Behind the Pages
Writing life, dark worlds, stubborn characters, publishing chaos, and everything that happens between the first sentence and the finished book.
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The Small Object That Knows Too Much
A key, a ribbon, or a chipped cup can carry a character’s history. The trick is letting the object matter through choices, not stopping the story to explain…
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The Quiet Scene After Everything Goes Wrong
The battle is over. The door is locked. Now somebody has to sit down, accept a cup of tea, and figure out how to live with what just…
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October Is Here. My Reading Plans Have Become Unreasonable.
Cooler evenings, cozy blankets, and a wildly ambitious reading pile. October reading plans have a way of getting out of hand.
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An Apology Is Not a Character Arc
A heartfelt apology can open the door to repairing a fictional relationship. The choices that follow decide whether readers believe the change.
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I Fixed One Sentence and Accidentally Rewrote the Chapter
One troublesome sentence led to new context, a new scene, three thousand additional words, and the disappearance of the original sentence. A dry look at why tiny manuscript…
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My Fictional Calendar Has Evidence Against Me
A fictional timeline can catch the smallest lies: impossible travel, suspicious moon phases, and feelings that needed more than six hours to change. A dry, affectionate look at…
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Who Packed Lunch for This Quest?
The prophecy is urgent, but somebody needs to pack bread. A funny look at the meals, small gestures, and ordinary needs that make a fantasy quest feel human.
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Please Stop Making All My Characters Agreeable
A cast loses its spark when every character becomes agreeable. Here’s how I keep the difficult one difficult, the sensitive one sensitive, and every voice recognizably its own.
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The Dust Jacket and I Need to Discuss Boundaries
The dust jacket comes off to protect the cover. Then it needs a safe place, its own supervision, and a small engineering project before it can return to…