The Halloween Serialized Special begins tomorrow

I’m planning to do another serialized story for Halloween this year. Last year, as you may recall, was the first one called The Gentleman Killer which can still be downloaded for free in ebook format.

Tomorrow, I’ll be releasing the first installment of the latest serial called The Bride of Usher, which is a mixture of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher in a sci-fi/horror blend. Much like The Gentleman Killer, this story will feature a heavy dose of feminine rage. Something we could all use a little more of right now in our media consumption, probably.

Last year I released new installments on Friday. My plan is to follow that schedule again.

Here’s a little teaser video to get you excited. Turn up volume for music.

Indie filmmaking can cease the moment of AI slop

Originally shared on September 11, 2025.

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Last night a short film I starred in made its premiere at a film festival. During the Q&A afterwards, one of the filmmakers was asked about why he chose to make a film about AI — it was a dark comedy. His initial response was something to the effect of “well, AI is bad.” I’m probably not quoting verbatim. But y’all, the whole audience erupted in laughter, applause, and cheers. An audience made up of indie filmmakers and those who support them. It got me thinking…

I was doing a lot of indie filmmaking in the early 2000s, and it was a an amazing time for both indie film and indie music. And the wild thing was that what we were doing in the indie scene was changing things in the overall industry. So much heart and soul was being poured into indie film and music at the time. And even A-list actors started taking roles in indie films because it was where the good roles were.

This moment last night where we all cheered in a movie theatre and laughed at something as simple as "AI is bad" made me realize we are in that moment again. Hollywood wants to make AI movies and pump AI into their movies. I say, let them. People were exhausted with the music industry output in the early 2000s and rushed to MySpace to eat up what indie musicians were putting it out. It was a mixture of alternative rock and much of it had a 60s flare. It was excellent. Go listen to Amy Winehouse if you want a taste of what it sounded like. And that's the thing, eventually the music industry started embracing these sounds and artists. Adele also grew out of this time. I don't remember if she was ever an indie musician, but I do remember listening to her music months before she blew up and suddenly everyone knew who she was.

The point?

Indie filmmakers you have this amazing moment before you. Go out and roll hard with all of your heart into your filmmaking. Your passion and heart will literally change the industry, and audiences will flock to you before that change even comes. Audiences will get tired of AI (if they aren't already) like they've gotten tired of Marvel. Indie filmmakers aren't gonna make the next Marvel Avengers event movie, but as always, indie filmmakers are gonna make some of the most amazing, heartfelt, fun, and unique movie experiences. So own it. When you go to pick your next project, pick one that you're super passionate about. Because it's that passion that is gonna lead the way.

“That’s our war criminal.”

Fun fact. I came into adulthood as Bush and Cheney committed war crimes and nothing was done. They were not held accountable. Anyone remember Kissinger? Yeah, it was a hard lesson to learn as a young adult, but it made me realize we don’t hold ourselves accountable. Ever.

The way I likened it at the time and it’s still true was that if Bush and Cheney had done what they did for some other country, we would have invaded to stop them. But when we do it, “That’s our war criminal. It’s fine.”

When it reality, that should be backwards. We should always hold ourselves accountable first. We should always be striving to keep our house in order. To not do so, and then point fingers at another nation, is hypocrisy.

Dogs Chasing Cars, the AI race

In 2011, I started writing a novella called Dogs Chasing Cars. It was set not far in the future, and it revolved around corporations racing to be the first to market to sell an android with the most advanced AI in the world. The corporations were so powerful, they were untouchable. They even had security squads, small military teams, that they would deploy to steal from or disrupt their competitors in some way.

Each had their own version of an android with advanced AI that was at varying stages of development. None of them were satisfied. A young man, a college dropout and genius, was slowly building one on his own. His was light years ahead of theirs and wind got out that he had accomplished what none of them could, so they all descended on him to steal his life’s work. In a late night attack on his home, he manages to barely escape and dump his android on a neighbor’s doorstep in the rain with a note.

Soon after the neighbor, his fiancée, and friend are on the run with the android — with the corporations hot on their tails.

I’ve been thinking about this story a lot lately because there are a lot of parallels between the world I was building in it and what we’re seeing now with the corporations today, the AI race, and how much power and influence they wield while they all race to be at the top of the AI slop pile. In a way, I’m glad I didn’t finish it back in 2011, because I have so much more to think about. But it is sad and wild in a way that some of the ideas I had, which I thought of as pure fiction, are not far from reality today.

I’m also glad I called it Dogs Chasing Cars because it’s so on the nose for how the AI race is unfolding today. At the time, I remember thinking of it as a descriptor of how the corporations were building AI. They were merely dogs chasing cars — wildly optimistic and without a care of who may get hurt or what they’ll do if they actually catch a car. They were just dogs chasing cars with their tongues wagging in the wind.

We need to stop fawning over Newsom

We need to stop fawning over Newsom. He’s a transphobe. I absolutely do not want him to be president.

Ignoring his transphobia because people running his social media accounts are pissing off other bigots is lame.

Support trans people more than memes. 🏳️‍⚧️

Busy times, cool stuff

Been working on something fancy for my book…

Gonna be acting in a short film this weekend for the 48 hour film festival in St. Louis…

After next week, I’ll technically be a senior in college — should be graduating next Spring…

Mercedes Masterson website updates incoming…

“Family is more important.”

When I was a young adult, my dad kept having heart attacks and was constantly in and out of the hospital. My boss never worried or complained when I informed him I had to bail on work, he would just stop me, and say, "Family is more important."

Be that boss. Be the boss who puts families first.

Too many bosses today take the complete opposite approach and put AI over people and their families. If your whole thing as a CEO is screwing over your staff and their families, so you can chase the AI pipe dream, maybe you need to recalibrate yourself.

Family is more important.

— George “The Wiz” Jones.

George “The Wiz” Jones. Miss you, man.

Prompt: Should the phrase “under God” be included in the Pledge of Allegiance?

In short, no it should not be. America is not one nation under a Christian god unless we are a Christian state — which we are not. Or at least, we weren’t supposed to be. We were supposed to have the freedom to choose our beliefs, not have them court ordered or government mandated.

Even longer version is that we probably shouldn’t even have a Pledge of Allegiance to begin with. Blind allegiance to a government or nation ain’t it. We need to be critical of our nation when we need to be, and it needs to allow it by order of free speech. I would rather we taught kids to think critically about their nation, their government, and their patriotism than have them pledge an allegiance.

Feel free to answer the prompt yourself in the comments.

Opinionated woeful ignorance

A person who is woefully ignorant of something, but has opinions on it, will make no sense.

What is (a) dream story topic you really want to write about?

I don’t know that I really have a dream story topic to write about. When I was younger and making indie films, I thought it would be cool to write and direct a gritty, R-rated Star Wars film. But after watching how judgmental and toxic the fan base can be, that doesn’t appeal to me anymore.

When my son was a kid, he was super into The Clone Wars cartoon and I dabbled with writing a fan fiction story for him. As I began to develop the story, it was becoming more and more complex — and interesting. I was reading a lot about the Greek and Persian wars and that was influencing the story a lot. Eventually, I realized I didn’t want to waste a good story on fan fiction that I couldn’t publish. It’s a trilogy of novels and I haven’t written them yet. But, I have written a few short stories that take place in the world, which has allowed me to explore and experiment in an environment that isn’t a novel. I also made a short, silent film experiment to explore one of the main characters. At some point, I’ll explore it more and write the trilogy. The first book is called Myrna and is named after the main character, who is a bounty hunter. Below is a photo of me from the short film in which I play a character named Attika.

Thanks for the question, it was interesting and I had to think about it some.

If any of you want to read the short stories in my sci-fi universe or watch the short film, let me know in the comments below, and I’ll re-release them in the library or something.

Is it Fall weather yet?

Is it Fall weather yet? Because summer has me like…

A stranger but not danger

Just had a total stranger come up to me and tell me I looked like a fun and good person. And complimented my eyes. Must be vibing right.

I’m trying audiobook narration

I’m starting to dabble with recording/narrating an audiobook of a short story — Vincent Marshall’s “Missed.” Please clap for me during this difficult time.

What do you all think about having audiobook versions of the short fiction in the library?

Fake Abraham Lincoln quotes

Sometimes I make fake Abraham Lincoln quotes as a means of satire of how people just reshare whatever imagery with quotes or tidbits of news on them without vetting the info or the source.

Too often we take for granted what we see on social media is accurate, if it reinforces our world view or it sounds “about right.” But we live in a time of propaganda and so much garbage is circulating. It’s important to check information before sharing. I’ve also taken to sourcing with a link to a reputable source if I’m posting about something political or whatever. The classic “Google it” or “do your own research” doesn’t always end well for some folks.

Feel free to download and share these, if you want. Even if it’s just for the laughs.

Which fake quote is your favorite?

My brain, my focus, my lack thereof

Doing some school work this Sunday afternoon and my ability to focus is all over the place. I’m making progress, though.

Trying to focus like:

What inspires your writing?

Lots of things. In terms of inspiring my writing, I’m gonna answer this as both what informs my ideas and what gets me excited.

I tend to turn to a mixture of things for inspiration regarding ideas. History (especially ancient history), folklore, other media (like film and music), and real-life crimes and social issues tend to cause sparks to fly.

Some examples:

• Sweet Sixteen Killer was born out of listening to “sweet sixteen” songs of the 1950s as an adult and realizing how gross they were,

• my current work is a gothic horror piece set in Victorian era England that germinated as an homage to Universal monster and Hammer Horror films,

• I have an upcoming Mercedes novel that’s inspired by an FBI report published during the Bush administration about white nationalists infiltrating the police to recruit members,

• Jonah of Olympic has a subplot about an old dying Hollywood actress who has remained a closeted lesbian her whole life (for this I researched a number of Hollywood actresses from classic Hollywood who were closeted lesbian or bisexual — Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Katherine Hepburn, etc.),

• and many of my works have hints to ancient or obscure folklore — two upcoming Mercedes Masterson stories, Aibell and The Book of Jude, delve into Irish folklore.

But also, movies and music. Movies inspire me a lot when it comes to writing. Some of you may not know, but I did a lot of indie film work in my early 20s. I love movies — especially horror (all kinds), action, noir, and some sci-fi. I think what I love most about films is how you can get sucked into a world for a very short amount of time and just be absorbed by its aesthetic and mood. Often times I’ll watch a collection of movies that have the vibe I want right before starting the first draft of writing. I’m a very visual person, so being able to absorb a lot of visuals before the writing process begins is important. I do this with Pinterest as well. I use Pinterest to create a mood board before I start writing. And then, there’s music. I can’t overstate its influence in my writing. I build playlists for my novels. My longest one to date is for Jonah of Olympic, which is over 10 hours long. I explore music I know, but also discover a lot of new music. I can often sit with a song on repeat while my mind creates a scene or character. It’s a very meditative process.

You write a lot of female MCs, what compels you to tell their stories?

This is a question that is kinda complex and goes way back for me. When I first started writing, I wrote all male main characters. By default, I assumed I could relate more with male protagonists and write them better. This was when I was a teen. But eventually what I discovered about myself is that I didn’t relate well with my male peers. I had more friends who were girls and our relationships tended to be much deeper.

I’m not saying anything new here, but generally speaking women are more in tune with emotions and have far more emotional complexity than men. As I continued to write, I realized men were not nearly as interesting or complex.

And so I started to write women main characters more. And it was much more rewarding. And I could relate way more. I can look back now and see I leaned feminist from a fairly early age, and I suspect that had something to do with my turn to writing more female main characters.

It’s also deeper for me now than that. Women’s stories absolutely need to be told, especially now with the world trying to turn back the clock on feminist gains for women’s rights.

Screw the patriarchy. We’ve tried that, and it sucked. Let’s let the women rule the world for a while. Especially women of color.

Would you rather fight a kraken or a dragon?

A dragon. No question. I’m gonna die either way, but I can’t swim, so fighting the kraken is a big no from me.

When is your next book coming out?

First question of the day: “When is your next book coming out?”

It goes “Jonah of Olympic” paperback (soon). I’m in the early stages of working on a gothic horror novel and the next Mercedes short story which is called “The Book of Jude” which will probably be published before the gothic horror one in 2026. Also in 2026, I have a middle grade horror short story in an anthology being released from Graveside Press. After the gothic horror one will be the next Mercedes novel called “Winter Wanderland.”

Based on past experiences, the gothic horror one will probably take 2-3 years to write/publish — so my next novel will probably drop around 2028. Unless I can speed up my process.

The em dash, AI, and Emily Dickinson

Someone: The em dash is a dead giveaway for AI written content.

*Emily Dickinson rises from the grave and enters the chat.*

Dickinson: I dwell in Possibility —