With a note that contains the signature of the dwarves, on the one hand, the time has come for the leaders of the alliance to discuss everything. Fitik is furious that he’s being accused of treachery. And he brings up the behavior of the elves, in particular how quickly they produced the cure for the toxin that ravaged Tarian’s people and hurt the dwarves...

With the birth of his son, Marcus has turned his attention to his homestead. As agreed, the production of specialized plows stopped, but the resourceful colonist used the freshly crafted steam engine and a piece of the Novus’s hull to create a plow. In addition to the newly forged equipment, Marcus hired three individuals from the Central region to work his land. As the farm develops, Talia’s effort with their animals continues to excel...

With Liquid Assets and Weighing an Alibi completed, I turned my attention to the third and final Patreon post for December, a Thriller. Unlike the other tales, I don’t have a character waiting in the wings. Without the benefit of character, more blanks need to fill in, so to ease the burden, I jumped to NYC Midnight’s catalog. Once there, I searched the page for the word thriller and picked a random prompt...

Fresh off the heels of Liquid Assets, I started exploring the second Patreon post of December. Just like with my Crime Capers, I have a character that stars in my mysteries, Kyle Rickman. His story began with Inception of Inception of Insight Investigations and has continued both here on my site and on my Patreon feed. Trying to cram a mystery into one thousand words is difficult and sometimes the discovery can be a little rushed, but I enjoy this challenge. With the character selected, I turned my attention to the crime he would be solving...

Between work and Christmas, December became just as hectic as November. But as Christmas approached, I knuckled down and focused on writing my Patreon posts. After the poll closed, I ended up with a Crime Caper, a Mystery and a thriller. As the twentieth came to a close, my mind started churning on what Jessica’s latest adventure might be...

Escort Two is piloted by Lora Tallstag with Zander Milton assisting. They are heading towards the third planet in the Auroran system, a large gas giant with seven moons. Beatrix Kincade, the leader of the expedition, muscles her way into the cockpit and splits her attention between her job and the banter...

Arlen is the Academy’s literature, history, and healing instructor. And she guards the secrets of healing to those who have a talent for the art form. The only students in her class are Darren, Kira, and Norry. Their current lesson requires them to heal a cut across their palm. And while they are all able to undo the inflicted injury, Arlen points out their shortcomings...

Last month, we joined Harrison while he attended one of the King’s galas. While the other guests ate, drank, and danced the night away, the King strolled his corridors with Harrison. The two talked about Harrison’s work with his relics. After they finished their conversation, the King’s tinkerer returned to the festivities for a time. A freak lightning storm tore through the night’s sky, and a mysterious woman fell to earth. This month, we return our attention to Sylvia’s picking up her tale...

Armed with all the information they could salvage from Laria, Rylan’s team emerges from the far side of the Larian sun. Meanwhile Cederic’s team is settling back on the cruiser, fresh from the live world. The captain is eager to orchestrate the debriefing of Cederic and Rylan with the home world. Will Rylan be able to accommodate the captain’s desire for expediency?..

Last month, we witnessed Sylvia’s attempted escape from the Central Kingdom. Unfortunately for her, the mysterious mercenary that injured her captured her. She is reunited with Kameron’s assassin and informed of her fate. Sylvia is to be exiles from their world so she will forever be denied her revenge. This month, we leave Sylvia’s story and return to Harrison’s tale...

Shortly after finishing Lost Chance, I turned my attention to the final tale for the NaNoWriMo shortened month. The benefit of this story was that I got to craft a suspense narrative. Then I looked through all my previous posts and realized how little I’ve done in this field. Thumbing through the posts on my website I found the only other foray into this genre there, The Grave Countdown. I published that story back in January of this year. That tale featured an inspector called Ryan Graves, and after re-reading it, I was eager to explore the inspector’s personality more...

With November being slammed with NaNoWriMo, I knew that if I wanted to finish my next Patreon post done, I would have to burn the proverbial midnight oil. One reason I let myself get so wrapped up in the challenge was because of my second genre for November. I needed to craft my first romance. The other was because Survival has been a story that’s floated in my mind for a long time. But now that I won NaNoWriMo, I put the nearly finished project to the side to wade into the field of romance...

NaNoWriMo came, and I began crafting my initial draft of Survival. When Veteran’s day rolled around, I came down with Shingles. Shingles! It took a few days for the pain to make it into my life. While the vacation helped me get a leg up on the writing, I lost most of the time I earned with the pain that lanced through my head. After being diagnosed, I heard plenty of horror stories about shingles, and I feared that I would be in for a rough few weeks maybe multiple months. Thankfully, I got the antiviral into my body before the pain started, because the pain didn’t linger...

November has been slammed with National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I vividly remembered when the genres for the month were selected. I gave them a few minutes of thought before jumping back to my challenge for the month. With another Political Satire on my list of things to write I jumped to the past catalog of NYC Midnight’s Flash Fiction Challenges and selected one prompt...

I never heard about National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short, until earlier this year. My friend mentioned it when I talked with him about the upcoming NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Competition. Since I’m trying to develop my prose, I gave it a look. The history of this non-profit slapped me in the face. NaNoWriMo was founded back in 1999 with a simple idea. It challenged authors to write 50,000 words of a book during the month of November. The premise seems easy enough, but when you factor in that people have lives and other responsibilities, it can be a daunting goal. Since the non-profit’s inception, NaNoWriMo has evolved and grown. Besides the main event, they now have other programs offering new events, such as Camp NaNoWriMo...