I hope all of you, my readers, have a wonderful 2025! For your writing prompts this month, you will get…
Read more →𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘞𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘍𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴, but now there are bodies. And now one, specifically a skeleton, has turned up in…
Read more →In Iceland at Christmas, a giant black cat, Jólakötturinn, The Yule Cat, roams the countryside and devours anyone who isn’t…
Read more →For this month’s writing prompts, explore the world of opossums, wake up in a room filled with books that won’t…
Read more →Fossil fuels are fuels (such as coal, oil, or natural gas) formed in the earth from plant or animal remains.
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Is taking the law into your own hands ever a good idea? Would the personal satisfaction it brings outweigh just how illegal it is? Kurt Jamison and Frankie Cartwright grew up as best friends. They were inseparable. But then something tragic happened that forever separated them. Kurt became a policeman. Frankie became a criminal mastermind.…
What does the sparkly glitter that covers a lot of Christmas cards and various arts-and-crafts projects have in common with kudzu, an invasive ornamental plant? We can thank Henry Ruschmann, a New Jersey cattle rancher, for the invention of glitter in 1934. When not working his ranch, he dabbled as a machinist and discovered a…
This is a fantastic collection of short stories. Each one is horrific in its own way. From demons and the occult to curiosity and hypocrisy, the way one wrong turn can completely change a life is subtly and chillingly demonstrated. The way you look at things, including dreams, and the way you think is liable…
There was a time when I read every Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple mystery that I could get my hands on, as well as any of the other mysteries that Agatha Christie wrote. Then the day came when I had read every one of them, and my search began for another author whose mysteries would…
There are typically three options when it comes to organizing a collection of short stories. An editor can have the writers come to them by establishing a call for submissions, or they can contact the authors directly in order to publish current stories. The third option is to find the right authors and then build…
From weird happenings in the woods to an empathic girl to the Suicide Forest in Japan, these stories are about things such as remembrance, empathy, vanity, lust, etc. “The Girl Who Died” – A girl who loves animals better than people has pity on an animal that she finds dead in the woods. She decided…
The dictionary defines writer’s block as a usually temporary psychological inability to begin or continue work on a piece of writing. Scary thought, huh? Not being able to write can shatter a writer’s ego and become a nightmare. Is writer’s block all in your head or is it real? Not everyone believes that writer’s block…
Something rotten is going on in the world of the aventurieri, the winged, nocturnal hunters with a dietary need for blood. Yes, they are a type of vampire. But the aventurieri can eat food, have wings, are able to reproduce, and can be shot with regular bullets. In the violent beginning, Marek Strigoi’s family is…
Who is the character of the killer clown based on? How did she choose names for the characters? Which scenes were her favorite and which ones were the hardest to write? How much research did she have to do? How does this author balance her time between family, friends, and writing? What are her thoughts…
This unputdownable series is about a boy who can see evil and the killer clown that wants him dead. Once you start reading, you will be hooked, unable to put down this series until the very last page has been read. The Color of Evil Tetrachromatic Super Vision enables a person to see auras around…
Hello, friends, let me tell you about myself, why I write, and why you might want to read my books. My name is Elisabeth Zguta. I grew up in a small town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Since then I’ve lived in many places; currently, I live in the Memphis area. I am an Indie author…
Whether they are good or bad, your actions have the potential to affect you, as well as those close to you, for the rest of time. The Flesh and Blood trilogy by Christina Kaye is full of twists and turns. The storyline is riveting. Forget cleaning the house or watching television shows; once you start…
Finding a new book is a challenge, especially when you’ve explored an entire genre, and you’re getting close to running out of ideas on what to read next. One of the best ways to find a new book to enjoy is to ask the people that know best. By reading reviews, you can find some…
The English language can be so confusing at times. Aah, ah, ahh, aw, and awe are all pronounced the same—at least they are in the part of the country where I live—but each one has a different meaning. I know that I’ve used at least one of them in the wrong way before. Chances are,…
If you are looking for a book that will brighten your day and make you smile at the ending, Hannah Saves Oscar is it! Yes, it is a children’s book, but inside this entertaining story are valuable life lessons for people of all ages to discover. Oscar, a Canadian goose whose home was in Wisconsin,…
This twisted psychological thriller is a story of giving up all for love. It is a story of deception and a story of one severely twisted family. Two girls, fifteen-year-old Cass and seventeen-year-old Emma, are the focus of the story. Three years ago, they both disappeared. Their mother reminded me of Snow White’s stepmother. She…
Which word means to weaken: enervate or innovate? Would you stay overnight at an inn or an in? Are toddlers acquisitive or inquisitive? Is a treacherous person insidious or invidious? Would you need to insure or ensure your vehicle? innovate, enervate To innovate means to come up with some new creative method, product or idea…
Workman’s Complication is a gripping, entertaining mystery that is filled with laughs, thrills, and edge-of-your-seat moments. I was hooked from the first hilarious sentence: It was harder to sing with the vampire teeth than I thought it would be. Kate’s dad dies and leaves her his private detective business. Kate McCall doesn’t want to be…
There is a word for every condition under the sun. What word describes the inability to feel pleasure? How much do you love books? Are you a bibliophile, bibliomaniac, or a biblioholic? Do you have bibliomania? Have you ever had the desire to eat grass like an ox? Have you ever gone temporarily insane? Been…
Two quotes by Hunter S. Thompson sum up my youth and my writing: “Truth is weirder than any fiction I’ve seen” and “It never got weird enough for me.” I was fascinated with people, but I quickly grew bored with ordinary life. I went off exploring other worlds: criminals, gangs, commies, Birchers, hippies, drug dealers,…
Being part of the king’s court should be a dream job, right? Unfortunately, it wasn’t so for Hop-Frog and Tripetta. The king’s jester, Hop-Frog, was a dwarf and a cripple. Hop-Frog wasn’t the name with which he was christened; he was called that because of the way he moved around. Along with a female dwarf,…
What words do you use to describe your character’s habits or traits? Does your character enjoy good food, drink, and other luxuries? Or maybe your character is a mean, sneaking coward. Even though your character is an adult, does he act like a spoiled brat? A bon viveur is a person who lives high and…
Now that the new Vietnam War documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick is running on PBS, that most difficult time in American history is once again before us. However, when I saw us so easily fall into fighting in Iraq, I couldn’t help but wonder had our politicians forgotten about our quagmire in Southeast…
“Why do you like vampires? What’s so special about them? Why read about them? What’s so appealing?” Thus do the philistines speak. What’s so appealing about literary vampires? Let me count the ways… …by doing a bit of history… The literary vampire didn’t begin to flourish until the mid-1880s. I’ve heard it said that before…
