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Point of View: Finding the Theme

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Every story begins with something. Sometimes it’s an especially vivid image of a character that you want to write. Sometimes it’s a shiny plot object, the big idea that you want your whole story to revolve around. And sometimes it’s a theme. No matter where you start, the theme is an important part of your story. You are asking readers to buy into your view of the world, and that viewpoint should be about something. The tricky part is figuring out what that something is. For me, the theme is usually not apparent to me until I get partway or … Read more

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Serial: Down the River – Chapter Fifty-Six

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I’m finally revisiting the characters from The River City Chronicles nine years after their original timeline. I’ll be running the series weekly here on my blog, and then will release it in book form at the end of the run. Hope you enjoy catching up with all your faves and all their new secrets! Today, Ainsley comes clean to her parents about leaving school to go work with Jun Seo Jang… < Read Chapter 55 Join my email list to get my weekly newsletter with notifications of new chapters. Chapter Fifty-SixAn Unexpected Gift Ainsley stood at the entry to her … Read more

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Point of View: Here We Go Again

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My husband Mark is an angel. I came into 2025 at a low point. I’d been searching for a job for fourteen months, and although I’d had a number of great interviews, the answer was a “no” every single time. Things worsened over the next few months, and two jobs I thought I had a great shot at faded away without even an interview. And then a few potentially really good things happened. I can’t share two of them yet – don’t want to scare them away. But suddenly my writer path has grown brighter after ten years in the … Read more

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Author Spotlight: A.D. Ellis

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Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work. Today: Escape into addictive, sexy, emotional M/M romance. A.D. Ellis is an Indiana girl, born and raised. She spends much of her time in central Indiana as an instructional coach/teacher in the inner city of Indianapolis, being a mom to two amazing teens, and wondering how she and her husband of over two decades haven’t driven each other insane yet. A lot of her time is also devoted to phone call avoidance and … Read more

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Serial: Down the River – Chapter Fifty-Five

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I’m finally revisiting the characters from The River City Chronicles nine years after their original timeline. I’ll be running the series weekly here on my blog, and then will release it in book form at the end of the run. Hope you enjoy catching up with all your faves and all their new secrets! Today, Diego has his own encounter with Brad… and a couple other ghosts from his past… < Read Chapter 54 | Read Chapter 56 > Join my email list to get my weekly newsletter with notifications of new chapters. Chapter Fifty-FiveLet Him Go Diego woke up, … Read more

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Review: Flashes in Time – Mikko Rauhala

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Flashes in Time - Mikko Rauhala

Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi Get It On Amazon | Publisher | B&N | Kobo About The Book Flashes in Time explores these questions and more in sixteen imaginative short stories set atop a fourfold table of science fiction and fantasy, contemporary and far off. A diverse cast of characters explores the limits of what it means to be human, and what our choices make of us. From darkness to light and lingering in between, the scenarios and thought experiments take the reader on a journey with surprising yet inevitable twists. The Review I first met Mikko Rauhala at Nebula Con – this was during the pandemic, and … Read more

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Point of View: I’m Happiest When I’m Writing?

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We writers are a strange and contradictory breed. Take the act of writing itself. When we’re not writing regularly, we can be sullen, morose, unhappy creatures. And yet, when we are writing… my husband would say “how can you tell the difference?” The actual act of writing can be exalting, even thrilling, as the strength of our ideas and our connection with our characters carries us forward like an unrelenting wave. But even then, we surf at our own peril. Because every wave eventually crashes. More often than not, writing is a long, boring grind. My writer brain has to … Read more

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Author Spotlight: Karenna Colcroft

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Karenna Colcroft

Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work. Today: Karenna Colcroft lives just north of Boston, Massachusetts, and has been in love with the city since childhood, though she has yet to encounter any werewolves, vampires, or other paranormal beings in her travels. At least none that she knows of. Karenna is a polyamorous, nonbinary human who lives in northeastern Massachusetts with her husband. She also has two adult children and a bonus son, four grandchildren, and an indeterminate number of … Read more

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Serial: Down the River – Chapter Fifty-Four

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I’m finally revisiting the characters from The River City Chronicles nine years after their original timeline. I’ll be running the series weekly here on my blog, and then will release it in book form at the end of the run. Hope you enjoy catching up with all your faves and all their new secrets! Today, Gio and Dante meet the cousin they never knew they had… < Read Chapter 53 | Read Chapter 55 > Join my email list to get my weekly newsletter with notifications of new chapters. Chapter Fifty-FourSole “Come on up! We’re on the third floor.” Aunt … Read more

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Author Spotlight: John Paul

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John Paul

Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work. Today: I am John Paul. I started writing short stories in college, writing endless articles for my school newspaper. Years later, with the birth of the Internet I started publishing my own blog. I always found a reason to write until I let life get in the way. My vault of unfinished novels grew over the years while I let corporate America keep me busy, then the stories sat in a corner collecting … Read more