Category: Uncategorized
-
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.
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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.…
-
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…
-
The Expanse of Grief
Go to page: The Expanse of GriefI recently finished the last book in The Expanse series, by James S.A. Corey, and my heart is so full of these books. Because I’d already seen the television series, I often knew the broad strokes of the events in the first six books before they happened. But I was still engrossed by the deeper…
-
A Fantasy Author Considers Mystery (and Crime!)
Go to page: A Fantasy Author Considers Mystery (and Crime!)One of these days, I’m going to write polished, well-crafted essays, complete with a premise, coherent arguments, and a satisfying conclusion. Today is not that day. Instead, what we have here is a semi-coherent collection of thoughts I’ve been dwelling on that almost starts with a premise — that there are some definable stylistic differences…
-
New Hidden Villains!
Go to page: New Hidden Villains!The third volume of the Hidden Villains anthology series, Hidden Villains: Betrayed, is available for purchase. And check it out! I’m one of the cover authors. My story, A Mother’s Pride, is about, well, let’s call it a blended family. Many thanks to Inkd Publishing.
-
[Fiction] Tough Love
![[Fiction] Tough Love](https://michelemakesstuff.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/notice-board.jpg)
Go to page: [Fiction] Tough LoveDarryl slotted three quarters into the vending machine and punched the button for the packet of salted peanuts, ignoring the call of the Snickers bar right next to it. After ten hours on the road, a shot of sugar was sounding pretty good, but he’d hate himself when he did his next blood check and…