I’m no Stephen King, but I’ve picked up a few tricks along the way I wished I’d known sooner, and I wanted to share. — Write a million stories. Write a hundred bad stories. Write short short stories and long rambling neverending tales that you’ll never finish and will eventually give up as a bad job. Write different genres, point of views, settings, voices — anything to mix it up in the early stages. When you ‘finish’ drafts, rest…

Previously published by Black Mirror Magazine, January 2015 The nurse hummed what might have been Beethoven or Mozart, Walter wasn’t sure. Her fixed smile didn’t change shape for even an instant as her cold fingers moved this and that out of the way and wiped him down with baby wipes…

You walk to the edge of a ravine. You look down, but all you can see is sharp rocks for hundreds of feet and twisted vines crossing to the other side. You hear the sound of rushing water, but aren’t sure just how far down it’s sounding from. You knew…