means throwing himself into research or pestering someone nearby to teach him.

Caleb handles boredom just fine. Sachial calls him “simple”—mockingly, with all the affection in the world—and it’s true. Physical activity is a bit more compulsory. He’s the type to do push-ups if he’s feeling restless.

idleness well. It’s tortuous enough for him to stay in one place—he HAS to stay active, busy, or he might go literally mad.

Sachial LOVES a lazy day (or two, or three) but he’ll get restless sooner rather than later—not physically, but intellectually. He’ll seek out things to learn, whether that

My short fiction WIP, Embers, is also set on a desert world. The nights on Agraive are long, and extremely cold; even for the mc Wheston, who’s highly adapted to the environment, survival is challenging. “Man vs nature” conflict is a favorite of mine, so I’m having the time of my life with this one.

(Faultverse cont.) Navigating/surviving this desert isn’t a huge obstacle for characters, but it does impose a hard spatial limit on the action, and it could be called an antagonist for Civilization as a whole. A couple of times characters do need to traverse it, with varying rates of success.

Characters who are each other’s “home” are EVERYTHING 🥺😭

Conrad is a bit more tied up with plot spoilers, so 🤫

but he cultivates the feeling in his relationships with Kade and Conrad.

Miriam is also rooted in Deuceridge. She’s built herself a home in Channis and Co., her entertainment and escort service. She’s tremendously proud that this home is also a place of safety and comfort for others.

Same on scenes! I’ll find a redundant paragraph here and there, usually very similar conversations or descriptions, but whole scenes? Rarely cut; far more often added for context, clarity, or characterization.

That said, I do use dialogue as an expositional tool quite a bit—provided it feels like a conversation that would occur outside the NEED for exposition, I think it’s one of the most effective and compelling ways to go about it. In revision it’s just making sure it does, in fact, feel organic.

all images from Unsplash; credits:

@annaflowers24
@ar_graphics_
@francesco_ungaro
@sgrugno
@dilabrr
@imadkh
@jgrant1
@lastly

(first attempt at a moodboard—it was quite fun! note to self to up the front on the subtitle)

all images from Unsplash! credits:
@juanparra21
@andandoporai
@daniele71043
@7seth

(from an untitled scifi short story WIP)

“We do it for fun,” she said. “Just because we can. Some of us like to play at being shapeshifters.” She grinned. “Besides, humans aren’t ambush predators—we’re endurance hunters.”

(Fault Lines)

Sachial looked at her, sore as if she’d just prodded him in the ribs. “Right, except trust in Caleb isn’t the issue. If this was a ‘trust in Caleb’ issue, you and I wouldn’t have any rusted disagreement. But it’s not. It’s one of those pesky ‘everything is trying to kill me’ issues.”