WIP Excerpts

Mpepper/ March 29, 2025/ Writing/ 0 comments

I’m writing again, hopping from project to project, but I think this is finally the one I’m going to focus on. It’s set in AElit (see the tab above for context) and the working title is The Lost God. Below are excerpts I posted on Bluesky for various prompts. They’re not in any particular order in terms of the chronology

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Breaking Point

Mpepper/ February 27, 2025/ Flashbacks, Writing

Four years ago today, I received the email that broke me. I know the agent did not intend to ruin my life, but the stress fractures had already formed after years of writing and querying and getting close but never quite landing where I wanted to be. The email read: You have written a solid manuscript that was a delight

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I Need a Lift

Mpepper/ February 26, 2025/ Think Pieces, Writing

You’re on a road trip. You don’t know the exact destination, but you trust you’ll know it when you see it. In the meantime, you do have some thoughts about the kind of place you’d like to end up. Maybe you want to be near water. Or you want a hot, dry climate. Maybe you’re set on someplace urban. Alternatively,

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Year in Review

Mpepper/ December 24, 2024/ Flashbacks, Writing

Sure, there’s another week left in 2024, but I can’t imagine what could happen to change my feelings about the year in general. It was a bad one for me. I barely wrote and didn’t publish anything. I was asked to run for the local school board then backstabbed by the people who encouraged me to get involved in the

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I’ll Keep Writing About This…

Mpepper/ September 14, 2024/ Writing, Writing Advice

Yet another Twitter (or X, if you prefer) post asking about paying for a manuscript edit before querying and whether it (a) makes the story better and/or (b) increases your chances of landing an agent. Way back when (and I remember those days because I’m old), you could send a manuscript off to an agent and, if they saw potential

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Playlists in Books

Mpepper/ February 15, 2024/ Think Pieces, Writing

Because this subject has blown up recently, and I have feelings about it. I’ve never read a book with a playlist printed in it. I doubt I read the kinds of books and/or authors that would feel compelled to include a playlist. So… yeah. There’s something somewhat juvenile about that, something that (to me) screams “newbie author.” High school mix

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Our Haunted House

Mpepper/ February 8, 2024/ Writing

The house we moved into after our first child was born was haunted. We didn’t know it when we bought it, but it became clear not long after. It was a split-level ranch, which on its own probably should have alerted us. When you walked through the front door, one flight of steps to the right went up and another

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Grammar Hang-ups

Mpepper/ January 24, 2024/ Writing, Writing Advice

I have been informed by my teens that proper punctuation in texts is seen as passive-aggressive. Sadly, I simply cannot stop myself from typing full words and using punctuation (unless I’m trying to be funny). So, while I acknowledge my feels on these may be old-fashioned, and understand that the point of any communication is to get one’s meaning across,

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Thinking Back on 2023 (Writing)

Mpepper/ December 13, 2023/ Think Pieces, Writing

We have once again arrived at the time of year where we reflect, usually in the form of lists. Best of, worst of, etc. I’m doing all that on my YouTube channel with the books I read this year, so be sure to check it out. But over here I’m going to look at 2023 in terms of my writing.

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It’s Official

Mpepper/ September 15, 2023/ Announcements, Writing

I’ve stopped writing. I’ve felt this way before, but never quite so much this way as I do now. And after some bad news this morning, it felt like confirmation that it’s time for me to stop. When I look at my list of accomplishments, I’m grateful for each of them. At the same time, I no longer seem to

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