Christmas 2025

Snarky Muse: Why do you write?

Me: Wow, just cut to the chase … Okay, in the words of Joan Didion: I write to find out what I think. And ink is cheaper than therapy.

Snarky Muse: Did you say that?

Me: No, that’s Victor Kline.

Snarky Muse: Fine, I’ll just ask the regular stuff: What are you writing these days?

Me: I’ve finished Purple Bleed Naughty Beasts. This is novel thirteen, currently getting the fine-tooth comb treatment in New York before I put it up on Amazon and other sellers. It’s a stand-alone, though it uses many characters from a previous story called Project Purple. The lead is a strong woman often referred to as the goatwench—her role back in the role-play colony. Project Purple follows how she was deceived into reenacting early American colonial life for a streaming audience. Conditions grew intentionally harsher. Most of the colonials died, though three survived and make it into Purple Bleed Naughty Beasts.

Snarky Muse: How is this story different?

Me: It has an interesting structure. Without giving too much away, it mirrors the architecture of the great 1950s sci-fi novel A Canticle for Leibowitz—similar themes, too: the cyclical nature of history and humanity’s habit of walking straight back into its own mistakes.

Snarky Muse: So it’s a sequel?

Me: Not really. It’s an entirely different story, though some characters return.

Snarky Muse: The ones who survived the first book.

Me: That’s right.

Snarky Muse: Will there be a third story with these characters?

Me: Nope. Novel fourteen returns to the adventures of Japanese Pinky Bell.

Snarky Muse: The Pinky Bell stories are rather heavy on comic-book action, no?

Me: It’s comic fantasy, but with heavy social commentary woven in.

Snarky Muse: So this latest story—Purple Bleed Naughty Beasts—it doesn’t exactly scream comedy, does it?

Me: The Goatwench stories have a different tone: more sober, explicit, lyrical.

Snarky Muse: How many novels do you plan to write?

Me: As many as I can before the lights go out. I’m not counting; I’m simply following the trail.

Snarky Muse: The trail, huh? Well, why are some writers so prolific?

Me: Some have to write to stay sane. Others write because stopping feels like a small death. I’m somewhere in the middle—driven by curiosity, irritation, the occasional miracle of a story that lands just right. If fourteen novels is considered prolific, then I’ll go with Henry Colfax: I stay prolific by never asking if it’s any good until it’s too late to quit.

Snarky Muse: Sounds like a fine place to quit.