As the weather warms up, my family and I have been spending more and more time outside. Last week, we went to a different park or hiking path every day after my long days teaching. We’ve been in South Carolina now for about 9 months, and I finally feel like we’re starting to get a…
One of the biggest traps a writer can fall into is believing that their work needs to be incredible the first time around. That’s the kind of thinking where writer’s block is born. Today I officially started a full week off of work, and boy, did I hit the ground running. Yesterday, I sat down…
Do you ever mix up the sounds and letters in words while you’re talking? Because I do. And it feels like I do it a lot. It’s actually become a running joke in my inner circles because I also write a lot, and words are my thing. You know? Indiana Jones has a hat, Popeye…
There are about seven hundred sixty-two moments a day where I stop and think, “hey, that would make a good blog. I should write about it.” Of course, seven hundred sixty of them get fizzled out within a minute or two, but a couple remain by the end of the day. Lately, I take those…
Worry not! I’m still alive. 😉 Words are getting written, too. It’s been a massive adjustment over the last six months—starting a job teaching, moving to South Carolina, raising my little baby boy. It adds up. Life gets busy. Fortunately, I feel like writing has already become a core piece of who I am. Even…
The idea of historical fantasy can feel like a paradox. Fantasy is all about wild, magical worlds full of imagination. History is founded on facts meticulously pieced together over years of study. One plays with and changes facts, while the other fixes them in place. Yet, as opposite as they are, the two can intertwine…
Soil is strange. We use it to bury our dead, then we use it to grow our crops. Thanks to gravity, we’re always connected to it—though we try to rid ourselves of it by washing it off our hands, our clothes, and other unwanted places. We walk upon the ground, becoming familiar with the surface….
Tag Along – Discovering the Hanger Sword Join me as I research hanging swords in an effort to increase my writing ability Regardless of how you feel about weapons, you have to admit—they do a fantastic job spicing up life. Think about it: even the most mundane situations become exciting when a weapon enters the…
The Aztec Lore that Found Its Way Into my Novels Snakes are already fearsome. Add wings, and they become nightmare fuel. Imagine not just watching one slither toward you, but seeing it descend from the sky. This is the image carried in Aztec mythology of the feathered serpent, Quetzalcoatl. More than scales and feathers, it…
Today marks my 48th daily weekday post in a row—and it’s my last. It has been a good run, and I’ve enjoyed the challenge, but it’s time to pivot. Instead of writing a post every weekday, I’m going to be spending more time on editing, crafting, and researching a single weekly post every Wednesday. I’ve…