Category: Uncategorized

  • The Shieldmaidens 13: Four Winds

    And I bow as I step onto the dance floor, and the strings strain, and the bodies around us move. Bodies of abusers and saviors. Rose dances with Olsen, Destiny with Tiger. The music plays, we all twirl, and I take each of the next stories out onto the floor. The waltz is the most…

  • Aftermath New Girl 4: Grand and Grant

    The summer after Sapphire and I got together, I had no place to live. The plan was to pick up more hours at Pizza Hut and make that work somehow. But out of nowhere came Burg with a plan. He was living in Columbia and going to college at MU. He wanted a change of…

  • The Darkness Between

    In 2010, I dedicated myself to writing books. I wrote every day. Well, five times a week, and I got in the habit. You can get in the habit of anything—anything. I got in the habit of creating. At the time, I had dedicated myself to rough drafts. I was trying to teach myself how…

  • Chaste Prologue

    Thirty-seven Years Before The Escape A bolt of lightning struck nearby and the sky danced with bright flame. Angry, bitter rain had cursed the day. It hated all those traveling and all those righteous. Frank stopped to camp along the ruined road, raising thanks to Cor-lyn-ber when the rain subsided. Timothy pulled dry wood from…

  • From Fire and Smoke

    In a world of reason and rational thought, where logic and planning rule over every inch of ground, there has to be a badlands, a place where things stop making sense, a realm where the only authority is the witchdoctor who consults the spirits as to the path before you. That is where I live.…

  • Crypts and Monoliths

    I’m not going to tell you how to reach writing success. I’m not a guru. I’ve dug through the crypts of failed writers and stared up at the monoliths of the wildly successful. I’ve heard the words of the prophets who tell me how to write, what to write, how to speak, and who to…

  • Deadheads

    I was thinking about the differences between my work and the work of other writers, about what sets me apart in working habits and style. I started thinking about the hardest working musicians in the world (my mind wanders, stick with me). I got caught on an idea. When I write, I have no plan.…

  • 10 Things You’re Not Being Told About Liefdom

    Liefdom has been talked about quite a bit in the last three weeks. I have been working on it for ten years. It’s about a fairy named Mandrake. It takes place in my own unique world. These facts and many others about this book have been going around for days. But you’re not being told…

  • Cogs and Springs

    My Great Uncle Johnny was a genius. He had little in the way of education, as he was a country boy that spent his school days working on his father’s farm. He had little in the way of books to read or conversations to learn from. But everyone is a genius somehow, and with Johnny,…

  • Prologue to Deria

      The four of them stood watching the figure, black against the night sky, swooping down to meet them. They knew not all of them could survive, not all of them could stay and fight. It soared with enormous bat wings, illuminated by the moons behind, showing thin membrane and thick veins. Gondik Ironspine laughed.…