Finding The False Note

If you are stuck and you can't move forward at all, then go backwards in your story until you find the false note. Erase everything after the false note, and try something completely different.

3.2 - Remara and the Musicians' Daughters

Mommy and Daddy hurry downstairs as the sobbing becomes a full-scale fit. Daddy gathers Bow into his arms, crying so hard she's nearly retching, and takes her upstairs. Mommy stays downstairs with Rosin, inspecting the Glass Lady.

3.1 - Remara and the Musicians' Daughters

Rosin Grentleyard pokes her head out of the doorway of her bedroom. It is dark, but she knows every plank of wood on the floor. Which ones creak. Which ones sigh. Her parents' room has been quiet for at least two forevers, so they're probably asleep.

Come Home from Whitley

I roll over in bed, squinting and fumbling for my glasses. There’s a hazy figure next to me, and for a moment my heart lurches and stutters like I’m in a horror movie. Before I can scream, her voice—and it’s definitely a her—says quietly, “Please come. It’s okay. It’s just me.”

Recent Media Consumed

Covers: An awful lot of books because I seem to be in a reading jag, The Chosen season 3, The Forever Prisoner, and more.

When the Process Sucks

For a few days after my declaration of pure writing focus, the writing process was brilliant. It took me a few fits and starts, but I always found something to write about.

2.1 - Remara and the Burrower

I stare down my muzzle, my eyes nearly crossed to track the glowing, twelve-inch form twirling in place near my foreclaws. It has been ten minutes since I awoke to this crisis and it. is. still. talking.

1.1 - Remara and the Darkened Man

The door shrieks whenever it opens. It is startling, even after weeks of hearing it. Once in the morning and once in the evening it screams open, then closed. A pair of boots tramps out in the morning and drags in at night.

9-1-1, This is a Dreamergency...

I've always had pretty bizarre, entertaining dreams. As this is the case, whenever I hold onto a fragment long enough to remember it, and as long as it isn't too embarrassing, I've opted to write it down. I share it for the laughs, or perhaps for the eyebrow arched in concern for my sanity.

Loaded Grilled Cheese

The contents of this recipe (and all ensuing photos) were obtained at great personal peril from deep cover as an innocently hungry daughter, asking her Dad just how he does the grilled cheese magic.

Anytime Writer's Fuel

"But Dusty, if you've abandoned caffeine, what do you use as a replacement? And what could possibly replace the taste of coffee?" the masses cry out. Well...

The Daily Grinder

"Keep writing through it all. If you only wrote when motivated, you’d be a poet." (Pirateba, author of The Wandering Inn) Words cannot express how much I hate this idea, how long I have bucked it, and the depth of my dread at the prospect of finally facing it.

Who Do You Think You Are?

"You are too proud of who you think you are to notice what you are actually like, which prevents you from changing properly. You do not want to sacrifice that part of yourself. It is probably associated with some delusion that helps you maintain a positive, although very fragile, self-image."

Recent Media Consumed

Covers: The Grim Reaper arc from Discworld, The Case for the Real Jesus, Star Trek Voyager, and more.

Lavender & Decaf

It's funny what little things I've acclimated to over the years, telling myself that's just how things are and they won't change even if I try. Funny how, when I actually give sustained, serious effort to making a change, it turns out that far less is set in stone than I assume.