Reading Report: December 2025
Drop into your seal flow, get cozy knitting short fiction, plan a year of dinners and more in December's Reading Report.
Blog
Spiral Story - Writers Group Comments and Self Evaluation
I now have a rough draft of this story but with no solid ending. So it's time to reread and evaluate with the help of my writers group.
Books for a Grammar Workout
Build your writing muscle with these books on grammar, punctuation, and rhetoric.
Reading Report: November 2025
Luddite Literature, two excellent games to try, and a pair of excellent books read in in this month's Reading Report. Now with added acountability!
Writing Books to Gift Writers
Writing books sure to please your writer friends.
Books for Finding Your Voice
A list of intrepid tomes that dare to teach what many say cannot be taught.
Reading Report: October 2025
This Month's reading report features craft articles from Ilona Andrews and C.L. Polk, a 2,000 year-old copper skeleton and 100 word memoirs.
Spiral Story - Rough Draft 1
Rough draft time. My goal at this stage is to get words on paper, whether that's in a notebook or digitally.
Spiral Story - Outline
In our last Proof of Work I spent some time describing the ideation process for a short story. This time I’m going to outline it.
Reading Report: September 2025
This month's reading report has a fish committing credit card fraud, doomscroll the game, and some ominous mail from the red cross.
Spiral Story: Ideation
Inspired by Meander, Spiral, Explode I'm writing a short story with a spiral plot structure, from idea to final draft.
Firing Chekov's Gun - A Gentleman in Moscow
A Gentleman in Moscow contains a set of literal Chekov’s guns, but many of the other objects, people, and places in the story set up the ending. So let's talk about how this type if story is built.