For Writers by Hugh Howey

Tips for writers from Hugh Howey, as shared on his blog.

Heart of Darkness

Umbra Mea

A short story about loss, love, and the afterlife. When James loses Melanie, he is inconsolabe. But when he meets with her former professor, he discovers more than he ever could have imagined. He is not the only one who has dealt with loss. James discovers Melanie may have never left him after all.

Chocolate Umbrella

Alena and Emile were college sweethearts. After graduation, they started their career, made their success and got married. Is this the "happily ever after" ending then? There wouldn't be a story if that was how it went. As they grew into parenthood, ran into career challenges and other stressful events in lives...

Finvarra's Circus (poems)

Angel®

Angel is a prototype. Designed and built to resemble a human, she is programmed to think herself far inferior to them. Her emotions are just digital codes and a robot's life is worth nothing compared to a human's... or so they say.

A Box full of Baubles

A collection of random shorts and musings to get the creative juices flowing...

Playing Jacks

**Winner: Licking River Writers Contest** After five years away, Jacks returns to reclaim his life- only to find a lush accountant with curves that fill out her clothes living in the apartment over his folks' pool house. Oh, the attraction is there- but Jacks doesn't believe in love anymore and Sophie can't trust her...

The Great Fairy Book

This is a collection of original fairy tales, like the ones we all heard when we were children. Because fairy tales never lose their magic, no matter how old you are.

The Wandering Tale of Grigori Verlaf

"Not all those who wander are lost." - J.R.R. Tolkien. Grigori Verlaf, battered, scarred, and driven on by his bitter past, has nothing left but the ghost of a love long gone, and a wandering tale to tell, but in spite of the hardships he has endured, he has never lost the only truth he has to hold on to: He always l...

Quoth the Raven

A steampunk short set in an alternative London. The Tower: a rock around which swirls a broken Empire, where Cloud Pirates rules the skies in their cloudships and power is all. Lead by Tower Commander Denalta, can Trooper Seth and his fellow Guards survive, and will the weapons supplied by the enigmatic Raven give the...