I made a few gifts for friends and mailed them out in early December. I didn't know how they would go over but suspected they might be well received. Turns out everyone who received one absolutely loved it. All of the stories I write begin with a feeling that I want to convey. Back in the summer, I had a strong urge to write something to trigger a feeling called anemoia.

Holding a year-long grudge.

There are many intriguing stories from history, especially the farther back you go. In fact, my own family's Native American Tribe, the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, and the larger Muscogee Nation they split off from long ago have all sorts of terrifying legends. The Inuit people are no exception to this type of thing, and they have their own stories of grotesque creatures to tell their children about. Fun!

You know, I kind of expected a learning curve with eBook formatting. I set my mind to it and figured it out. No problem; just a bit of time. Setting up indie author accounts on Amazon and Google has been an enormous problem.

A little girl named Norah writes a letter to Santa Claus.

Back when I was in 5th grade, I found a book in my house, and to this day, I'm still not sure where it came from. Up to that point, it was the single fattest book my 10-year-old self had ever seen. I thought some of Tolkien's books were long, but I never could have imagined that so many pages would fit inside anything other than a dictionary.

A lot is going on, well, all the time. I changed the website: a new highlights section on the home page, Absolution finally unveiled, and I reorganized some pages. Things are coming together nicely, as I'd hoped.

Do you remember the Berenstein Bears?

I've been working hard on the audiobook for this Christmas-themed short story. Everything has come together nicely, and I'm now trying to figure out how and where I want to publish it. I just finished making the cover for it last night, and I'm pleased with how it turned out. One glance at it, and everyone will know it's a retro creature feature.

What does one write about a first novel? It seems like a careful balancing act of showing just enough to be interesting, but not so much that everything is revealed and the story is spoiled.

A reverse poem for the most magical time of year.

I've carved out some time from my editing to wrap up a few gifts for Christmas. Once they are sent out and opened by the few recipients, I'll post some pictures up. I've created a set of unique gifts, and only a handful of them exist. As far as the people receiving them, they have no idea what they're getting. So, it'll be interesting to see what they think. 

Each generation is affected by the one before it. Born from around 2010 to 2024, they'll be hitting teenager years soon. What kind of world have we created for them? What will they do with it? Here's a flash fiction piece about it.

I've compared my first draft to my second (for chapters where I completed my second draft checklist) and concluded that planning my second draft was a great idea. Everything reads better and is much more engaging. I've given the first chapter or two to test readers, and they've had extremely positive things to say.

Playgrounds after dark sure are eerie.

I've been working through revisions to create the official second draft of the novel. As I read through and compare the first and second drafts, it's apparent that the second one has so much more punch. This is precisely what I wanted. You can see so much in the first draft, but it's the revisions where the work truly begins to shine.

Let's have a lovely little sing-a-long!

I don't know—there's just something spammy feeling about both of those words to me. After extensive research, I've discovered sites out there allow people to join a list and receive regular emails, like zen habits, but don't use the typical terminology. Newsletter certainly sounds less spammy, though. So, I've decided to join the movement and do that. I've officially launched my not-yet-named email thing and put up the short story audiobook of Inching Along After the Apocalypse.

What do you see that others may not?

Depending on who you talk to or where you research, the terms mean something very different. For example, a newsletter seems to be a regular, expected email. A mailing list, though, maybe more sporadic. What do I want? I think a newsletter, probably monthly. But, I want to provide real value to readers, so I'm going to put some thought into how I might accomplish that.

A short horror video about trustworthy neighbors.

After careful evaluation, I've paired my twelve-step to-do down to eleven steps. I have a new and shiny editing checklist, and I'm going through each chapter with it. Some chapters need more work than others. It's fascinating to see how far my writing has progressed since I started. The first chapter reads as if someone entirely different wrote it. In a sense, that's true. I've put in well over 1,000 hours, so the difference between zero and 1000+ hours on a story is stunning.

How easily simply waking up can turn into terror.

I finally finished my edits of the remaining chapters using my shortlist. I've also completely read through Intuitive Editing: A Creative and Practical Guide to Revising Your Writing and found it helpful. Interestingly, the first two-thirds of Intuitive Editing seems to be a different take on Randy Ingermanson's The Snowflake Method. Still, I went through everything in great detail, just to be sure.

I was editing my novel late last night and saw that Gillian had posted a horror flash fiction writing prompt. I took a look, and it caught my eye. I finished up my to-do list for editing the chapter and wrote a flash fiction piece. I like how it turned out. This one came in at 148 words.