Largest

Flash fiction for the Write On Purpose Facebook group. I'd love spending a day as a Supersaurus! That sounds fun.

When I was a kid, pretending to be a dinosaur was my jam.

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My behemoth frame shifts with every lumbering footfall. Long, long neck outstretched, I survey the vast plains beyond and below me, searching for my favorite foliage. My snakelike thin tail waves behind me, buffeted by the brisk wind.

I am the largest.

A herd of Dryosaurus crosses my path. Neither party flinches—they are small and agile enough to easily slip between my columnar legs, and I am slow and careful enough to avoid them. I am almost more a piece of the Jurassic landscape than something that lives in it, a scaly ship cruising these dry lands with my constant plodding.

I come across a patch of mud and squelch through it. Every footstep creates a crater, and when the rains come again, these will become ponds that smaller creatures will gather around to quench their thirst.

I am a life-bringer.

Thick billowing clouds sail on the horizon behind distant mountains. I crane my neck to look at them and change my course. I am ever moving, not only in search of more food, but for the sheer joy of it, the joy of being. Pterosaurs wheel overhead and call out to each other with their melancholy cries. An Allosaurus passes me by, a look of respect in her amber eyes as she goes in search of a meal more her size. I return the gesture with a bellowing snort and a nod of my head, wishing her a good hunt, for she too is an important part of this world.

And then I am left alone with the earth and sky once more, to continue my work of shaping my planet to watch the little ones thrive on it, and take joy in that.

I am a titan queen.

I did some doodles for Blue Diver! I've had these characters rattling around in my head for the past few months and just needed to get them out on paper! FYI, I'm about 33,000 words into the first draft and it's looking awesome so far!

Jahaira likes to describe herself as the biggest, baddest pirate in Challinor. This is a bit of an exaggeration, as her crewmate Mireya is bigger (as seen on the height comparison chart in the next image). :) Jahaira is cocky, arrogant, and flippant, and has serious issues with the Challinor Empire... but she's also a good person deep down, and she does what she does in order to take care of her crew of misfit outlaws. She considers herself a champion of the offbeat underdog, and if she finds out that anyone is suffering because they're different, she becomes a surprisingly caring and protective person. She's been a lot of fun to write.

Height comparison chart for the main characters, and portrait of Auva! FYI, this never gets mentioned in the story, but Auva is from St. Catherines, Ontario, a city near Niagara Falls and part of the greater Toronto metropolitan area. But that's totally irrelevant to the story because it mostly takes place in another galaxy. :)

And Renny being epic! She's been a lot of fun to write, and she's probably one of the most complex characters in the book. She, Auva, and Jahaira have a good dynamic going, because Auva, being an unattached third party to the socio-political conflict happening in the galaxy, is able to be a good mediator between Jahaira and Renny when they get too lost in their own opinions to be able to communicate civilly. Will Renny ever figure out her mysterious past and clear all suspicions that she's a spy? You'll have to read the book to find out! :)

 

I got another commission from J. K. Bailey of one of his characters from his Christian sci-fi trilogy Zealot Finale! This is General Nicor, a water clan wyyrm who wields a spear made of ice. He was fun to draw!

Hi all, I wanted to give you a very important update on the Kickstarter project for On Borrowed Wings.

The Kickstarter campaign has 14 days to reach the funding goal of $1,000. So far, only 18% of that amount has been pledged.

With two weeks left in the campaign, it's imperative that people help out, now more than ever. Kickstarter allows you to pledge however much you want ($1 minimum), and I'm preparing some fun prizes for donors across multiple pledge tiers.

I'm a small-time indie author with a limited budget. Part of the reason why I'm indie is so I can focus on telling the stories I want to tell, without having to worry about what publishers and agents are looking for or what's trending on the market. 

That freedom of creativity allowed me to write and self-publish a teen science fiction novel where two of the main characters have cerebral palsy and two are neurodiverse. Why? Because I strongly believe fiction needs to be more inclusive. Kids with special needs are warriors fighting some tough battles. They deserve quality stories that show people like them making a difference and being heroes.

Now, to reach out to even more of these special needs warriors, I'd love to get this book into an audio format. And I would love your help so it doesn't break my bank.

I know you're probably very busy and have plenty of your own challenges you're juggling. But if you're feeling inspired, please consider donating even a single dollar to this project. Do it for the people with special needs in your life. Do it for all the times you wanted more fictional heroes who reminded you of yourself. Do it for the love of good books.

I write books with the intention to make a difference in the lives of readers. Audiobooks allow me to expand my novels' sphere of influence and spread the good. I know that working together, we can make this happen. 🙌

As the Kickstarter campaign has just over two weeks to the deadline, I thought I'd put together some book trivia to share! These tidbits give some insight into how the characters were designed and what a complicated road to publication the book had. I've found it works best for me if I write a book all in one go, and don't set it aside to start other projects. It then becomes very difficult for me to re-gain momentum for it.

22 days to go in my Kickstarter audiobook campaign, and here's the add-on reveal! I'm offering the ability to purchase any of my Kindle ebooks for just $1--that's $2 off regular retail price! I'm also offering signed paperback copies! The ebooks are available at all prize tiers, while the paperbacks are only available at the tiers that include physical prizes--although this is subject to change if enough people ask me nicely. 🙂

If you're at all interested in what this project is trying to do - whether or not you've pledged - it would be awesome if you could please help me spread the word through your own social media channels and telling interested friends and associates! My own social circles are small, so I could really use the help of my enthusiastic readers to help widen the reach of this project. I think we can do this if we all work together!

 

I needed a new Facebook icon to better fit a frame I wanted to use... so of course that meant drawing up a whole new illustration. 🙂 #ArtistProblems

I needed a portrait that wasn't so pale (so it wouldn't clash with white frame text), so I did this picture of Renny Gallahan from Blue Diver. She's definitely been a very fun character to write; she's blunt and no-nonsense, but she means well, and once you earn her loyalty, you've got a very powerful ally on your side. She's become something of a big sister figure to Auva and it's adorable. 

It's going to be a lot of fun to delve into the plot-twisty secrets behind her mysterious past...