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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Did you realize that fiction plays a big part in many of our Christmas traditions? No, I’m not talking about the birth of our Lord and Savior. His birth is not fictional, but many of the things now believed about that special event are; they have been set in place by poetry, books, movies, songs, etc. This is evidence of the effects that fiction writing can have on the world.
December 25 has always been a holiday, but it hasn’t always been Christmas. What the Romans celebrated on that day was not the birth of Christ. The pagan festival of Saturnalia took place at this time. The birth of Mithra, the god of light, was celebrated on this day. The story of the conception, birth, and death of Mithra is very similar to the story of Jesus. Mithra is even supposed to have resurrected from the grave.
The Christmas season is one of beauty and joy. Decorations, some simple and others showy, can be seen just about anywhere – in stores, in restaurants, in suburbs, in the country. Once the sky darkens, the air is filled with flashing lights of all colors. Men dressed as Santa Claus can be found in just about any store you enter.
Ideas for stories are all around us. Each day, there are unusual things to be seen and mysterious sounds to be heard. It is up to you, the author, to make stories out of these events. Do you walk into a room and find that an item has been moved? What about that mysterious howl…
Do you have any friends or loved ones who are writers? Are you having problems deciding what to get them for their birthdays or Christmas? First, we will talk about the normal but functional gifts you can bless them with. Books on writing, a dictionary, or a thesaurus is always appreciated, and writers can never…
Serena McKay is a female detective with an ugly past, but this awful past has made her into the strong and sarcastic detective in search of justice that she is. Three different storylines are intertwined. First storyline: Serena takes on the case of a missing child. When Serena first meets the mom, she notices that…
Will your character dance around his Xmas tree on Falling Needles Family Fest Day? Could your character’s uncle make Scrooge look like a great guy to work for? Could he be the real reason for Humbug Day? Does the character you created plan on celebrating A’phabet Day as soon as he learns his alphabet?
Are you trying to come up with a town name that makes one think of snow or the winter holiday season? Did you know towns appropriately named for winter and/or Christmas stories already exist? AlabamaBell, AlabamaBethlehem, AlabamaChestnut, AlabamaEvergreen, AlabamaStar, Alabama AlaskaCandle, AlaskaNorth Pole, AlaskaWiseman, Alaska ArizonaBell, ArizonaChristmas, ArizonaHumbug, ArizonaPartridge, ArizonaSanta Claus, ArizonaSilver Bell, ArizonaSnowflake, Arizona…
Do you have a torment of ogres chasing after your character? Is he about to run into a devilry of gremlins? Has he been driven insane by a rally of hobgoblins who escaped capture by a malevolence of trolls? Does your story need a monster? Take a look through the monsters in this article and…
Horses are beautiful animals, but not all of them grow up on farms. Meet the wild mustangs of the American west. How do these mustangs live in the wild? They are not very comfortable around people and try to avoid them, so how hard would it be for a human to gain the trust of…
The funny thing is, I’m not sure if I have. I thought it might be fun to look at what the term politically incorrect means and then examine Assault On St. Valentines and see if it fits that bill. But first, it’s synopsis time… Die Hard meets Red Dawn in this adrenalin-fueled thrill ride that…
Assault on St. Valentines by Peter Hallett has to be the most politically incorrect book I’ve ever read, and I absolutely loved it! The action began on page one and it never stopped. Just reading it wore me out; I don’t know how the characters made it through the story without collapsing from exhaustion. A…
How much fun did Michael Rothman have creating the different creatures and places in Willow’s world? What is Eer Ha’ehven an anagram for and was it done on purpose? How much research did he have to do in order to write this book? What was your inspiration for this book? I wanted to write something…
It is 500 years after the Great War destroyed the Earth. In this post-apocalyptic world where the governor is both feared and worshiped, Willow is a seventeen-year-old girl who is just trying to get through her last year of studies. But when her father dies, she experiences strange dreams that change everything about how she…
What does it mean to be loyal? Having or showing allegiance is the definition of loyal, but is that all there is to it? Is it that simple? In this book, we learn just how Khalil ended up in a wheelchair. By trying to prove himself worthy of being second in command in the gang…
Will you have lunch with a lodge of fauns? Are you trying to find a senate of griffins to guard your treasure? Would you rather see a fulsome of hippogriffs or a dastardly of manticores? Would you be brave enough to walk through a snarl of minotaurs? When is a good time to travel to…
In a way, the Onyx Webb series can sometimes feel like Forrest Gump. What do we mean by that? If you’ve seen the movie, Forrest ends up in the middle of some of our country’s most noteworthy historical events. We have done the same in a way, and though we’ve used some recognizable people and…
Book three in the Onyx Webb series doesn’t slow down any. The history, the events, the characters and their actions—all keep progressing in such a way that it is impossible to disentangle oneself from their lives. Al Capone, Frank Sinatra, Sammie Davis Jr., and Walt Disney are some of the famous people in these three…
Phobias are constant, irrational fears that afflict some people. Their fears should be taken seriously. They should never be made fun of or belittled. But, as writers, we can bless (or curse) our characters with phobias and make the story so much more interesting. What happens if someone encounters the object of their fear? They…
This book is not for the faint of heart. It is about a woman who is deceived by her boyfriend about his true nature, goes on to move to a different state with him, and then discovers what he is truly like. Katherine Rutherford Barrett had a good life. Her husband had died while overseas…
Before I bought the Kindle Oasis, I was using the Kindle app on my tablet. Maybe it was because my tablet was old, but it was becoming a chore to read books on it. When I would open the Kindle app, it would have to warm up for about ten minutes before I could open…
I have always admired strong women: Women who take a stand that defines them through life. Elizabeth caught my attention when I bought a slip of paper on which she wrote the words: “Men are what their mothers make them.” That comment, framed and hanging on the wall outside my writing room seemed to call…
Elizabeth Cady Stanton definitely had a mind of her own. She had no interest in things that women were supposed to find fascinating. Instead, she had an insatiable desire to involve herself in chemistry, law, mathematics, the freeing of slaves, and improving the rights of women. In 1823, many laws were unfair to women. This…
What comes to mind when you think of Thanksgiving? Some of you may think about the Pilgrims and Indians and the feast they shared on this day long ago. But if you are more food oriented, you probably think about the scrumptious food you will have with friends and family as you celebrate this day.…
