Today's story ventures farther back into the past of the Yekara Universe farther than we have ever gone before. "Before the Fall" is set roughly 30 years before the events of Right of Succession.

Those who have read the novel will notice a few familiar names; however, the story makes sense on its own and does not contain spoilers for the novel.

I did adjust the wording of the last sentence in this dialogue prompt just a bit to fit more with the setting, but the meaning and tone remains the same.

Today's story takes us back to the Yekara Universe, about halfway through the summer following Right of Succession. While you don't have to have read the book for the flash fiction to make sense, it's perhaps a bit more fun if you have.

You can also click here to listen to the audio version of today's story. Or you can listen to a playlist of all the Yekara Universe Audios, in chronological order.

Today's story is set a few months before the beginning of Right of Succession, so I have to warn you it contains some fairly big spoilers. If you haven't read the novel, and you don't want to be spoiled, you might want to finish the book first.

I thought I'd mix it up a bit this week by answering a writer's tag I found online. It just has ten simple questions, so this should be short and sweet.

1. What do you write?

A quick scroll down the categories over to the right of the page ought to prove I write speculative fiction. Spec fic covers a wide range of genres and their subgenres as well as mashups of those. I tend to stick more with science fiction, but I do dabble in fantasy now and again. And like with the Yekara series and the Myth and Science universe stories, there are times when I use both science fiction and fantasy elements in the same piece.

Hey look! I can write a flash fiction set in the Yekara Universe that doesn't have spoilers. Yay!

Today's flash fiction is set roughly twelve years or so before Right of Succession.

Today's story takes us back to the Yekara universe about a week after the end of Right of Succession. There are a couple of spoilers in it. So if you haven't read the novel yet and don't want to be spoiled, you might want to wait about clicking "read more."

It is still going to be a while before I can start making audios of these stories again. Each one requires an hour or so of editing, and I still can't sit at my desk for more than a few minutes without spending at least the rest of the day in agony. Sorry.

I discussed how housework acts like meditation for me and often leads to bursts of creativity on Tuesday. Today I want to talk about an instance that helped me come to the conclusions I reached.

A couple weeks ago my grandparents asked to look after the girls for a while, so I had the afternoon to myself. As I often do on days like these, I decided to get ahead on my tasks for the next day. So since we sold our stereo along with some other things and furniture when we moved, I set up the computer to use for music. I found a Buffy, Angel, and Supernatural play list on YouTube, set it to playing and went about my work.

Originally published March 28, 2010

I must have asked myself what the hold up is on Right of Succession a thousand times over the years. I mean, I started on the thing about this time of year back when I was thirteen, and I'll be 29 in a few months.

Filled with the self-assurance of the immensely amateur, at first I was sure it was simply the time eaten up with class and homework holding back the rate I could write. Then my family bought our first computer my freshman year of college, and I began researching publishing online and participating in writers' groups. After a couple of years and many blows to the ego, I realized I had a lot to learn about writing in general, let alone creating readable fiction.