writing life – Page 2 – Stories Rule Press

EVEN MORE TIME KISSED MOMENTS Is Here!

7 May 2026 / Fantasy Romance, New Release, Paranormal Romance, Romance, Tracy Cooper-Posey

What happens when a ten-year anniversary edition becomes something more? While revisiting the Kiss Across Time series for a special collector release, Tracy Cooper-Posey found herself reflecting not just on the books, but on time itself, storytelling, survival, and the strange roads that lead writers to create the stories readers love. Kiss Across Memories is part memoir, part publishing notebook, and part behind-the-scenes look at one of Tracy’s longest-running series.

Why Star Wars Endures

1 May 2026 / Cameron Cooper, Science Fiction, Space Opera

Star Wars has been part of my life for as long as I can remember—and, in a very real way, it helped shape my career as a writer. But decades on, the question isn’t why it began. It’s why it never seems to end. As new generations discover it and older ones drift away, Star Wars continues to renew itself in ways that are both familiar and puzzling.

Twenty Raised Beds and the Quiet Joy of Starting Something

21 April 2026 / Espionage, Mark Posey, Thrillers

This weekend, Mark is trading the keyboard for lumber, screws, and soil as he builds twenty raised beds in the backyard. There’s a quiet satisfaction in work you can see at the end of the day—and a surprising connection between gardening and writing. Both are acts of optimism: you do the work now, trust the process, and hope something good will grow.

Why We Don’t Chase Trends at Stories Rule Press

16 April 2026 / Mark Posey

Trends come and go. One month it’s a trope, a cover style, or a subgenre everyone is chasing; six months later, the industry has already sprinted off after the next shiny object like a Labrador with three tennis balls and no self-control. At Stories Rule Press, we’ve made a different choice. We pay attention to the market, but we don’t build our catalogue around trends. We start with the story—and whether it’s the kind of world a reader can disappear into and want to return to years later.

Why Readers Matter More Than Writers Sometimes Think

10 March 2026 / Mark Posey

Writers spend months — sometimes years — alone in a room inventing characters, places, and entire worlds. It can start to feel like writing is a solitary act. But the truth is, a story isn’t finished when the writer types the last sentence. It comes alive when someone reads it. When a reader laughs, gasps, misses their bus stop, or stays up far too late turning pages — that’s when the story truly becomes real.

Meeting Readers at Live Markets

6 March 2026 / Mark Posey

One of the unexpected joys of running Stories Rule Press has nothing to do with computers, algorithms, or online stores. It’s the live markets. Standing behind a table of books and talking with readers face-to-face changes everything. Conversations happen, stories get discovered, and suddenly the solitary work of writing becomes something wonderfully human.

Where Ideas Actually Come From

17 February 2026 / Mark Posey

Ideas don’t arrive fully formed. They start as small, sideways questions — the kind that won’t leave you alone once they land. That’s where stories actually come from.

When the Work You’re Paid For Pushes Aside the Work of the Heart

10 February 2026 / Tracy Cooper-Posey

Some weeks, the stories don’t stall — they simply make room for other word-work. Editing, shaping, refining someone else’s manuscript is still time spent inside the craft. And when you finally return to your own blank page, you bring sharper instincts with you.

Writing While the House Is On Fire

3 February 2026 / Mark Posey

Right now the to-do list is loud. Fulfill a 660%-funded Kickstarter. Edit other writers’ books. Run a publishing company. Market existing titles. Keep upcoming releases on track. And somewhere in there is a quiet little line that says: Write the next book.

That line is always the easiest to slide.

Because it doesn’t yell. It doesn’t send invoices. It doesn’t have shipping deadlines. It just waits — patiently — while everything else feels urgent.

The Top Five Misconceptions About Authors

27 January 2026 / Mark Posey

People have a general sense of what authors do, but that sense is… impressionistic. Which leads to some wonderfully confident assumptions about money, inspiration, and what happens after a book is published. In the spirit of public service, here are five of the most persistent misconceptions about authors—and what the job actually looks like from the inside.