Storyteller, Artist
Jessica Alister gets paid to find everything she can about people and sends the information to her boss. When Jessica discovers someone murdered a man she researched, she panics.
Did her research lead to his murder?
Jessica researches to find out and stumbles on dangerous information.
If you enjoy light-hearted mysteries, buy The Amateur Detective today.
Merrihaven Kingdom banned magic generations ago. Yet, magic trickles in.
Lianna works as an assistant to the kingdom’s healer. She hears secrets she must keep while tending the sick.
One secret Lianna hears will ruin the kingdom.
If you love heartwarming stories with magic and a handsome prince, you’ll enjoy “Kingdom of Secrets.”
I love folk tales and fairy tales. There is a feel to them captures my imagination. Ideas to twist the damsel-in-distress narrative typical in fairy tales bounce around in my mind on a regular basis. After having lost my voice for three months, I wondered what it would be like to go years without the ability to talk. This story gave me the chance to play with that idea.
Jasmine’s birthday gift blurred the line between real and imaginary.
How can she help make the imaginary real?
Reimagine Friendship tells the story of two friends who need each other in a beyond imaginable way.
If you enjoy humorous tales with imaginary friends, buy Reimagine Friendship today.
I never had an imaginary friend growing up, but loved stories with imaginary friends. Some of my favorite stories involved adults having imaginary friends. This idea inspired me to write an imaginary friend story for a teenager.
The more I write, the more I discover how much I don’t know.
I thought I’d try something new with my blog by posting updates on my writing and what I’m up to more frequently. I’m hoping this will help me get more comfortable with blogging, hold me accountable for my writing, and give me more practice writing what is in my head. I haven’t decided on how frequently I’ll post, but I figure I need to start somewhere.
Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Katherine Rusch offered a challenge of writing one short story per week for a year. I decided to join because I enjoy a challenge and wanted to practice some writing techniques I learned. Not to mention, I’d get a few more classes to learn more and short stories are a great spot to practice.
In addition to writing the short story each week, I added the challenge of sending each story off to market as a way to practice Heinlein’s rules. Robert J. Sawyer has a great post written which explains the rules well.
What I’ve found, besides the rejection count accumulates faster with more stories out, is that I’m getting used to the rejections. Yes, I feel disappointed, but I have the next possible market lined up and I send the story off as soon as I can.
Sending things off to market reminds me of cold calling when I worked in sales. Some days, I’d go through a list of 100 names and each person would say ‘no’. After a few calls, I’d shrug off the ‘no’ and dial the next number on my list. It was just business and how I had to make my living. Sometimes the list had so many yeses my appointment calendar filled quickly.
Writing, I’m discovering, shares many similarities to sales.
I’m having fun with the challenge. There are some stories I like and others I’m not a huge fan of, but I’ve sent them all out.
My second novel for the year is just about done. I’m at 65,000 words. My goal is to finish it up this week.
That’s where things stand at the moment.
This year I promised myself that I would do whatever it took to make fiction writing my profession. As I progress, I hope this website will grow and evolve to showcase my work, my learning, and my passions. Writing fiction is a fun business and one I hope to learn the ins and outs of over the years to come.
With that in mind, I set my first quarter plan at the beginning of January to be: