Reading Time: 7 minutesIt’s twilight. Jeremy has finished his eight hours of practice and is out walking through golden fields. Smoke weaves the smell of burning wood and sugar through the air. At the end of the field is a tall man.
Gods and Monsters Installment 40: The Fabric of the Universe Read More »
Reading Time: 17 minutesOverworked and underpaid, a candle wench finds strange comfort in the warmth of the wax
Reading Time: 6 minutesHow can we show our readers aspects of our truest selves while giving ourselves enough narrative distance and processing space to write ourselves well?
Reading Time: 3 minutesMaressa Voss’s novel introduces an order of wizards that are able to control the four elements and gain insights from them. These wizards live separate from normal people because they’ve been labeled as charlatans and scammers. However, the order—called dactyli—have to interact with the world surrounding them and multiple people to collect varied points of
When Shadows Grow Tall Review: Sometimes the Road Is the Destination Read More »
Reading Time: 5 minutesWhen a man’s vision changes, he suddenly sees much more about the people around him than he would care to.
Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes an underground magical society, a plot to move the Earth’s orbit, and an epic historical prophecy.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Nov. 22, 2024 Read More »
Reading Time: 4 minutesWhen aliens descend on Earth, they request an audience with Karen, the United States’ most statistically average individual to sit judgement.
Reading Time: 9 minutesAs River’s eyes grow accustomed to the night, he sees a cat emerge from around a corner and disappear down a narrow alleyway. Another follows, and another. Surely, River thinks, there must be some meaning in all of these cats drifting toward a single destiny, their eyes glowing like secrets?
Gods and Monsters Installment 39: Beethoven’s Salt Sonatas Read More »
Reading Time: 4 minutesAmbiguous pronoun-antecedent pairs hiding in your story may make the difference between reader immersion and reader confusion.
Reading Time: 2 minutesNeal Cassidy’s Schroeder presents a man’s one-day killing spree. Although at first the book doesn’t quite explain what is happening, it never slows down or goes easy on the violence. The novel begins with Schroeder starting his daily routine, but it is quickly established this is no ordinary day. Schroeder leaves his house, cruises through
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a creepy cult, a trucker dealing with an EMP aftermath, and a space freighter headed off to a mysterious black site. Oh, there’s also dragons and a sexy and magical Christmas mystery.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Nov. 15, 2024 Read More »
Reading Time: 14 minutesA bellhop on one of Jupiter’s moons discovers a body, and murder may be involved.
Reading Time: 3 minutesCost-effective retirement for those who work in the human harvesting industry can have unexpected consequences.
Reading Time: 8 minutes“If you follow a life,” says Ryo, “one strand leads to another. You take me to Pamela, and Pamela guides me to Jeremy. It is impossible to understand her without him. Jeremy was both her lover and her creator.”
Gods and Monsters Installment 38: A Little Night Music Read More »
Reading Time: 4 minutesAfter a thief is mortally wounded, strange visions of past crimes begin to haunt him. As he tries to make his way out of a dark forest to see the sun once more, he cannot shake the feeling he is being followed.
Reading Time: 5 minutesOnce you understand what story you want to tell and what you want to say about it, your task is to get the story on paper. Here are three items to jumpstart your story.
Reading Time: 3 minutesIf you feel like Halloween didn’t last enough, here are five books to continue spreading the scares.
5 Short Horror Books to Extend the Halloween Cheer Read More »
Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes sexy gay vampires, sexy blue aliens, magical gryphons, and an EMP attack that involves the Statue of Liberty.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Nov. 8, 2024 Read More »
Reading Time: 19 minutesA group of people in a rural town face the outcome of a devastating asteroid impact.
Reading Time: 25 minutesA little boy discovers a mysterious seashell that contains more than just “ocean sounds” – a lot more…
Reading Time: 10 minutesWhen Margareta is not working, and if Pamela has been very, very good, Sarah lets her model the lacey cap. When Pam puts on the cap, she becomes an enchanted princess. The dirty pigeons that clutter the ledges of the city are snow white doves that come at her call and do her bidding. She leans out her window, arms spread wide, embracing her kingdom… until Sarah catches her and pulls her inside.
Reading Time: 4 minutesMarsha and Frank are driving along a country road on a rainy night, with Frank regaling Marsha about his knowledge of Japanese Samurai films,
when they encounter a ghostly specter in the middle of the road.
Reading Time: 6 minutesIf you wanted to write a story to submit but didn’t, what held you back from becoming the writerly unicorn you know you can be?
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a sexy druid, a sexy necromancer, a sexy werewolf, and a space marine who’s seen too much.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Nov. 1, 2024 Read More »
Reading Time: 19 minutes After an epically shitty day, Jewell Jamieson unknowingly eats a magic-spiked meal and makes a certain wish – and that’s why she awakes the next morning to discover a beautiful naked man in her bed.
Reading Time: 5 minutesThirteen haunting tales from MetaStellar’s archives that remind us why we should fear the dark — and why sometimes the most terrifying monsters are the ones we create ourselves.
13 scariest stories to get you through Halloween Read More »
Reading Time: 5 minutesPsychic magicians must fight off a enemy who is trying to break the spells protecting their academy. Family and romantic relationships complicate things.
Reading Time: 9 minutesMike grabs Ashley from her quilted comfort. Her head droops back like a wilted flower. Her neck shows white in the night. Mike’s canines grow long with desire and need.
Gods and Monsters Installment 36: Stained Glass Soul Read More »
Reading Time: 9 minutesWhen their mother dies, a pair of precocious twins are placed in the care of their father, a conservative and stern man with whom their Wiccan practices immediately clash.
Reading Time: 6 minutesThrough showing, not telling, you provide a more immersive experience for your readers. Here’s how.
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes space battles, magical mysteries, and a sexy orc.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Oct. 25, 2024 Read More »
Reading Time: 3 minutesIn the face of a devastated climate, humanity’s last hope is to relocate to another planet, but not everyone sees it that way.
Reading Time: 7 minutesWhen Hephaestus emerged clubfooted and malformed, Hera tossed him off Mount Olympus. He fell for nine days and nine nights, landing in the sea with a splash so big it caused a tsunami. No wonder then, that he prefers Earth to Olympus and children to gods.
Gods and Monsters Installment 35: Gods and Circuses Read More »
Reading Time: 7 minutesIn a near future of fast-paced social media likes and internet lurking, anonymity has a price…
Reading Time: 8 minutesLimited word counts in flash stories require you to make careful and judicious choices of what to keep and what to revise away because in flash fiction, there’s little room for coyness or ambiguity.
Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes pirates — both the space and the ocean kind — as well as mages and mediums.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Oct. 18, 2024 Read More »
Reading Time: 11 minutesRuth is an android robot nanny, designed to protect the two young children in her care. She has come to realize that she loves protecting the children so much, she feels compelled to put the children into danger so as to enjoy saving them.
Reading Time: 7 minutesNow, after the advent of dreams and the appearance of color, when Gabriel reads of a killing, something inside him screams. When he looks upon a charcoal figure that so recently possessed unearthly beauty, he mourns. He wants to create, not destroy. He doesn’t like the role in which he has been cast.
Gods and Monsters Installment 34: The Fault Line Within Read More »
Reading Time: 6 minutesFiction is unique to human communication, which is fascinating on its own. But why do we still look to fictions? What do they do for us in the modern age? Why does fiction matter? And what considerations must go into crafting culturally honest fictions?
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe book is dynamic and fast paced, with flashbacks and cliffhangers to keep you reading along. It is hard to put down, and I never say this lightly.
Friendship Is at the Forefront of Shaun Hamill’s The Dissonance Read More »
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a shifter romance by a New York Times bestselling author, a book about a space pirate, and a thriller about climate change.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Oct. 11, 2024 Read More »
Reading Time: 5 minutesA derelict spaceship turns out to be a trap for a space pirate and his very unusual copilot.
Reading Time: 8 minutesVampires followed the deluge of fluid and fear, tracking the lonely, homeless, and lost to the city, drawn by the need for belief, as well as blood.
Reading Time: 5 minutesStory structure is the framework around your literary jigsaw puzzle, the order into which you organize the events in your story to create a beginning, a middle, and an end. So let’s talk about some common story structures you may encounter while researching storytelling techniques.
Reading Time: 10 minutesNine favorite space opera series with kick-ass female leads.
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes dark magic, ancient evils, and serial killers — just in time for the spooky season.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Oct. 4, 2024 Read More »
Reading Time: 4 minutesA day at the beach turns into something unexpected for a young couple.
Reading Time: 7 minutesThanatos never kills. He’s just the messenger.
Gods and Monsters Installment 32: Time Before Time Read More »
Reading Time: 2 minutesDeep Black goes deeper into human-alien relationships and what it means to explore the vastness of space. It also questions whether AI should be trusted or not.
Deep Black Has Everything You Need: Action, Aliens, and Conspiracies Read More »
