Shannon

The Punchbox: A Body of Thieves

Vinnie nodded to a short, thin man wearing thick diamond and gold rings on his slim fingers as he passed through the front of the party car to the next. There were two bathrooms in the hall, just before the connecting doors, and Vinnie glanced behind him to make sure no one noticed he took neither. There was no badge reader or guard here, and Vinnie was about to say something about the door being locked. But with a simple touch of the handle the door slid open easily. Vinnie was in the connecting pass-through, and then he was in the next car.

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Slow Burn

Ella turns around and sees Dean on the other side of the party, drinking a martini and talking to someone. He’s as handsome as ever, his brown hair brushed back and the physique of his arms trying to burst through his shirtsleeves and those eyes. Even from across the room she can see the wayContinue reading “Slow Burn”

To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before: Pacific City

Peggy was having a very nice dream where she was on a beach and that one actor whose name she could never remember but she never forgot his face, he was shirtless and he kept bringing her fresh glasses of Mai Tai, and it kept feeling like it might change to a sexy dream any second but even if it didn’t the Mai Tais were killer. And then her fucking phone started ringing.

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Henry, Thea: A Biddies and Broken Hearts Story

In the Before Times (something he always called it in his head but never out loud, at least not since that one time he said it and Doc Wendy looked like she’d take his head off) Henry had never been an early riser. His parents, his bosses, his professors, his coaches, they had all tried all sorts of crazy things to get him somewhere on time before ten o’clock. Alarms that were loud enough to tear a hole in his eardrum. Alarms that required he solve a math problem or a puzzle before they shut up. Cold buckets of water. Nothing ever worked for long. Henry just loved his sleep.

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The Horizon Zero Dawn Blanket: Free Heap and Pitchcliff

As I mentioned last time, Free Heap is run by Petra Forgewoman, so I wanted this square to both represent the settlement and her. While I want most of this section of the blanket to be simple designs in shades of brown and gray/silver, I wanted the settlement squares to pop a little, either with color or design. For Free Heap, I picked this square with the red circles in the middle to represent the forge. Surrounded, of course by brown and silver.

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Bullshit

“Do you know what my first thought was, entering that trailer?” Rebekah asked. She took a quick sip of her beer and held up her hand. “I mean, after the screaming and confusion. My first real thought, looking at the scene.” Asche shrugged and leaned back in his chair. He expected some kind of platitude,Continue reading “Bullshit”

The Horizon Zero Dawn Blanket: Oseram Arrow Breaker

The HZD Blanket You know what would be great? A release date for Horizon Forbidden West so I could have a real deadline for this blanket. On the other hand, that would be terrible, because then I would have a real deadline for this blanket. Anyway, here’s my prediction: if we don’t get a releaseContinue reading “The Horizon Zero Dawn Blanket: Oseram Arrow Breaker”

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Writing Tips for Beginners, From a Long-Time Amateur

Let’s Get the One I Hate Hearing Out of the Way First – Just Write Yeah, super hate hearing this one all the time. But it’s true, and that makes me hate it even more. God, it just sounds so…so…smug. Like, I immediately want to react with that Spongebob Meme: jUsT wRiTe. Like, I’m askingContinue reading “Writing Tips for Beginners, From a Long-Time Amateur”

To Prove The Human Spirit

President Goodman, a good man, indeed, although easily steered into bad decisions, had a few minutes before the eggheads from Global Health Counsel came in with their report, so he was staring out the window behind his desk and tossing one of his kids’ fabric toys back and forth between his hands. It was aContinue reading “To Prove The Human Spirit”

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Every Writer Should Know the Moth Joke

On Wednesday, I told The Moth Joke and gave credit to Norm MacDonald at the bottom. The meat of the joke was all mine, but the general structure of the joke can be traced to an appearance Norm MacDonald made on one of Conan O’Brien’s shows, I think Late Night: Okay, so to start: Hi,Continue reading “Every Writer Should Know the Moth Joke”