Flashes From the Verse
The store had been slow all day. Not since before the toll road bypass had customers filled the aisles of the small convenience store on Highway 277 just north of Sonora. In those days, Nelson had worked for his father, manning the cash register as the old man sat in
For Readers
Having a character speak Spanish is always a dicey situation for me. On one hand, I'd love for Hispanic characters to speak their native languages when appropriate or necessary. On the other hand, I don't speak Spanish, and when I try to, people laugh at me.
Deleted Scenes
Author's Note: There was a time when Hybrid Mechanics didn't end the way it does in the published version. I had an idea that our primary character, Armando, would suffer a horrible fate: being forced back into the simulation (which is, in fact, our reality) and
Flashes From the Verse
The morning of her graduation party, when the first rays of the sun had yet to grace the rooftops of the stately homes on the Copper Vein cul-de-sac, Miri Walker was lying restless with one arm hanging over the edge of her bed. She had tossed and turned all night,
Flashes From the Verse
Barbara Cobb hadn’t smiled once since the party began, and the longer she went without offering more in the way of conversation than a polite nod, the more Randy Cobb started to realize something was up. It wasn’t Barbara’s way to be anti-social; she loved events like
Flashes From the Verse
According to the gilded invite sent out a month prior, the event taking place in the clubhouse at the Diamond Ranch golf course was ostensibly a party for the three recent graduates who lived on the Copper Vein cul-de-sac. However, based on the number of adults, all of whom were
I know social media is more about the performance of being a writer than actually writing, but still I can't help but feel a tinge of envy when I see fellow writers post things like "I just finished my first draft! Now onto edits! The book will
Flashes From the Verse
If it hadn’t been for the bright green signs calling out the exits for the city of Holliday, Trace Butler might have driven right past what appeared to her as an endless black prairie with hardly enough evercrete and glass to reflect the bright moon hanging overhead. Driving west
Behind the Scenes
If you're wondering how much importance I place on epigraphs, consider that Vise Manor didn't even have one. It's not that I'm against them; I just never found anything that resonated with the story. So much effort goes into a book that choosing a generic poem, quote, or music lyric off the shelf...
We play this fun game in our house where one of us gets sick, and we mutate the virus or bacteria or whatever and then pass it along to someone else. Round and round it goes, always changing, always re-infecting. It’s important for a family to have traditions. And,
With the rise of ChatGPT and other pseudo-AIs that scrape the freely available content on the web to sell back to us, some authors have started moving their short stories and scratch writing behind a free paywall, which I guess is just a wall. 🧱 Anyway, I'm one of
Flashes From the Verse
As she waited for him to climb the steps to the patio, she wondered how he had found her so quickly. But then a soft breeze coming in off the water carried the question away, and she felt comforted by the idea that he had been waiting for her, probably every day since she had dropped off the grid.