To be clear... I love it. I tell this story often. What got me into writing as a little kid was that it was the one thing I was better at...

Reading a book and assuming everyone is telling the truth all the time is like believing the barista has fallen in love with you   When I was getting notes back from my beta readers for ALU, I started to notice this trend where my readers were taking the main character very literally. In fact, because of that, they really didn’t like her at the beginning and it was hard to win them back. Now, of course this was in part my fault (all things are, look it up), but it also spoke

“gates this movie came out in June” shut up, I watched it three days ago   Tim Goode / PA Images via Getty Images I have loved F1 since Drive to Survive became my comfort show in 2020. Picture this—you’re an 18-year-old film student who moved away from home for the first time only to almost immediately get put into lockdown where you’re confined in isolation to a room the size of a walk-in closet. Now imagine you’re watching a bunch of cars going Real fast. Not so bad, huh?

I promise its not just me In March of 2020 Nintendo released a game for the Switch called Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH). Like many others, I was stoked for this game—I was literally counting down the days like it was Christmas. We were all still fresh into Covid lockdown, and along comes this new addition to an iconic franchise about hanging out with your neighbours and spending time outdoors.  It was perfect. But was it? Once the fresh glow of a new Animal Crossing ga

No I haven't "won a contest" but I was on the editorial team that picked a winner? A few years ago I worked as an editor at a small literary journal that held an annual contest. Part of my job was to read submissions and vote on them with other team members until only the highest voted submissions remained for that top spot. The whole process taught me a ton about what editors are looking for in literary journals, and what contest-winning writing looks like. Here's a spoiler:

We should all be reading more If you didn't know, reading a lot and like constantly is a pretty big requirement for an author (and thus, an aspiring one too). Not only does reading help writers find inspiration, grow in their craft, feel better about their writing because if this book can get published then so can mine! etc. etc. But reading is also the best way to stay informed on the current book market . Yes, capitalism ruined even this. Writers are expected to know what'

We get loosey-goosey with Gothic as a genre but VotV is a Gothic sorry   Lately I’ve been entrenched in an indie game quickly gaining popularity called Voices of the Void (VotV), developed by mrdrnose. While still in pre-alpha phase (meaning an early, early version of the game), VotV is already, in my opinion, a masterclass of utilizing terror and tension. The gist of the game is that you’re a scientist working in a remote research base where you collect and analyze signals f