For the past couple of months, I've been taking part in a few Twitter writing games. Basically, the host asks questions, either about whatever you're working on or about you as a writer, or the writing process, or some combination of both.

When one of those games asked what the main characters' favorite winter activities were... I already had a ( Read more... )

When it comes to its open mics, Writer’s Studio has (mostly) strict rules. Whatever the readers read has to be double-spaced, in Times New Roman 12-point font and under two pages. So when I found out that there was a good chance I would be able to make the December 6, 2018 open mic, I wondered if I could even bring anything. Over the past two years ( Read more... )

I originally wrote this story back in February 2012, but, to be honest, I started having doubts about how it actually turned out. The plot hit the nerve in the way I wasn’t quite expecting, and I think too much of it spilled on the page. At the same time, the story was kind of necessary in terms of Urbis Arcana canon, so I wound up putting in the “ ( Read more... )

I’ve been following me on Twitter or Facebook, you’d know that there is a story I’ve been working on since October of last year. It’s coming slowly, in fits in starts - though I have to say that I made more progress on it in the past two months then in the eight months that preceded it.

It’s completely separate from the Urbis Arcana stories. I’m ( Read more... )

I've been reading The World of Ice and Fire, the companion book to George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire - the fantasy series that was adopted into Game of Thrones. The book is a fascinating work in its own right - it deals with the history and geography of ASOIF universe from an in-universe perspective. It's meant to be a history book an ( Read more... )

( The former god of war makes his last stand )

Ever since moj_oduvan4ik offered to translate my short stories in exchange for translating her novella, I have been looking at Urbis Arcana stories I've posted already. They were written back in 2011 (if not earlier) and I wanted to clean them up a bit before sending them off for translation, maybe make some changes ( Read more... )

The following is the prologue for a potential Urbis Arcana novel I first mentioned back in…. March? Really? Where the hell did the time go?

More seriously, I had good excuses. The move, work stuff, stuff with my family. But now, the prologue is done. All I have to do is try to finish the rest.

I’m not sure sure how much of it (if any) is going to go ( Read more... )

I originally wrote this story for the Chicago Reader 2012 Fiction Issue. The writing process was nerve-wrecking. I started working on it two weeks before the deadline, only to discover that my first attempt was getting to be way above the word limit, so I tried again… only to run into the same problem. My third attempt worked much better, but I ( Read more... )

Edit Notes: Revised extensively from original version after getting feedback from mysticowl and phoenix_anew. Honestly, it was mostly mysticowl's fault :)

Seriously, though, I really appreciate their help.

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After writing something as long and plot-heavy as Still My Ward, I decided to write something a bit more light-hearted and character-centric. The story ( Read more... )