Covid-19 is far from the first pandemic the world has faced. The bubonic plague first emerged in history during the sixth century CE. Called the Plague of Justinian, it spread rapidly around the Mediterranean, the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sassanian Empire, killing off an estimated one-third of the population. Some estimates put the death […]
The covid-19 pandemic is changing everything. Staying indoors, staying two metres from other people, cancelling events … on one hand, I don’t really mind more opportunity to sit in front of my computer. On the other hand, I am missing some friends and colleagues. And I understand how boring it can be to hear only […]
This is one of those times that clarifies the word surreal. To qualify: I’m neither in quarantine nor isolation. I have no symptoms. I have not been near anyone with symptoms. I have not travelled in over a month. The whole family is healthy and safe. But life is certainly different. Driving to the grocery […]
From Part 3 of The Bones of the Earth As I mentioned in a few earlier posts, I am reposting samples from my original blog (way back on Blogger), with six-sentence samples posted on Sundays. These come from my first-published novel, The Bones of the Earth. The dragon opened its mouth, revealing terrible, long, pointy […]
Characters are what stories are about. Plot is essential—we had to have a story to tell. Something has to happen, something that matters to you, the readers. But it has to happen to someone we care about, or identify with, or connect to in some way. That connection has to happen on an emotional […]
As I’ve posted before, I used to participate in a Web round called Six Sentence Sunday. Each week, we participants would post six consecutive sentences from a writing project on our blogs. We’d include a link to the Six Sentence Sunday page and then post the link to our post on the central Six Sentence […]
Last post, I wrote about how I cut down on some of the stressors in my life. One of them was a particular freelance client for which I wrote blogs and social media content. Letting that one go was necessary for my health. My blood pressure was through the roof, and I felt wrong about […]
A lot of time has passed since my last blog post—four months. A third of a year! To tell you the truth, often during the first two months of that time, I wondered myself what was standing between me and updating my blog. I put it down to having too much other (paying) work to […]
For your chilling pleasure, here is another little excerpt from one of my works-in-progress, Dark Clouds. This is a little bit forward from the story you can get for free, Chapter 1: The Mandrake Ruse. It again features Helen, the Witch Queen, and her son, Matt, the only many immune to witchcraft. Helen’s prison Shadows […]
For you, dear readers, a pre-Hallowe’en treat: a chapter in Dark Clouds, following The Mandrake Ruse. If you want to read it, you can download it for free. Here is the link from that chapter to this is. Matt is the son of the Witch Queen, Helen. His wife is Teri, a witch in her […]