Writing
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.
House of Nepenthe
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.
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.
Publishing
House of Nepenthe: How Long is Too Long?
I’ve been trawling through literary agent websites lately, and I’ll tell you what: each one has their own quirky little rules. Some want a guaranteed happily-ever-after. Some will accept robots, but only if they're unattractive. And still others insist that the protagonists must be a lesbian
Writing
House of Nepenthe: It's Harder to Work When You Just Don't Want to, Duh.
I recently finished another revision pass on House of Nepenthe, a process that felt like trying to get a long sofa up a spiral staircase, and I didn't even have anyone screaming pivot at me the whole time to keep me motivated. For context, Vise Manor came out
Writing
The Worst Note
This is one of the worst notes I leave myself. Worse than “terrible.” Worse than “full rewrite.” Very short means I couldn’t even write 2,000 words in a chapter, which means there just isn’t much here. Not enough conflict. Not enough plot. And yet we have to
Writing