"Soft Serve", a short story inspired by the author's reflections on societal decline, has been published in State of Matter's August 2024 issue. The story, rooted in a troubling childhood memory at a doctor's office, explores darker what-ifs about the future, particularly within the context of Tulsa, OK in 2050.
Like my previous inspiration posts for “Singot”, “The Hole in the System”, and Perceiver, I wanted to talk about why I wrote “The Heebie-Jeebie Beam”, what I learned about my writing process while writing it, revising it, and working with the editor of Metaphorosis to publish it.
So I’m on TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@longhandhabits/video/7106693912466656554?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7105218216121599534 I post reviews of books about writing, craft, storytelling, and other related topics. Plus, I also post short videos on tips to help you write tighter, tell stories better, and how to improve. I don't claim to know everything--these videos aren't prescriptive--rather, they're meant for viewers to take what is … Continue reading TikTok Announcement
What did I achieve? What did I miss? What went sideways, and what pleasantly surprised me? This is the data-backed story of 2021.
It wasn’t immediately obvious why people raged about the cleanliness ratings until I began to think more about it. There’s a difference between what administrators of YA Book Ratings intended, what ratings actually do, and how this impacts children, teenagers, and adults. And how it ties to banned books.
“The Hole in the System” is based on three things. It’s about a plague of holes. It’s about systems. And it’s about the shopping cart theory, the viral theory that you can determine whether a person is a good or bad member of society depending on whether they return their shopping carts. A post about what inspired me to write it.
I cannot separate the creation of Perceiver from becoming a writer: of growing aware of my place in the world, discovering what I value and fear, and what I need to write.
Major book news, short story news, a review of how I spent my time the first six months this year, and thoughts and feelings about the future.
There is no non-annoying way to champion your debut novel, so forgive me for believing that it’s DAMN GOOD. You can pre-order it on Amazon and read the first chapter on my website (links in post).
Before I can understand something, I have to be able to explain it to myself. In the case of love, the explanation had to be a story. That story was "Singot".