The Sparrow's Nest

I have a lot of fight scenes in my book and there are more in the next ones. When I first started writing, I stuck in action-for-action like this: he punched his jaw, the other guy staggered backward, but lunged in and punched his enemy in the stomach. Whole paragraphs were written like this. While action-for-action is good, it shouldn't take up the whole fight and is only part of the concoction you're creating. When I went through the first book, I found some fight scenes were better than others. I was wondering why. I made note of the good fight scenes and then I did a lot of reading. In several blog posts, people talked about writing war. The authors said to zoom in onto one soldier and get into his head. Let somebody die in  his arms, or whatever the case may be. Go into the individual fighting. But how do I do individual fights? I thought of the authors I really loved who could make fight scenes between individuals. I went straight to Edgar Rice Burroughs. I read several o...

I made a story about skinwalkers a while back and it kept getting turned down, so I just put the story away so it could wait for a magazine to show up who might want it. The other day, that magazine showed up. So I ran and pulled out the story and read over it to make sure it was formatted correctly and was within the proper word count range. Wouldn't you know it, I did an Isaac Asimov. I built the tension up like crazy and then at the climax, nothing. I was so appalled with myself. So I spent all yesterday in thinking mode and plotted out the climax until 2 AM. I also forgot to post the next scary video at the bottom of the page. Not today, though! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6deZ8vI234

The battle with the trash-eating cow continues. The trash can was knocked over again, but the joke was on the cow. It was trash day. The trash truck took the cow's junk before it could invade. The cow settled for licking the inside of the trash can until the time when it's junk food could be restored. In the middle of the night, it stands at the end of the road, mooing like its life is over while the dogs yap around its legs in vain attempts to run it off. The cow will not be moved. Rocks bounce off its butt like a brick wall. It will eat only out of my trash can if it's the last thing it does. The wretch leaves all the other trash cans alone. What makes mine so special?

Ever have a day when you wake up too early and realize it's 11 AM? This is me thinking, "I better do those Amazon Ads." "Blah." "I better go edit." "Ugh..." "I'm hungry." "I don't feel like cooking. Where's my maid? Oh yeah, I don't have a maid." "I wanna go somewhere." "I want someone to drive me, though...and buy me presents." "I gotta write that blog post. Maybe I can write something inspiring!" "Inspire my foot. I want a vacation and I want someone else to pay for it." Let's watch a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B1i5B89EGw

Back when I first got published with the Wicked Library, which was....2015? I was writing Nri Kryne under a wholly different title. I only had one back up. I made a copy of it in July and edited all the way to around September without making a single copy. After I announced my book was almost done in my interview for The Wicked Library, I opened the file one morning about a week later and an error code showed up. THIS FILE IS CORRUPTED. No! No-no-no-no! I ran to another computer to see if mine was just screwing up, but it didn't open the file either. I was like, the library! I gotta go to the library! If the file opens, I'll copy and paste the contents into a new file and ten years of work won't go down the drain. Wouldn't you know it, the library was closed for the weekend because of a holiday. It wouldn't open until Tuesday. This was Friday. I couldn't write, I was going through writing withdrawal, I couldn't think, and I started shaking. I started writing...

On Friday or Saturday, I can't remember which, I burned my tongue. On Sunday, there was a white bump on the tip of my tongue. I was like, oh man, I really burned it. Still, the white bump looked funny. I mean, what if it was an egg? I'd end up like that woman who'd licked an envelope and got a roach egg in her mouth. What if the egg hatched? If it did, I wouldn't be long for this world--kind of like when the eye doctor told me two months ago I was going to die in a week because she didn't like the blood pressure reading her assistant took off of my elbow. I'd surely die of a major gross out if the white bump on my tongue hatched. Next day, I woke up and the white bump was gone. I was like, oh no, it hatched! My tongue was hurting and I looked real close at it. There was a clean, vertical slice where the 'egg' had been. Unless my tongue reached back to my broken molar in the middle of the night while I was dead asleep and sliced out the 'egg,' I d...

All week and last week, the trash kept getting knocked over. The dogs in the neighborhood always knock the trash over and eat it. They've been doing it for years. We tie up the trash can to the fence and it still gets knocked over. And then the trash truck showed up one year and ate the trash can lid. Now we cover the can with a heavy board. Last night the trash can was knocked over again. My brothers were furious and they ran out there to see exactly which culprit it was. It was a giant cow. The thing's head was in the trash can munching on trash. What the crap? It has the whole forest to eat grass in and it comes into town for a trash fix. My brothers chased the cow off, but it just ran across the street and watched them put the trash back into the can. It didn't even care about the dogs barking and nipping at its legs. As soon as my brothers went back inside, the cow came back and stuffed its head in the trash. I wonder how trash-fed cows taste. It must not be very good....

I said I found out the main character was wrong. He was wrong in lots of ways. Over the weekend, I finally figured it out. The character himself wasn't working because he isn't ready to appear. He's supposed to be the father of the main character in book 3, but the way I made him didn't work. I had another character in my back pocket that I'd made up several years ago in high school. So I said, "My dude, where are you?" He showed up and stepped into the spot. Immediately, he popped from the page and could stand shoulder to shoulder with the other characters. He was much like one of the new characters you're going to see in 'Renzhies.' The guy showed up, overpowered one of the characters, stole his woman, and then he pilfered his part. This new character also has a different background, so book 4 is gone...all gone...except for the storyline to the five characters that I'd had to cut. Their storyline has developed like crazy! This is going t...

So... bull crap went down. I was typing away, having a grand time. I was secure in my knowledge of the villain and the hero. And then I reached the turning point when everything explodes. Bam! I slammed flat into a wall and couldn't make anything work. Why? Why? I turned off the computer and spent the next fifteen hours struggling with what was wrong. And then it came to me. "You got the wrong main character! There are characters who have unresolved issues. Resolve their issues. It isn't time for this character's issues yet. You've been building the issues for these two characters since book one. Now resolve them." I also realized I didn't want to write a book without the original squad in it. It just doesn't work for me. The series is about them. What in the world was I thinking? So here I am. Hopefully, I will get it done before "Renzhies" comes home from the editor. Now for the next video, this one is done by David Romero: https://www.yout...

Yesterday, I freakin' broke my tooth and accidentally swallowed the piece that broke. After that I got a bead on the villain's motives. Thank goodness. I was beginning to think I was never going to find the meat. I even got a bead on the hero's inner conflicts. Since I had their mess written down nice and neat, I commenced on the villain's physical features. I like drawing for that. My drawings are a mess and I usually doodle them on the side of the notebook. Those notebook margins are very useful for that. Now I know where the villain comes from, what he is, what he does, what his rules are, and his motivation. It's all very freaky! I have just made a new monster! Now I need to figure out what the monster is called. Once I have that, I'll have the title for the fourth book. My tooth sacrificed itself for the villain. Maybe I'll dedicate book 4 to my broken tooth. And now the next video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb0o-irp02o

Sometimes I feel like I'm writing this book just to get a bead on the personality of a certain character that appears in book 2, who then makes a bigger appearance in book 3. Like book 2, I'm having problems in book 4 and it's all the villain's fault. In book 2, I made a perfectly horrific monster, which ended up not following the rules of the monster it actually ended up being. So I had to cut it. Now I have a place for it in book 4. I've been noticing that my books don't like being like one another. They're all part of the same family, but all the siblings are completely different. Book 4 is acting like this and I think when I'm finally done, it will be different from the others, but the others are not going to be the same as each other, either. After I applied the changes I needed to my villain, he started taking over and there are parts in the story that are changing because of him. They were such good parts, too. Today I will be working mostly in my...

Since I had to make the villain as scary as the first three villains, I was wondering what in the world I was going to do. I made something up and I was like, "Okay, this is good. I think this will work!" Last night, at the witching hour, I was still pounding away at the keyboard, wishing I had one of those gaming keyboards because they're so nice, and the creepiness came. Maybe it was because it was the middle of the night. The villain suddenly got creepier than I expected and I started feeling freaked out. Right at that moment, my sister walked in the room. She's got silent feet so as far as I was concerned, the door opened by itself and I almost screamed. After that, I decided, "I think I better stop and wait for tomorrow." So that's where I am. Anyway, join me in feeling freaky. Here's the first video on our way to Halloween! This is done by a youtuber called Mr. Nightmare. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7NWHmihU3E

I had announced the re-issue of the first book for the Monsters and Demons series. The second book is with my editor and I'm paying off the fantastic cover artist who did the new cover for Nri Kryne. I'd forgotten to send off short stories in all this time span of waiting, planning, and doing the relaunch. What I've been doing all this time is writing books 3 and 4. When I sent book 2 to a beta reader, I noticed he picked the book apart in all places EXCEPT where I actually plotted the scenes first with a notebook. For book 3, I plotted the entire book from beginning to end. I was able to pick out the problem spots quickly and easily. As a result, I wrote the book in 2 months, equipped with all the madness I love to put into the stories. As soon as book 2 is finished with its final stages, I shall begin the refining process for book 3. Book 4 had some serious problems. I was plotting and writing as I went along, but once I hit the climax, something went wrong. The story sto...

 Hello everyone! Today I was on the chairwoman's show and it was totally exciting. Some people have asked where to buy the book, and so I am going to post it here. The kindle is also on kindle select. Here is the link for the kindle:  https://www.amazon.com/Nri-Kryne-Monsters-Demons-Book-ebook/dp/B08GZR31B9/ Here is the link for the paperback:  https://www.amazon.com/Kryne-Monsters-Demons-Mara-Duryea/dp/B08GV97VHF/ And while you're here, check out my spooky short stories under the 'online stories' tab! You might run into a couple of romances, but I promise they're very few. Subscribe so you can see what else is coming up. Here is the book description: Meet Vijeren, a typical 12-year-old boy...with fangs! And did I mention he lives in the shadow of a powerful demon? When a frightening fire burns down his home, Vijeren is free! But now he's on the run in a world of blood-suckers and brain-eaters. And hot on his heels is the demon who craves his soul. If Vijeren ca...