As the Federation building on Aurora nears completion, Quinn has Isaac come down to the Auroran government building. Standing in front of the massive window on the second floor, Isaac studies the people in the courtyard and the dwindling proof of construction. With each passing second, the pilot wonders if Olyver’s puppeteers have yanked him off the mission to explore the cosmos...

With Hunt and Contrasting Methods finished, I’ve turned my time to the last piece of flash fiction for January. Unlike Contrasting Methods, when I sat down to pen the first draft for this Historical Fiction, I knew the rough shape of the story. When I first introduced Anna, in Fishing Hole, I wasn’t expecting her role to grow. However, between that story and Faulty Defense, I enjoyed exploring her character and I’m eager to continue exploring their friendship and partnership...

Throughout my life, I’ve had hundreds of teachers, both formal and informal, yet the most memorable was my sophomore English teacher. He was so influential that during my last year in high school; I signed up for French 101 just so I could have him as a teacher once more before graduating. While the actual content of the lessons has faded, the most crucial ones about life have stuck with me. Despite every teacher trying to impart life lessons to their students, most fail. However, this teacher’s true lessons focused on trust. From day one, trusted every student without. The only caveat was if we abused that trust...

With Hunt penned and published, I turned my attention to the second genre from January, a comedy. As I sat in front of my monitors, my brain stubbornly refused to spin a tale. After several false starts, I headed over to the first line generator over at Writing Exercises. After generating the first line, I stared at the words on the screen...

To date, the most exhilarating thing I’ve done I’m my life has been a shark dive on a trip in the Caribbean. After college, my grandmother gave me a wonderful gift. She paid for my cruise down in the crystal-clear seas of the Caribbean. However, instead of a big cruise ship, it was a sailboat that had enough room for roughly fifteen people and the crew, that was focused on providing its customers a fantastic scuba experience. With upwards of three dives per day, every day brought new wonders and secrets of the sea...

Leaving Giselle, Arthur, and Mara to complete their preparations for their journey, Darvin went home to refine the schedule. After pouring through the military’s established schedule, he completed the launches and sends that information to his handpicked pilots. Once they confirmed their departures, the living mountain scheduled a meeting with Rylan to formalize the flights. When Darvin reached the building, he joined his friend and ordered the same meal...

The first story for my patrons is an Action/Adventure. When I sat down to start pen this tale, my mind kept spinning, like the tires of a car on blocks. However, I didn’t want to run to NYC Midnight for the seed for this story. Thankfully, my stalling brain latched onto a nugget buried deep in my mind. I stumbled onto WritingExercises and while I’ve gotten some milage out of it; I need to use it more. This time I leveraged the site’s Plot Generator...

As I’ve navigated through my life, I have racked up countless memories, both pleasant and horrible ones. While some have faded, others have sharpened. The best memories in my life all feature my friends and family. Throughout the early days of my professional career, some of the strongest memories focused on the heading out for a meal with my friend and co-worker. It didn’t matter where we went, we would order our meal and talk about everything from the upcoming projects to the next game night and everything in between while we ate...

Despite being driven to perfect his abilities, Darren’s teachers at the Academy have followed Arlen’s lead and refused to provide the student with private lessons. His only hope is to accept Arlen’s challenge and create a healing talisman. After a string of failures, he reached out to Arlen for some guidance in creating his trinket. She lends him several tomes, and he renews his efforts. Unfortunately, he continues to fall short. As the days continue to stretch out, his classmates worry about his mental state...

Forests contain some of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen. Even the mundane woodlands that cover the world. When I was younger, I remember bolting into the woods behind my parent’s home and exploring its secrets. Eventually, I crafted an extensive mental map of the woods, and I could travel through them and pop out anywhere in the neighborhood I wanted. Those constant trips helped solidify my love of forests...

With the dawning of a new year comes the burden of selecting a New Year’s resolution. For me, this choice was simple. My number one resolution is to enhance my creative skills, both the written word and drawing. However, this isn’t a new goal and there are months when I’m unable to match the productivity that I’m hoping to achieve. As a result, this year I’m going to use a highly regimented schedule to focus my time...

With The Gift and Stroll finished, I’m turned my attention to the last story for the year, a piece of Science Fiction. When I pulled December’s genre, I didn’t know what storyline I would explore. But as the end of the year approached, my mind jumped to the crew of the Scythe. I’ve given a few stories of their adventures to my patrons, and I wanted to explore them a little more. However, after some thought, I realized that Laurie’s character needed a little more clarification...

Despite publishing The Gift late, I instantly pivoted to this month’s fantasy tale. While I had an inkling of what the yarn I wanted to spin, when I sat down to work on it, my mind shifted, and I remembered about Tiatha. So far, I have written a pair of tales around this spell slinger, Siphoning the Stone and Arrogance. The former introduced the character while the latter showed more of her power (with this publication, Tiatha will bookend this year)...

Since the first year I heard about NaNoWriMo, I’ve always enjoyed pushing myself to win that challenge. Unfortunately, each year it takes a lot out of me, and I need a few weeks to recover. Despite the yearly promise to do better next year, I’ve always fallen short. After recovering from the mad dash, I pulled the prompts from my patrons and started thinking about the stories I might write. While I had some initial thoughts for the Fantasy and Science fiction tale, a narrative for the drama eluded me...

With Encampment and Standing Up written, I shifted my attention to the last piece of flash fiction for the month, a spy story. The last time I crafted a narrative in this genre, I went to one of my worlds and explored a fresh character. After finishing that tale, my mind couldn’t leave those threads alone. Despite being pushed to the back burner, my mind raced to connect those loose fibers to a larger tapestry...