My son is voting for Ken Paxton, and that's on me

That thing where you wait too long to tell your kids about monsters, and the monsters find them first.

Stories I Tell My Daughter: The Snowman and the Flower

Waldor wanted nothing more in his life than to see a beautiful flower. Where he lived, it was always cold, and flowers never had a chance to grow.

Stories I Tell My Son: The Strawberry Farm

Once upon a time, there was a dragon. In this dragon's ear was the biggest strawberry farm you've ever seen.

Which Would You Choose? Synthetic or Cyborg?

President Duke argues that anyone who transferred into a synthetic body stopped being human the moment their original brain died. I've been thinking about this argument for years, and I still can't find a hole in it.

Only the Quiet Remains

A farewell to my friend and canine writing partner. If you've recently lost one of your own, this one may be worth skipping.

A/S/L, Says the State of Texas

Thirty years ago, you could answer that question with whatever lie you wanted. That was what made the internet awesome.

HJ Talks to AV

Technology has grown far beyond the cookie-cutter experience of your grandparents and into a realm where knowledge rules and strength is no longer determined by the size of a man’s muscles but by the size of his brain.

Friday Footnotes - 6.26.26

Welcome to Friday Footnotes, a new series intended to fill the void when I've spent too much time writing fiction and too little time writing a new thoughtful blog post for you.

House of Nepenthe - Alternate Opening

The bar around him was an amalgam of familiar set pieces: the long bar with multi-colored bottles on the wall behind it, the pool tables in the distance with their clacking balls, and a small dance floor with only a handful of people gyrating to a song he couldn’t hear.

Writers, Find Your People

Writing is a lonely profession, but there are times when you need someone else to help answer the difficult questions like "how many movie quotes are too many?"

How to Turn an Existing Short Story into a Novel

Pamela Koehne-Drube over at Novlr wrote a great framework for expanding a short story into a novel. It's like she was reading my diary.

Last Date Night in the Valley

He’d wanted to take her to a fancy restaurant in Corpus Christi, but with her last class of the day letting out at 7:30 p.m., she’d balked at the six hour round-trip just to eat raw shrimp from a champagne glass.

Books

AI Boiled a Small Lake to Bring House of Nepenthe to Life

They say all is fair in love and self-publishing, which is why I have no trouble throwing money at anything that might remotely help me sell more books... even if "anything" occasionally means accelerating the heat death of the planet.

Essays

Objection! This Isn't Funny at All (How Pauly Shore Lied to Me About Jury Duty)

There is a small subset of people in this country who don't recognize the comedic genius of Pauly Shore's work in the 1990s, and if you happen to be in that camp, I'd like you to stop reading right now, as I don'

Writing

One Is The Loneliest Number (of POVs in a Vinestead Anthology Novel)

I know, I know... House of Nepenthe isn't even out yet, and here I am talking about Book 9 of the Vinestead Anthology. Believe me, I wish I had the marketing instinct to build up excitement for my longest and most ambitious novel ever before it hits shelves,

Essays

Do You Read Science Fiction? (And Other Icebreakers I Used Selling Books at STAPLE!)

I managed to snag a table at STAPLE! The Independent Media Expo on January 24, 2026, thus beginning three months of anxiety and ill-conceived plans to dye my hair, change my name, and flee to Mexico. It was going to be my first time ever selling my books in

For My Tech Nerds

I Spent a Year Writing Code with ChatGPT and Learned Nothing

In a world where we are judged by our results and not by what we learned along the way, AI-assisted coding seems like the perfect shortcut. But though we deliver our products faster, are we sure we're not losing something in the process? Something key to our own personal development?

Essays

The Psychology of Easter Brunch; May Contain Eggs and Nick Miller

The family and I took a little trip out to the Lost Pines Resort just east of Austin and capped off our weekend of farm animals, lazy rivers, and torrential downpours with an innocuous Easter brunch in what the resort calls their "Barn" but was more like their

Writing

On Trauma, Time, and Anaïs Nin

I've been reading non-fiction by Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin in the hopes of transporting myself back to a time I've romanticized as being the height of literary community. I love the little insights into their thinking, their processes, and their feelings. I also like

Books

House of Nepenthe Is Now Available for Kindle Preorder

House of Nepenthe by Daniel Verastiqui is now available for Kindle preorder. The eighth entry in the Vinestead Anthology releases June 2, 2026.

Flashes From the Verse

Cynthia Scatters The Crew

The driver’s name was Kaz, and as the newest and youngest member of the crew, Cynthia had fully expected him to cut and run as soon as the job went south, which coincidentally, was the moment she hit the roof of the McCall Tower in downtown Houston. The localized

Essays

Lock the Bathroom Door: The Monetized AI Slop Endgame Is Near

As a science fiction writer, I learned early on how to be comfortable being dead wrong about the future. I grew up in a time when books featured Evil Corporations™️that were trying to steal your data, spy on you, and influence your decision-making through well-placed propaganda. That&

Movies

How Billy Madison Could Have Won the Academic Decathalon

If I could slip back to 1995, I’d tell Little Daniel two things. One: buy NFLX and never look back. Two: quoting Billy Madison does not, in fact, constitute a personality. I cannot overstate the death grip this movie had on me. It was peak comedy, the funniest, most

Flashes From the Verse

Tenchi Teikoku

As far as user caps went, Tenchi Teikoku had one of the lowest in the area. The rumors went that its sysop, who went by the name of Kenoh, ran the board out of his basement with his own equipment and bundled T1 lines. That meant bandwidth into Tenchi was