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.

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?

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.

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 —