Almost Finished, but Better
What happens when a perfectly good sentence becomes a twenty-minute conversation.
Read the storyTHE AUTHOR’S JOURNAL
Between
the chapters.
The writing. The wanting.
The life that finds its way onto the page.
Notes from Gunner on building worlds, reading with Nylena, and learning when to let a look say enough.
LATEST · September 29, 2026Almost Finished, but Better →
Writing notes from June 2025 onward.Visit the 2025 archive ↓
EXPLORE THE JOURNAL
A little closer
to the story.
Essays, glimpses behind the books,
and a few things worth staying up for.
15 stories
Every Pair Has to Matter
Avylena and Faerwyn have a history of their own. Every other bond has to earn its place.
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I Went Looking for My Characters’ Desires and Found My Own
How writing a dark romantasy sent me into the sex education I never received.
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When Dragons Learned to Feel
I started Kaelyndra’s journals to understand one dragon. They gave me the history of an entire world.
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A World That Calls a Chain Mercy
What power becomes when the people holding it believe they are doing good.
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Beyond Wonderland and Back
The BeBop, a cooler full of food, and a festival that keeps finding its way into the books.
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One Festival. One Kiss.
Avylena, Faerwyn, and Sin in a short visual glimpse of Ritual of Starlit Glass.
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The Books That Helped Make Me
The writers, the chosen families, and the worlds that became part of our marriage.
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Every Damn Page
For Nylena: my creative partner, my sharpest truth teller, and the person in every damn page.
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Hearing the Book Out Loud
Cutting the clever thing. Trusting the scene. Discovering what a sentence sounds like outside my own head.
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The Story Found Its Name
December 10, 2025: why Whispers of the Alpha became Breath, Blood & Chain, and what the new name could hold.
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She Said, “Go Deeper.”
A Vegas trip, a dragon chapter, and the response that sent me back to the pages braver.
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Draft Four Humbled Me
A late-night note from September 2025, when two good lines could send me back through three other chapters.
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Live a Little. Then Write Like Hell.
Beyond Wonderland in 2025: the dancing, the people, and the life that feeds the writing.
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Four in the Morning, Dialogue in My Head
A June 2025 note from inside the first book, with six books already mapped out.
Read the storyNo stories found.
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Originally shared on Facebook, edited for the journal. Original publication dates are retained.
KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING
Read here.
Come talk with me.
Tell me which line stayed with you. Ask about a character. Bring your own reading obsession.
Find Gunner on Facebook ↗