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Last week, I finished the rough draft of my third book, Silver Storm. It’s the end of my trilogy, so I’m really proud of myself for getting to the end of the rough draft. Now, I just need to edit. Below, is the current opening for Silver Storm. Enjoy!

A long time ago, when Alsmora was new, there lived a good king. His name was Nicholas. Everyone prospered under his rule.

But there was a darkness across the valley.

In the nearby mountains, there lived a dragon, a terrible black dragon. Black as midnight. Trapped in endless slumber by a trio of good witches. But everyone feared the dragon would wake again.

Nicholas ruled his people for ten happy years, with no threat of the dragon.

One day, Nicholas was taking a walk in the castle gardens, when an astonishing sight met his eyes. A young woman stumbled out of the trees at the base of the mountains. Her dress was torn, her hair was a mess, and she appeared close to collapse.

Rushing forward, Nicholas caught the woman as she fell. Her eyes were closed and she seemed unconscious. As he lowered her gently to the ground, her eyes fluttered open and she gasped.

“Nithe. The terrible dragon, Nithe, is waking.”

She slipped back into unconsciousness.

Nicholas took the poor woman back to the castle. For three days and nights, she slept. Nicholas waited anxiously outside her door, concerned not only for her well-being, but also her cryptic words.

On the fourth day, the woman stirred. Nicholas rushed to her bedside.

“Where am I?” she asked.

“Elton Castle,” Nicholas answered. “I am Nicholas, King of Alsmora. Who are you?”

“Serena, Your Highness. I must warn you. Nithe is waking!”

“Calm yourself, Serena,” Nicholas said soothingly. “Nithe hasn’t woken for a hundred years. What makes you think he is now?”

“Because I have seen him,” Serena said. “I am a sorceress. Recently, I felt a magical surge coming from the mountains. When I went to investigate, I discovered that the dragon will wake in four days, on the morning of the solstice.”

“That’s today. I’m sorry, Serena, but you’ve been asleep for three days.”

Her eyes widened. She opened her mouth to respond, when the ground began to shake. Nicholas and Serena both turned to the window. Outside, clearly visible, was the peak of the mountain. A black dragon had landed on the top and roared.

“He’s back,” Serena whispered. “We’re too late.”

My favorite genre is fantasy. I’ve always loved stories involving magic, kings, queens, knights, and dragons. My second favorite genre is the cozy mystery. My parents love the genre, so there’s always been plenty of cozy mystery books around the house. It’s for this reason that I’ve been considering writing a murder mystery book.

I’m only in the initial planning stage, but I’ve learned that I can’t be a discovery writer when it comes to a murder mystery. My normal style is to write where the story takes me, with minimal planning. Planning is definitely needed for a mystery. I have to become an architect writer, otherwise I won’t be able to keep the characters or clues straight. So far, I have a list of characters: two main characters, a victim, and four suspects.

I think it’ll make a good story. All it needs is time, effort, and research. Most of my characters will have professions I’ve never had, so I will most likely have to interview people in those positions. I’m looking forward to it, since it sounds like a fun new experience.

I’m hoping I can write this murder mystery at the same time as Silver Storm. However well I do on a cozy mystery, my first love is still fantasy. No matter the genre, though, I love writing. We’ll just have to see if I’m writing about magic and dragons or detectives solving a crime. I hope I’m good enough for both.

How many is too many characters? That’s an important question any author must ask, before they start writing their story. If you have a lot of characters, only there for the sake of being there, then your story will start to feel bogged down, drowning under the weight of too many characters. The reader won’t be able to keep track of them all, let alone the author knowing what to do with them. On the other hand, you don’t want too few characters that your world feels sparse and empty. Think of extras in a movie. If the romantic leads go into a restaurant, you want extras to be seated at the various tables. If it’s just the two main characters sitting in an empty restaurant, the audience will be distracted, trying to figure out where everyone went.

So, how do you maintain a balance? That’s up to the author to decide. When it comes to main characters, I’ve found through experience that you’ll want three. These are the central characters around which the entire story revolves. Penelope, Mag, and Artie play off of each other and the other side characters I introduce to move the plot along and enrich the world. As and inexperienced author, I once tried to write a scene with twelve main characters. All they were doing was talking, but I struggled. I was determined to have each character say something before I moved on. The result was that I was assigning random dialogue to random characters, even if it made no sense for them to say it. I scrapped the scene pretty quickly.

The only way an author can gauge if they have the right balance of characters is to start writing. I’ll often start a scene with several characters, but then start dropping them as I continue. They’re not bad characters, but if they add nothing to a scene, then I either have to rewrite the scene so they have a purpose or rewrite it without the character.

The crucial part of this process is to write. People talk a lot about character development in a story. We want to see our favorite characters learn and grow. The same can be said for authors. If we don’t develop our craft, we’ll never become better writers. In order to help our characters be the best they can be, no matter how many you decide to put in the scene, we must develop the knowledge, skills, and determination to get out there and write. Be brave and make mistakes. You’ll never know unless you try.

*Spoiler Alert. You have been warned.*

Like a lot of people, when I was little, I played the board game, “Clue.” I was decent at the game. Sometimes, I won, sometimes I lost. It was a fun game to play with my brother. However, I never saw the 1985 movie. I vaguely knew about it, but I didn’t know anything about it.

So it was with curiosity that my parents and I attended “Clue Live on Stage” earlier today. From what I understand, it’s a play version of the movie. After seeing the play, I’m willing to give the movie a try, but it wasn’t my favorite story.

As a quick synopsis, the play starts at Boddy (pronounced “Body”) Manor. The maid Yvette, the butler Wadsworth, and the cook are waiting for their six guests: Miss Scarlet, Mrs. White, Mrs. Peacock, Mr. Green, Colonel Mustard, and Professor Plum. They’re all being blackmailed by Mr. Boddy. Everyone is given a weapon and suddenly people start dying. Mr. Boddy, Yvette, the cook, a motorist, a singing telegram girl, and a cop. All six victims are killed in different ways, one for each of the weapons the six guests were given. At the end of the play, everyone starts accusing each other, just like it’s done in the game. For example, Colonel Mustard says, “Mrs. White in the Billiards room with the rope.” The truth is revealed and the murderers (yes, more than one) are arrested.

The play was okay, but it felt frantic. It was like everyone in the cast was high on energy. It frankly felt exhausting to watch. My favorite characters were Wadsworth and Yvette. All the actors, but especially the ones playing Wadsworth and Yvette, worked well off each other. I was sad when Yvette died. One interesting note was that I watching from the balcony, so I could see movement behind some of the sets, when the crew was rearranging everything.

The best part of this experience was the sets. It was so creative how they showed most of the rooms featured in the board game. The entrance hall and the front door were the main stable parts of the set, but there were three other sets that could be pulled out: the library, the study, and the lounge. If they needed to show them or any other room in more detail, they lowered a backdrop, which also represented the set. I just loved the concept of smaller sets swinging out from the wall when the story needed them. It added to the mystery.

Overall, I’m glad I saw it. I don’t think I would go again, but I think it’s definitely worth seeing at least once. If you do ever see the play, be ready for a dark and stormy night and the mysteries an old manor can hold.

I’m not an expert in birds. In fact, the only birds I like are hummingbirds. Despite my opinion on our feathered friends, I have noticed there have been a lot of them in my backyard over the last couple of days. Even my cats, Jenny and Cannoli, have seen them. I won’t let them outside, so they’ve been staring out the window. Cannoli’s been making bird noises, trying to draw them in. Jenny’s been trying as well, but she’s mute and her attempts come out as gasps. If I had to guess, the reason for the birds’ increased activity is that they’re building nests, getting ready to lay eggs.

2025 has been an interesting year. It was definitely a big year for my writing. It started off this past January when I finished my final draft of Silver Crescent. By April, I had completed the paper work for the copyright and was all set to self publish in early May. Silver Rose and Silver Crescent both saw a bump in sales when Silver Crescent came out.

I also started writing Silver Storm, the third and last book of my trilogy. I’ve had a few false starts, but that’s normal for me. I’m constantly rewriting the beginning when I start a new book. I hope to get more writing down in the coming year.

Thank you to all my readers for your kind words on my books. It really means a lot to me.