Smythings

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Episode Seven! Something Clever. I need Something Clever…

Stardate: 20260403

Intro:

This month, we’re putting my fourth rule for life under the microscope. Fun Fact, I learned this one from BATMAN.

The rule:

When someone does a job you don’t want to do, thank them for it. They not only did the job, they helped you out.

But first, the News and such!

News:

So, the further I get from the Flame & Claw publication date, the more mistakes I think I made with its launch. I didn’t do a lot to build buzz, and the more I try to hype the books now, the more it feels like bailing out a boat with a teaspoon.

Of course, there are hundreds of people online who will tell you ‘this worked for me!’ but they all boil down to one thing… buying something from somebody. Whether it’s ad space from Lex Luthor, or a self-help marketing class/book/package, or the questionable services of a professional assistant.

If I could have afforded that, I’d have done it already. On the other hand, that’s why I run this blog. To show you all the pitfalls I blindly stumbled into, in hopes you can void them in the future.

In The Library:

A friend of mine is reviving his audio drama group to finally complete a couple of their unfinished projects. We’ll talk more about that in a later issue, but for now, I want to talk about audio drama itself as a genre.

Sometimes, a specific media bursts onto the scene, has a moment, and then gets overshadowed by the next big thing, and we as a society forget about the previous iteration. That’s a one-sentence summation of what happened to the radio dramas of yesteryear. A full cast, performing a script live with some bits of music and live sound effects is a brand of chaos and magic all it’s own. Some few of these have survived in one form or another until today, but they’re all written for a different era, and a lot of modern folks bounce off them because of it.

But the artform itself is still a valid media for expression, and with modern technology, all you need is some friends, a laptop, some free software and a lot of patience and you can make one of these shows yourself.

Nowadays, audio drama, podcast fiction, serialized audio… it goes by a ton of names but there are dozens and dozens of them out there for your listening pleasure. I recommend starting at the Audio Drama Directory.

Just grab a pair of headphones (over speakers is an option, but the immediacy can get lost) and immerse yourself in great storytelling.

Okay! Let’s take a deep dive into this episode’s rule:

When someone does a job you don’t want to do, thank them for it. They not only did the job, they helped you out.

The Good

Obviously, the good comes from creating a cycle of gratitude. Ever do a small task for someone, and feel good about it? Now imagine if everyone did that a few times a day. How much warm feeling, how much happiness could be spawned from just a small act of kindness? How could such a chain change the world for the better?

The Bad

Honestly, I don’t see how this is bad, so I’m going to look at what happens when this rule is ignored.
Ever do a small thing for someone, and have them not express gratitude, but rather act as though they were entitled to your action? How did it make you feel?
Yeah, that’s the bad.

Sometimes, we’re just in a rush. Sometimes we just don’t think about it. But gratitude is contagious, and is important. Let’s all practice it.

The Fugly

So I’ve been thinking like crazy, what can possibly be fugly about a lack of gratitude, as opposed to merely bad?

Well, I think I have it. A lack of outward gratitude can have just as much negative impact on you as it does those you’re denying it to. Think about it for a sec, if you’re constantly taking no notice of your actions, or how they’re hurting those around you, even by mere indifference, then eventually you shut yourself off from common fellowship and humanity.

I think it’s a big part of how the word ‘Woke’ has become so politically charged lately. The word implies being awake, being aware of your world and what is happening around you. Of course, this means the status quo can no longer hold, and a lot of unfortunately powerful people have a vested interest in keeping the status quo in place.

The result has been people arguing about a word that if you step back from the rhetoric and examine the arguments, is utterly ridiculous. Let me boil this down:
Person A: I’m woke to the problems of the homeless.
Person B: Woke is dumb. You’re a bad person for because of it.

How we got here is less important I think, than how we move forward.

Maybe we start with gratitude and awareness, yeah?

So! Next month, we’ll wrap up the KU experiment, and discuss what might be the most important rule of the whole bunch.

And now, the obligatory passing of the hat…
– Hey! Did you know you can get this post in your email, instead? Sign up for my mailing list on devlinjames.com and you’ll also get a download link for the first chapter of Peacebreaker FREE.
– Also, by becoming a Citizen of the Galaxy (https://www.patreon.com/devlinjames) you can see the stories I’m working on BEFORE THEY’RE PUBLISHED. Get a monthly peek under the hood for way less than a cup of coffee.

See you in April!
-Dev

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Episode Six! Return of the Sumthin or Other…

Stardate: 20260219

Intro:

This month, we’re putting my third rule for life under the microscope. Almost literally, as I also run a little experiment with it.
The rule:

A mistake only becomes an error if you fail to learn from it.

The experiment? Well…

News:

I may have just made a titanic scale mistake, but I put the Flame & Claw trilogy up on Kindle Unlimited. That means, for 90 days at least, the full e books are exclusively there.
The good news, is if you’re a member of KU, they’re FREE. So go check em out! 🙂

In The Library:

Ok, I’m going to gush over a cozy fantasy that J recommended (Always trust J, she’s the smartest and best person I know).
The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong is a fantastic example of Character over Plot. It’s a cozy so the plot is not profound, but it took me until almost the end to realize the book’s a fantasy sendup of the whole ‘urban professional moves to small town, starts a B&B/Inn/Bookstore/Widget Shop’ subgenre. The book is so much better than that though. The main character, Charity Bulrush is superb and if you’re not in love with her by page three then we just can’t be friends no more. She’s witty, endearing, and by far the best written lead I’ve run across in years.
Leong’s first book, The Teller of Small Fortunes, was really good, but this one is sooo much better, and I cannot sing it’s praises loud enough.

Okay! Let’s take a deep dive into this episode’s rule:

A mistake only becomes an error if you fail to learn from it.

The Good

Obviously, this rule is about not making perfect the enemy of good. Succeeding perfectly is never as good as stumbling along the way and reasoning your way though why you failed. We’ve all heard the old Thomas Edison quote “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work” (of course the way that worked was stealing from Nikola Tesla, but that’s another show).
Nonetheless, you will always learn more from analyzing failures that you will by succeeding perfectly the first time.

The Bad

All too often, society pushes results over process. This makes us all perfectionists who strive to be correct the first time every time and an incorrect response, to be less that perfect, is bad. But perfection is impossible. It’ never achievable and yet it dangles like bait just beyond our reach.

The perception of perfection, the drive to not create errors is good, but wee have to learn to embrace being wrong as a learning experience of we’re all gonna wind up feeling like failures. The opposite of perfection is NOT failure. It’s wisdom.

At least i think so. But maybe I’m wrong. Cool, a chance to learn. 🙂

The Fugly

Success doesn’t prove understanding.
Want an example? What’s two plus two?
Y’all said ‘four’, right?
Why? Not ‘because that’s correct’, but WHY is it correct?

Go forth and learn.

Cool! We’ve hit March! In like a Lion, out like a Lamb! I can’t wait for spring, I’m sick of being cold all the time.
So! Next month, we see how the KU experiment is going, we also examine the greatest lesson Batman ever taught me.

And now, the obligatory passing of the hat…

  • Hey! Did you know you can get this post in your email, too? Sign up for my mailing list and you’ll also get a download link for the first chapter of Peacebreaker FREE.
  • Also, by becoming a Citizen of the Galaxy you can see the stories I’m working on BEFORE THEY’RE PUBLISHED. Get a monthly peek under the hood for way less than a cup of coffee.

See you in April!
-Dev

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Episode Five-And-A-Half! The Dang Rules

It occurred to me to check and make sure that the list of my 14 Rules for Life was actually, ya’know, still here.

It wasn’t.

Well, fiddlesitcks.

So, without further ado, here are Devlin James’ 14 Rules for Life in their entirety. Your Mileage May Vary

  1. No one gets to tell you who you are. Not a parent, not a teacher, not the clergy, not a counselor. Only you have that right.
    • It’s always okay if you can’t answer that question yet.
  2. Never turn down free food.
    • If it comes from a trusted source. I’m lookin at you, coworker-baked peanut butter sriracha cookies.
  3. A mistake only becomes an error if you fail to learn from it.
    • I’m still lookin at you, coworker baked peanut butter sriracha cookies.
  4. When someone does a job you don’t want to do, thank them for it. They not only did the job, they helped you out.
  5. Just because I am this way, does not invalidate you being that way. Your truth is as valid and beautiful as mine.
    • I’ve no more right to yours than you have to mine.
  6. If you kill the joe, make some mo.
    • The same is also true for the last tray of ice cubes.
    • If you don’t know what the joe is, look it up. Don’t make others do for you.
  7. Never start a fight. But always finish it.
    • That does not necessarily mean with violence.
  8. Always turn the other cheek, but remember, you’ve only got two.
  9. Never get in the middle of a goddamn sword fight.
  10. The highest form of martial arts, uses nothing but thoughts and words.
  11. Opinions are like nostrils. Most people have at least one, and others are rarely interested in their contents.
  12. Life is the best teacher, but it’s unaccredited.
  13. The vilest nastiest people out there are even more miserable than they make you feel.
  14. It takes way too much energy to hate. Be lazy, and forgive most of the time. Save your actual hate for folks who REALLY deserve it.
    • In my case, that’s Howard Shultz, Clay Bennet, and the ghosts of Daniel Stern and Aubrey McCelndon. From Hell’s Heart, etc..
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Episode Five! The Bureaucracy Strikes Back!

Stardate: 20250205

Intro:

February already? Wow! This year feels like it’s already been six months long.

So, what do we have ins tore for THIS month? A mixed bag of good news, bit of irritating news, and an eye-opening trip to Ikea.

But First! This time around we’re doing a deep dive on my SECOND rule of Life:

Dev’s Rule #2:
Never turn down free food.
– If it comes from a trusted source.

And now the NEWS!

News:

There’s a lot.

  • Last time we discussed the entire Flame & Claw trilogy being available on e book, but DID YOU KNOW… Book one, “Peacebreaker” is available as a paperback? Both on Amazon and Bookshop.org.
  • I’m starting to have serious doubts about continuing on the Itch.io platform. First, they hold your payouts until you hit a certain threshold (irritating, but whatever). But then, you have to wait for the order to be over a week old, AND THEN even after you finally initiate a payout, they take 10-14 more days for it to be ‘human reviewed’ – I’m currently on day EIGHTEEN as I write this. My first sale on Itch was December 11th, a month and a half ago and I still haven’t seen a penny of it. Have any of you had similar experiences?
  • Dateline Patreon: After a long hiatus, I’m blowing the dust off the Galaxy. That’s right, for as little as $5 a month (they got rid of per-creation billing, the swine) you can see the latest chunk of what I’m writing. A ‘Chunk’ is a few chapters or a short story that’s been proofread, but not professionally edited (yet). It’s the story in it’s raw form, and it will include content that won’t be in the eventual finished novel. Jim Butcher said at a book signing J and I attended that he doesn’t have a Dresden Files timeline in his head, he as a DF Multiverse because he remembers scenes that were never published as being in the books. Well folks, the Galaxy lets you see my Multiverse.
  • Dateline Right Over There…: If you’re actually reading this on my website, you’ll get the joke. But if you’re savvy enough to be reading this in an aggregator, I meant a newsletter link on the Smything’s page. It was always my intent to turn this blog INTO a newsletter, and I’m finally figuring out how. Don’t worry, it’ll stay a blog too. 🙂

In The Library:

Twelve Months by Jim Butcher.

This is a spoiler-free review of the audiobook version narrated, again, by the incomparable James Marsters.

This is a book about healing. Healing on a personal level from the staggering loss of a loved one, healing on community level after the events of the last two novels in the series, and healing on a societal level after those same events.

Butcher admits this book is a huge departure from the usual format of the series. Most books in the Dresden Files depict the “worst weekend or week of Harry’s (the main character’s) year.” This is the ENTIRE year. Starting a day or two after the previous book, “Battle Ground”, “Twelve Months” sprawls out the next roughly 365 days. Some of them are mundane, just Harry trying to rebuild his life after it was smashed to bits. Some are pure chaos as the forces of darkness, the Queen of Winter, and even the United States government descend on the ruins of Chicago.

I lost count of the times I had to stop and reach for a tissue. Parts of this book are so raw I’m surprised they didn’t leave bloodstains. Some are so beautiful that words fail me. Through it all, Marsters provides a faithful, and immediate narration. You get the feeling that you’re sitting down with your best friend over mugs to have a heart to heart.

All that said, if this is your entry point to the Dresden Files… Pick another entry. You need to know who these people are and what has gone before, because Twelve Months isn’t enough time to relate it all to you.

There are a few warts in the tale. Harry’s always been a bit anachronistic in his attitudes towards women, but hearing female characters referred to as “(someone’s) woman” gets old fast. Also, there’s a reference to agitators in a protest that feels a lot like “See! There ARE professional bad actors! Really!” Bud, we know. ICE hire them all.

Despite that, this book (for fans of Harry Dresden) is a must read and should shoot to the top of your TBR pile. #1 with a Rocket.

The Good

Ok, what this issue’s topic? Oh! Right. My second most-important rule for life. Rule number two seems a bit silly at first, but it’s surprisingly deep.

Never turn down free food.
– IF it comes form a trusted source.

Seems straightforward, right?And it is, until we dig a bit further down. What happens when you turn down free food? Yeah, you go hungry, but more than that. Someone made that. Someone probably made that for you personally or for a group you’re a part of like co-workers, or book club, or just folks they know.

So, even if it means eating something you don’t necessarily love, give it a try. They put a lot of effort into it.

I can already hear the cries of “But Dev! The codicil!” Well, let me tell y’all a story. I will change the names to protect the innocent, and the guilty.

I used to work in an office with a lot of amateur bakers. And dang, they were GOOD. Most Monday’s we’d be greeted by a Tupperware full of yeasty, or chocolatey, or even cinnamon-y goodness. This had begun years before I joined the company, and ran right up until a few weeks before I left it.

What killed it? Let’s call them Zelda’s Peanut Butter cookies.

Now, when I say these baked goods appeared most Monday mornings, I meant they were there when the doors opened at 8, and we had an empty Tupperware by 8:15. We were a ravenous pack of jackals.

Now Zelda, who was one of the bigwigs at the company no less, was a master baker. Her warm-spice choco chip cookies could reduce even the hardest heart to tears with one bite. But on this day, she did not make those. No. After making sure on Friday no one was allergic to peanuts, she made us all peanut butter cookies. We assaulted them like Normandy Beach on D-Day.

But we were all of us, deceived.

For in the dark halls of Zelda’s kitchen, a secret ingredient was added. One ingredient to rule them all, as it were…

Zelda made us Peanut butter Sriracha cookies…

On paper, this sounded like an interesting, and even tasty idea. A bit of peppery spice goes shockingly well with peanuts. But, my dear reader, you’re thinking of the Sriracha sauce they put on the table in restaurants. That was far too mundane for corporate princess Zelda. No, she made her own. And it was strong enough to melt tank armor. Worse, she didn’t TELL us about the addition.

It began with a few tears, and ended with a mad rush to the break room for the jug of milk kept in the fridge for coffee, and when it ran dry, for ice water. Lots of ice water.

I added the codicil to rule two that night.

The Bad

So, how is rule number two bad? Well, tongue-melting cookies sort of bound to mind, but beyond that, it cuts you off from the unknown. Leaning into the codicil allows you to put a buffer between yourself and new experiences.

Because that’s what the rule was really all about. Trying new things. Staying only with the safe, the familiar limits your growth, and before long your focus is pulled inward, which makes it harder to see the plight of others around you.

Sometimes, a very few times, this protection of that buffer is necessary, but it also cuts off you growth as a person. So I try to remember the rule, not the qualifier.

The Fugly

The Bad got cut short today because I think the Fugly is gonna run long. I’m also once more playing with the definition of Funny-ugly.

A couple weeks ago, J and I needed to do something we’ve not done for a decade or so, drive down to Ikea. The reason is irrelevant, but what’s not is that I have some wicked-awful mobility problems, and making my way through the massive store complex with it’s poured-concrete floors is my personal image of hell.

The good news, is that this Ikea offered free use of wheelchairs for people like me who don’t have or need one normally, but would for this trip. Now, I hadn’t used a manual wheelchair since I was a child, and that was well… a very long time ago.

For those who’ve never had the pleasure, the primary muscles that power your movement are all located around your armpits. These are not something non gym rats tend to develop too much so within five minutes my arms were ready to fall off. I also developed friction burns on the pads of both my thumbs, but the physical repercussions aren’t what stick in my mind.

The store wasn’t crowded really, but there were a lot of folks there that Saturday afternoon. And what I remember most was the added mental burden of piloting myself around the displays and my fellow shoppers. I’m about six and a half feet tall, and I’m used to viewing the world form that angle. Suddenly losing half my height was much more jarring than I expected. Waist-high counters now may as well have been mountains. I couldn’t just side-slip through narrow gaps any more either. I had to not only plan my route, but choreograph in my mind where I could turn, pivot or even reverse.

The change in perspective had me thinking all the way home. People looked at me with a combination of pity, concern and in a few cases barely contained annoyance. Like me being there somehow inconvenienced them. Some of that was just the warehouse-shopping experience, but the rest made me realize just how quick I’ve been to judge people who are suddenly in my way, and that I have to remember that they’re having just as loud and crowded and bothersome a day as I am, probably more so.

They say not to judge someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. To that I add, ‘or rolled a mile on their wheels’.

So! Thank you for reading that. Next issue we delve into the My third rule for life:

A mistake only becomes an error if you fail to learn from it.

See you soon, and remember #DLtBW
-Dev

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Episode Four! A New Hope Trilogy!

Stardate: 20260105

Intro:

First, HUGE FREAKING NEWS. But that’s the next section. Now that you’ve been properly teased, I shall continue with the Introduction.

I have several rules by which I live my life. Some are silly, some are bedrock serious. Not all were written by me, but all feel right. I’m going to begin a series examining and explaining each one. First up, is the rule so bit it appears on the front page of my site.

Dev’s Rule Number One:

Nobody gets to tell you who you are, not your folks, not your friends, not a teacher or a priest or anybody else. Only you get that right.

Today, we examine the Good, the Bad, and the Fugly of my primary guide.

News:

OK, wow. Here we go with the biggie.

FLAME & CLAW HAS BEEN OFFICIALLY RELEASED!

All three books, Peacebreaker and Lightbringer, and Worldender are available as e books from Amazon, Kobo, or DRM free options coming soon. All three books are $5 each (the platforms control foreign currency equivalents). I chose the platforms I did because I want to reach the broadest possible audience.

I’m exploring print options for those who would like a physical book. Hell, -I- want a physical book. but the options are, in a word, grim.

It has been a long, wonky road to get to this point. Between writing and editing and formatting and advertising (which I still royally suck at)… it’s a lot.

If you’d like, you can read the first chapter of Peacebreaker for FREE, then sign up for my newsletter and get a DRM free download link.

Read and Enjoy.

In The Library:

I always intended this section to be about OTHER people’s work, but this time I want to talk about Peacebreaker.

Being the first in the trilogy, It has a lot of heavy lifting to do. It’s gotta introduce Sara and the other characters, establish their relationships, and explain the intricacies of the world itself. Being an urban fantasy (or magical realism if you prefer) gives me a bit of an advantage. I don’t have to explain the mundane side of Sara’s life.

Not that it’s terribly mundane to start with. She’s living in her van with her cat and driving round the country as some kind of hybrid homeless person/wandering adventurer. That’s where the phrase “highway ronin” comes from. She wants to think of herself as controlling her own journey as she travels fork stop to stop, but the fact is she’s staggering from bad situation to barely acceptable short term solution to disaster. The book doesn’t romanticize her life as much as it may seem to, but when the call comes and she heads home, she’s secretly ready to settle down.

And what she finds when she comes “home” is nothing like she expected. She’s quickly drawn into a world of magic, and Immortals waging a cold war that has lasted for centuries. Sara very quickly discovers that her very existence has upset that tenuous balance and that cold war explodes in violence, fire, and death.

But she’s not in the world alone. She has her brother, and group of unexpected friends who welcome her into their family forged by flame and claw.

The Good

My number one rule.

Nobody gets to tell you who you are, not your folks, not your friends, not a teacher or a priest or anybody else. Only you get that right.

Obviously, the good of this is you define yourself. That is a simple, yet enormously powerful statement. Other people will try to label you, try to put you in a clean, neat, and tiny mental box.

But those labels? They only apply to you if you agree with them. Fight for your identity, because no one else has that right, or that responsibility.

The Bad

What could possibly be bad about the rule? If everyone gets to define themselves, where’s the harm?

Well, that’s an answer that again, only you can find. Here’s some food for thought though.

It’s human nature to fit everything we learn into our own frame of reference. Depending on the breadth of that frame, you might be more accepting of the differences in others. Or, maybe you live in a world where most if not all folks think the same way, hold the same values, and fit into similar frames. That’s not a bad thing, but it tends to shrink a person’s view of the world.

YOU get to decide who you are, but also remember that everyone around you has the same right. Conflict comes when we try to apply that decision to other people.

Assholes have the right to be assholes. Saints have the right to be saints. It’s their behavior toward others that is good or bad, and should be acted on accordingly, not their personal identity.

The Fugly

I’m not sure how fugly this is. To me the term has always meant ugly in a funny way. But then again, most stand-up comics will tell you folks don’t laugh at funny, they laugh at true.

What if you can’t answer the call to define who and what you are? Well, I think we call that condition ‘life.’ We’re all individuals who are constantly growing and learning, even if we don’t think we are.

I offer myself as an example. I was born into a very Catholic family. I attended a parochial school from the second through the fifth grade and only moving to a new town with a parochial school that was too pricey and that I vocally did not want to attend got me into the real of public education.

My father was very conservative. He felt Reagan was a tad too liberal. He was a Trump voter twice (would have been three, but he passed away a few years ago). He raised me think like he did, to value what he did. He was very much ‘Father Knows Best’.

But as I grew, I realized I didn’t share his values. Individual choice is very important to me. the wellness of the COMMUNITY is more important that making more money and driving a bigger car. Speaking of cars, My father and I are both large people. Over 6’4″ and broad in the shoulders. He drove the biggest family vehicles he could find. He drove a Ford cargo van with a converted luxuriously comfortable interior for over twenty years before shifting to top-line SUVs.

I drive a Ford Fiesta. The smallest car Ford made at the time. I don’t need 4-wheel drive, or a power-adjust chair with 16 dimensions. But he did, because it made him feel better about himself.

To get back to the point, We learn, we grow, and sometimes our answers change.

And that’s not fugly. It’s actually a good thing.

Well, that’s it for next month! Next time we’ll delve into some of the cast of Flame and Claw, and examine my second rule for life. I promise, thus one’s lighter:

Never turn down free food.

-If it comes from a trusted source. I’m looking at you, coworker-baked peanut butter sriracha cookies.-

See you in February!
-Dev

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Episode Three: Revenge of the Grinch!

Stardate: 20251212

Intro:

Well, hello there. I’m Devlin, call me Dev (please, for the love of god call me Dev, I hate my name). I’ve been writing and drawing for what feels like at least half a century, but despite having gone pro with my digital art a few years ago, I’ve never published anything.

I can just sense the head nods. A lot of you out there in the same boat? You want to take the plunge, but you’re worried those dark shapes below might be sharks? Well I intend to document my self-publishing journey. Not just the (hopefully many) successes, but the spectacular failures too. Hopefully, I can help someone avoid a few of the pitfalls I’ll plunge into.

News:

Well, that’s the LAST time you’ll see those intro paragraphs. Because I PUBLISHED SOMETHING!!! The first chapter of Peacebreaker: Book One of Flame & Claw is available for free (Well, ‘pay what you want’ so tips would be appreciated, but in no way necessary) on Itch.
Check It Out!

Also, while we still don’t have a release DATE for the trilogy, we have a release WINDOW for books one and two. Both will drop the first week of January, 2026.

In The Library:

Lately, I’ve been binging all my favorite holiday movies and old specials. Children of the the Rankin-Bass generations all have their favorites, usually corresponding to their birth year and the special’s release date.

My favs are: “Twas the Night Before Christmas”, “The Year Without a Santa Claus”, and the last one they ever made, “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus” (the puppet one, not the weaker animated remake form a few years later).

On the movie front, I love Netflix’s “Christmas Chronicles” films. Kurt Russel’s ‘Jack Burton as Kris Kringle” energy is infectious. And of course, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is an annual tradition- but for a set of obscure reasons. All but one thing in that film happened to my fam around the holidays one way or another… except one thing. Anybody care to hazard a guess?

And Now, This…

Releasing the promo was a big decision. No one ever tells you quite how exhausting being a self-published author is. I’ve been sitting with basically this one element of my life for three straight days, doing hardly any of my day-job work (don’t worry the boss is lenient, I’m self-employed) in favor of adding social media posts, or talking it up in discord servers I usually just lurk in. The tldr is I haven’t thought up a clever Good, Bad,Fugly for this month.

In it’s place, I present this – A short story, more of an essay really, that I wrote a few years back. I keep stumbling back to this every year, and every year it still rings true.

Because magic is where you find it.

And, so…

Christmas in the Dark

It’s the hour of the wolf.

Somewhere between three and four in the morning, as I lay awake staring at the ceiling without seeing it. All I can see are the troubles and the trials stretching out before and behind me. 

It’s December now, and our Christmas tree is up. It’s artificial, which is both easy and terrible- it smells like dust. We also decorated the house with all the little knickknacks that are supposed to remind us of childhood, and the glories of Christmases long, long ago.

Honestly, I’m glad we did it, it’s one less thing on the list that needs doing today, but the magic isn’t there anymore. 

Sure, there’s the satisfaction of finishing the big task, but little else. 

And now I lay awake wondering how I’ll buy presents with no money. How I’ll find a job when no one wants to hire. How I’ll pull my weight. How I’ll keep my weight down when everything is covered in chocolate and yes, sir, I’ll have another… and… and… and.

The wolf is outside, and she’d like a word with me about my life.

Giving up sleep as a dream of youth, I get up and grab my clothes for the day, managing not trip on my shoes or the various hazards between me and the shower. 

Gotta celebrate the little victories, Wolfie.

The shower feels nice. It’s been too cold for the light blankets, but too warm for the heavy one- so the nasty overheat feeling clings to me as I shuck my PJs and stand under the steamy water. It resets my natural thermostat from all the shivering and sweating of the night, and just leaves the ahhhh.

Of course, eventually it ends and I have to get dressed in the bathroom. I hate doing that. I always end up hopping up and down on one foot while trying to get the other through that last six inches of stubborn denim that has decided to cling to the sole of the other foot. You try doing that without the words ‘Compound Fracture’ swirling through your head.

It’s five am by the time I haul myself, dripping hair and all, out to the living room. I can hear the rest of the house stirring, even the mouse, so I don’t want to make any more noise than I have to. I’ve never been a morning person, until being forced into it at gunpoint by various necessities. But now, I can admit that there’s something kind of nice about having an hour or so to yourself with all the distractions switched off. Having the time to sit quietly and think, meditate about the day to come.

Familiarity keeps me from bouncing off the walls more than a couple times, but once I’m out to the living room couch, that changes. See, there’s a new shadow, an unfamiliar shape in the dark. Just enough light comes in through the skylight and the curtained window to show me the silhouette of our tree. Shadows stretch it into a sinister figure. One with vaguely lupine features.

Lovely, the wolf is clocking overtime.

I sigh and go to the light switch, but here I pause. Partially because lighting that beacon will awaken half the house, and partially because it just feels wrong somehow.  Instead, a wicked little grin escapes me and I carefully pick my way over to the side of the loveseat, and the power strip that all the decorations are plugged into.

This was one of my favorite parts of Christmas when I was a kid. I’ve always loved color, and the lights on the tree have been the last refuge of the magic of the season for many years now.

Our scrawny, apartment sized artificial tree sits there on the coffee table. In the center of a bunch of miniature houses on a field of snowy white. It sounds prettier than it looks in the dark, with its lupine shadows.

But I reach down and find the switch. It flips with a click and a soft orange glow.

I look up at the tree and… Oh, there you are. I’ve missed you.

The lights of the miniature village bathe the snowy felt in warm hues of soft memories, and the pinpricks of tree lights dot gold and pink, blue and red against the shadows. But it’s the star, all lit in warm ambers and purples as it casts its aurora to the cream colored walls, only to be returned in an aura of memory and magic that makes my limbs tingle. 

Suddenly, this little dust-smelling man-made letdown of a Christmas tree is beautiful. My heart doesn’t grow three sizes that day, but it does unclench, just a little. 

I settle down on the couch to consider the simple joy of light. Here, in the dark with the wolf and all her cares and worries curled affectionately at my feet.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Felicitous Solstice, Happy Kwanzaa, Sparkling Saturnalia, Happy Boxing Day, Marvelous Mōdraniht, Happy Festivus, Joyous Erastide, Happy Holidays….

Whichever your season, and for whatever reason, I bid you peace. May the coming year find you happy, healthy and well.


-Dev

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Episode Two: Heroes Also Fart.

Stardate: 20251121

Intro:

They say ‘never meet your heroes’. Generally, because they can never live up to how you build them in your mind. By and large that’s true, though I think the ghost of Fred Rogers wants a word.

In an earlier phase of my life, I was lucky enough to work for a company that loaned out big, mean-looking bodyguard types to a lot of local fan conventions to protect their guests from overly-adoring fans. Being a big mean-looking bodyguard type, I was often dispatched for a weekend to stand behind the officers of the Starship Enterprise (not saying which one), and glower at anyone who skipped lines or made an unwelcome attempt to hug the famous person. I never had to physically restrain any exuberant fans, the glower was enough.

Of course, you know I’m a giant nerd, so I completely got the impulse to glomp.

But I also got to see the famous folks after they powered down whatever mental switch they flipped before facing fandom. Guess what. None of them were jerks. Even the few with reputations for being jerks were just normal folks who were tired. Heck, they were doing a Convention day after having just gotten off Screaming Baby Airlines flight 109 non-stop from the other side of the bloody globe without even time to find a coffee. THEN they’d begin signing a thousand photos and shaking hands with God-knows how many folks.

I just had to stand there and look like an ogre.

I recall one convention, with the a Captain no less. I got him from the local airport (another service my company provided), and took him directly to the hotel hosting the Con. On the drive, he told me he hadn’t slept in over a day because he’d been dreading the flight, but now it was over and he could relax. He rolled his eyes as he said it.

What I remember most about that day, as he climbed form the car, he let the biggest rumble bomb I’ve ever heard. A loud thing that began with a shrill little squeak that descended into a ripping, tearing sound that echoed in the concrete loading dock we’d pulled up to like a string of firecrackers on the 4th of July.

He glanced over to me and said, I kid you not, “Set phasers to burrito-fart, Mr. James.”

I got him to the greenroom, got him a damn coffee, and then began the gauntlet. The signings, the meetings, the speakings, pretending you didn’t just tell all these same stories last weekend at another convention, the shakings of hands, the occasional surreptitious wiping off of hands if somebody’s palm was a tad moist…

Four hours later, I was about to take him to his room for a blessed nap, when we got cut off backstage by a fan in a wheelchair.

I went into glower mode, but Captain Burrito-Fart stepped around me and knelt down to look her in the eye. They talked for a good twenty minutes, and she told him through tears how much his character on the show inspired her. Then he took her hand, and thanked her. He told her how the fans were the fuel that kept him going and that he would remember her and her story for a long time to come.

They parted and I took my Captain to the elevator. On the way up, I broke the major rule and asked him how much of that was real.

“Every word, Mr. James. Every word. I’ve met dozens of people like that young lady, and I remember every single one of them. They are the fuel that keeps me going. Because through them, I can do some good in this broken foul world. And if we can’t spread a bit of happiness, then I ask you what even is the damn point?”

Millions of people think this famous actor is their hero because of the character he played. But Captain Burrito-Fart is my hero because of the man who played him on TV.

News:

Wow! That was a bit longer than I intended. Thankfully, the news is short this week. Flame & Claw book 3 is still at the editor’s as I write this. I love Charlie. They’re the definition of ‘good people’.

Anyway, everything is on track still, January, maybe February, all three book will release at once.

Ok, if you’re not following me on Bluesky then your missing out on the goodies I’ve been posting over there. Like the cover reveal for book 1: Peacebreaker.

In The Library:

Been enjoying the heck out of “Brigands & Breadknives” the third cozy fantasy book from Travis Baldree. I recommend the audiobook to your attention, as I do his first two works in the series.

It once again raises a question I thought I’d put to bed, but it won’t stay asleep. Should I do audio versions of Flame & Claw? I’d love to, but right now I can’t afford to pay someone to read them. I’d do it myself, but folks have compared the sound of my voice to John Goodman, hardly appropriate for a twenty-something lady.

Then again, Mr. Baldree doesn’t sound like a female orc ex-merc, but his voice totally works for his own material. Conundrums…

The Good

We tend to conflate heroic characters with those who created them. It’s human nature, I suppose to see our mythical heroes in the people closest to them. Sometimes, as in Captain Burrito-Fart, it’s all to the good. I suppose that they key is to remember that they’re human, not paragons, not villains, but human beings who are eminently fallible.

And then there are those who are exactly as the appear to be in our hearts. I mentioned Fred Rogers above, I’ve never met anyone who knew him, briefly or in a couple cases otherwise, who thought he was anything but the pure, decent champion of children and goodness he seemed on TV. I’m sure there were times he lost his temper, times he used bad language, or gave vent to frustration in a way that wasn’t constructive.

But he also gave the best advice I’ve ever heard when he said to ‘look for the helpers.’ Because people who help others, even for selfish reasons, are growing the world we all want to inhabit. One where our differences aren’t a source of pain, but of strength.

The Bad

Of course, there are times when the person behind our favorite stories is actually a horrible human being. Take the case of the lady who wrote about a boy wizard with a scar on his forehead. I won’t say her name because as with her fictional big bad, it summons things.

Her blind hatred of folks who were different from her, who meant her no harm, and were no threat to her precious little bubble of life has cost her so much public regard it still staggers me.

The Fugly

Of all the self-inserts in her big multi-volume story, I never expected her Mary Sue to be named Petunia…

That’s all for now folks! See you soon with some hopeful NEWS!
-Dev

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Episode One: The Power of Language

Stardate: 20251027

Intro:

Wow, the very first ‘real’ one. The ‘Hello World’ post. That language, like all language, is important.

Language gives shape to ideas, and ideas aren’t possible without it. The universe, Straczynski wrote, began with a word. But which came first: the word or the thought behind the word? You can’t create language without thought, and you can’t conceive a thought without language, so which created the other, and thus created the universe?

A little meatier than chickens and eggs.

Language is at the core of everything, and language is a power we barely understand. Today, we’re going to talk about language, and why I refuse to moderate mine.

News:

Had an adventure getting Smythings set up. Originally, this started life as a Substack (then I found out about Substack and fled it screaming). and while I’m still looking for a permanent home, for now it’s a blog on my website.

God help me. 😉

In The Library:

I am so excited to get Flame & Claw out to the world. That’s book-related and vaguely library-ish, right? It counts.

I’m not harboring any illusions about how well it’ll do out of the gate. I mean, nobody knows me. This is my debut work and it’s not like I’ve got a big following on the socials or something. I think this is the wall. This point right here is where I feel the defenses around traditional publishing most. Because the imposter syndrome is real.

I’m sitting here hearing all the little voices telling me I will fail. Well, maybe. But the fact is I don’t care. The books will do what they’ll do. I’m tempering my expectations and charging blindly forward. Emotional Support Ice-cream at the ready. 😉

The Good

Let’s get back to language. My wee Nan taught English for YEARS.

Picture Maggie Smith, and you’d be real close. Nan was the undisputed MATRIARCH of our family. Every year, we’d spend either Thanksgiving or some of the week between Christmas and New Years with her.

The year her youngest grandkid turned eighteen, we gathered at her house for Thanksgiving dinner. All of us. Nan, her two children, their spouses, me, my brother, and my Aunt and Uncle’s three kids. Her entire family, all ten of us crammed around one table.

As it happened, it was the last time we were all together. My folks divorced the next year and I moved across the country. My brother passed away two years after that. My cousins scattered to the winds. She couldn’t have known this was going to happen, but Nan was not one to let an opportunity go to waste.

When dinner was ready and steaming on the table, after the blessing was said, Nan rose to her feet. She spoke not a word, but made eye contact with each of us.

And when this diminutive grandmother towered over us all like Everest, when had firm control of all our attention, she uttered a single, clear word.

“Fuck.”

You could have bowled us all over with the swipe of a single feather.

Nan smirked and met our eyes again. I will never forget her next words (yes, she wrote them down). “If I have tried to teach anyone anything,” she said, “it is respect for the power of language. Words have power. Use them wisely and well.”

Then she sat back down and asked my dad to pass the turkey. I will never forget that lesson. So forgive me for not editing the word, I refuse to neuter it’s power.

The Bad

“Oh, don’t use such harsh languages around children!”
“Are they YOUR children?”
“No, but you shouldn’t use foul language around them anyway!”

That idea really grinds my gears. Here’s why.

When you deny language, you’re not only reinforcing guilt for the emotion that prompted said language, you’re dismissing the emotion in the first place. Why is the person cussing? (Note, I don’t say swearing. Because swearing is an oath, or an invocation- not a statement of anger or whatever else prompted the F-bomb in the first place.)

Language, even it’s less appealing sides, is important because it is how we convey thoughts. There’s no such thing as a ‘bad thought’, only bad actions. If, when I stub my toe in a dark hallway, I say something explosive it’s because of the shock and pain. If I’ve received bad news, it may be in response, and because I rather desperately need an emotional bandage.

It’s never the choice of words that should concern someone, it’s the reasons behind that choice.

So, if language is thought, and words have their own power Should one consider the impact of their chosen words?

Absolutely. The reason my we Nan dropped that F-bomb wasn’t to shock us, it was to prove that there is a time and place for powerful language. If one cusses constantly, the words have no power.

The Fugly

Now, lets end on a funny,shall we?

What’s funny about language and specifically cussing?

In the last decade or so, I’ve noticed a rise of creative cuss replacements in various liturature. I’m not talking about Battlestar Galactica’s “Frak” or “Felgercarb”, or the way they used various forms of Chinese to cover English cusses in Firefly.

I mean stuff like the Aurora Rising series, which added such gems as “Son of a Biscuit”, “Holy Cake” and “Mother Custard” to my own personal thesaurus.

It was as an homage to this trend that the main character in Flame and Claw uses “F to the duck” when she gets angry. It’s a bit unwieldy, but always heartfelt. 🙂

And that’s my thoughts. Your Mileage -Will- Vary, and that’s why the world is a great place. We don’t all think alike. How boring would life be if we did?

-Dev

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Episode Zero! Is that even possible?

Stardate: 20251107

Intro:

Well, hello there. I’m Devlin, call me Dev (please, for the love of god call me Dev, I hate my name). I’ve been writing and drawing for what feels like at least half a century, but despite having gone pro with my art a few years ago, I’ve never published anything.

I can just sense the head nods. A lot of you out there in the same boat? You want to take the plunge, but you’re worried those dark shapes below might be sharks? Well I intend to document my self-publishing journey. Not just the (hopefully many) successes, but the spectacular failures too. Hopefully, I can help someone avoid a few of the pitfalls I’ll plunge into.

This is the first issue of what I hope will become a weekly newsletter. For now, I’ve no intention of putting it behind a paywall or anything,. I just want to bring a little thoughtful joy to the inboxes of the world.

News:

I’m holding off on publishing anything until my first trilogy is ready to drop all at once. The series is called “Flame and Claw” and like I said, trilogy.

The first book is ready to go, the second need a cover, and I just got book three back from my amazing editor, Charlie Knight. The good news, is I should be getting it back sometime next month!

In The Library:

This is where I’ll talk about the stories I want to tell, about the books I’ve read recently, anything story/publishing/pop culture that I find interesting.

To that end, I’m kind of at a loss for what to work on next. I’ve got a work-in-progress pile that can better be described as a small mountain, and a lot of it i super exciting to me right now. Everything from Don Bluth inspired epic fantasy, to cozy stories to Anime-infused giant robots in space…. So what do I do next?

The Good

This will be something awesome about the post’s topic that was hopefully introduced in the Intro. That’s what the fancy types call a call-back.

The Bad

Something not awesome about the same thing. Not bad news, but how things can go sour.

The Fugly

Something funny about the topic. I always want to end on a smile, if I can. There’s enough negativity in the world already. It’s not going to improve by adding more.

So, thanks for coming along, and welcome aboard!
-Dev

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First Post.

(interior, dark room. A door creaks open, spilling in light as someone leans in.)

Is that it? Have I finished pounding this thing into a reasonable approximation of what I wanted my site to be? Did I finally finish checking it on mobile, desktop and tablets? How about those artistic types with the roughly three square-miles of monitor space?

Yeah? It looks good? Did we get all the T’s dotted and the I’s crossed?

Well heck then, let’s get this PUSH THE BUTTON!

(a click, and the theme to ‘The Muppet Show’ begins playing)

Um. Was that the right button? How do I stop this thing….

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