It fought me the whole way and got interrupted by a couple of other projects, but I am now finished with the first draft of my next novel, The Mercy Protocol. More details and sample chapters will be posted in a week or two.

I want to give a big congratulatory shout-out to @Zak King for being the first TCU member to hit level 5 thanks to their activity in the group. A true achievement. Thank you so much Zak, for being here and being such an active contributor. Zak has earned and unlocked his level 5 bonus and gotten a shout-out in one of my podcasts! You can hear his shout-out airing in the Smash Writer's Block Podcast - Episode 10, airing on Spotify January 28th 2026. Don't want to wait that long? TCU members can exclusively hear it now if they've unlocked access to #Introduction - Smash Writer's Block , Episode 10 is the first podcast in Module 4, episode 4.1. Once again, way to go Zack! You can listen to the SMASH Writer's Block Podcast on Spotify, here

I did it! well sorta. I can write, but I can't draw -- not even good stick figures! Solution? I found Katalist.ai , an AI drawing tool for storytelling sketches and all types of drawings. Check it out!

I just spent the last few days working on this video…. I’m really, really new to AI images and videos, and even more so to video editing… But I’m really happy about this first result!!

@Christa Karim is this week's shout-out because she is always a positive and enthusiastic member. Christa always has a positive comment and a genuine contribution to make to group discussions. Thank you so much for being an active and thoughtful member Christa!