A disabled woman survives a soft apocalypse in an overgrown mall and impacts her community by sharing a candle-making recipe stored in her old email inbox.
Hopeful Wanderer Proof Copy!
I can't post this announcement until after Christmas, because this is a super secret BIG surprise for my parents, so I'm scheduling this post to go up the day after. But as of writing this in mid-November, I've just ordered the proof copy for The Hopeful Wanderer!
It’s an Update Blog Post, Baby
(Oh, boy, does writing one of these feel indulgent. No writing wisdom, no original fiction, no insightful reviews. Just you and me and the way blogging used to be: someone talking about themselves.)
The Hopeful Wanderer — Evidence of a Struggle
Long, long metal teeth reddened with rust surrounded the kneeling form of an old man...
Writing Program Presentation: Sensory Detail with Texas High Plains Writers
Catch me presenting on writing with sensory detail at the Texas High Plains Writers' meeting on July 19!
Very Good Books of 2022
As this is December, the most final of months in the year, I'm doing a quick roundup of books I enjoyed in 2022. It just so happens I didn’t read much this year. Probably because I spent more time writing and editing, but also because I tended to DNF books more often than be swept away by them. A handful of books did grip my imagination and demand reading in one day, though, and all of those appear here.
So here we go!
Imbued Allure
You’d thought nothing could overpower the smell of cattle on a warm, wet night, when the scent of money imbued the still air for miles around the feedlot. But something had spooked the herd. Lowing echoed as hooves thundered away from the southeast corner, bringing a peculiar, fruity scent along with them.
Getting a Grip on Completing Unfinished Writing
One charm of both growing older and practicing writing craft for many years has been gaining the skills for dealing with my more annoying writing proclivities. The bad habits that hold me back. That hold many a writer back, in fact. Specifically, in this case, the vicious cycle of starting a project, then jumping to a new project before finishing because the new idea looks both shinier and easier than the current one.
I enjoy a challenge, but only to a certain point, so if a task feels beyond my skills to overcome, I will simply walk away. This habit comes from playing puzzle-based video games when I was a kid. I found that instead of bashing my head against a room I couldn’t solve, I could put the controller down, do something else, and chew on the problem in the background. Once I returned, often the answer came to me immediately. So when I run up against a plot problem, I tend to do the same thing.
Only there’s always a new idea bubbling in the back of my brain, ready to pounce the second I look away from that original project. I’ll work on this instead. I’m sure I’ll finish this one.
On and on.
Compulsive Wheedling
I don’t notice the difference in beguiling flattery coming from your mouth right off. You always turn to wheedling me when you want something. I’ve learned to shut down the listening part of my brain when you get going. But tonight, the shadows have grown long across the prairie, yet still you haven’t given up asking. I can’t imagine you’d want to visit the corner store with your friends this bad.
Patreon Survival Prompts
Signing up to my Patreon's lowest tier grants you access to a month(ish) of collected survival prompts that I wrote for my writing org's 2023 anthology. Sign up and try your hand at them!
Word Nerd Scribbles 