I went on an authors retreat this weekend. Three of my buddies and I gathered in a cozy space in downtown Austin where we wrote, did 20-minute sprints, and brainstormed about our respective stories. One of the best outcomes for me was choosing a punishment for my dark fantasy characters whose actions had resulted in the deaths of others. I knew the punishment would have to be delivered in a dramatic way (read: public and gruesome) that would inflict maximum physical and emoti

If you could teach your ex a lesson, would you? Admit it. You would, right? I have contemplated such things in the past, even if I never followed through (that anyone has lived to tell). And when I got this big idea, I thought, if I can't do it in real life, I can sure as hell write about it. Helpful tip: This is why you never piss off a writer because they will kill you or make you suffer in their next book. See how that works? So the idea for this book came when I was havin