A common question asked of many artists is, “Where do you get your ideas?” Of course, the honest answer is, “I have no idea,” but that doesn’t add to the mystique artists often cultivate. Somewhere along the way, creatives worked out the story that they got their inspiration from “muses” or “the universe.” That has…
I recently wrote about why I enjoy writing clean adventure fiction. Choosing a favorite adventure character isn’t easy, but when I look back on the stories that have stuck with me, a handful of characters rise to the top. They’ve shaped how I think about bravery, curiosity, and even faith. Here are my top five—and…
Now, I enjoy clean adventure stories, but I wasn’t always a reader. Blame it on being a boy with a lot of impatient energy. But sitting still and tracking my eyes over a page without pictures was torture. The irony? Both of my parents were teachers, and my mother was a reading specialist — yet…
“How is Bobby doing?” Evan asked. He and Katherine sat across a desk from Detective Abrams. They had been asked to the station to give their report of what happened on the bridge. “Oh, you know Short. Give him a few more weeks and he’ll be in here wearing his scars like trophies.” “I’ll try…
Katherine checked her watch. Three o’clock. She didn’t know how long it would take Evan to get out of jail, run home, and then run to where she was. But however long it took, it would be too long. She took a deep breath and reminded herself that Evan thought she could do this. Even…
Katherine didn’t remember how she arrived at the county jail, he thoughts had been flying through questions to ask Evan, potential frightening scenarios, and willful reminders to calm down and think one thought at a time. She checked in with the guard on duty, who escorted her to a short bank of cubicles where she…
Hand in hand, the Golds walked south on Commercial, turned west on Congress, and stopped in front of their front porch. It was the first time the pair had seen the front of their house since arriving back. The house mostly looked the same: gabled roof, holly hedge row, wide porch complete with a butter-yellow…
Katherine opened her eyes. I took longer than she wanted to orient herself to where she was. Everything, the lamp, the clock, the door jamb, everything looked familiar, but familiar from a distant memory. Then, as if a wave reached the shore of her mind and crashed the memories loose, she knew where she was. …
The next morning, Evan and Katherine walked hand in hand to the throne room of King Ansel. Katherine’s mind still reeled at discovering that she and Evan wanted similar things. She wondered if getting what she wanted would always be this easy. All she did was keep her opinions to herself. Though, she admitted to…
It did not take Katherine long to find Lillian. Now that she was back in her native surroundings, Lillian had fallen into her own predictable rhythms. From the balcony of her cliffside apartment, Katherine daily observed Lillian walking through the nearby gardens, so she rose early, got ready, and not so accidentally happened upon the…
