nighteyes_dayspring

What Dreams — dirge for Kiri (Poem)

A dear friend of mine, Kiri, passed away last week, and it's still hurting a lot. I wrote this late at night after she passed, and I'd like to finally share it. If you want to know more about her, her husband is currently doing a GoFundMe for help with the unexpected expenses. He wrote up all the details of what happened.

In the swirls of your drea...

Silly doodle from Fur the 'More

Everyone who voted in the art poll said yes, thus you get this little goofy thing. I was at Fur the 'More selling books, and I did this little doodle at my dealer's table when it was slow.

Currently, art posts are free since this is just me exploring visual media.

Gnoll Tales Has Been Nominated for an Ursa Major Award

I’m so excited to announce that Gnoll Tales got nominated for an Ursa  Major award in the Best General Literary Work category. I’m very honored  by everyone who nominated me. Voting is ongoing for now until March 24.  Head on over to https://ursamajorawards.org/ to check out the other nominees and vote.

Poll: Would you like to see my art adventures on here?

I've always called myself a writer first and an artist second, and at best I've been an occasional artist. However, one of my goals this year is to keep up the habit. For now, since the quality of what I can draw isn't amazing, I don't feel comfortable considering it as something Patreon exclusive, but would you like to see my doodles on here?

Attached is last night's adventure in art as an example. 2024-03-01 14:49:15 +0000 UTC View Post

The Value of Creativity (Essay)

I've been working on the novel, but just haven't gotten the next chapter revised yet. I do though have an essay I wrote this month to share. This I plan to post online in a few days.

How much is an idea worth? Is the idea itself or the process of making that idea the most valuable part? There are a lot of facets to the ongoing debate about AI, but I want to talk about creativity and how I personally see it.

In my mind, ideas are cheap, not because they’re goo...

Race the Dawn (Poem)

Paws down on the ground,

tongue rolling out, the wind brushes your fur.

The moon calls. The night sings.

Run, run for all you can—

howl to the darkness—

for you live anew.

Wood smoke tickles your nose,

as a bonfire lights up the dark.

Slap the earth with your footpaws.

Feel your claws dig down into it and spring up as you spin

Dance to the beat of the drums,

And swing your tail around and laugh as you feel alive....

Forward Into the Night (Poem)

As I'm working on The Blood of Life, I've also been inching forward on doing a poetry chapbook. I realize I do have enough content, and the idea of doing something focused on the therianthropic aspect is intriguing. Because of that, I'm going to call the book Therianthropic Dreams, and I'm in the process of looking for a cover artist.

I realize as a writer, I'm sometimes am all over the place with my ideas. I can bounce from deeply historical work to adult stories abou...

Chasing My Tail (Poem)

For a while now, I've been commented about how I have reams of my old poetry from high school and college, a lot of which is very therianthropic. I'm sure quite a bit of it isn't very good, but some of it did capture my emotions at the time very well. I'm starting inching closer toward doing a chapbook with the better poems, plus some newer pieces of poetry. This poem dates all the way back from 2002, when I was in college. (And yes, I am that old.) I'll have to edit this stuff before I can r...

Update on Writing a Second Novel

I’ve been quiet this month because I’ve been focused on trying to finish my second novel. I was lucky to have two weeks off in December that really let me knock out various tasks. I had wanted to share a new novel chapter this month, but I’ve been so focused with drafting, I haven’t gone back and done any revisions.

So first, before I get into the details of what I’ve been doing, I want to apologize that new material for this month isn’t ready yet, and it won’t ...

2023 Year in Review

Everything builds. Everything becomes more. As a writer writes, the story unfolds. In that respect, 2023 was a year of building and growth for me. The trail of words leads on, and the story only grows as I howl out my song.

I kept up with convention appearances this year, and I attended six cons, all of which I had a presence at selling my books. As part of that, in March, I returned to Fur the ‘More to celebrate their 10th con with them as a previous Guest of Honor along with all the...

How World Building Can Influence Plot (Essay)

I’m a little behind on chapter edits with The Blood of Life because I’ve focused on getting new material down, so I’m going to talk about how world building can directly influence plot. I’ve got a fun example from the book from the book, I’d like to use.

Radic, the vampire protagonist of the Blood of Life, is at times a moody character. He talks a lot about his past that he is now cut off from, and one of the core elements of the book is his quest to find out what happened to ...

The Fifteen Inches of Friday Night (short story)

I had a exceedingly silly conversation with a friend of mine earlier this month about some silly tweets, and this ended up getting written.

The Fifteen Inches of Friday Night

38.1 cm if you’re measuring in metric

Suave, drunk off cheap liquor and smelling of grilled meat, Wade faced down the horde of raccoons rooting through his trash with the only thing you can face down a horde of angry raccoons with when in a stat...

Happy Holidays!

I know most people who celebrate Christmas are busy getting ready for Christmas right now or already spending time with family, so I’m waiting to post stuff till after Christmas for this month. I just wanted to thank you all for your support, and I hope everyone is getting through the holiday season without too much stress. I know for some people, the holidays can be pretty rough. Hopefully your holidays are filled with joy and remain low stress.

Before the pre-Christmas rush kicked i...

The First One (Short Story)

Authors Note: I’m not sure I consider this consistent with my other Gnoll Tales, but it’s an idea I wanted to explore that would come from the same world.

Before the first gods came into this world, there was nothing. Everything was blank and new, an endless vast space devoid of life. No one knows for how long it was like this, but what was nothing one day became something.

The first creature to walk the world wasn’t a human, an elf, or even a gnoll. The first creat...

A Final Offering (Excerpt)

I've been working on this project for the Furry Historical Fiction Society, and the story actually includes a poem. I'd like to share that. It is spoken by a skald to a jackal traveler who has completed a long journey to get to where the story takes place..

Oh sandy furred one,

I see you have come far,

And with purpose,

With desire and hunger,

With wisdom,

MFF 2023 Bound and the News Roundup

This has been cross posted, but I have a general update on what's been going on in the last month.

I’m at MFF this weekend, and I’m actually at the con hotel already as I write this since I came up Wednesday. I once again have a dealer’s table at the con, and I’m really excited with how it’s going to look this year. I’ve upgraded things a bit in the way of signage. I also have a story releasing at this con, “The Morning After,” which will be out in 2023-11-30 13:33:05 +0000 UTC View Post

Selling the Wag (Essay)

I had a conversation with a friend recently about social cliques, and how people often get into them. This got me thinking about how that works when you’re a creative. I cannot say I don’t have my friends and there aren’t people I enjoy hanging out with, but this desire also intersects with being a creative and the need to promote your work.

As a creative, you might have your good friends and your core group, but you still need to be receptive to people outside your group, because...

Binding Spirits (Short Story)

For Halloween this year, I've got a treat for you. Or maybe it's trick? Maybe it's both.

“Boss says we’re closing at 9 tonight,” said Janet, as she hung up the store’s phone.

Sammy looked up from the magazine he’d been thumbing through and glanced at the clock on the wall. It read only 5:17. “9? Did we stop being a 24-hour store?” he asked his coworker.

The rabbit waved a paw around, her white fur almost flashing in the neon lighting with ho...

The Fox, the Wolf, and the Gnoll (short story)

I'm a bit behind on content for Patreon, and the two stories I wrote last month are for anthology projects. I cannot share those yet, and I've not done a lot of work on The Blood of Life. I do have another Gnoll Tales story though that never made it to Patreon, so I'm putting it up.

We gnolls enjoy the simple life when we can. While some of us are magic users, warriors, or tradespeople, some of us aren’t. Some of my clanmates are simple farmers just trying...

The Blood of Life - Chapter 5 - A False Dawn

Finally I'm back to posting chapters for my next book. You can find previous chapters here. 

If I had a heart that still beat, it would have skipped. “Tell me what you saw,” I whisper.

The leopard gestures toward the stairs. “You look shaken. Perhaps we should go upstairs to sit down. There is the other bottle of wine,...

A Few Musings on Generative AI

This started as a social media post but turned into an essay. I plan to share this on my public blog in a few days, but I wanted to give it you guys early. Also, let me know your thoughts on AI technology.

The rise of generative AI has really gotten to me as a writer, because it amplifies a few things. First, people just aren't important to companies and the race to replace people with AI shows we aren't valuable to them. I never thought I was going to be a mainstream writer, b...

Twisted Vows (Short Story)

I've been meaning to get this up here. You might recall I posted a screen shot back in May while I was editing this for Gnoll Tales. Well, this is the finished version of the story that went into the book.

“Your teeth are weak,” is the first thing Kyla Tangledmane had told the young human noble when she’d met him at a court function. Kane had giv...

The One Who Tells the Story (Short Story)

I've been meaning to share more of the finished stories from Gnoll Tales with Patreon, so here's another one. This one is set when the book's narrator is young and is one of two personal stories he includes in the collection.

I am not the only one of my people who is interested in our stories. When I was young, the small village I lived in had an old wise woman who was known only as the Claw Keeper. I’m sure she had a personal name, but I don’t think any...

Gnoll Tales Pre-Orders Are Now Available!

If you wanted a physical copy of Gnoll Tales, I'm taking pre-orders on my square site. It's not yet announced on social media. I'll be getting my proof copies today, and I plan to take some photos for official announcement. However, I had to go ahead and set up the page on my website, and I opted to just leave it and the sale link live.

A Wager in Bone (Story)

I've submitted Gnoll Tales to the printer and am waiting to find out if the files have been approved. I'm still on track to release the book at Anthrocon. In the meantime, I have another story from Gnoll Tales I'd like to share

The village of Two Taverns sits on a riverbank where the King’s Highway crosses a large stone bridge. As the name implies, it does indeed have two taverns. One is a large luxurious affair that caters to richer travelers. Th...

Everything Going On in the Last Week

I've been busy over on social media talking about stuff, so I want to give you all a quick run down. First, Scars of the Golden Dancer won two of the three awards it was nominated for. While I didn't win an Ursa Major Award, I did win a Cóyotl Award and a 2023-06-01 02:06:31 +0000 UTC View Post

Example of the Editing Process

I'm in the middle of trying to wrap up edits on Gnoll Tales, and I thought I'd share a quick peak at the process. The writing group wanted some more relationship details in this story, so I added a bit of that to the front of the story and have been modifying things after that to flow nicely.

As the Gods Demand (Story)

I've been quiet for too long, but I've been working on a story for the next Furry Historical Fiction Society anthology, 'In the Light of Dawn.' The group said I could share this with you, so clocking in at over 9,500 words, let me take you to Ancient Egypt and a world where the gods of old lived.

As the Gods Demand

Author’s Note: There are multiple versions of the negative confessions known to Egyptologists. I have used two short excerpts from Cha...