Writes
48,528 Words of Blood, Cypress, and the Sweet Relief of the Short Story Cycle This post is going to be a long one. Not just because I have a lot of emotion and reflection to unpack, but because I have a math problem to solve. I signed up for ProWritingAid’s NovNov (Novel November) challenge with a goal of hitting 50,000… Continue reading After Knight: My Thoughts on Novel November
Haint Party Sleep took me with brutal efficiency. I plunged into a terrible, vivid dream. Bex and I were fighting, a real, ugly one, and she was done. She packed her bags and left without a single word of reconciliation. Then the scene shifted. I was sobbing to Erin, explaining that Rebecca had left me. Erin was only half-listening, nodding… Continue reading Chapter 11: It’s Not Over…
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
The Knights of Maenara Collective (10 of 10) The mahogany front door of Victoria’s New Orleans manor was pristine once more, the last sticky residue of the “Queen Victoria Pumpkin” incident scrubbed away by a mortified staff. Yet, the air in the house still held a faint, residual scent of cinnamon and decay, a fitting metaphor for the new, absurd… Continue reading Queen's Gambit
The Knights of Maenara Collective (9.666… of 10) The manor felt like a palace after the deep, suffocating energy of the bayou. The cool, dry air conditioning was a shock to the skin. They returned just before dawn, coated in sweat, grime, and the lingering residue of swamp magic that seemed to cling to their clothes like swamp moss. Everyone… Continue reading Bonus #2 – The Architecture of Affection
The Knights of Maenara Collective (9.3333… of 10) The air itself felt thick, not just with the humid, vegetal rot of the Louisiana swamp, but with a palpable, buzzing energy. It pressed down on them, a heavy, clinging weight that promised to swallow light and sanity whole. This was not the charming, slightly decrepit New Orleans neighborhood of Victoria’s manor;… Continue reading Bonus #1 — The Swamp God’s Tax
Haint Party For the third time that night, we found ourselves back at the circular blue table. But the air was different now… thicker, laced with the metallic tang of fear and Spencer’s recently coughed-up black goo. Enough was enough. There was a malevolent ghost who had attempted murder and indirectly given me a black eye that I was now… Continue reading Chapter 10: The Banishing Spell
Haint Party “Sit at the table,” Erin ordered, her voice clipped with the dramatic urgency she reserved for minor traffic jams and summoning the dead. “It’ll be easier for us to maintain the circle.” The small, circular blue table near the kitchen island was cozy, almost too much for five adults, but we gathered our oversized candles and obeyed. Erin… Continue reading Chapter 9: The Curse
The Knights of Maenara Collective (9 of 10) Note from Harlo: The attempted coup was over, but for Victoria, the Queen of the Collective, the real battle had just begun. Her millennia-long reign was built on the illusion of absolute, divine power. Now, that illusion was shattered, replaced by a cold, often weary pragmatism she secretly despised, and a corrosive… Continue reading The Anchor
