Author: crystalbrier
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Live Reading and Other News – May 2026
Go to page: Live Reading and Other News – May 2026Event I’m one of the featured readers at this month’s Two Hour Transport! This is a remote event held on Zoom. The first hour, starting at 6 PM PST (9 PM EST) is open mic, where attendants can read if they want to, usually for about 5 minutes each. Log in a little early if…
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News and Updates – January 2026
Go to page: News and Updates – January 2026Happy New Year! I hope everyone has enjoyed whatever holidays they celebrate, and I assume one of those to have been the New Year. May your 2026 get off to a great start and just keep rolling. News On that note, let’s get the start of my 2026 out of the way. I am currently…
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News and Updates – October 2025
Go to page: News and Updates – October 2025Happy Autumn, everybody! News I recently returned from my first ever overseas trip! We went to the UK, and got quite sick almost immediately. Despite feeling like ass for most of the trip, we have no regrets. Very glad we went. I was a little luckier than my husband in that The Thing lasted longer…
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News and Updates – July 2025
Go to page: News and Updates – July 2025News Well, it’s been a minute. That’s primarily because I don’t really want to make up something to talk about every month, nor do I expect you fine, discerning people care if I update monthly. Although, presumably, you want to hear from me sometimes, or why are you on this list? So, here’s what’s going…
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New Snippets
Go to page: New SnippetsHello, My Pretties. I bring to you three (3!) new snippets to make up for letting February go by with no post. Go ahead, count them (Hint: there are 3). If one of them speaks to you, feel free to make such use of it as pleases you.
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Welcome, 2025!
Go to page: Welcome, 2025!With another new year now underway, I thought I might talk about the experience of being, as a friend says, “old af.” It was not with the turning of this past year, but at some random moment several years ago, when I realized – with startling and unforgiving clarity – that I have many, many…
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Reading as Craft
Go to page: Reading as CraftI love books about the craft of writing. They’re like candy. I don’t take every piece of advice as gospel, just like I don’t eat black licorice. I discard the things I don’t agree with, or don’t think will work for me, but I am willing to try techniques that I have doubts about, just…
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Reading Helps
Go to page: Reading HelpsAs I talked about back at the beginning of 2024, nothing consoles and comforts me like fiction. It doesn’t have to be happy fiction. It doesn’t even have to be one of the genres, like science fiction and fantasy, that people call “escapist.” After all, it’s all escapist by its nature – it’s fiction. Since…
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The Hidden Villains return!
Go to page: The Hidden Villains return!The fourth volume is called Hidden Villains: Criminals and I made it in again! In my story, The Stain, a young woman moves into a haunted house, where her psychometry leads her to uncover a murder that nobody knew had happened. Set in my hometown, Salem, MA, a city rich in history, personality, and magic.…
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Life Sans Connecting Scenes
Go to page: Life Sans Connecting ScenesThere are some specific things about the way our minds work that I find endlessly fascinating: what really makes us happy, sleep and dreams, and memory, which I’ve written about before. Although I specify “mind” here, I don’t deny that much — if not all — our behavior is based in our biology. But these…