About a month ago, I had the idea to write the backstory for Zolithia as a series of short stories that I could give to anyone for free. Immediately, I began working on one that is referenced early in my novel. It’s about the birth of a princess and a young boy desperate to protect her.

To make a long story short (pun definitely intended), the first story is available now! If you sign up for my email list, you can get the whole thing right to your inbox!

But… if you don’t want to do that just yet, here is a little excerpt for you.

“It’s a…” Sierre whimpered, but she trembled immensely. Harlo rounded the corner to see why she had squealed.

The first thing he saw was the overturned basket, which explained the crash he’d heard. In their father’s study, Sierre trembled in one corner. And…

I’ve been talking about writing some free short stories so I can put my work out there. I am a writer, I promise! While blogging is a great way to get words published online, my heart is for creative writing. For some time, I’ve been at war with myself over what kind of blog I should have and what type of material I want to share. If you know me personally, you probably know I’ve failed with a few different blogs.

I’m not afraid of failure anymore.

Success is not the absence of failure; it’s the persistence through failure.

Aisha Tyler

Now, I’m trying something different. Honestly, something I wanted to do a long time ago, but had no idea how to do. And I still may be in over my head. I’m going to write short stories and put them here for free.

Now, yes, it’s true that I…

Carrie Rubin, author of “Eating Bull” and “The Seneca Scourge”

[I recently read the bookEating Bull, by Carrie Rubin. I loved it, and contacted the author.  She very kindly agreed to be interviewed about her work.  Enjoy!]

BG: I’ll start at the beginning: how did you get the idea for “Eating Bull”? Did the idea just come to you one day, did some specific incident suggest it, or…?

CR: A little bit of both. Overweight/obesity is a professional interest of mine. I’ve dealt with it in both a clinical and research setting. Many people assume a large BMI means a lack of willpower, but that’s both inaccurate and unfair. Many other factors come into play, especially our disastrous food environment where processed food, mega-sizes, and sugar-laden junk bombard us wherever we go.

Through fiction, I wanted to bring the issue of the food industry’s role in obesity…