Creative Writing with the Crimson League

December 1, 2023

Combining two characters

Now that book two is with the editor, I’m going through book three, and I’ve decided for the first time to more or less combine two characters. I’ve deleted a character before (sorry, Hal), and I thought at first that that was what I’d be doing here. Nope. I’ve ended up combining two characters instead,…

November 30, 2023

Thankful Thursday: thankful for the support of the indie author community

Today, I am thankful for the community, support, encouragement, and friendship of my fellow authors, especially indie authors. I’ll admit I sometimes feel like a fish out of water running my Facebook page. I take my Catholic faith very seriously, I consider my art to be as much my mission in life as (currently) a…

November 29, 2023

My latest small win: first sale from an Amazon ad

As any creative type could tell you, it’s HARD out there. Even with a quality product, it’s hard to get attention, hard to get heard, and even harder to make any kind of sale at all. That’s why it’s important to celebrate small wins. Today, I’m super excited that after doing some research and setting…

November 28, 2023

Tuesday Tunes: “Real World,” Matchbox 20

Back in 2007 or 2008, when I was writing the first draft of “The Crimson League: The Fight for Hope,” I was sitting outside a classroom on campus at the University of Alabama with my iPod Mini. (Oh, those were the days!) “Real World” by Matchbox 20 came on. I realized INSTANTLY that it was…

November 27, 2023

The spiritual classics I love

If you’re up for some spiritual reading, I thought it would be fun to list the theological/spiritual/Catholic nonfiction that has most shaped me.

November 26, 2023

Sunday Reflection: the humble Shepherd King

It’s hardly surprising that a culture bereft of history, tradition, and Scripture can’t recognize or understand Jesus. Who can wonder that it holds such strange and even contradictory views of Him? Just looking at the first reading and the Gospel today paired by the Church shows how confusing it can be to get a handle…

November 25, 2023

Write every day?

My thoughts on whether a writer really needs to write EVERY single day have evolved over the years. I think on one level that writing daily is a nice goal, but it’s not absolutely necessary. First, I think we have to recognize in a healthy manner that life is going to intervene sometimes, and that’s…

November 24, 2023

Sending my manuscript to the editor this weekend!

My editor isn’t scheduled to start working on “The Magic Council: The Fight for Home” until December 1, but I’m so happy to announced that I’m going to be sending the manuscript to her this weekend. It’s as good as I’m going to get it, and I need to get it out of my hands…

November 23, 2023

The Most Thankful Thursday of All

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, I think. I used to hate it, I’ll be honest . . . I never felt like I had a footing in life, and Thanksgiving was a big reminder of what I’d given up walking away from grad school and how much of a failure I felt…

November 22, 2023

I just realized one of my characters is a lot like Cera from “The Land Before Time”

I loved The Land Before Time as a kid, and I particularly loved Cera–the triceratops character. Yellow was always my favorite color, and not only is Cera golden in hue–I’ll be honest, that’s probably why I originally liked her–but she’s colorful in character. It struck me out of the blue this morning that one of…