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3 Fallacies About the “No Time to Write” Excuse

Even the most bumbling, unskilled person on the planet excels at making excuses for not doing things. We’re all experts at that. For people who wish to write, some of our excuses involve the relentless ticking of time.

Fiction writer and poet Lorraine Horsley wrote a great post on this topic. Read hers first, and then click back here for my take. Here are her three lies about time that we tell ourselves:

1. I don’t have time.

Your clock matches mine. I checked. Same number of hours in a day, etc. Each second and minute lasts the same for all of us, since, here on Earth, none of us travels at a significant fraction of the speed of light.

In other words, those who do make time to write have no more time than you. Other, non-writing tasks crowd their days too. Life interferes with their writing dreams too. They’re just as busy as you are.

How do they find time to write? They don’t start with an excuse about a lack of time. They turn it around to a positive—“I want to write, so I’ll make time.” They establish a habit of daily writing.

2. I’ll need several hours a day.

Again, you’re making an excuse, a reason for taking no action. If you tell yourself this one, you’ll never get started. What if you could only spare ten minutes a day for writing? At first, you wouldn’t produce much output as your brain adjusts to this new task. You’ll be tempted to give up.

If you persevere, you’ll see improvement in a few days. You’ve formed a habit and you’re seeing some output. On a few glorious occasions, you’ll achieve flow.

Here’s a chronological paradox for you—a severe time constraint can improve your writing. As an example, Ray Bradbury started out poor and couldn’t afford his own typewriter. But he knew he could find rental typewriters in the basement of the library at the University of California at Los Angeles. Ten cents bought a half hour of typing. Time is money, indeed. He typed his classic novel Fahrenheit 451 there, with the typewriter’s clock ticking.

3. I’ll make time when…

…when I graduate…when my kids are in school…when my kids move out…when I retire. Sure.

You’ve heard the one about writing a novel being a one day event? As in, “One day, I’ll write a novel.” Except you keep putting that day off, because you don’t have time now, but you think you will in the future.

Consider turning this excuse around and telling yourself, “I’ll never have more time than I do right now.” In the grand scheme, that’s true for all of us. We pay attention to little clocks, but we all have a personal, invisible Big Clock destined to stop someday. Reckoning by the Big Clock, you’ve got more time now than you will later.

Enough Excuses

To sum up, you do have time to write, you don’t need huge chunks of time to write, and you’ll never find more time to write than now. So get writing. As the comic character Snuffy Smith often said, “Time’s a’wastin’.” Not just for you. It’s also a’wastin’ for—

Poseidon’s Scribe

May 24, 2026Poseidon's ScribePermalink Leave a comment

A New Holiday—Virtues & Sins Day

That’s right. Virtues & Sins Day. One of the five major holidays of the Oceanism religion. Haven’t heard of Oceanism? That’s the new religion that caught on in the world of my book, The Seastead Chronicles. Today also marks one year since the book got published.

All the priests in the Oceanism hierarchy call it Virtues & Sins Day, but everyday Oceanists call it Shalls & Shants Day—better alliteration. For Oceanists, the holiday presents an opportunity to reflect on how they’re living their life. Are they living in accord with the five virtues of Oceanism and are they avoiding its five sins?

The Seastead Chronicles

Stories in the book span the near-future construction of the first permanent seasteads through a century spent colonizing the seas and creating a new, oceanic culture. A part of that culture includes the rise and spread of Oceanism.

What’s a “seastead?” Like a homestead, it means a home in a new and previously unclaimed area. Unlike a homestead, the area of a seastead lies in an ocean or sea.

Though I mention Oceanism in a few of its stories, nobody would call The Seastead Chronicles a religious book. Its stories include adventure, mystery, love, war, music, mankind’s relationship with nature, and other themes. I’ve written stories about people struggling to survive and thrive in homes at sea. The environment they set out to change, changed them.

You may purchase the ebook and/or paperback versions of The Seastead Chronicles on Amazon here and here, at Barnes & Noble, at Books2Read, at Rakuten Kobo, at Abe Books, and at Thriftbooks.

This wish for a happy Virtues & Sins Day comes to you from—

Poseidon’s Scribe

May 17, 2026Poseidon's ScribePermalink Leave a comment

The 9 Most Interesting Monuments to Writers

On a recent trip to Scotland, I saw a monument glorifying the writer Sir Walter Scott. That got me thinking about, and researching, monuments to writers in general. In this post, I’ll examine the ones I found most interesting.

By “interesting,” I mean something other than a statue or bust on a pedestal. Those who commission, design, and build monuments to authors honor them in a wonderful way, so I don’t mean to disparage the statue-on-a-pedestal design. Most author monuments fall into that category, though, so I’m posting about the less common types.

I’ve put my list in order of monument completion date, earliest to latest.

Scott Monument

Finished in 1846 in Edinburgh, Scotland, this giant monument stands 200 feet tall—second tallest of all monuments to authors (for the tallest, see José Martí below). Spiral staircases allow access up to platforms with commanding views views of the city. George Meikle Kemp designed the monument and John Steell designed the statue of Scott (along with his dog) between the pillars. The monument includes depictions of sixty-four characters from Scott’s novels.

The Scottish people take great pride in Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), both for his poetry, including “The Lady of the Lake” and for his historical, romantic novels, including Waverley and Ivanhoe.

D’Israeli monument

In Buckinghamshire, England stands this fifty-foot monument to writer Isaac D’Israeli. The top may look like a statue, but it’s an urn. Raised panels with inscriptions and a profile portrait of the author decorate the pedestal. Designed by Edward Buckton Lamb, the monument had been commissioned in secret by D’Israeli’s daughter-in-law Mary Anne Disraeli as a surprise for her husband, Benjamin Disraeli, then Chancellor of the Exchequer. Later he became Prime Minister.

Isaac D’Israeli (1766-1848) wrote romantic novels and essays, but is most famous for Calamities of Authors and Curiosities of Literature.

Johannes Ewald and Johan Hermann Wessel Memorial

The only monument on my list honoring two writers, it stands ten feet tall. Located in Copenhagen, Denmark and completed in 1879, it features two nude, winged boys, one with lyre and the other with pan flute. The pedestal contains portraits of the poets and inscriptions honoring their works. Otto Evens designed the memorial.

Born in Copenhagen, Johannes Ewald (1743-1781) wrote plays, psalms, and poetry. He’s most famous for his dramatic work Balders Død (Balder’s Death) and his poem Rungsteds Lyksaligheder (The Happiness of Rungsted).

Though born in Norway, Johan Hermann Wessel (1742-1785) studied, lived, and died in Copenhagen. A poet and playwright, he employed parody and wit in his writings. Among his most significant writings are Kierlighed uden Strømper (Love without Stockings), and Smeden og Bageren (The Smith and the Baker).

José Martí Memorial

At 358 feet in height, this monument dwarfs all other writer memorials. Completed in 1958 and located in Havana, Cuba, it takes the form of a tall tower with a star-shaped cross section. Nearby stands a statue of the author. Jean Labatut designed it, under the guidance of architect Raoul Otero de Galarraga. Unlike the Scott Monument’s stairs, the Martí Memorial includes an elevator at the center of the star shape. Visitors can ascend to the observation deck, where, from Havana’s highest spot, they can enjoy a panoramic view of the city.

The size of the monument suggests the adoration Cubans feel for their national hero. Through his writings, José Julián Martí Pérez (1853-1895) pushed for the liberation of Cuba from Spain and has been given the appellation “Apostle of Cuban Independence.” His roles included publisher, professor, translator, journalist, essayist, philosopher, and poet. His most famous writings include the children’s book La edad de oro (The Golden Age), the poem collection Versos sencillos (Simple Verses), and his essay Our America.

Ernest Hemingway Memorial

Cuba hosts another writer memorial of note. This one stands in the fishing village of Cojimar, near the bar where Ernest Hemingway often drank. Designed by the Cuban architect José Luis Sert, it features six Ionic-style columns supporting a stone ring. Inside stands a bust of the author sculpted by Fernando Boada Martín. For the bust’s material, he melted down propellers, anchors, and chains supplied by local residents. Completed in 1962, the memorial’s simple, yet profound, design reflects the character of Hemingway’s prose.

Though American, Ernest Miller Hemingway (1899-1961) spent a lot of time in Cuba and wrote many novels there, including The Old Man and the Sea, for which the residents of Cojimar most celebrate him. He also wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms, and The Sun Also Rises.

Monument to Raul Brandão

Located in Porto, Portugal, this monument takes the form of a hollow, granite rectangle enclosing two scenes featuring several statues. Separating the scenes is a relief image of the author with his name. Architect Rogério de Azevedo and sculptor Henrique Moreira completed the monument in 1967 to mark one hundred years since the author’s birth.

A Portuguese journalist, writer, and army officer, Raul Germano Brandão (1867-1930) wrote several books, often featuring sailors and the ocean, including Impressões e Paisagens (Impressions and Landscapes) and Os Pobres (The Poor).

The Dream of Humanity Monument to Ferreira de Castro

Also in Porto, Portugal stands this abstract monument. Called O Sonho da Humanidade, Portuguese for “The Dream of Humanity,” and designed by José Rodrigues, it got completed in 1988. I found no information about why it looks the way it does, or how its appearance symbolizes the author’s writings.

A Portuguese journalist and writer and journalist, José Maria Ferreira de Castro (1898-1974) helped father the genre of Portuguese social-realist fiction. Among several other works, he authored A Selva (The Jungle) and A Volta ao Mundo (Around the World).

Monument to Mikhail Sholokhov

The year 2007 saw the completion of this monument in Moscow. Sculptor Alexander Rukavishnikov depicted author Mikhail Sholokhov rowing a boat. Behind the boat, over a dozen horses swim with just their heads showing. Real water flows down the sloped surface to show the horses swimming, making this the only kinetic sculpture on my list.

Earning the 1965 Nobel Prize in Literature, author Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov (1905-1984) wrote novels about the Don Cossacks. And Quiet Flows the Don reigns as his most popular novel. As an additional honor beyond the monument, an asteroid is named for him—2448 Sholokhov.

A Sculpture for Mary Wollstonecraft

I started my list in the United Kingdom, and I’ll finish it there as well. In this London monument, a nude female figure emerges from a swirling, curving mass of chaos. Designed by artist Maggi Hambling and completed in 2020, the monument honors the author Mary Wollstonecraft. At its base appears a quote from the writer: “I do not wish women to have power over men but over themselves.” Though meant as a tribute to one woman, the depicted female represents all women, thus showing how Wollstonecraft lifted womankind from nameless, shapeless anonymity.

An early advocate for women’s rights, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) wrote a children’s book, a conduct book, a history of the French Revolution, a travel narrative, and several treatises and novels. Her most famous treatise remains A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. She’s become a hero, a founding philosopher, of the modern feminist movement. She died soon after the birth of her second daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, author of Frankenstein.

**The Real Monuments**

Consider this irony. Monuments of stone and steel, while quite a tribute, will erode and crumble in time. But the words of these authors, written on mere paper and now with even more fleeting electrons, will endure much longer than the monuments. As the Romans said, Vita brevis, ars longa, meaning “Life is short, art is long.” In that sense, these authors created their own long-lasting monuments.

Do you know of other interesting author-honoring monuments I should have included? Send a comment to—

Poseidon’s Scribe

May 17, 2026Poseidon's ScribePermalink Leave a comment

You Bored Your Reader—Here’s How to Prevent That

As a writer, you can’t afford to bore readers. Modern technology has dwindled their attention spans to a few seconds before they hit Delete. I’ll give you some techniques for writing stories that capture and sustain attention.

The Problem

We live in a fast-paced age. Busier than ever, your readers get blasted every day with an information fire-hose, spewing mostly useless noise. What doesn’t attract attention gets deleted or remains unclicked.

The book you’re writing will vie for reader eyeball time against many competitors—other author’s books, TV shows, movies, Facebook, X, Instagram, Tiktok, etc. Readers abhor boredom. They’ve no time to read dull prose. If the story’s first paragraph doesn’t trigger a dopamine hit, readers won’t continue.

Anti-Boredom Techniques

I drew inspiration for today’s topic from this post by Sabyasachi Roy. I’ll list his techniques, put into my words.

Learn from other’s successes. Consider techniques proven to work. Sabyasachi Roy suggests you analyze what it is about certain Facebook or X posts, or Netflix series, that grab attention and tell a story too irresistible to ignore.
Seize interest from the start. Your opening sentence and paragraph must compel the reader to read on. Spend time crafting and re-writing this hook, since it serves multiple purposes.
Use the high-low-high-low technique. As the story goes, alternate high-tension moments with low-tension moments.
Understand high-tension moments. High-tension needn’t mean a fist fight, a car crash, or an explosion. It means putting your protagonist under high emotional strain. Use short sentences and short paragraphs here to hasten the pace.
Use low-tension moments to let characters and readers catch a breath. Don’t put them to sleep, though. Pack these moments with meaning—thoughts and emotions that suggest the themes of your story. Allow the characters time to react to what just happened, and to wonder—or dread—what will happen next.
Add surprises and twists. Disrupt the reader’s notions of where the story is going.
Start with high stakes for the character. Then raise them. What bad thing will occur if the character fails? Lost love? Poverty? Diminished social status? Death? If possible, make the consequences more dire as the story proceeds.
Leave your character hanging from a metaphorical (or actual) cliff at each chapter’s end. Cliffhangers deny readers the chance to end their reading session there.
Kill darlings. When re-writing, cut all unnecessary words, sentences, paragraphs, scenes, and chapters. Delete or condense the parts that bore you, since they’ll also bore readers.

Your Book

I hear you. You’re telling me your book doesn’t belong in the thriller genre. It’s a slow-paced, thoughtful book, a deeply philosophical tome meant to be savored, not sped through on the way to something else.

Even so, you don’t want to bore readers. Some of the above techniques may still apply to your book. It still needs to pass the “So What?” Test.

As Lincoln said, “You can bore all of the people some of the time…” Wait. That wasn’t Lincoln. That was—

Poseidon’s Scribe

May 3, 2026Poseidon's ScribePermalink Leave a comment

Say Goodbye to Free Self-Publishing

Last week, I blogged about sympathizing with a hypothetical AI writer trying to break into the publishing biz. That post imagined a time when AI could write as well as humans. Today, it can’t. But it can write fast, and that affects how writers self-publish.

History of Self-Publishing

Before Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and similar services, authors could publish books themselves, but it cost money and took time. Either you bought your own printing press and book-binding machine, or paid a company to publish your book. They called those companies “vanity presses.”

The internet explosion led to free self-publishing. Although some of these services started before KDP, it became the most popular. Authors didn’t have to pay a vanity press thousands of dollars to get a book published. That new, free model worked fine for several years.

Teaming with Your AI Agent

Enter Artificial Intelligence. Just as you can command your AI Agent to order your household supplies, summarize long emails, or take meeting minutes, you can also have it publish a book.

You can direct your AI agent to write the book, format it (including cover design), upload it to the retailers, and publish it. Four difficult and time-consuming steps for you, but ten minutes of work, beginning-to-end, for AI.

Don’t count on your computerized agent writing a best-seller. In fact, you’ll likely get a bland and uninteresting book. Let’s say you don’t care. The prompts you gave the AI mimicked a current best-seller, so your knock-off might hoodwink a few readers to buy it. All you need are a few sales, since you and your AI pal put in only ten minutes of work. You could pop out a hundred of these trashy books a day.

A Centaur Stampede

Some have used the centaur metaphor to explain this human teaming with an AI agent. I’ve blogged about it before. Just as the mythological centaur combined the speed of a horse with the intelligence of a human, so a modern centaur combines the speed of AI with the creativity of a human. In its current form, AI won’t write or publish a book on its own—a human must prompt it.

And prompt it they do. They’re swamping the publishing service with centaur-generated books. Some call this bookspamming.

The Publishing World Reacts

The empire struck back. Amazon requires authors to affirm whether they used AI, and limits authors to three new titles per day. Using algorithms, Amazon detects rule-breakers and removes their books from distribution.

Draft2Digital will soon charge $20 to open a new account and will also charge an annual $12 maintenance fee.

Barnes & Noble is setting a minimum book price of $14.99, and will limit authors to 100 books per account.

When Noise Overwhelms Signal

What can readers and non-centaur writers do about all of this? Here’s my take. Writers should keep on doing what we’ve always done—strive to write the best books we can and hope they get noticed. Readers should do what they’ve always done—spread the word about books they love. Ideally, readers should leave reviews (good or bad), if so inclined. That will help separate the wheat from the growing mountains of chaff.

On the list of authors still grinding out words by himself, without the assistance of an AI agent (except for help with images), you’ll find—

Poseidon’s Scribe

April 26, 2026Poseidon's ScribePermalink 2 Comments

Can AI Hope to Break into the Writing Business?

Humanity’s latest tool just got its start as a newborn infant, and we hate AI already. “Art” is the first syllable of Artificial Intelligence, but AI gets no credit for that.

Publishers Hate AI

I haven’t done a survey, but I suspect most publishers won’t accept stories written by AI. According to this post by Steve Levandoski, the following publishers forbid AI-written submissions: Spectrum Magazine, Flash Fiction Magazine, Small Wonders Magazine, The Fabulist Magazine, and Clarkesworld Magazine.

The reasons for this prohibition vary, but include assertions that AI (1) writes with poor quality, (2) can inundate a publisher with too many submissions, and (3) can’t possibly understand the human condition.

Authors Hate AI

In July 2025, 70 famous authors signed an open letter calling on publishers not to publish books or content written by AI.

Their rationale, aside from the obvious “AI is stealing my job” argument, included (1) only a human can understand another human, and (2) the ability of AI to write depends on the text the AI vacuumed up from existing literature, which it stole without paying or even acknowledging the human authors.

Readers Hate AI

In March 2025, Australian author Jessa Hastings, writer of the Magnolia Parks Universe, shared AI-generated renderings of her characters. Reader fans objected, saying she should have hired human artists, and claiming AI harms the environment. Hastings argued AI was a tool, and if her readers used tools in their daily lives, they were being hypocritical. Further, she threatened to kill one of her beloved characters.

In December 2025, the Nebula Awards for science fiction were about to allow some use of AI. Reader attendees created an uproar. Nebula officials revised the policy and will not bestow an award for a work written in whole or in part by AI.

In March 2026, readers accused author Mia Ballard of using AI to write her novel, Shy Girl. It had been published in the UK and was due to be published in the US. The author denied using AI, but based on the accusations and the quality of writing, the publisher cancelled the planned US launch and cancelled the UK contract.

Should I Hate AI, Too?

You might think it’s tough, as a human beginning writer, to succeed in the fiction writing business. Try walking a block in AI’s shoes. (AI doesn’t wear shoes, but work with me here.) Nobody likes AI. Nobody wants AI.

As a science fiction, writer, I think about new technology and extrapolate it. I ponder what it might become. Forget how poorly AI writes today. AI can improve faster than a human writer. AI might write as well as humans in a few years. It might soon write better.

The more I think about fiction-writing AI and the world’s reaction to it, the more I’m reminded of human writers just starting their writing journey. The world seems to hate them, too. Some give up, unable to stand the rejections. Others persist and work to improve their craft. In time, a few become better writers, get published, and gain a following among readers.

The Case Against AI Fiction Writing

I don’t dismiss the valid concerns about AI aside from the current, rather bland, quality of its writing. To the extent AI takes input from works under copyright protection without paying for it, that’s not good. I take input from other writers, too. All writers do. We read widely. But we buy each other’s’ books.

Does AI harm the environment? At the very least, the data centers behind AI consume vast amounts of electrical power. Human writers don’t do that. I can understand and agree with this concern. I hope someone—or some AI—comes up with a way for AI to use less power.

Will AI put human writers and artists out of business? I don’t know. Every previous labor-saving invention tended to put people out of work. But these innovations often ended up creating at least as many other jobs.

So far, AI only works under human guidance, after human prompting. No AI starts its day thinking, “I’m going to start writing a novel today.” Humans do. Perhaps, soon, AI will initiate its own creative pursuits.

All Up to the Reader

Readers have always determined the quality of fiction writing. Earlier, I cited examples of readers hating AI. Maybe that will change. Some readers will always hate AI no matter how well it writes. However, if AI improves its craft, I can imagine a time when it attains, and even surpasses, the skill level of human writers. It might earn a loyal fanbase of human readers. It will put the “art” in artificial intelligence.

Poor AI. I’ve been where it is now, a writer struggling to make it in a tough business. Wishing it luck, and sympathizing with its struggles, I’m—

Poseidon’s Scribe

April 19, 2026Poseidon's ScribePermalink Leave a comment

Drop Everything! Time to Read

Hello, Dear Reader. It’s Drop Everything and Read (D.E.A.R) Day. I can think of only one way to celebrate—devote thirty minutes to reading a book.

Origin – Beverly Cleary

D.E.A.R. Day occurs every year on April 12, the birthday of Beverly Cleary, that beloved author of books for children and young adults. In her book, Ramona Quimby, Age 8, the children at Ramona’s third grade class participated in sustained silent reading, and she loved it.

That fictional practice inspired the real-life D.E.A.R. Day, an event sponsored by the American Library Association, Cleary’s publisher HarperCollins, and many other organizations.

Drop Everything…

These days, we’ve all got a lot to drop. Every waking hour fills up with stuff to do. The stuff of our lives. When we manage to grab a few spare minutes, we seize our phones and play games, scroll through news articles, and watch videos. Or we turn on the big-screen TV and binge-watch mindless entertainment.

Even if you force yourself to pick up a book and set a timer for thirty minutes, will you stay disciplined enough to focus on reading that long? Will your phone, or TV, or radio, or noises from outside, or one of a hundred other things distract you?

…And Read…

The rules for D.E.A.R. Day don’t specify what books to read. Fiction or non-fiction, doesn’t matter. I recommend books printed on paper, though. If you’ve picked the half hour before going to bed, you’re better off avoiding screen time then.

I used to avoid reading before bed. To me it seemed like training my brain to link reading with sleeping. I worried it might lead to dozing while driving, just from reading road signs.

However, now that I’ve shifted my reading time to the half hour before bed, I haven’t noticed that problem. I’ve found reading at that hour helps me wind down and gets my body ready to relax.

…Day

By now you’ve picked up on a not-so-hidden agenda. Those promoting D.E.A.R. Day hope you’ll establish a habit. They want you to read on more days than just today. Every day, in fact.

Writers, in particular, like to encourage a habit of reading. Writers such as—

Poseidon’s Scribe

April 12, 2026Poseidon's ScribePermalink Leave a comment

Seemed Easy at First

You’d like to write fiction. How hard can it be? Gotta know English—check. Gotta know some grammar rules—check. Gotta be able to group words into sentences—check.

Gotta have a story to tell—check. We’re all born story-tellers. Most of them start with, “You won’t believe what happened to me today…”

You plop into the chair, turn on your trusty computer, and get to work. Pretty soon—a few days maybe—you’ll finish this novel, send it to an agent, sign a contract with a hefty advance, and watch that book climb up the bestseller lists. There’ll be parties, book signings, and movie deals. Yep. Very soon now.

Dunning-Kruger Effect

First, David Dunning and Justin Kruger would like a word with you. Those psychologists observed how unskilled people overestimate their competence, while skilled people under-rate themselves to a minor extent.

In other words, you might not write a chart-busting novel on your first try.

Dunning and Kruger’s original study concentrated on social skills, grammar, and logical reasoning, but others have observed the effect in a wide variety of fields. I imagine the phenomenon varies from field to field. Most laymen don’t overestimate their abilities in brain surgery or rocket science.

However, writing fiction seems easy. We’ve all read novels and thought, “I could write better than this.”

**It Could Happen**

Of course, you might make a huge splash with your first novel. Just ask Emily St. John Mandel (Last Night in Montreal), E.L. James (Fifty Shades of Grey), Andy Weir (The Martian), and Garth Risk Hallberg (City on Fire). That partial list of best-selling debut novels covers only the last twenty years.

Think of those as rare exceptions. Winning-the-lottery exceptions. Olympic-gold-medal exceptions. Dealt-a-royal-flush exceptions. Possible, but not probable.

Not-So-Great Expectations

I don’t mean to dissuade you from your dream. One cruel corollary of the Dunning-Kruger Effect involves the “valley of despair.” As explained in these posts by Scott McCormick and Tiffany Yates Martin, the perception of ability and the reality of it can flip the other way.

As a beginning writer gets partway into creating a novel, the task starts to look way too hard. The writer experiences imposter syndrome, thinking of every chapter as useless tripe, unpublishable drivel. Why go on?

I’ll tell you why. What if all the great writers had slogged through the valley of despair—most of them did—and never climbed out? Just given up? They’d have denied themselves the publishing success they would have enjoyed.

Balanced Perspective

The problem in each case stems from a mismatch between expectations and actuality, between how good you think you are and how good you actually are. The mismatch causes unrealistic assessments of self-worth.

How do you find out the truth so you can form an accurate perception of your writing ability? Submit your writing for publication. If publishers don’t accept it, try self-publishing it. If readers don’t buy it, write something else.

Hone your craft. Take writing classes. Read how-to-write books. Attend writing conferences. Join a writing critique group. Read books in your genre and make notes about what those authors did.

Perhaps, with effort, you’ll see your name on the bestseller list before the name—

Poseidon’s Scribe

April 5, 2026Poseidon's ScribePermalink Leave a comment

Michael Strogoff—Still Thrilling After 150 Years

150 years ago this month, Jules Verne’s novel Michael Strogoff: The Courier of the Czar was published. If that news didn’t pique your interest, I’ll bet you’ll be more intrigued after reading this post.

Few people outside Russia count this novel among Verne’s best. Most people haven’t heard of it. Even so, it ranks seventh best of Verne’s fifty-four novels on Books That Slay, and sixth best on Ranker.

In my edition of the book, the introduction contains this quote by Leonard S. Davidow: “Jules Verne has written no better book than this, in fact it is deservedly ranked as one of the most thrilling tales ever written.”

In his book An Amputee’s Guide to Jules Verne, Nick DiMartino says, “It’s pure, unadulterated storytelling, a thrilling, expertly written novel…impressive and passionate and satisfying in so many ways.”

Michael Strogoff Synopsis

If you’re expecting submarines, giant cannons, or balloons, forget it. No science fiction here. However, a key plot point involves a scientific phenomenon called the Leidenfrost effect.

Verne wrote at the time of the Russian czars, and the real-life Czar Alexander II plays a significant part in the book. An uprising of rebel tartars has cut off eastern Siberia from the rest of Russia. In far-off Irkutsk, the czar’s brother is holding off against the rebels. The czar learns a renegade Russian colonel plans to turn the czar’s brother over to the invaders. Alexander must warn his brother about the traitor, but the tartars have cut the telegraph lines, so he must send a courier.

That courier, Michael Strogoff, must travel 3400 miles from Moscow across the endless steppes and icy tundra to Irkutsk. He travels well at first, by carriage (called a tarantass) on land and by boat on rivers. In time he loses the carriage, then his horses, and must walk on foot. Michael encounters fierce storms and a savage bear attack.

Oops. I forgot to mention how Michael gets captured early on by tartar rebels. They suspect him of being a spy and punish him with a technique that causes blindness. Luckily, he joins up with a young woman who is able to guide him.

I haven’t mentioned all the perils and predicaments, but it would seem unlikely Strogoff will reach Irkutsk in time to deliver the message that could save Russia. And Verne gives us a surprise twist involving that Leidenfrost effect I mentioned. Oh, yeah, and it’s kind of a love story.

In Other Media

The novel got adapted into two plays and a musical. It’s enjoyed fifteen screen versions made in ten different countries. Also, it inspired a board game.

In Russia

Russians love the book. It conveys the spirit of the times of the czars. More than that, it evokes the vast expanse and icy wilderness of the Russian land. Most of all, Russians delight in the heroic character of Michael Strogoff himself. He embodies the virtues of bravery, loyalty, and dedication they admire.

Is it Verne?

You may be wondering if Verne really wrote Michael Strogoff. It seems a story of pure adventure, not science fiction. Nobody explores the unknown. Nobody drives a strange, new vehicle. No scientists or engineers appear as characters.

Yet, Jules Verne did write it, and it fits with the other novels in his Extraordinary Voyages series. Verne didn’t set out to invent science fiction. Fascinated by adventure and far-off places, he wrote dramatic travel escapades. Of his own writing purpose, he said, “It is my intention to complete, before my working days are done, a series which shall conclude in story form my whole survey of the world’s surface and the heavens; there are still left corners of the world to which my thoughts have not yet penetrated.”

Relevance

In the 150 years since the novel’s publication, Russia remains a huge, often inhospitable place to travel through. The thought of crossing that country on foot astounds me. In our modern world of instantaneous communication, we consider the idea of human couriers obsolete. Yet, the story of enduring a continental trek, full of perils and requiring indomitable courage, still enthralls readers.

See? You didn’t think you’d care about the topic, but now, to honor the sesquicentennial, you’ve just added Michael Strogoff to your To Be Read list, on the recommendation of—

Poseidon’s Scribe

March 30, 2026Poseidon's ScribePermalink Leave a comment

Author Interview — Michelle Miles

The recent READiculous Book Palooza in Denton, Texas gave me an opportunity to meet more authors. Among them, Michelle Miles impressed me with her professional approach and enticing table layout. Her books proved irresistible to attendees who flocked to Michelle, listened to her enthralling pitch, and walked away smiling and anxious to read their new purchases. After you read this interview, you’ll need to buy one or more of her books too.

Bio

Michelle Miles is an empress with a war map in one hand and a romance vow in the other—writing fantasy, paranormal, and young adult adventures where magic crackles, danger prowls, and love refuses to back down. From fairy-tale retellings to angels and demons to Fae, elves, and time travelers, she builds big-hearted worlds full of quests, curses, kisses, and chaos—often in that order. When she’s not plotting her next emotional ambush, Michelle narrates audiobooks and hosts Miles Beyond the Page, a podcast spotlighting writers’ real journeys. A proud Texan, she’s usually reading, hiking, rewatching favorite movies, or savoring a glass of wine while sharpening the blade for the next adventure.

Interview

Poseidon’s Scribe: How did you get started writing? What prompted you?

Michelle Miles: I’ve been writing for what feels like forever. I started scribbling fairytales in high school, which makes perfect sense because my head has always been at least halfway in another world. When I was a kid, I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to be a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader or an archaeologist. Yes, really. Sparkles or ancient ruins. Chaos or history. Naturally, fiction turned out to be the perfect answer, because suddenly I didn’t have to choose. I could do all of it on the page—adventure, magic, mystery, drama, and a little glitter if the moment requires it. That realization was my big turning point.

My first book was published in 2006. I’ve never really stopped since then.

P.S.: On your website, you list “A Few Things I Love,” and Scotland appears prominent. What prompted that interest in that country? Was it a fascination with golf?

M.M.: Ha! No, it was definitely not golf. It was castles. I have been obsessed with castles for a very long time, and there has always been something about Scotland that feels downright magical to me. I’d wanted to go for years, and my husband and I finally made the trip in 2024. We called it Castlemania because I was absolutely determined to cram as many castles as humanly possible into ten days. We visited Stirling, Edinburgh, Urquhart, Dunnottar, St. Andrews, Eilean Donan, and Dunvegan—and I know I’m forgetting at least one. It was incredible. Not only was it the trip of a lifetime, but it also gave me the chance to do boots-on-the-ground research for the Scottish time travel books I was writing at the time. I fell in love with the country even more, and yes, I absolutely want to go back.

P.S.: Who are some of your influences? What are a few of your favorite books?

M.M.: Oh this is such a great question and hard to answer. Here are the two books that made me wants to write.

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip. I read this in high school and fell in love with the fantasy aspect of it and the talking animals. And I thought—I want to do that.

Then I read The Road to Paradise Island by Victoria Holt and I fell in love with the romance of the two characters.

My mother was a voracious reader and handed me more historical romance. But fantasy is where my heart lives. And I really wanted a good, meaty fantasy WITH a romance that was swoony. This is why I started writing it.

Today some of my favorite authors: Karen Marie Moning, Gena Showalker, Holly Black, Sarah J. Maas, and so many more. There are really too many to list.

P.S.: It appears you group your genres into fantasy romance, paranormal romance, and young adult fantasy, with multiple books in each category. How do you distinguish between those three?

M.M.: I love this question because I write in a few different genre spaces. For me, paranormal romance usually means a modern-day setting with supernatural elements woven in—angels, demons, monsters, and other dangerous magical beings. Fantasy romance leans more into a fantasy world or secondary realm, sometimes with characters crossing over from our world into another. My Age of Wizards series, for example, is a portal fantasy that eventually takes readers into Faery. My YA fantasy books—particularly my fairy tale retellings—are sweeter romances that are appropriate for readers as young as fourteen. My fantasy and paranormal romance for adults, though, are geared toward a more mature romance audience.

P.S.: You’ve created an audio soundtrack of your novel Once Upon a Woven Wish, intending for readers to listen to it while they read. The sneak peek/listen of the “Serena and the Weaver Theme” sounds dreamy and ethereal. What led you to create this soundtrack and do you intend to do more of them?

M.M.: I loved creating the soundtrack for Woven Wish. I’m always thinking about what lives beyond the book—ways to make the reading experience feel more immersive and let readers step even deeper into the world. Music is such a powerful part of that for me. It adds mood, emotion, texture, and sometimes even helps unlock the heart of a story in a different way. I want readers to feel like they’re not just reading the book, but living inside it for a little while. And yes—there will absolutely be more. I’ve already created a lot of music for other works in progress, and I keep adding to it whenever inspiration strikes while I’m writing. If you want to hear more, you can follow me on Suno and explore the music there.

P.S.: What are the easiest, and the most difficult, aspects of writing for you?

M.M.: The easiest part? The writing.

The hardest part? Also the writing.

Honestly, it depends on the day. Some days I’m flying and the words come faster than I can type. Other days, I’m staring at a blinking cursor like it personally offended me. But even on the hard days, I still love the magic of it—creating worlds, building stories, and disappearing into the lives of my characters for a while.

Edits, though? That is a different relationship entirely. Let’s just say we are not always on the best terms. LOL.

P.S.: Tell us about Captivating the Highland Rogue, third in your Highland Destiny series. Does this really involve romance, time travel, clan rivalries, and a peril endangering the universe?

M.M.: Yes, it absolutely does! I had so much fun writing these books. Dragonblade was launching a new line—Moonrise—for fantasy historical romance and invited me to write for it. I jumped at the chance to do something a little different. And because I already had a trip to Scotland planned, it felt like pure kismet.

The publisher and I tossed around a few ideas—she wanted an antique shop woven into the stories somehow, and I took that and ran with it. Then my brain did what it always does and started firing off a hundred what if questions. What if there were rival clans? What if they were battling for control of time itself? What if the heroines were all modern women suddenly thrown into the past? That’s really how a lot of my stories begin—with one intriguing idea that spirals into a whole world.

These books were an absolute blast to write. I got castles in the Highlands, time travel, ancient magic, clan conflict, and yes—plenty of romance. At the heart of the series are three modern heroines falling for three Highland warriors, with all the danger, longing, and chaos that comes with that. So yes, there’s romance. Yes, there’s clan war. And yes, it’s very much my kind of fun—basically Outlander meets The Time Traveler’s Wife, with a magical Highland relic at its heart.

P.S.: You’ve produced dozens of episodes of your cleverly-titled podcast, “Miles Beyond the Page.” The series includes interviews of many award-winning authors, including Gena Showalter, Michelle Pillow, and Harry Turtledove. What got you started with podcasting, and why do your listeners love it?

M.M.: I’d been thinking about doing something like this for a long time, but for the longest time I told myself I didn’t have the knowledge or the time. Still, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. So eventually I did what I do best: I leapt first and figured it out as I went. My writing bestie, Misty Evans, had a book releasing in January 2025, and I decided that was the perfect moment to finally launch the author interview show I’d been imagining for YouTube. We had such a great time talking about her book, the writing life, and all the behind-the-scenes creative chaos that I immediately knew I wanted to keep going.

So I started reaching out to other author friends to see if they’d be willing to come on. They were. At first, I thought I might do one episode a month—which is funny in hindsight. There was so much interest that it quickly turned into a weekly show, and sometimes even twice a week. From there, it just kept growing. I expanded distribution, launched a website, and built it into its own brand because I wanted it to feel professional and have a space of its own beyond my fiction.

Now I’ve got the entire 2026 calendar booked, with themed months planned for October, November, and December, and I’m genuinely so excited about where it’s going. These days, I kind of live in two worlds—authoring and podcasting—and honestly, I love that.

I think listeners connect with the podcast because it feels like sitting in on a real conversation with authors who genuinely love books, storytelling, and the creative life. It’s fun, relaxed, insightful, and often inspiring. We talk craft, publishing, behind-the-scenes process, and the messy, magical reality of building a writing life. Readers and writers both get to hear the human side of the people behind the books, and I think that makes it feel personal in the best way.

P.S.: Apparently, writing multiple novels and recording weekly podcasts leaves you plenty of time to narrate audiobooks. What has that experience been like?

M.M.: LOL! You know—I’m basically a feral chaos gremlin who wants to do all the things. I really wanted my fairy tales, especially, to be available in audio, but narration is a huge expense for an indie author. So I did what I usually do when faced with a challenge: I decided to figure it out myself. I bought the equipment, learned the process, and climbed the learning curve one recording at a time.

Finding the time means being extremely intentional with my schedule. I keep everything tightly mapped—writing, narration, podcasting, all of it—because otherwise the creative chaos would absolutely win. Some days in the recording booth are smooth and magical, and other days I’m convinced I should fling the whole setup out the window. But then there are those days when I finish a session and think, wow, that was the best work I’ve done yet. Those moments make it worth it.

P.S.: Tide of Stolen Thrones, second in your Legends of the Five Crowns series has vanishing story-magic, pirates, and a stolen throne. Sounds like fun. You co-wrote this with Misty Evans. What was it like to collaborate with another author on a series of novels?

M.M.: Misty and I had been circling the idea of collaborating for a while, so when she finally asked if I wanted to write a romantasy series with her, my answer was basically an immediate yes. No arm-twisting required. We had an absolute blast building this world together—brainstorming the big ideas, shaping the emotional arcs, and figuring out all the moments that would make the series feel rich, magical, and unforgettable.

The first book, The Flame and the Dragon, follows Dessalyn and gives readers dragons, danger, and all the fire you’d hope for. The second, Tide of Stolen Thrones, belongs to Calliope and brings in a charming pirate, high adventure, and a whole different kind of chaos. One of the best surprises of the process was realizing how naturally our voices and writing styles work together. We have a similar rhythm creatively, and we’re both a little bit pantsers at heart, which somehow makes the whole thing even more fun.

And honestly, one of my favorite parts is the way we brainstorm. I’ll get a text from Misty saying something delightfully unhinged like, “I think we should kill off this character,” and my immediate response is usually, “That’s diabolical. Let’s do it.” We have a lot of fun in this world, and I think readers can feel that energy on the page.

P.S.: What is your current work in progress? Would you mind telling us a little about it?

M.M.: I’m currently deep in a dark paranormal romance trilogy set in the world of my Dream Walker series. This new arc—War of the Brotherhood—is all about the reckoning that comes after centuries of manipulation, control, and buried power at the hands of the ruthless Brotherhood of Watchers. Book one, Dark Night of the Soul, is finished, and I’m currently closing in on the end of book two. And because apparently I don’t know how to behave, this series has already sparked yet another spinoff. The Dream Walker universe just keeps expanding every time I turn around.

These books will be releasing later this year, and I’m so excited for readers to dive back in with Anna and Kincade and follow what comes next. I’ve absolutely loved writing this series. It’s dark, emotional, intense, and full of the kind of story chaos I live for.

I also have more fairy tales on the way later this year, including a Snow Queen retelling and a cozy fantasy that sits adjacent to my Enchanted Realms series, but in a modern-world setting. So basically, I’m over here building curses, kisses, magic, and mayhem on multiple fronts.

Poseidon’s Scribe: What advice can you offer aspiring authors?

Michelle Miles: If writing is something you truly want to do, then do it. Don’t wait for permission, and don’t let anyone talk you out of it. Read widely—not just in the genre you want to write, but across genres. Learn the craft. Study story. Keep growing. And maybe most importantly, understand that this is a long game. Publishing is a marathon, not a sprint.

Every book you write teaches you something. Every book you publish adds to your backlist, strengthens your voice, and gives new readers a chance to discover your work. That momentum builds over time. So keep going. Keep learning. Keep writing the stories only you can tell. The right readers will find you.

And whatever you do—don’t give up.

Poseidon’s Scribe: Thank you, Michelle. I love that advice.