After the power cell blew up, Marcus retreated to his home to tend his land, while Nathaniel remained in the remnants of the Central Region to recover from the devastation. The leaders of the Northern, Western, and Southern Regions head to the devastated runes to discuss the next course of action. Kethra, who has overcome a vote of no confidence in the Eastern Region, is pressing for Nathaniel to be held accountable for the detonation of the power cells. While the other leaders will listen to Nathaniel’s explanation, they refuse to allow the meeting to proceed while they are missing a leader...

Sorry for the rant, but what is art? While the question is simple, it’s loaded with multiple answers depending on who you ask. A poet would spout some rhyming lyrics, a writer would spin a narrative to captivate the reader, or an artist will create a piece of art. My preference is to weave narratives, but a part of me yearns to produce wonderful pictures. Specifically, I want to pluck the characters running about my mind and give them new life for the world to see.

To further that goal, I’ve picked up some classes on Udemy...

I remember discovering The Dresden Files back in 2008. I’d just gained my original Kindle, and I was looking for books to add to my new digital library. So, on January 23rd, 2008 (a shout out to Amazon orders for confirming that date) I purchased Storm Front and Harry Dresden captured my attention. I moved through the first nine available entries in this series and enjoyed each one. Over the next seven years, I savored every fresh installment of this wizard’s story. Unfortunately, after Skin Game, Jim Butcher had a lot going on in his life, which delayed Peace Talks release for five years...

When NaNoWriMo began this year, I was determined to win the competition, like last year. Unfortunately, while I won last year and somehow squeezed my Patreon flash fiction in under the wire, I did not publish any of my Wattpad series. This year I was resolute in achieving a different outcome. When the first day of November rolled around, I picked up my keyboard and started marching forward, guiding my latest project. While this book is far from complete (I’m only halfway through the novel) I won my second consecutive NaNoWriMo...

With Hearth and Strands finished, I turned my attention to the third piece of Flash Fiction for November, a Historical Fiction. Last month I blended my Historical Fiction with a Romance and ended up with Anxiety. I’ve been blending genres a little more often recently, and the results have been encouraging. But I had nothing in mind for the story, so I plucked a random Historical Fiction prompt from NYC Midnight’s catalogue. Unfortunately, in the middle of NaNoWriMo, it was difficult to coax the narrative out of my mind...

All month long, I’ve been contemplating about the whys behind all my series on Wattpad. So in the continued spirit of NaNoWriMo, let me take you behind the scenes with Mounting Tensions. I remember penning the overview for the previous series, Fortunes, and while the story kept the main shape, it definitely took on a shape of its own. The biggest surprise that Rylan and his companions threw my way was the romance between the technician and Annabelle. I planned on coming back to that world eventually, but the couple provided me an opportunity I couldn’t ignore. With this new series, I’d be able to explore an aspect of their world between the events of Fortunes and the next planned storyline...

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving! November is a magical month. Besides challenging writers to do something incredible, it’s a time to focus on family and our good fortunes. And while hosting Thanksgiving dinner is hectic, it allows me to blend a day of family with my love of cooking. Aside from continuing my NaNoWriMo project, preparing Thanksgiving dinner, writing my Patreon exclusives (Hearth, Strands, and my upcoming Historical Fiction), I’ve kept my focus and finishing my Wattpad stories. With this story, I’m returning to Darren Gilbert’s youth and his Journeys...

As I work on my current project for NaNoWriMo, I’ve been thinking about the importance of the work that never makes it into a published novel or another piece of fiction. Sometimes a single throwaway line in an author’s collection of notes is precisely that, something to help constrain the more extensive work. However, there are other times when those few words spark an entirely new storyline that yearns for exploration. Colonization and its sequel series, Discovery, both sprung from a single line highlighting a point that I would ultimately reference, I never planned on exploring. And if I hadn’t discovered the concept of Flash Fiction, courtesy of this article, these storylines wouldn’t have been explored...

With one Patreon story finished, I split my focus between my NaNoWriMo project and the second piece of flash fiction for November. Unlike Colonization or Discovery, there were no notes for Darren Gilbert. In fact, it was Act of Heroism, a patron exclusive, that gave birth to this grumpy wizard. I remember a deep, unquestionable need to continue telling Darren’s story. With a little of work, I spun a backstory for a world, while important, was underutilized in my writing...

As I worked on a much larger storyline, I created lots of notes bringing more backstory to the larger whole. One of those notes was about a part of the society that became lost as they approached a planet they intended to seed life on. When they entered the planet’s atmosphere the ship’s power stopped reaching its destinations. I’m sure the core of that note stemmed from Paradise, an episode from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s second season. While the episode centers on a planet where technology doesn’t work, the similarities cease there. Unlike those settlers, the survivors of the Novus refuse to remain trapped on the planet...

Ever since I learned about NaNoWriMo, I’ve thrown myself into the month-long exercise. While I write all the time, and that’s the single most crucial piece of advice I can give to budding writers, there is something satisfying about participating in a competition. This year marks only the second year I’ve taken part in this challenge, but I’ve already adjusted my focus from the lessons I learned last year. Instead of throwing all my writing time into the draft, I’ve set aside time to continue my ongoing works in progress, including the exclusive flash fiction for my Patreon feed...

While I managed to get four of my Wattpad published from October 11th through the 24th, the last one slipped past my self imposed deadline. Despite the complications it made for the week leading up to my wedding interesting, I finished the Patreon eclusive stories for October and the latest installment in Transformation. When last we left off, Isaac won his Friendly Wager with his co-pilot, Jasmine...

Phew… the last two weeks of October seemed to vanish. But with the completion of False Trails and Anxiety, I turned my attention to the last piece of flash fiction for October 2020. Unlike previous works of Political Satires, I didn’t look for a particular headline to help craft the narrative. This time, I played off an earlier story, Consequences. With the “headline” in place, I ran to the NYC Midnight list of prompts for 2019. After a blind selection, my Political Satire would occur in a safe room and feature some emergency rations (the original object was a potato, but I decided that it wouldn’t fit). With the headline and skeleton, I dove into my first draft...

The moment I finished the first draft of False Trails, I turned my attention to the second story for October. Without a clear idea of what story I wanted to tell, I headed to NYC Midnight’s challenges from 2019 and searched for a prompt for a Historical Fiction narrative. I stared at the writing prompt, and I leaned back and started thinking about cattle ranches and how I’d weave a wedding dress into the tale. With the story’s skeleton in place, I decided to incorporate some romance into the narrative...

Well, my original plans for getting all my posts published by October 24th fell short. But despite my life not allowing me to comply with that lofty goal, I will have all three flash fiction stories published for October. The first tale for this month is a Fantasy, and I decided to continue with Darren’s adventure from September, Ensnared. While any patron can read this month’s entry without reading Ensnared, you should give it a read as well...