Random note about discovery writing.

Being a discovery writer (not a plotter) is such a weird thing, I don't think I'll ever get used to. It's also something that's almost impossible to give advice about.

There's an anthology I really want to be a part of so this morning I started writing a short story. The theme was Christmas horror. That's it. I couldn't think of anything. I was fairly confident I had nothing in the tank for this. But I decided to roll the dice and trust myself, so I opened a new document and started typing a name. Then just started casually talking about him as an opening paragraph, hoping that like push-starting an old car, the engine would just turn over and kick into gear and a story would magically happen, even though I had nothing. Nothing.

Next thing I know, (long meal breaks not withstanding) I'm 3.5k words in and I'm so intrigued by this tale, that I kind of want to stop, go lie down and watch to see how this film ends. But the only way I'm going to find out is to keep writing. So... better get back to it.

Just a thought I'd share. I don't post here often enough. I've signed a contract for another book 'The Sky is Made of Stone' (A dwarven tale) which should release next year. I'll post more about that soon.

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100 stories published

So about 7 or 8 stories ago, I passed a benchmark without noticing. The gaps between call, submissions, and publication vary by some dramatically huge margins, so it would require quite the audit to name the precise one that made it over the line (also some of those are flash/micro fiction but many of those are also recorded in groups/batches as just one so hard to pin down). OVER 100 STORIES PUBLISHED First story published in late 2020. So it's been a busy four or five years. I'm not making a living off this yet and maybe I never will. But that's a nice benchmark to cross. I don't update this site often, and I need to populate the timeline/genre page. I will soon, maybe throw up some maps for the fantasy side of things. At least I have the excuse of clearly being very busy. I'll pat myself on the back there.

Shorts for next year

Delayed update... Four more stories of mine have been accepted for publication in anthologies due out early next year: -'Beyond the Ensuite' a short horror piece for 'Manor of Frights' from Horror addicts -'Twin Temptation' a fantasy piece for 'Depths of love: My Enemy' from Cloaked Press and SFWG -'Under a Broken Moon' a fantasy novella for ' Beastly Tales' from Dragon Soul Press -'Blue Monday' a sci-fi short for 'Union' from Dragon Soul Press Pounding the keyboard hard to get more stories out, then hopefully focusing on a couple novels in the later half of this month and most of January.

2022 - Year in Review

A challenging year, but I'm proud of the work I managed to create. On the publishing front I saw my work appear in fifteen published anthologies. That's one more than last year, which is actually more impressive than it sounds because for the last seven months of this year I also took a day job (because, as fun as it's been to write full time, it's not generating a liveable income just yet – I need to get some full books out there). Casual day work (mostly at night), but that's still anywhere between twelve and fifty hours a week not in front of a computer. Instead standing on my feet, destroying my arches, and making it hard to sit at a computer to write, needing days to recover from the pain. So, with limited time, I still got done what I did, and I'm proud of that. I'm still pumping out short stories because it helps flesh out my worlds. With each new short, I discover something new about that world. It's a journey of discovery. With each new stor...

Wyrmblood

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