• The Wizard and the Raven
    Blog - Creative Writing - Literature

    The Wizard and the Raven: Power Changes Hands, but Never its Price

    November 10, 2025 - By 

    I enjoy fairy tales that feel like warnings. With this story, The Wizard and the Raven, I set out to capture that mood: something lyrical and eerie, something that reads like it’s been told before, and will be told again. The Wizard and the Raven explores longing, transformation, and the price we pay to become someone—or something else. I wrote it for readers who love dark fairy tales, enchanted objects, and the horror of repetition. Blurb: On a dark and stormy night, a raven perches on a rotting branch. His eyes are fixed on an old tower. But he is…

  • Poe's Brutes
    Analysis - Blog - Literature

    Poe’s Brutes as Mirrors of Madness

    June 3, 2025 - By 

    Moonlit cellars and midnight studies are the stages Edgar Allan Poe sets for the uneasy quarrel between instinct and reason. In his tales, the boundary between man and beast thins to the width of a shadow: a raven croaks a single, damning word; a cat’s steady gaze needles a drunkard’s conscience raw. Poe does not grant these creatures speech or philosophy; he grants them presence. They prowl at the edge of the narrator’s vision, until guilt flares into terror and the mind fractures under its own weight. Inside Edgar Allan Poe’s haunted mind, the very word brute snarls like a feral beast. It names those…

  • Book Update
    Blog - Creative Writing - Debut Novel - Literature

    Book Update: Finding My Way Through the Forest

    April 29, 2025 - By 

    Book update! It’s been a daunting journey, but I’m excited to share that I’m about 80% finished with a major developmental edit of my novel! This stage of the process has been one of the most challenging and most rewarding parts of writing so far. Every chapter, every scene has asked for more care, more honesty, and more patience than I expected. There have been days it felt overwhelming, like wandering through a thicket without a clear path, but slowly, step by step, the story is becoming stronger. I’ve been focusing on these areas during this revision: In the midst…

  • Popular Fantasy Tropes
    Blog - Literature - Opinion

    Popular Fantasy Tropes: Why These Classics Never Get Old

    March 15, 2025 - By 

    A nostalgic look at the popular fantasy tropes that define the genre and why they still seize our imagination. You ever hear a story and think, I’ve heard this before? The farm boy who turns out to be the lost prince. The scrappy orphan who, surprise, is the key to saving the world. The reluctant hero, the wise old mentor, the ancient prophecy that may or may not be nonsense—fantasy is full of these. And yet, no matter how many times we read them, we keep coming back for more. It’s not because we don’t know better. We do. We…

  • Exploring The Metamorphosis
    Blog - Creative Writing - Literature - Opinion

    Exploring The Metamorphosis: A Perspective Beyond Gregor

    March 13, 2025 - By 

    Transformation is often imagined as something poetic, something endowed with purpose. But what of the changes that bring only ruin? What about the slow unraveling, the spaces left behind, and the silence that settles like dust? For a recent humanities course, I was assigned to write a passage from Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis—not through Gregor’s eyes, but from the perspective of someone left in the wake of his transformation. I chose to give a voice to his sister, Grete, who has watched a beloved brother slip into something unrecognizable in form and in spirit. This passage explores grief as a…

  • Shaping a Stronger Story
    Blog - Debut Novel

    Shaping a Stronger Story in A Developmental Editing Process

    February 28, 2025 - By 

    There comes a time in every writer’s journey when the story we imagined, the one we poured our blood, sweat, and sleepless nights into, meets the cold scrutiny of an editor’s eye. And in that moment, we see it for what it truly is. Not a failure, not a mess, but something unfinished, something waiting to be molded into its final shape. You can read about my novel here. I recently had an editorial assessment done on my manuscript, and it was a revelation. A thorough, insightful look into the bones of my story, peeling back layers I had not…

  • The Last Unicorn
    Analysis - Blog - Literature - Opinion

    The Last Unicorn: Why This Fantasy Classic Still Matters

    February 15, 2025 - By 

    “The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. She was very old, though she did not know it, and she was no longer the careless color of sea foam but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night. But her eyes were still clear and unwearied, and she still moved like a shadow on the sea.” Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn There are stories that entertain, stories that thrill, and then there are those rare few that burrow into the soul, leaving marks that never fade. The Last Unicorn is such a story…

  • The Legacy of Dragons
    Blog - Opinion

    The Legacy of Dragons: Myth, Meaning, and Magic

    February 9, 2025 - By 

    There are creatures of legend, and then there are dragons. The beasts of fire and sky, the lords of ancient hoards and prophecy. To speak their names is to summon something old, something primal, a force woven into the marrow of our collective mythos. I have always loved dragons, though I cannot say whether I long to ride one or to be one. There is power in them, a terrible, breathtaking majesty that sets them apart from all other creatures. They are fire and shadow, sky and fury, their wings vast enough to eclipse the sun, their eyes old as…

  • Blog - Literature - Opinion

    Words of Wisdom from Middle-earth: Reflections on Love, Valor, and Light

    December 17, 2024 - By 

    The Lord of the Rings has held a special place in my heart for many years. I’d like to share a few of my favorite quotes from the masterpiece. This quote reminds me that even in the midst of darkness, there is still beauty and goodness to be found. It speaks to the resilience of love and hope. For me, it’s a gentle reminder to seek out the light, even when the shadows feel overwhelming, and to cherish the moments of joy that make life so profoundly meaningful. This sentiment is echoed beautifully in Galadriel’s words from The Fellowship of the…

  • The Legacy of Black Cats
    Analysis - Blog

    The Legacy of Black Cats: From Superstition to Storytelling

    November 23, 2024 - By 

    The road is quiet, as if the world is holding its breath. Tendrils of mist linger in the air, veiling the path ahead in a ghostly haze. Every shadow seems to stretch and shift, twisting into phantom figures, half-formed silhouettes that dissolve as quickly as they appear. And in that stillness, the cat steps forward. A black shadow, sleek and soundless, slipping across your path like spilled ink upon parchment. Do you shudder? Do you whisper an oath to ward off ill fortune? Or do you merely watch, entranced, as the beautiful creature vanishes into the night, its glowing eyes…