Whew! September has been a frantic month. There are a lot of moving parts in my life at the moment and ensuring that everything keeps running smoothly isn’t easy. But with Beginnings and Ensnared finished, I turned to my last piece of flash fiction for the month, a Ghost Story. One of the first ones I wrote was called Journey of Thanks, and out of everything I’ve written, it’s my Dad’s favorite tale. I know that I’ll never be able to recapture that emotional rollercoaster, but there’s a bigger concept in those thousand words that I wanted to explore, and this tale gave me the perfect opportunity...

With the month coming to an end and having finished Beginnings, I turned to the second genre of the month, a fantasy. When I pulled the results for the month, I planned on steering clear of Darren Gilbert. So, I turned to DeviantArt and searched its library for fantasy. Thumbing through the resulting images when an image by lukesynek captured my attention. The ape-like creature dominating the stormy landscape demanded Darren’s attention...

After rushing to complete my second challenge for this year’s NYC Midnight Flash Fiction competition, I took a breath and turned to World of Warcraft to unwind. The game, coupled with life, helped September, much like the rest of the year, fly right past me. Thankfully, I saw the end of the month coming and pulled the genres to the forefront of my mind. First up was the Crime Caper, and I dusted off the notes I made for the tale when the poll closed and sketched out its skeleton...

Shawn glanced from the assignments in front of him to his watch. He laid his pen down and folded his hands on the pile of papers, “Zachary, you’re the last one here, and your time has expired. Please turn in your exam and start your weekend.”

“Can I take another minute?”

Shawn shook his head and thumped his desk, “You are out of time. I’ve already given you an extra thirty minutes, now give me your test, or I’ll be forced to reward your hard work with a zero.”

Zachary slipped his pen behind his ear with a groan and strolled up to Shawn’s desk. He dropped his exam next to the assignments his professor was correcting, “Thank you for giving me what you could...

Sorry for the rant, but since I pulled out my 3D printers and resumed printing objects, I’ve had the itch to create 3d models of my own. But with the all complex models I’ve printed off Thingiverse, the very idea of creating designs was a little intimidating. Thankfully, I’ve never been one to back down from a challenge, so I downloaded Fusion 360 and started experimenting with the software. While the bits were streaming to my machine, my CR-10S was hard at work printing TAK game pieces. For those who don’t know, TAK is a game that first appeared in Patrick Rothfuss’s book The Wise Man’s Fear..

Having watched the Vodan, land on its assigned moon of Aurora 3, Isaac and Jasmine return home to report the successful landing. Jasmine wonders about the other two colonization ships that were assigned to the other two viable satellites of the planet. Specifically, she wonders if those pilots would return to Aurora. Isaac remembers that those pilots were planning on settling on their new world and so doubts that they’ll return. Jasmine places a friendly wager that they’ll follow protocol and return before they settle on their new home...

Confident with his work to undermine Liam’s agenda to abandon the platforms, Rylan focuses on other problems facing Tergara. And while he focuses on those issues, Rylan skips several council meetings because he’s unable to stomach the propaganda spewing forth from Liam and his constituents. On the day of the vote, Rylan arrives to find Liam arguing his position on several unrelated topics...

With Simple Pleasures and Uninvited Guest finished, I turned my attention to the last piece of flash fiction for August, Science Fiction. Just like with Fantasies, I love Science Fiction because it gives me an open-ended playground to work with. That benefit is also the biggest drawback to the genres. The canvas is blank. So, once again, I turned to DeviantArt for inspiration once more. While browsing through the catalog for science fiction, I stumbled upon Self-propelled general-purpose work platform by Ricebirdmon...

Every month brings me new challenges, and after writing Simple Pleasures, I turned my attention to a few other projects in my queue. After making some progress on those, I returned to the list of genres for the month and smiled. The next genre up for Patreon is a Fantasy. And while it was tempting to return to Darren Gilbert, I decided to explore something else. So, I turned my attention to DeviantArt and searched for something to inspire me. While there are some amazing images on the site for fantasy, Magic Trouble by Lyraina caught my eye...

For most of my picture prompts, I’ll take a picture that speaks to me and write the story I see leaping from the pixels. But every so often, I have a story whirling about my mind, and I’ll discover an image that pairs with it. With this image, the story that in my mind is a bridge for two different projects, Colonization and Discovery, an upcoming collection of Flash Fiction that will be published on Wattpad. Both series center on the same strange planet, but they take place after a century of inaction from their homeworld...

After an exhausting day in the Academy, the Leodor gifted all the students with a free night. Maxwell and Darren seized the opportunity and race into the city for a good meal and an enjoyable evening. Unfortunately for them, Wayne insisted on joining them despite their pleas for him to leave them alone...

It is already August, it’s hard to believe that we’re more than halfway through 2020. But I also have another set of stories to write for my patrons. The first Patreon exclusive is a Drama. So, I started toiling with some potential storylines, but I couldn’t lock onto a single coherent thought, until I visited NYC Midnight’s challenges of the past. These prompts have a way of focusing my creating juices and narrowing my scope. When I plucked one of the Drama posts, I didn’t know how I’d work a strawberry field and a tote bag into the tale, but I came up with a dramatic story...

When last we left off with the survivors of the Novus, Nathaniel was trying to enlist Marcus to assist the scientists’ recent request. Having obtained Marcus’s consent, Nathaniel pulled together the team to explore the ruins of the Novus and arranging their transportation. After securing his home and ranch, Marcus boarded a train and traveled to the Southern Region. Nathaniel greeted him at the station and introduced him to his team...

A couple months ago, the family decided to set aside thirty minutes every night for reading. And the only self-imposed restriction was that no one could choose an audiobook. So, I dusted off my Kindle and plugged it into the charging station and went about the rest of the evening. When the time to read came, I opened the Kindle and browsed, coming across Harley Merlin and the Secret Coven. I couldn’t say why the book captured my attention, it may have been the cover, the title, the blurb, or a combination of the three. But I needed to choose something, and before I knew it, I borrowed the book via the Kindle Lending Library and started reading it...

With Choices and Check Up having been published, I turned my attention to the last story for the month of July, my Political Satire. I scrubbed through the headlines, searching for an appropriate article to serve as the basis of my tale. After browsing the headlines on a bunch of sites, I focused on the arguments about the upcoming stimulus package that’s being discussed in Congress. With that nugget tucked into my brain, I thought about the story to tell...