With the completion of Dubious Meeting and Inquiries finished, I turned my attention to the final story for my patrons, a science fiction tale. With a rough idea of the characters I wanted to leverage, I needed something more so I reached for my newest set of story cubes and gave them a toss. When the stopped moving, I was greeted by an old lady with a can, a fantasy potion, and a brew. Though I had some prompts to weave into the tale the narrative refused to unfurl from the depths of my mind. However, as I thumbed through some of the Drifter’s stories and found Misty Invaders. After re-reading it, the freed story tumbled out...

Upon the completion of Dubious Meeting, I turned my attention to the second piece of flash fiction for my patrons, a ghost story. While it took me some time to figure out which ghost would take center stage, once I figured that out, I knew what the rough story line would be. Back in Inquiry Marcus found a clue to Benjamin’s murder. Granted, I’ve told a few stories focusing on this pair since then, but I wanted to revisit the clue and what it means for the partners...

As the month dwindles away, it seems that February’s extra day is as useless as it always is. There simply isn’t enough time in the day for all the irons I have in the fire. While I have kept up with the artwork roundup posts, I’ve simply run out of time for publishing, continuing my ongoing stories over at Wattpad and the micro tales I want to publish over at Ko-fi. However, as always, I do not forget my patrons. So, as the end of this elongated month looms over me, I pushed my other projects to the side and crafted my first story for February...

As I continued exploring the aquarium, new facets of the exhibit brought wonderful sights. Despite not being able to rememebr the details of the trip, each image of this series teased a fresh smile at the sight of the collection of fish weaving through the coral. I hope you enjoy the collection of colorful fish exploring their currated home...

As my series of sunset photographs taken from behind my home comes to a close, I’m turning to another series of photographs, though this one comes from August 6th, 2011. While I don’t fully remember how I ended up at an aquarium with the opportunity to watch a collection of fish explore their artificial home. I wish my memory of the trip was crystal clear, but unfortunately all I have to lean on is the upcoming series of history. I hope you enjoy the trip through an underwater world...

How much detail is too much? In a world where people compare the grainy footage of the nineteen eighties to what flows through their home television today, this might seem like a ludicrous question. However, given the constant push for hyper realism in media, especially with those heightened resolutions, I consider this to be a pertinent question to think about. The argument for pushing all those details is for greater immersion in the story. However, as the days go by, I realize that this is a crutch that should be abandoned by storytellers...

Over the past week, I’ve been excited to continue exploring the images I created from the recent sunset behind my home. Given the amount of time I’ve been here, this was the first gorgeous sunset I’d seen since here. Please explore this collection and then head over to my gallery over DeviantArt, and thumb through my other galleries...

Despite taking a pause, or hiatus, with publishing my artwork, I have not stopped producing it. Unfortunately, I’ve been tasked with more important things to work with. However, with a backlog of work highlighting nature’s beauty, I knew I needed to resume bringing my work to the world. Please explore this collection and then head over to my gallery over DeviantArt, and explore my galleries...

As the end of the month approaches and with the completion of Decisions amd Reluctant Backup, my entire focus shifted to the last tale for January, a horror story. Thankfully, with this story, I didn’t need to resort to my dice. While I finished last month’s horror, Pursuing the Hunter, I left it open for a continuation. And when my patrons presented me with another horror, I picked up the loose threads and wove a fresh tale for them...

Upon completing Decisions, I turned my attention to the middle story to kick off twenty twenty-four, a ghost story. While I’d been on a kick to revisit my roots with ghost stories, see Journey of Thanks, I wanted to get back to a pair of characters I enjoyed exploring, Marcus and his ethereal partner, Benjamin. At its core, I have a wonderful mystery to solve, Benjamin’s murder. However, I’m not in any hurry to unravel that complicated puzzle. Instead of leaning into the embedded mystery, I wanted to highlight the ethereal nature of the pairing. Yet, I didn’t have a good seed for this tale. As a result, after tossing my story cubes, I faced piecing together a shooting star, a lock, and a magnifying glass. A trio of things that don’t scream, cohesive story...

Despite the calendar rolling to a new year, life marched forward, and I never got the chance to calm down, gather my thoughts, and craft thoughtful resolutions. And nothing bad happened. While it’s a little pedantic to assume the world would spin out of control, my point still stands. Every year, we use January 1st to set new goals. Sometimes we make good on them and can incorporate them into our lifestyle, yet more often than not I usually fail during the year, and vow to try again when this time rolls back around...

The moment I finished Swarm and Inner Race, I partially shifted my mindset. While the last genre selected was an action/adventure, I blended it with Horror to craft another tale for my monster hunter. Despite choosing this blending early on, I unfortunately didn’t have a seed for this tale. Thankfully, the story cubes rescued me once again. With my character and my blended genres in mind, I stared at the results from the toss and wondered how to weave an arrow, a footprint, and a sad face together...

With Inner Race finished, I shifted my attention to the second story for my patrons, a tale of horror. While I knew I’d select my monster hunter, I didn’t know what kind of setting to drop him into, aside from having to battle monsters. After rolling the dice, the story emerged from the raging storm in my mind. Leveraging the bridge, lightning bolt, and a stalking monster, the broad strokes quickly developed into a fun concept...

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and is getting ready to celebrate a joyous year. For those who wish the year should have been better, may the new year bring you many, you many joys. Despite the flurry of activity for the holidays, when I pulled the results for the month’s genre poll, I was nervous and excited about tackling another fairy tale. Unfortunately, the nerves were because of the lack of ideas. Fortunately, the White Elephant gift I received last year came to the rescue. My Rory’s Story Cubes have provided me with many concepts to use as the building blocks for my tales...

The moment I finished Crashing and Glittering Water, I turned my attention to the last story for November, a piece of historical fiction. Thankfully, my mind summoned Samuel and his dragon. While I possessed the perfect character to fill this tale, I couldn’t think of a story to explore his character. So once more I summoned the story cubes and tossed them. Given that I was staring at a story placed squarely in the old west, I didn’t know how to square the setting with all the results, a plane, a skydiver, and a fountain...