Pause, take a breath

Looking through my feeds this morning.  It’s mainly political rhetoric with sprinklings of anger of this or that.  Lot of finger pointing. Folks, we just passed the 25th anniversary of one of the darkest days America has seen; a day that sits right next to December 7th.   Remember what the world was like in the …

Promo of sorts.

There is a new writing community getting started on Reddit that I offered to help promote. Writing group for seniors. This group is for people ages 55+ who are writing and want the support of their peers. Published, new to writing, just writing for a hobby? It doesn’t matter. We just want to share and …

Slice of life drabble.

This started as an image. Then it became two images. I had to figure out how they were connected. Complicated It takes several minutes to park a Guardian after you land at Alpha Base.  You have to release the tail hook then maneuver the plane to the lift so they can lower the plane down …

Slice of life short

Ever had one of those scenes that just wouldn't go away? This started as one of those. Balance Unable to sleep, Kris found her way to the gym.   Too many things were running through her mind, making sleep nearly impossible, so she decided to try working through some of the stress. The gym was …

2026: Odd Prompts, Week 33 – Short Story

I tried to blend two spare prompts from this weeks offering on MOTE The golden retriever charged, barking & When the bark is larger than the dog since they seemed to fit together. This is set in my 4-Winds/Collegium world and echoes back to the novelette Night Hunts. Threat Assessment  Thad Wilhelm, a veteran of …

Just for fun cover experiment.

Just for giggles, I had ChatGPT do a cover for my novella Night Hunts. Kristen Paul was the pen name my sister and I were going to use for our 4-Winds and Collegium stuff, but that never went anywhere. I just thought it looked good to give the author a proper name here instead of …

Slice of life – Belling the Tiger

While technically a continuation of Gathering the Shards, this one can be read as a stand alone. After a visit with Mark and Jun, Matt and Kris had bundled Markus up and were headed home.  They’d cleared Boulder and were nearing Lyons.  Traffic was starting to back up as everyone tried to get home through …

Slice of Life – Short: Gathering the Shards

After two weeks of silence, the muse is finally starting to offer small bits. Not what I had planed to work on. But sometimes that's how it works. This is a direct follow-up to Broken, taking place the next day. Gathering the Shards Jun opened the front door and waved them in.  “Get in out …

Shameless Plug

If you ever get a wild notion to read, or learn, more of my Galactic Federation of Planets stories, all of the complete stories are over on Archive of Our Own. The bonus is that there they are in chronological order so you can see how the teams developed. https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wyldkat/works There are a few original …

2026: Odd Prompts, Week 28 – Short story

This week's prompt from MOTE was “You don’t look like a gryphon.” When I was 15 years old and first started watching Battle of the Planets, I asked the question what would happen if Spectra sent a second attack. I answered the question by creating my own team. Now, finally, here is their first mission …