“Back to HOLLOW GROUND. Someone in there knows what happened, and I’m beginning to take the silence personally.” #writingcommunity #writersofx #writerslift

She took that personally. Grew couture. #Caturday

Learning to keep going without an audience is a useful skill. So is learning whose voice you no longer need in your head. There’s work to do, and the cat’s already in my chair.

Having these people in our lives (hopefully former lives) is useful knowledge for a novelist. An exhausting way to live. Some people are best kept on the page, where you decide how long they stay. When my urge to write suffers, the first place I look is at who I've been spending time with recently.

I know that rehearsal well. It took me years to realize how much responsibility I’d taken for someone else’s reactions. Longer still to stop doing it—and accept that some relationships wouldn’t survive my speaking freely.

The hard part is learning that feeling guilty doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve done something wrong. Sometimes it means you’ve stopped doing what everyone has come to expect.

Professor Mo'o has requested better billing. Pau denies knowing him.

Eight days until Halloween. Pau is making alterations. Professor Moʻo went unnoticed in the last cartoon. This time, he’s making sure there are witnesses. #WritingCommunity #HalloweenCostume #thrillerwritercartoon

On Kauaʻi, we call this a good reason to be late. 🌺

I love this. How much of a life gets postponed while we wait to feel brave enough to live it?

Congratulations, Neil! Two thrillers released a week apart. That’s taking “keep the reader from sleeping” rather seriously. Wishing Deadline a terrific launch!

Learn what the light reveals. Then decide what you’re willing to leave in the dark. That’s where the interesting trouble starts.

RECIPE FOR JOY Ingredients: • One Kauaʻi morning, slightly damp • Coffee strong enough to raise objections • One sentence worth keeping • A cat with no faith in your abilities • A small, unreasonable hope Instructions: Open the windows. Let the jungle get a word in. Add coffee. Lower expectations until something lovely clears them. Write the sentence. Resist turning it into a career assessment. Fold in hope. Gently. It’s been through enough. Remove cat from keyboard. Accept revisions. Serving suggestions: Best shared with someone who’s had a rough week. No need to tell them it’s joy. Just pull up another chair. Serves two. Cat claims three.

Yes—Hollow Ground brings Keo back. I wouldn’t call it darker; both books find darkness in unusual places, often tangled up with love, loyalty, and the urge to protect something. There’s humor in both, too. Keo would be unbearable otherwise.

My WIP, HOLLOW GROUND, takes Detective Keo Kamoa beneath Kauaʻi’s beautiful surface. Literally. A literary thriller with dark humor, deep island roots, and a detective who wants to protect the place he loves. I’d tell you more, but he’s still underground and withholding information.

Professer Mo'o feels he was overlooked in his vampire costume since no one mentioned him in a comment. I'm reposting under considerable reptilian pressure.

The sloth has the right idea. Reach beyond your abilities. Take your time. Bring something questionable into bloom.