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I’m doubly thrilled to share that I’ve had two stories published in Animal Kingdom: Havok Season Seven! “Negotiations of an Igneous Nature” and “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Treasure” join 46 other stories in a collection that celebrates the variety of the animal world. You may have already guessed that both stories again strike a comedic tone.

I wrote “Negotiations of an Igneous Nature” for the symbiotes/parasites theme. In this imagining, dragons don’t breathe fire naturally, but rather have struck a symbiotic relationship with salamanders which do breathe fire. While dragons use their brawn to protect the much smaller salamanders from predators, salamanders grant their elemental powers to breathe fire hot enough to purify gold. However, in this story, that relationship is threatened by an inter-union stalemate, and a human (general Mann) is called in to facilitate talks between the chief dragon (Drake) and head salamander (Sal). Can he help both parties reach a satisfying conclusion? There’s only one way to find out!

My other story published in this anthology is “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Treasure,” written for the swimmers/soarers theme. This piece follows an inexperienced but optimistic pirate and his garrulous parrot partner as they search a tropical island for treasure. However, the parrot may not be the only backseat treasure hunter in this story… Will the duo find the riches they seek? What other obstacles will they face on their quest? What makes a llama different from an alpaca? Once again, there’s only one way to find out!

Of course, that way to find out is to read “Negotiations of an Igenous Nature” and “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Treasure” in Animal Kingdom: Havok Season Seven today!

I have another story published in Havok’s sixth anthology! This collection of stories is built around character archetypes, and “Orf vs. the Peak-Beast” is part of the Hero/Magician section. It begins with a young man and his magical mentor summiting a treacherous mountain where an unnatural monster awaits. It ends with a moderately stunning revelation. What happens between turns our protagonist into a hero.

This is another of my funny flash fiction pieces in the vein of “When Magic Died” and “In Search of the Magma Heart.” But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a good dose of action too! Unlike those, this story is dominated by a battle scene, and I think I balanced the fighting and banter well. But you can be the judge of that yourself by reading it (as well as 43 other stories) exclusively in Casting Call: Havok Season Six!

I’m thrilled to share that I have a new flash fiction piece published in Prismatic: Havok Season Five! “The Nocturnal Ambush of Fae Forest” follows a ragtag group of magical forest folk leading an assault on the yellow man-made machines that have torn their home asunder. They may be small (tiny, really), but their hearts and courage are anything but. Only time will tell whether their mission proves successful.

As you can probably tell, this is another humorous story, and it’s one of my favorites. Think Fern Gully, except the fairies take themselves far too seriously and don’t actually know how to fight. It was lots of fun to write and I’d say the flash fiction format was the perfect length for the story. So don’t delay—read it and 48 other flash fiction stories in Prismatic: Havok Season Five today!

I’m thrilled to share that two of my flash fiction stories have been published in Havok’s 4th anthology: Sensational! This season’s was themed around the senses (including the concept of a “sixth sense,” as featured in “The Prophet’s Burden” from my last post). My two included stories are based on the senses of smell and sight. (Apparently I only wanted to write about the ‘S’ senses.)

“The Guardian and the Chandler,” themed around smell, tells the story of a subterranean caretaker of a mushroom field and a young candlemaker who seeks to harvest one to fashion a new candle. It’s one of my more contemplative stories meant to provide a very small glimpse of the world where it takes place.

“The Crisis Before Christmas,” themed around sight, follows two elves who need to recover Santa’s stolen time-manipulation device before Christmas is ruined! Yes, this is set in 2020 and yes, that’s very relevant to the story. Another of my more humorous pieces, this flash fiction piece was written to bring a little levity at the end of a hard year, and I think it did the job admirably.

Both of these stories are now available in Sensational: Havok Season Four along with 47 more great flash fiction stories. Pick up your copy today!

My latest flash fiction story, “The Prophet’s Burden,” is now available to read on Havok’s website. And, since I’m a volunteer editor, there’s no 24-hour time frame—it’ll always be available, whether or not you’re a Havok member. To celebrate its publication, here’s a short look at how I wrote it.

If you’ve already read the story, you may have guessed that it follows the same exploits of the adventurer from “Sword of the Stones” or “The Tomb of the Ophidian Scepter.” I’d been thinking of writing about another of his expeditions, and the “sixth sense” theme for October 2020 seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so.

So in a way, the “sixth sense” theme wasn’t exactly the seed for this story, but it did help focus it. I thought it would be cool to feature an artifact that would allow the adventurer to sense the future—an extremely valuable skill for someone in his line of work! The idea was that the artifact would allow its wearer to discern the future as long as they were wearing it in that possible future. I wanted removing the artifact to feel particularly weighty, because that is the only course of action that can’t be predicted.

The madness element of the talisman (since that was the type of artifact I settled on), evolved naturally as I wrote the story. It made sense that trying to comprehend a multitude of experiences all at once would be overwhelming. I didn’t quite have the word count to delve into this aspect, but I envisioned the talisman grants/forces its wearer to experience the future in all five senses. So you don’t just see what happens; you feel, hear, smell, and (sure) taste it, too. So the adventurer’s brain was telling him that he was being stabbed, crushed, eaten, hearing his partner scream and animals roar, smelling burning flesh, tasting noxious gases, etc. all at once. Not a very pleasant experience!

I don’t really go into that in the story though. What was interesting was composing scenes from the main character’s future-perspective while considering what was actually going on in real-time. I wanted to give readers the option to re-read the story and understand what Alma was seeing/hearing. For example, the first “real” dialogue after the adventurer puts on the talisman is him answering Alma’s as-yet unasked question, which is why she just stares at him for a moment. It was a unique challenge, but I think I pulled it off.

In terms of the actual writing, the first draft started right with the adventurer putting on the talisman. Herein lies a tip for writing flash fiction. The story really picks up when the main character puts the talisman, but that moment doesn’t offer any backstory to help ground readers. Nevertheless, I wrote that scene first because I knew I would need to get to it quickly.

Later, after writing the majority of the story, I went back to write the intro. This offered several benefits: 1) I knew how many words were left to write the opening and keep the story under 1,000 words. 2) I was already in the writing groove, so instead of spending a few paragraphs warming up my “writing voice,” I was able to jump right in. And 3) I knew what moment I was writing toward, so I knew which information had to be relayed, and which stuff could be left out. The resulting “opening” section lasts approximately 120 words, but it moves toward the inciting incident pretty quickly (compared to what I would have likely done without the constraint).

Because the crux of the story always lay in the scene where the characters finally grasp the talisman’s power, I knew the ending would have to be similarly fast-paced. I wanted to include another scene showing the different futures that could result from an encounter with an enormous crocodile, but the word count just wasn’t there.

Since I didn’t have the space to describe this scene going into further detail about the artifact’s effects on the wearer, I opted for a broader overview as the adventurers exit the temple. Even though I think it could have been interesting to dive into this aspect, I think the end result fits well with the main character’s inability to focus.

The ending was a little tricky. As I mentioned above, taking off the talisman was meant to be a significant gesture and indicate that the adventurer could accept not knowing the future. But since this story felt a little heavier than other installments, I wanted to reintroduce just a little levity at the end. My first draft had the main character commenting about what drew the ancient civilization mad (an idea that didn’t make it into the final story). However, my editor Lisa encouraged me to push this a little more. I’m happy she did, because the end result gives the characters a little more good-natured banter. And adding banter is always a good call.

Of course, you’re invited to add a little banter here in the comments or over on the story itself! I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into how “The Prophet’s Burden” came together. Thank you for reading!