We all know downtime matters — but most of us don’t actually build it into our week. After a weekend of enforced “no work, just play,” I relearned the surprising truth: downtime isn’t a luxury, it’s a creative strategy. Even ten-minute breaks can reboot your energy and make you want to work harder. Here’s why you need micro-downtime — and how to make it part of your indie life without guilt.
Brandon Sanderson is stepping into science fiction with Tailored Realities, and at the same time, I’ve been watching Daredevil: Reborn — a superhero story that feels a lot more like fantasy than you’d expect. It got me thinking: where do superhero stories fall in the speculative spectrum? Is sci-fi and fantasy really a spectrum at all? This week, I’m diving into how genre boundaries are shifting, and what that means for readers, writers, and masked vigilantes alike.
Today, SRP author Tracy Cooper-Posey released the 11th and penultimate book in her Arthurian Fantasy Romance series, Once and Future Hearts.
Writers love to worry about swearing — usually more than their characters do. The truth? Profanity isn’t “good” or “bad.” It’s a tool. A sharp one. Used well, it cuts cleanly through tension, reveals character, or snaps a moment into focus. Used poorly, it just bleeds all over the page.
In this post, Mark breaks down when swearing works, when it absolutely doesn’t, how genre affects your choices, and why every curse word has to be earned. If your characters are going to swear, make sure they mean it.
Mark Posey joins the long-running Uncollected Anthology with Bones of the Priory, a dark, atmospheric Sister Jacobine story in the new Monster Hunters issue. Jacobine returns to the ruins of her childhood nunnery expecting quiet reflection—but what she finds is her immortal sister Margaret, and a confrontation centuries in the making.
