I shared the first chapter of my novel, Catfish Air with this group, and mine, and some friends, and got excellent feedback. The best part is that I got proper, constructive feedback. Not a single person said, "Oh, gosh-golly-gee-wow mister, this is swell!" Every reader said things like, "These parts are great, but that didn't work for me," or "I like this a lot, but this bit didn't make sense," or even, "Please delete this entire section - it's way too much!" And guess what? I took it all to heart. Not in a bad way. I mean I took is seriously. I genuinely went back and reviewed what I'd written and incorporated the feedback, and I think I cracked the code! Up until now, I'd had the POV and the voice all wrong. It was too stiff like I was a puppeteer with some marionettes and describing what people were doing. Not gonna lie...it kind of sucked. But now I zoomed in, stepped inside a character, share back stories as I go along which allows me to avoid cardboard cut-out characters. Thank you all so much for your feedback! And, if you're interested, I've attached the new version of the first chapter. Fair warning...there's one character who is VERY inappropriate toward women - but give him some grace because it's all part of his character arc.

I have some news, and I want you to hear it from me directly. The Wordsmiths' Guild is growing up. Over the next few months, I'm finishing the full Journeyman curriculum — eight lessons, each one built around a concrete, nameable craft skill, each one including a writing assignment that I read personally and send back with feedback. When it's done, the Guild moves to a formal tier structure: Apprentice, Journeyman, and Master levels, each with its own curriculum, its own price point, and its own completion rewards. That goes live September 1. Between now and then, I'm building this in public — and you're invited to be part of it as it takes shape. Every course I'm developing, every mentorship session I host, every piece of curriculum in progress is available to you right now, at no cost. Come learn. Come ask questions. Come watch the thing get built. Here's what I want to offer you specifically, as a founding member: Submit proof of publication before September 1 — anything you wrote, finished, and put in front of readers; a blog post, an article, a book, a piece submitted somewhere — and you earn Founding Apprentice status. That means lifetime free access to all Apprentice-level curriculum, for as long as the Guild exists. No monthly fee. No expiration. Grandfathered in, permanently. Your free membership isn't going anywhere. Nothing is being taken from you. I just want to give you the chance to step into something more before the door closes. For the full picture — tiers, pricing, what's included at each level, and the completion rewards — head to the Classroom and open "The Wordsmiths' Guild: How It Works." To claim Founding Apprentice status: reply to this post or send me a direct message with your proof of publication before September 1. I'll see you in the sessions. — Shawn

After I finished my last non-fiction book, I promised myself I'd focus on fiction. And I did. I spent a lot of time developing the outline, working on worldbuilding, character development, and story arcs. Let me know what you think. Chapter One. Balad Air Base, Iraq Technical Sergeant Virgil R. Mason set his coffee cup down next to his Rubik’s cube and wiggled his computer mouse to wake his computer. The large, black mirror glowed to life. His desk was cluttered with papers in loose piles. The office he shared with Master Sergeant Edmund Erwin was in an old Iraqi military building. There was no way to know why the Iraqis built, or what it was used for. But it was ideall for this small Air Force detachment. “Don’t forget we have the assignment brief at zero-nine,” said Master Sergeant Erwin. “I think she’s sending us to FOB Colfax this week. I heard her mention it to Captain Carlisle the other day.” Virgil’s computer came fully to life and he double-clicked the Outlook icon. He remembered years before they used to say that if you wanted to beat the air force, all you’d need to do is shut down the phone system. These days it was Outlook. “And if you want to do the half-marathon, let me know,” said Sergeant Erwin. “I haven’t done any distance like that in ages and I could use the running buddy.” Virgil nodded and grunted quietly, slowly sipping his coffee. This morning he was having Starbucks’ Veranda – the one with the little hummingbird on the bag. Previous teams who had been through this office set up a collection point for coffee from care packages. If he had to guess, there was maybe seventy or eighty pounds of coffee – mostly Starbucks. His favorite was the Veranda, and he was running low. There was plenty of the Pike’s Place and whatever other dark or medium roast coffees they made – some bags of whole bean and some ground. One thing that hadn’t come in a care package yet was a grinder, so the bags of ground coffee, especially Veranda, were under his personal protection.

When I work with Claude to help me write, I've developed a voice instruction so there's less line editing to do later: "Master Sergreant Reverend E.B. White with a slightly dark sense of humor, writing a paper for my high school English teacher, Mrs. Cox who is strict about punctuation and founding member of PETOP (People for the Ethical Treatment Of Participles) and she is HIGHLY allergic to "AI-isms" and doesn't carry and epi-pen." It took a lot of practice to find this as a description of my natural writing voice. What might yours be?

I'm on my way to Hopewell, New Jersey today. I took a day off of work to go there. In my novel, Away To The World, there's a pivotal scene that takes place in an old church. The novel is deeply rooted in New Jersey, so I started scouring different towns, using Google Earth, looking for just the right church. What I found is far better than what I wanted. More to come.