The Sparrow's Nest

I had so much fun writing "Little Berry." Believe it or not, she was one of my very first characters that I ever made. Back in grade school, I had nothing to give to my mom for her birthday, so I made a picture book for her, and Little Berry, who's name was Melly at the time, was the main character. She was trying to get a pot of honey for her little sister's birthday. I had thought of publishing these little stories, but set it aside. So now, years later, I thought of Melly again, and decided to write a short story for her. Stretching something so tiny as getting a pot of honey for a birthday made me wonder if I should just make a whole new story altogether. So I did, and Melly's name changed a few times until I decided on Little Berry. I moved my fairies into more of an American Indian garb. They live in a forest on the reservation and are called tree people. The big house in the story belongs to people living off of it, but right on the border. I ...

Minority characters, how many have I seen turned into dancing monkeys, stoic idiots who are all warrior, but no fight--ugh. I could go on for hours. They always end up as supporting characters, and there is nothing more frustrating than watching a movie, or reading a story that's supposed to be about Native Americans, and the main character is white. Raised by Natives, but white. Gatewood, oh sorry, it's called Geronimo, Last of the Mohicans (and they killed my favorite character), Dances With Wolves--and they're all depressing. Do you want to see the most accurate depiction of Natives? Watch Maverick with Mel Gibson. Does the view of Natives go against all preconceived notions here? Good. Does it make fun of how Natives are depicted? Yes. And that's a good thing. Shanghai Noon is another good one. When making Native characters, all you have to do is make them as human as yourself, and make sure they have a funny bone. That funny bone isn't being a dancing...

This is one of my most favorite places, and where I get so much inspiration for the stories I write, especially for the world of Ilo, and this is where my brain can relax when it's melted beyond recognition. Don't forget to pick up a copy of "Pariahs" on amazon  here .

Have a nasty rug and don't want to pay somebody to muck it out for you? Several years ago, I got a new rug. It was green, with beautiful leaves on it. Wow, it matched my room, and went with everything. And then it started smelling green. I vacuumed it all the time, and it helped, but after a while, vacuuming did nothing. So I took a rug cleaner to it. Brand new! But then it started getting disgusting again, especially after I kicked a cup of juice all over it, but that's another story. Anyway, the rug was gross. I took a rug cleaner to it again. I spent HOURS on that thing. Wouldn't you know, people decided to stand on it for fun. The rug ended up smelling worse than before I cleaned it. It was making my room smell like crap, feet and crap. There was only one thing to do. I folded up that disgusting piece of green gunk and threw that thing out! Bam, and now you know what to do with your nasty carpet. Don't forget to buy your copy of my new book "Pari...

My story "Kittylyn" has finally come out! I've been waiting so long for this one! A lot of things happened to keep it in the dark, but it's finally come out. "Kittylyn" was actually a part of a different story that I had made, but there were too many elements in that other story, and so I broke off a part of that other story. The broken-off element became "Kittylyn." When I was about three, I was playing in the backyard with my little brother. There was nothing but forest in front of the house at the time. I heard my uncles yelling in the front, and then everybody started yelling. I wanted to see what was going on, so I grabbed my brother's hand and took him to the back door so that we could go into the house and see what was going on. Then it was like thunder sounded on the side of the house, and a wild black stallion appeared at the corner of the house. It reared up on its hind legs, and it's eyes were wide and bloodshot. It sta...

Some construction workers were hired to redo a part of the Theodore Roosevelt School. They were going to stay in a hotel, but were invited to stay in the school dormitories to save money. The construction workers readily agreed, and moved in. Their boss went out to buy them dinner, and when he returned, the construction workers were standing outside of the building. They said they were not going to sleep in the dormitory. When asked why, they said they kept seeing kids, kids too little to be in the boarding school. Located on the Fort Apache Reservation, there is an old soldier's fort equipped with a museum, the Officer's Row, ancient barracks, and of course the boarding school. From the outside, it's a historic gem. This is General Crook's cabin. They found a man hanging in this room, so don't go here at night. This is a monument in his yard. In 1881, there was an uprising with two different accounts. The Apaches say they won and the soldier...

Making monsters, one of the best past times ever! I sit down with a drawing pad, and I just start sketching. I don't know what the monster is supposed to look like, or what it is I'm drawing. Sometimes I don't even know how many eyes it should have. My hand just goes, like when I'm writing without thinking, and something appears. Kind of scary when I think about it, like I'm actually conjuring something. After the monster is out, I look at it's natural weapons, like if it has claws, teeth, a weapon in its hand, and from there, I begin mapping out its strengths and weaknesses. A monster must have a weakness, or it ends up like a one-dimensional character who does everything perfect. I make it a little overpowered, because what's a too weak monster? It won't give the protagonist something to worry about, and the threat is gone out of the story. After I make the rules for the monster, I stick to them. Every incident with the monster must make sens...

In a land of monsters and soulless creatures, there is a secluded compound terrorized by a fallen demon-killer, the Grand Apwor. He's claimed its youngest occupant Vijeren as his son. The Grand Apwor can't be killed, he can't be escaped, and his punishments are severe and horrific. Somehow, he knows where Vijeren is at all times. When a law enforcer named Zhin appears like a living flame, a family war that's been sizzling for decades finally ignites. It drags Vijeren in, revealing secrets of a long-forgotten past and a family torn asunder in recesses of lost memories. Only Zhin knows how to kill the Grand Apwor, but the answer rests on the love between a father and son--something that Vijeren doesn't have... "Pariahs" coming to you in November.

When I was in grade school, I loved playing with Barbie Dolls and my Spiderman play-set. I hated writing like nobody's business, but I loved to read. Books, dolls, Spiderman and dinosaurs were my thing. And then a few days before Christmas, my friend gave me a gift bag with a little present inside. I thought it was some kind of toy, and hoped with all my might that it wasn't clothes. The kids in my neighborhood loved getting clothes and shoes for Christmas. Bizarre to this day. I pulled out the present while I was in the car, and realized that it was a tiny painting. It was shimmering in the streetlights. What in the world was this? I had never received art as a gift before. When I got home, I pulled out the present in bright light. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, and I have never seen its equal since. Something happened inside me that day. It was like a spear of light sliced straight through me, and my imagination burst from its confines. At that day...

"Midnight Dreams" is my first fantasy to get published, and not just a fantasy, but a fantasy romance. At the time that I wrote it, I had been thinking, wouldn't it be nice if someone were in love with me and I didn't know it? It was just a thought, but then I thought, suppose this someone was a powerful being? But what kind? I thought of all the things that I liked, and chose rain. I love it like nobody's business, so I turned him into a storm, and he controls the monsoon season. And then I thought, the woman whom he loves needs to be somebody deserving, somebody who needs to get away, somebody who will benefit most from it. Abusive men are such jerks, so I made the main character an abused wife. When I was in high school, my friend took me out to eat. We were in earshot of the bar, and I could hear a man bragging how he had made his wife cry, and that that was how he had left her when he came to the bar. His loser friends laughed like it was the funniest...

While I wrote "Pariahs," I listened to various soundtracks over the years, and of course the music changed before and after the book erased. In the first stages of "Pariahs," the main music that I listened to was from Enya. I played her songs "Fairytale," "Epona," "Bard Dance" and "The Celts" over and over again. Along with that, I listened to the soundtrack from Braveheart, and The Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. "Pariahs" was a full fantasy, with nothing scary in it. The main story line was just about a boy running away from home because he was dissatisfied with it. The story was full of dragons and regular earth creatures, and regular earth vegetation. My creatures were humanoids, but not really human. There wasn't any real societies, norms, or anything. And then the story gained some monsters, like vampires, zombies, demons, werewolves, so the typical things. I started listenin...

"Pariahs" is coming out in November. It's a dark fantasy about a boy who has been claimed as a demon's son, and he has to find a way to escape. For "Pariahs," the writing process was long. I mean thirteen years long. I couldn't put two sentences together. I couldn't even type. I was one of those people who could find the entire alphabet on the keyboard except the letter I wanted. Seriously, three minutes to type my first name. I wrote "Pariahs" in a notebook. It spanned about five five-star notebooks, each with 500 sheets in it. It's interesting to go back and see what I had. One thing I had was about thirty characters. They have now been distributed throughout several books, and will make their appearances accordingly. "Pariahs" went through about 300 drafts, and I may be under-exaggerating. I had to chop characters until I had the small group that you will see in November. Life was good. Everything was fine. I was ...