New Short Story: A Delicate Deception

I’m thrilled to share my newest short story with you! “A Delicate Deception” is a dramatic take on the fake-wedding-date trope with a sharp emotional edge.

Mark is a broken man—but it’s not just because of his disability. It’s how his family treats him.

Determined to prove his worth, Mark recruits the perfect date for his cousin’s wedding: Amelia. She’s beautiful, confident, and loves weddings. She’s also married with kids, but agrees to pretend she and Mark are a couple for the day. As the reception unfolds and their ruse unravels, Amelia begins to see the truth: Mark hasn’t only tried to deceive his family—he’s deceived her, too.

Download the “A Delicate Deception” Ebook Now!

Behind the Deception

There’s something strange about American weddings. The emphasis on pairing off can be downright oppressive. I’ve read countless r/relationships threads where the “plus one” dilemma leads to intense family drama. Inspired to write my own twist on the fake-date trope, I wanted my story to cut deeper than mere social awkwardness or rom-com hijinks.

Mark isn’t hard to love because of his condition.
He’s hard to love because he’s kind of an asshole.

At first, I wanted to write a sci-fi story: a robot would be the ultimate fake date. Unfortunately, the futuristic setting didn’t quite work. The story gained more nuance and emotional weight once I reimagined Amelia as a real woman with her own life, priorities, and flaws.

Delicate Representation

The central idea I wanted to explore in “A Delicate Deception” was a disabled person experiencing conflict that had nothing to do with their disability. I wanted to present Mark’s struggles with empathy without indulging in pity.

Mark’s disability is based on a real and rare genetic disorder that causes fragile skin, frequent bruising, and painful complications. I don’t name the condition in the story because I didn’t want curious readers to put the story down to Google it. However, I did watch several documentaries to get the details right. I wrote Mark as able enough to live semi-independently, but he struggles to hold a steady job and maintain relationships.

But here’s the thing: Mark isn’t hard to love because of his condition. He’s hard to love because he’s kind of an asshole.

Some Things Take Time

This story sat on my computer for a while. I brought it to my writing group more than once, and it went through more revision rounds than I usually do.

An earlier version had Mark and Amelia as true crime podcasters, but that led readers to expect a murder. I was not about to sidetrack the entire story to include a violent crime, so I had the characters get passionate over video games instead.

The ending was especially tricky. I flip-flopped on how much fallout there should be and whether Mark would learn anything from the folly. In the end, I wrote a conclusion that felt honest for these characters—and I hope it hits you in the heart the same way it hit me.

Ready to read?

Get “A Delicate Deception”

I hope you enjoy this new short story—and feel free to let me know what you think!

Video Game Review: Blue Prince

I love a good puzzle adventure, whether it’s an escape room, board game, video game, or puzzle book. My husband purchased and played the video game Blue Prince for an hour before mentioning the title to me. He compared it to the game Myst, which is a guaranteed way to get me to give the game a shot.

A Game Like Myst? I’M IN!

Since my computer is a Mac, I had to steal time at my husband’s PC setup in order to play the game, and after getting a feel for the mechanics, I dragged him into the gameplay. A few days later, we made it to the end credits together.

In Blue Prince, you play as a boy named Simon. Your uncle has just passed and bequeathed his unique estate of Mt. Holly to you. However, wanting you to earn his title of Baron, he has set up an elaborate puzzle hunt you must solve in order to find the 46th room and gain ownership of the mansion.

The Mysterious Mt. Holly

Mt. Holly isn’t an ordinary mansion: every morning, the rooms are an unknown grid, and only as you open doors do you “draft” the room on the other side. Each time you draft a new room, you choose among three different options, slowly putting together the blueprint for the mansion for the day. The initial puzzle is clear: arrange the rooms so you can traverse the length of the mansion and make it to the location of the hidden 46th room.

Of course, there are other puzzles present throughout the mansion. You need to find keys to open doors and gems to draft better rooms. Certain tools scattered around the mansion will help you find more items, and a couple of the rooms, including the parlor, have unique puzzles to solve every day. Certain rooms synergize with other rooms, allowing you to crack safes and draft super-rare rooms.

While struggling early in the game, I did some research on Reddit, and other players swore that this game is an absolute gem—they discovered new and unique things about the mansion every day! Meanwhile, the random-number gods were frowning upon me, making it so that my rooms never lined up nicely, and I had to keep restarting the day because I met yet another dead end. 

You’ll Want to Take Notes

It was particularly frustrating when some of the larger puzzles that required many rooms and diligent notes over several in-game days to solve produced a hidden message akin to, “Don’t forget to drink your Ovaltine!” So many times, I’d uncover a well-hidden clue that revealed the location of a permanent upgrade—an upgrade that I had already unlocked while stumbling through Mt. Holly trying to make progress. There ended up being several puzzles like this, where I had already found the item the solution meant to uncover.

Meanwhile, the random-number gods were frowning upon me...

However, this meant that by the time I had all the permanent upgrades, I could plow through the mansion and do basically whatever I pleased, finally finding the last room and completing the game.

Of course, like any good puzzle game, there are more mysteries to solve. I still haven’t unlocked the entire story of the game, so although some of the details surrounding Simon’s mother’s disappearance have been revealed, where she went and what happened to make her flee remain unknown.

A Quick Gripe About Video Games in Particular

This is a big difference I’ve noticed between video games and other media. In a book or film, all of the information is presented to you, and you simple go through and experience the whole story. For escape rooms—physical, book, and board game—you can find the clues and unlock the puzzles in any order, but all the puzzles must be solved, and the whole room gets unlocked and discovered. However, in video games, hundreds of similar puzzles can be generated, letting the player discover only one path through the game to make it to the ending, leaving much of the story unexplored.

Although I love the thrill of solving the puzzles, I want the full story too! I wish I had infinite time to go to war with the random-number-generator and tackle every last little riddle in Blue Prince, but I don’t think that’ll happen. Thankfully, there’s a big enough community around the game that I should be able to find a guide that reveals the rest of the story.

I love discovering the mechanics behind an incredibly challenging logic puzzle, even if I wasn’t able to solve it myself, and I also want to unveil the entire story without relying on others to figure everything out for me. That’s why I make sure the Puzzling Escapes books have explanations for all the puzzles and guide readers when they get stuck, so they can always uncover the mysteries behind the story.

Learn more about Puzzling Escapes!

This issue—not being able to see the full story behind the game until you complete every single challenge—is pretty typical for video games, so I won’t fault Blue Prince for doing it as well.

Overall, Blue Prince is a fabulous game full of wonder and puzzle-solving fun. Most likely, you won’t have my terrible luck and will progress smoothly through the game. And if you do have wretched luck like me, always draft the observatory—that room has some sweet perks!

Starship Blunder 2 Now Open for Submissions

Ready to embark on another round of intergalactic chaos? After the successful launch of the first Starship Blunder anthology—and a well-needed break—I immediately dove into plans for a second Blunder anthology. What can I say? The characters in this amusing shared universe will not leave me alone, and I have to see what other misadventures might be in store for them.

What’s a ShareVerse Anthology?

Before getting into the details of Blunder 2, I should expand on the whole ShareVerse Anthology concept. Some writing friends and I wanted to create opportunities for fellow writers to craft stories with the goal of publishing together. Instead of collecting stories that tie together with a loose theme, we thought it would be more fun if all the stories in each anthology were set in the same universe with overlapping characters, settings, and lore.

More than just an opportunity to publish, each anthology brings together a community of writers working together to make an amazing book of stories.

Just last month, my good friend Edward Swing published his ShareVerse Anthology titled Enigma Station.

A Station of Strangeness!

Enigma Station - a city in space built within an ancient structure light-years from Earth - serves as a trading port and space hub for humans and aliens. Built within the remains of an abandoned structure light-years from Earth, it houses many secrets and technologies yet to be discovered.

But adventurous explorers have encountered bizarre phenomena throughout the station. Strange objects appear, then disappear. Rooms and hallways deform their shape. Unexplained signals of energy burst into existence, then vanish. Some inhabitants even experience strange sensations within their body.

Now Santosh Banahatti, the station's discoverer, struggles to govern the mysterious station, its diverse populace, and potential dangers. And the mysteries of Enigma Station may demand even more!

Find Enigma Station on Amazon

Starship Blunder 2—Galactic Misadventure Continues

I’m excited to announce that submissions are now open for Starship Blunder 2: Starship Wonder! This upcoming anthology will bring back the misfit crew you know and love (or at least tolerate) as they take on new missions, meet new species, and continue their grand tradition of barely surviving in the depths of space.

At the end of the first anthology, the Starship Blunder went out in a blaze of glory. But instead of scattering its crew across the galaxy, the Conglomeracy saw fit to assign them a new ship—built entirely from spare parts and forgotten scraps. The official name? Starship Wonder. The name the crew actually uses? Well… you can probably guess.

Commander Sarah Hawkins, Mechanic Xylo, Daycare Teacher Luna Knight, and Chef Bluebottle are back at it again, trying (and often failing) to prove their worth—while Commander Rex Sterling observes from his elite post on Starship Prime.

For writers interested in contributing to the next chapter for Starship Blunder, full details are available on the Starship Blunder website. The deadline for submissions will be August 1, 2025, and yes, I am paying for stories.

Submission Guidelines – Starship Blunder 2

Other Blunder Fun

There are some other fun developments in the Blunder universe including a brand-new merch store! Dress like a crew member of the ill-fated space craft in a violent violet “Blunder Crew” t-shirt or even perfume your home like the Conglomeracy’s home planet of Neptune with the Neptune’s Breeze scented candle.

Starship Blunder Merch Store

I’ve also put together an exciting character quiz that lets you know which Starship Blunder character is most like you! Answer a few zany space-adventure questions to see if your personality matches the chaos of Martian Chef Bluebottle, or if you can stay cool under pressure like Commander Rex Sterling.

Starship Blunder Character Quiz

If reading is more your jam than writing and you’re anxious to get your hands on the next installment for the Starship Blunder gang, the intro story for the next anthology “Not so Wonderful” is available on the Starship Blunder website.

“Not so Wonderful” A Starship Blunder Story

If you’d like to be part of this galactic misadventure, head over to the submissions page for all the details. I can’t wait to see what kind of absurd, chaotic, and downright disastrous missions everyone dreams up! 🚀✨

Puzzles Reimagined: Exciting Updates for Puzzling Escapes

The idea for Puzzling Escapes struck me while I was busy selling novels at a comic con. I desperately wanted to sneak away from my table to check out one of the event’s unique attractions: an escape room. My desire to play an escape room quickly led to an urge to make my own. However, my talents lie in making books, not themed adventure rooms. That’s when it hit me: I could make an escape room book!

Print-on-demand was the most accessible and affordable means of publishing a print book, but it also introduced quite a few limitations. I had to be creative to overcome the constraints, and I wasn’t totally happy with some of the concessions I had to make. Color printing was too expensive, so I stuck with black and white. I wanted several sections for the different “rooms” of the adventure, hints, story elements, and more, and I hoped black lines printed on the edges of the pages would help readers navigate the books.

Since I didn’t have a lot of money to invest in artwork, I used free illustrations and only a few licensed stock photos. I did my best to draw the puzzles on my laptop, and for the most part, they turned out pretty nice. I am really proud of the product I was able to make. But putting out the best puzzle book I could on my own is only the beginning of the adventure.

A Brief History of My Publishing Journey

When I was a baby writer looking to publish my first book, I did a lot of research on publishing, both traditional and self. Although writing a book is freaking hard, getting a traditional publishing deal is a hundred times harder. But I knew my writing was good, so I decided to give it a go. I entered the grueling process of querying—sending carefully crafted pitches to literary agents and publishers, hoping someone would be excited about my story.

It turns out that querying requires insane patience and an unimaginably thick skin. Writers typically send out hundreds of emails, wait weeks upon months for responses, and then deal with rejection after rejection after rejection before getting a book deal. While I did receive encouraging feedback and a few full requests for my manuscript, the process ultimately took a toll on my mental health.

Totally bummed out and disheartened, I decided to take a different approach and pivoted to self-publishing. I didn’t completely write off traditional publishing but decided that instead of chasing established publishers, I’d wait until one approached me.

Opportunity Comes Knocking

As an indie author, I sift through more than my fair share of scammy emails—offers for fake promotions, sketchy partnerships, and expensive book reviews. I still read through all of them, always hoping maybe this next offer will be something real.

I was cautiously optimistic when I got an email from Melissa at Cottage Door Press. Instead of making a too-good-to-be-true offer or attempting to sell me on an expensive service, her message was short and sweet—only asking to set up a meeting to talk about my puzzle books. When I looked up the publisher’s catalog, it was full of books I had seen at my local bookstore.

In the meeting, I met Ellen, a creative director whose excitement for Puzzling Escapes mirrored my own. The publisher produced all sorts of specialty books and had the means and know-how to elevate the Puzzling Escapes adventures from simple bound paperbacks to interactive activity books. After the meeting, I was ecstatic, literally jumping for joy with my husband and kids. My puzzle books had caught the attention of a publisher, and they wanted me!

At the time, I was finishing up another Puzzling Escapes adventure, which I had already teased on social media. Instead of releasing it, I decided to hold off and see how negotiations would go. I was definitely interested in a partnership, and it made the most sense to keep the whole series together under one publisher. Ultimately, I made an agreement with Cottage Door Press to publish the four existing Puzzling Escapes titles along with the new one.

Reimagining the Series

Working with Ellen and her team has been an absolute dream. I’ve heard that some publishers take creative control away from the author, but they’ve kept me involved in the whole process. They clearly want me to be proud of the books, too. We brainstormed all the different things we could do to elevate the series and make the books more interactive. There are quite a few new features that I’m really excited about, including:

• Tabbed Dividers make it quick and easy to flip to the section you need.
• Concealed spiral binding, a common feature for activity books, ensures durability and allows the books to lie flat.
• Custom illustrations and full-color printing bring every scene and puzzle to life with vibrant, colorful artwork designed to immerse you in the story.
• Die-cut objects allow you to pop clues out of the pages, making it easier to collect them.
• The front storage pocket keeps all your clues organized so nothing gets lost.

All these changes will help make the books more immersive and easier to use, bringing the stories I wrote to life.

Since we were updating the books, I wanted to make some additional changes to refine the experience. We chose new, more thematic keywords and simplified the answer-checking process a bit to make that step more intuitive.

Release schedule

Fans particularly enjoyed the bookstore-themed and haunted house-themed books, so they are the first to receive new editions.

• The Haunted House Mystery will be published on July 1st (in time for Halloween)
• Trapped in the Bookstore will be released in mid-October.

Although Trapped in the Bookstore is my favorite Puzzling Escapes title, I’m also really excited for the cruise ship-themed adventure to get re-imagined. I couldn’t find or make good shipwreck images for the book, and I’d love to see what the illustrator imagines Pirates Cove might look like.

And, of course, I can’t wait to share the newest adventure! In Quest for the Lost Diamond, the puzzles unfold in a natural history museum and a bank, leading to some really fun new conundrums for readers to solve.

Get Ready to Escape

I know I’ve kept quiet for a long time about everything going on with the Puzzling Escapes series, so I’m thrilled to finally share these exciting updates! While the puzzles and stories remain the same, the new format and artwork make the new editions absolutely stunning. Even if you’ve already played through the adventures, I think you’ll love the upgrades.

These books are a dream come true for me, and I hope they bring you as much joy as they’ve brought me. Whether you’re solving them for the first time or rediscovering an old favorite, I can’t wait to hear what you think!

My newsletter subscribers learned about this exciting news first. Make sure to sign up for exclusive updates and sneak peeks!

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Also, I recently revamped the Puzzling Escapes website. Go check it out! There’s also a tool on the site to check your answers while you play through the books.

I sold the last of my personal stock of first-edition Puzzling Escapes books at a craft fair in November, so I won’t have any at my spring events. However, I’ll have plenty of copies of the new editions in time for my fall shows—so stay tuned!