Writes
More Stories, More Community Hello lovely readers! I wanted to give you all a little look behind the curtain at what I’m planning for December. It feels like the right time to shake things up, connect more, and just generally stop feeling like an automaton chained to the keyboard. Thanks for reading The House of Wandering Thoughts! Subscribe for free… Continue reading December Refresh
Welcome to The Writer’s Lab, where we take apart a piece of published fiction to see how the engine works. This post is for paid subscribers because it contains exclusive craft analysis. For this month’s deep dive, we’re dissecting Chapter 7 of Haint Party. The writing challenge here was immense: we had to confirm the presence of a ghost and… Continue reading The Writer's Lab: Dissecting the Double Reveal in Chapter 7 (Our Vampire)
Story finalés, a Haint Party update, and a dark, funny, and utterly unsatisfying holiday commitment. Hello! Just a quick, non-fiction post to let you know that I am, in fact, still a real person. I know, I know…with the sheer volume of stories going up on the schedule, you might suspect I’ve been replaced by a highly efficient, short-story-generating bot.… Continue reading Urgent Update: I'm Still a Human (And Not an AI Short Story Machine)
On abandoned rooms, forgotten manuscripts, and the stories we’re finally ready to tell… There’s a room in my head I haven’t opened in months. It’s beautifully decorated. Tasteful. The kind of space where you’d serve tea in matching cups and speak in your most articulate voice. Everything has its place. The books are alphabetized. The light hits just right at… Continue reading Why I Burned My Old Brand (And Left the Lights On Anyway)
On ditching the book, finding my voice, and giving myself permission to be messy So here’s the thing—Found in the Margins never felt like me. It was pretty, sure. Poetic, even. But every time I sat down to write, I felt like I was wearing someone else’s blazer. Professional. Proper. Completely suffocating. This? This chaotic, punchy, say-whatever-grabs-me energy? This is… Continue reading Let's Be Honest: I Hated My Own Brand
…a personal story This morning I received an email that someone had cited my doctoral dissertation in their research. I didn’t believe it, but it was a google alert. Who would fake those? It might be tougher to do so, but then I checked my profile on google scholar, something I haven’t done since I graduated in 2020. Yep, I… Continue reading You've been cited!
Reflections on writing, fear, and a bachelorette party that goes very, very wrong I’m doing my very last round of edits before handing this book to my wife, who will give it the final pass and tell me exactly where I’ve gone off the rails and believe me, she will. After that… it’s time to publish. Gulp. The goal? The… Continue reading Editing My Ghosts (and My Book)
Plan: I’m going to self-publish by October. I’ve said, now I have to do it, right? That’s how all this works. I write it. I edit it. I find that I’m not completely satisfied with it, but I can’t sit on this book for another year. The first draft of this book was penned when I was still a teenager.… Continue reading Old Book New Plan
Not giving up I’ve not given up. I’m pivoting aggressively. It happens, right? The book I was working on was not happening. I couldn’t move forward and I kept going backwards. I spent time with my therapist, my wife, and just about anyone who would sit still with me to talk about it. Here’s what I’ve discovered: Finishing Something I’m… Continue reading This is not the end. More on that later today…
I’m back to writing. Thanks for waiting on me. Emotive Warning: This is a series of journal snippets that I’ve written over a week of rollercoaster like twists and turns. I tried to turn it into something more readable, but it still feels a bit messy but helpful for me. I hope it resonates with at least one person. Snippet… Continue reading Life is a little ugly
Staring down a new knee and a new chapter Well, it’s the day before knee replacement surgery. I’ve been writing like my brain is on fire, mostly to distract myself from the fact that someone is about to take power tools to my leg. That’s not a metaphor. That’s… tomorrow. I wish I could say I’m handling it with grace… Continue reading Writing Through the Waiting Room
I needed some space to be messy I disappeared for a few days, which in writer-time is approximately twelve years. My body went full protest mode, knee pain, appointments, tiny betrayals whispered behind my patella. I don’t want to dwell on it, but suffice it to say: I became very horizontal. And while I was dramatically horizontal on the couch,… Continue reading Back At It
Last Day of #1000wordsofsummer & Planning a Challenge Dear Jami, Progression 19,217 words of brand new draft in 14 full chapters 7,879 words of outline covering 23 total chapters The realization that this book wants to be born this summer, no matter what my joints think about it I don’t know what I expected from #1000wordsofsummer. Maybe a few rushed… Continue reading Recovery Writing Challenge