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THE LUCIFER CHRONICLES SYMBOL

THE FALL OF THE GODS

Persephone: The Fall of the Gods Book 1

Hades: Fall of the Gods Book 2

Thanatos book three of the Fall of the Gods series

THE LUCIFER CHRONICLES

Satan's Historian book cover

THE WATCHER BOOK COVER

The Fallen book cover

SHORT STORIES

Postcard Stories cover

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I'm not much of a collector, but I have a few old

I'm not much of a collector, but I have a few old film cameras I've picked up along the way. Mostly from antique shops I find while road tripping. Film was my first love. There was nothing like opening up that envelope of prints. Flipping through each shot was like going on an adventure all over again. And there were always duds, some were just a blur of motion or maybe solid black with a light leak on the edges. I was lucky enough to learn the processes of the darkroom and roll my own film. I miss those days sometimes. I found this Kodak Brownie in a little shop in Bisbee, AZ. The owner told us stories about all the cameras and movie cameras he had in his collection. He remembered the previous owners and their pets, if they had any. Not only did he have good taste in vintage goods, but he was also a heck of a storyteller. We hung out in that shop for an hour and a half, and in the end, I took this guy home. I had to buy my film online and send it out to get developed, but there's still that thrill of anticipation when the envelope of prints comes in the mail. Long live the film camera and all the tales they tell. #browniecamera

I don't know about all of you, but I'm starting to

I don't know about all of you, but I'm starting to run out of quality TV and movies to binge on my favorite platforms. I figure it's a good time to up my reading game! I've got a great recommendation if you're looking to lose yourself in another world. Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors, and I've reread his book Neverwhere too many times to count. It's about a man named Richard who helps Door, a girl who lay bleeding in the streets of London. In helping her, Richard is propelled into a world he never knew existed. A world of monsters and saints, jesters and angels. And if he's ever to find his way back to his former life, he must join Doors quest to save her world, or die trying. You can also get this book from the library if that works better for you. I'm a big fan of libraries and all they do! And of course yours truly has written a few books. You can check those out in my bio. Happy reading! #readersofig

We took back roads from Kingman to a town that is

We took back roads from Kingman to a town that is almost to small to have a name. But it did. Chloride, Arizona. We were trying to find a massive rock mural painted years earlier. And as usual, we got sidetracked. We get lost all the time. We've come to count on it. So we pack snacks and happy hour provisions just in case we don't find our way back to whatever airbnb we've rented. We found this bad boy on one of those random sideroads. We spent an hour or more exploring the inside and the surrounding land. So why am I telling you all of this? Maybe so that you try getting lost sometime. Not in a scary way, but so that you can see new things. Explore. Spend time with your best friend. Have an adventure... And it never hurts to pack some snacks. #travelarizona

It had been twenty-three years since Charlie last

It had been twenty-three years since Charlie last saw the old homestead. His mother had signed it all over to him years ago. It was a place he didn’t intend to see ever again. Let it rot, he said with finality. But yesterday the cops had called. His wife had answered, and if it weren’t for her assurance that he would meet them at the abandoned site, he wouldn’t have gone. He met the cops only to find that his mother had gone missing from her apartment at least two days earlier and was seen walking down the dirt toward her old home. The cops had found nothing in or around the house, but assured him they’d keep looking.

The cops left. But Charlie stayed. His mother had been here. Her favorite kitchen chair sat by the window. Not close enough for the sun to touch her skin, not with the risk of cancer, and not too far away that she couldn’t see the little green men hiding out in the bushes, just waiting for her to fall asleep or relax her guard. He could almost picture her small frame, thin but not skeletal, compact, and tense with wire-brush hair and pasty skin sitting there, watching. Waiting. Night seemed to fall like a coffin-lid. How long had he stood there? Charlie wondered. He stared through the hole in the roof and into a dark sky interrupted by endless stars. And then a blinding light shone down. A cold light. A heavy light. The house, the ground, and his bones began to shake. His feet lifted from the filthy carpet. And as he rose, frozen in the beam of light, he knew where his mother had gone. And there was very little doubt he would see her soon.

#iwanttobelieve

You know when you look through old images and you

You know when you look through old images and you come across a few that take you back to the moment you took it? Your two friends walking behind you with their own cameras, talking about depth of field and how the Tucson light makes the textures pop. How we could smell the street tacos from a block away. How every street of the Barrio was sweet tasting eye candy and how every color of the pantone book was represented in stucco and flowers and doors. And how my last memory of the day was of us sitting on a patio, cooling our jets with a pitcher of lime margaritas, and listening to the neighborhood kids laugh as they played tag. It's amazing to me how an image can become a full scensory experience. I love it when that happens. And now I'm craving a good margarita... #lovethelittlethings

I didn’t think there was anything to take a pict

I didn’t think there was anything to take a picture of. It was the same old desert. Dirt. Beige. So much beige when all I wanted was color. I wanted clouds to make the blue sky into something tangible, like frosting on a cake. I wanted to taste green and walk on bark mulch under a canopy of leafy trees. And in the middle of my want, the desert gave me this. It wasn’t what I thought I wanted, but it was more than enough.

Happy Tuesday! #grateful

I'm a little obsessed with a new/not so new series

I'm a little obsessed with a new/not so new series on Netflix called the Queen's Gambit. I'm sure most of you have heard of it and might even have it on your 'to watch' list. There's so much to love about this series. Their cinematography is on the top of my list. The staging and colors and costumes are spot on and capture the 1950-60s vibe. And the cars...don't even get me started on all the vintage vehicles they drove. I was so into the story that I had to go read the novel. Normally I read the book first and am disappointed in the show. But in this case, I enjoyed the novel as much as the TV series. I highly recommend both to anyone looking for some great entertainment. This image I shot for one of my photogroup assignments last year. It was after our first lockdown and I was looking to shoot something I could find in my house. It's amazing what you can do with a cheep chess set, a flashlight, and construction paper. #chess

Lethal Amounts of Joy The town officials have con

Lethal Amounts of Joy The town officials have condemned and scheduled the building behind me for demolition. Authorities say that a group of rebels have been using the building for a lab for at least seventeen months. Apparently, the tenants had been manufacturing joy and giving it away for free to those passing through their neighborhood. This illegal operation started in this very building. But it didn't take long for the production and rampant spread of more joy to show up in adjoining neighborhoods and flood the streets of the city.

This underground movement became a pandemic of sorts. Spreading from town to town until the entire countryside was riddled with the sounds of spontaneous laughter and clapping and music-making as people came under the influence of this substance. Authorities received a tip from an anonymous source as to the goings-on in this now infamous apartment building. The invisible nature of the substance has made it impossible to clear the building of all traces. It is therefore decided by the killjoys of this town, that the building will be demolished. If anyone has further information about any other factions who are spreading joy freely, please call the hotline number listed below. This is Mercy Cratchit for Channel 13 news.

#portugal_places

They plodded along the cracked earth following the

They plodded along the cracked earth following the marage they'd seen a few miles back. They drew closer and stopped. "Not the mirage I was hoping for," Benny said. Cindy looked down at her phone and said, "You think we can order a better one from Amazon?" Benny looked at her. "Do it. But make sure it has same day shipping. I could really use a shower." Happy Wednesday everyone! #wednesdayhumor #amazonfinds

Here's a little teaser from my wee podcast episode

Here's a little teaser from my wee podcast episode called, The Ice Cream Fairy. Last year I started playing around with recording my Postcard Stories, made them into two minute podcasts, and put them on Youtube. I wanted to push myself to do something different and to get over the fear of reading my own work. I still have a hard time listening to my own voice, but I'm getting more comfortable with it. And I'm actually surprised that I'm having fun creating these little audio stories. Who knew? What new thing are you trying this year? 👉🏼You can find the full podcast episode on the YouTube link in my bio.

Where do I start? There's all the obvious stuff.

Where do I start? There's all the obvious stuff... and then yesterday while walking my pup, a teenage boy rode past me on a very tall unicycle. This one was actually a nice kind of strange. #wednesdayvibes

Hades: When you see behind the curtain of someone’s soul, that does something to you. Makes you feel dirty and clean at the same time.

From my novel Hades: Fall of the Gods. One of my goals this year is to do more videos and figure out how to navigate Premiere better. Thank goodness for Youtube! I figure one good thing came from the partial lockdown, and that's more evenings by our fire pit. It seemed like the perfect setting for some video experiments. Turns out, fire is a strangely universal theme in most of my books. Go figure.

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