind like a truck through someone’s front wall. With each passing second, the vague idea crystalized and in the blink of an eye, the dialogue between a couple tumbled into my laptop...