I'm still working on Fantome Fatale. No worries -- things are going well, just slower than usual. I haven't mapped out Rowan's exact path to solving it yet. This is unusual for me -- I always know that before I start writing. This fact has caused me to think more carefully about the direction of… Continue reading 1/25/2026 update
Another year, another step toward death. I'll be 50 next year. Maybe this will be the time I finally get my shit together. It's doubtful, but a man can dream. There is fantastic news on the horizon. Besides my second book of short stories (which will be published sometime in 2026) there is a secret… Continue reading Happy New Year
The old Visitor House crouched at the edge of the woods like something half-forgotten. Cloudy windows, rafters lost in shadow, and brittle November light that died a few feet past the threshold gave the place the air of abandonment. It smelled faintly of dust and cold stone—an emptiness that made every footstep sound too loud.… Continue reading Fantôme Fatale first scene rough draft
As you can see, winter has arrived in Illinois. With it has come some changes to my writing. I had been doing the prep work for my third story (Fantome Fatale), when I suddenly realized that the isolated mansion/family curse scenario was being shoehorned into my impossible footprint ideas. Basically, I was trying to force… Continue reading December ’25 update
Fantôme Fatale When the Cross family arrives at Hawthorne House—an aging country estate in the far reaches of rural Connecticut—they expect a month of tedious appeasement. Their uncle, Nathan Cross, has grown eccentric with age, convinced that the land is haunted by the last Hawthorne, a woman who murdered her kin in a fit of… Continue reading Story 3 (in progress)
James Scott Byrnside 