Tessera

The manuscript for Fate's Attendant 2 came back from the editor with... 3098 revisions. 😅

A self portrait of the author along with a screenshot of the number of revisions.

I absolutely loved the street art at Brick Lane in London. I dropped and broke my phone while in England, so I don't have many pictures from our visit. These three are my favorites from the photographs I did take.

A multitude of stickers on a wall. The one that stands out is a cute wind-up robot with a red heart and bouquet of flowers.

A multitude of stickers on a wall. Three stand out in particular: a young girl staring at the viewer, a woman thinking "get me out of here," and a blond woman in a glamour pose with a racoon sitting on her legs.

A multitude of stickers on a wall. Two stand out: "Vote 4 Clowns" and "How did it come to this?"

The audiobook for Eight 5: The Saint of Water is publishing on August 18. This is the last in the series, and I couldn't be prouder of how the story has turned out. We once again have the amazing Gary Tiedemann performing. www.audible.com/pd/Eight-The...

Eight: The Saint of Water

audible.com

Today is the one-year anniversary of me writing full-time. It's been a wild ride so far, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Even when it sometimes feels like this. The painting is by Anne Karin Court-Payen, hanging in the Église Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis.

A man with pensive expression opens his shirt to reveal gold underneath.

Paris gets about 50 million tourists a year. I imagine even the artwork gets tired of all the people.

An elaborate sculpture on the ceiling of a woman with legs crossed, chin propped on hand, and a bored face.

More street art from Paris. This time, it's the perfect side-eye. I love how so much of the art we saw was playful.

A wall meant to keep people out of a renovation area with lots of street art on it, including a charming illustrative portrait of a woman side-eyeing a man on the street only looking at his phone.

There's amazing street art in Paris. The piece above is a play on Liberty Leading the People but with the flag of Ukraine. The illustration at the bottom reads "Peace is earned" with someone else adding "so is love." And in between, there's Pikachu.

The corner of a building with multiple illustrations painted onto it. At the top is a woman bravely holding the flag of Ukraine. Below is a kneeling man holding a sign. In between are various smaller images, including one of Pikachu.

I expected a tourist trap, but our visit to the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre turned out to be meaningful. You can see the artisans' devotion in every line.

The photo features a segment of the church's ceiling: a series of arches above and below an angel carved into the stone.

One should not underestimate the French people's love of butter. The case is about double the size that you see in the photo.

So much butter on display! And a woman reaching for some.

I'd be remiss if I didn't share a photo from at least one of Paris's glorious churches. This is the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

The church's vaulted interior, with arcs of stone against a dotted blue background. Below are rows of wooden folding chairs with a handful of parishioners sitting among them. Pillars stand in two rows to each side.

Doesn't it look like there ought to be a story taking place at the end of the street? There's even a warning sign. Apparently, one doesn't enter the Rue de Dragon unless mounted upon a bicycle.

Picture of an alley with three signs: a nameplate for the "Rue de Dragon", a do not enter sign, and a bicycles excepted sign. At the end of the alley is a building whose door faces you.

It was cool to just be walking around Paris and finding a spot where the author of The Little Prince once used to live. We recently returned from a holiday there, and I'm going to slowly sort through my photos to share the more interesting ones.

A wall of placards, one of which saying that Antoine de Saint-Exupery had once lived in the building.

Found while walking around town.

A series of colorful illustrations featuring stick figures interacting with their mobile phones. The title at the top reads: "The Phonos."

Step by step, we're getting there. The process of building a readership for Fate's Attendant continues. The book is now carried at a local bookstore in Santa Rosa.

A shelf in the sci-fi/fantasy section, featuring Fate's Attendant among the other books.

I had a blast at the Velvet Chapter's Prelude Event for the Bay Area Book Festival. So many readers stopped by the table. Of course, I talked about Fate's Attendant, but we also discussed favorite books and genres. The thing everyone shared in common: a love of stories!

Samer Rabadi at the event with a table full of copies of Fate's Attendant.

One of the best parts of being a writer is the automatic permission to go down any rabbit hole that’s relevant to a work in progress. Did you know that in the early twentieth century Los Angeles had the largest interurban electric railway system in the world?

A Pacific Electric Railway trolley passing by a beach.

The Fate's Attendant audiobook is out on Audible! 🎉 This is a fantasy series with LitRPG elements, featuring a veteran protagonist, a mysterious system, and a measured rise in power where cunning matters as much as strength. www.audible.com/pd/Fates-Att...

The Fate's Attendant book cover with the words "Out Now" at the bottom. The cover features a swordsman and giant badger.

Continuing the series of characters who keep me company while I write, here are Chester and Gregory.

Two cats in cold-weather jackets sitting on camp chairs drinking coffee.

“The more accurate description of modern times is that we’re starved for reality.” — Jaron Lanier Quote found in Detectives in the Shadows by Susanna Lee.

Computer scientist Jaron Lanier was asked if human brains weren't meant to handle an onslaught of incoming information. He responded:

I think the problem with the digital era is, we get a lot of signals that are actually not real signals, like, you know, buy these shoes; go to this party; oh, y ou're not as hot as the other person—I don't know—just this endless stream of stuff. And so I don't think it's so much that we're being overwhelmed by genuine details, but by pseudo-detail. And it's like w're in this behaviorist experiment where we're in this maze where instead of the world of sense and hues and shades and subtleties of nature that are ever-changing and infinitely deep, instead, we're in this world of little buttons and lights and treat dispensers, and it's actually a curtailed, simplified word that seems complex just because having a lot of it kind of takes up our time, takes up our attention. But I actually think we are built for a great deal of stimulus and detail, and we're not getting it. I think the more accurate description of modern times is that we're starved for reality.

I’m talking to a group of students today about being a writer and decided to bring with me a stack of books from my library. Winnowing them down to something manageable wasn’t easy!

I wrote a scumbag today. My characters are human and flawed, but this guy is the genuine article. #WorkingOnFate'sAttendant3

Two turkey buzzards soaring. When they're in the air like this, I have a hard time distinguishing them from the hawks who also live in the area.