Taven Moore

I tried, I really did. You made life hard for my commenters, but bless their hearts they were willing to try anyway. You're making MY life hard, too, though. These themes are TERRIBLE. They're unwieldy to work with on the admin and ugly to use on the front-end. On the upside, it made me brave enough to try another custom wordpress install The theme on the new site isn't final (I dislike the giant image that you have to scroll past in order to get to the content) but at least the font is readable and I can make changes to it when I have time. No more posts will happen here. Look for new content on TavenMoore.com/blog

As always, beware the comments section if you plan on writing something, so as to avoid being influenced. I look forward to seeing your responses! The yellow lines on the highway sped by in a blur, and we flew through the night, and we felt free. But we weren’t, and we knew it. We were running away from something, and running away was never the path to freedom. I thought about asking John to turn back. I thought about suggesting…

I'm cheating a little and posting a book AFTER I've read it ... but I wanted to make sure it was a good one. The fun thing about this one is that it's a book of short stories! So even if you don't like all of them (which I did not) you are almost certain to love some of them (which I most definitely did!). Many many thanks to Faith Williams for rising to the challenge of suggesting it for me. The Starlit Wood Packed with award-winning authors, this anthology explores an array of fairy tales in startling and innovative ways, in genres and settings both traditional and unusual, including science fiction, western, and post-apocalyptic as well as traditional fantasy and contemporary horror. The first and last stories were predictably my favorites, but it was super fascinating to read through all of the different genres, styles, and interpretations. Even if a particular story wasn't to my liking, I still learned a lot from reading them. My favorites included

As always, beware the comments section if you plan on writing something, so as to avoid being influenced. I look forward to seeing your responses! Reporters are trained to develop a sixth sense, a nose for when a story smells fishy. And something about this one wasn't right. First of all, ...

I'm not gonna hide it. I'm super addicted to this Netflix show called Samurai Gourmet. It is gentle and funny and calming and beautiful. It is partly food appreciation, with gorgeous cooking cinematography. It is partly auditory pleasure, with a combination of perfect background musics and internal dialogue from the hero, whose deep Japanese patter paints gorgeous portraits even without the accompanying subtitles. It is partly guilty pleasure, as the hero (a recently-retired Japanese businessman aided by a Samurai spirit guide) revels in the knowledge that he can have beer in the middle of the day, or agonizes over whether or not he looks silly in the sunglasses he bought. Seriously. This guy worries about everything. I relate to him so much -- should I say something to the rude person, or keep quiet? What will people think if I eat spaghetti with the wrong utensils? Watching him grow stronger as a person (to the point of actually standing up to someone by the end

Writing Alone So you want to be a writer. But it's difficult. I get it. I'm not making fun, because I 150% get it. Finding the time to do it is difficult enough even before adding in feelings of self-doubt and loneliness. Maybe you don't have any writing friends. Maybe you DO, but they all live far away or have their own super busy lives that don't mesh with yours. If you've ever done NaNoWriMo, you understand the true value of a strong writing community. The camaraderie, the readership, the companionship -- it's heady. It's like going from a world of black-and-white to technicolor ... and when it's gone it's like watching the last leaf fall from a tree and fly off in a chilly breeze. Even those who are very self-motivated can find it difficult to maintain writing when it seems like you're spilling words out into the darkness. I get it. But there are solutions. And they don't involve moving to Canada or Florida to live close

As always, beware the comments section if you plan on writing something, so as to avoid being influenced. I look forward to seeing your responses! The wind whispered through the dark, empty trees like a warning in a foreign language. Winter was coming, and with winter …

Be the best You you can be. How do you WANT to define yourself? What activities, qualities, hobbies, or loves do you want to be associated with? "Oh, she's a writer." "Or him? He's the most generous guy you'll ever meet." "Them? They know everything there is to know about dogs." If you fall short of those lofty ideals, do not fret.  Most everyone believes themselves to be less than they are -- less than other people see them. I have a coworker who calls me a writer. Inside, I doubt. I list my failures as if the sheer weight of them buries that label like the rubble from a broken building. I am a writer. Not despite my failures, or even because of them. I am a writer because writing makes me more like Me. I can do better. I can become more Me than I am, but that doesn't mean I cannot claim the title. That doesn't make me unworthy of it. I love to learn. I love to organize things. I love cute things

This post was inspired by February's reading -- Ready Player One. This post is spoiler-free, but the comments may not be. You have been warned. I recommend it. I did feel the first half was a little slow, but the second half made up for it and the concept was brilliant. Concept As it happens, the "concept" is what I want to talk to you about. As writers, we often find a great "what if" and want to roll with it. What if Vampires took over after World War 1 and now people are raised as cattle in "pleasant" camps? What if there is a magic key that turns any locked doorway into a portal to a magical land? What if a teenager discovers that she is actually half-unicorn on her 16th birthday? In the case of Ready Player One, you could say, "What if the real world was horrible so most people escaped into a virtual reality realm for their everyday lives?" That's a great idea, and the author does a fantastic job with it. The book

New week? New prompt! As always, beware the comments section if you plan on writing something, so as to avoid being influenced. I look forward to seeing your responses! "How did you know?" I asked, not sure I wanted the answer. I thought I had been careful. I thought she …."

Quick post to not only let you know that I'm not dead, but also introduce my personal reading assignment for March. Envy of Angels, by Matt Wallace . In New York, eating out can be hell.  Everyone loves a well-catered event, and the supernatural community is no different, but where do demons go to satisfy their culinary cravings?  Welcome to Sin du Jour - where devils on horseback are the clients, not the dish. The series was pitched to me by a podcast as a heist story where instead of the crew being criminals and thieves ... they're chefs trying to make a crazy-awesome meal. That sounds absolutely up my alley, so I added it to my reading list immediately. I'd love it if anyone had time to add it to theirs!

New week? New prompt! As always, beware the comments section if you plan on writing something, so as to avoid being influenced. I look forward to seeing your responses! I've lived in this town my whole life, and most of the time that's fine by me. But in the late fall when the sky fills with birds migrating south for the winter, traveling thousands of miles, I get homesick for places I've never been. Places like ….

I remember fondly the days when I not only did not have to PLAN for books, books just sort of happened to me. Alas, adulthood is fast upon me and time for reading must be carved out by my very fingernails. This month, I'm reading Ready Player One, by Ernest Kline . I'm not quite halfway through it (so this notification to YOU, dear friends, is a bit postmature. Is that a word? It should be a word). In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines—puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them.   But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade&

New week? New prompt! As always, beware the comments section if you plan on writing something, so as to avoid being influenced. I look forward to seeing your responses! Perhaps it was a dream, she thought. Perhaps if she pinched herself, she would wake up. But she didn't want to wake up. She wanted to stay in this dream world where ….

"Action without planning is fatal, but planning without action is futile." I've tried to find attribution for that quote without luck, but it seems to be popular in Project Management circles. I heard it at a company meeting about strategic planning and business initiatives. Writing is In Everything Me? Every company meeting I'm in, all I can think about is how it's a lesson I associate with writing. Company-level vision and goals? Writing. Agile project development and SCRUM principles? Also writing. Getting through slumps in diet or workout? Random podcast about getting your career as a comedian started? ... You get the picture. Planners and Pantsers and Weaponry We've talked about planners vs pantsers in the past, and I think it's one of those Hatfield and McCoy situations that makes people draw a line in the sand and stand behind it, weapons out. *draws a line* There's a line, and on this side of it, I'm a planner. BUT.

Perry and I have been propping each other up on the writing front for a while now, but I've loved seeing some Saucy faces in the comments and on Facebook, so I figure we should get the band back together. Even if just in a small way. Obviously, no pressure to contribute (or even share your contribution if you don't feel like it) but if you participate, I'd love to see your story in the comments! ... on a related note, avoid the comments until you've written yours, just to be safe. I know I can be accidentally influenced by reading how other people respond to a prompt and I'd hate to accidentally squash your voice. Also, these prompts are the equivalent of an artist's sketch. Repeat, these are WRITING SKETCHES. Perfection is in no way a goal here. All we're doing is stretching our writing muscles with something small and flippant. That being said, the first prompt is .... *drumroll please* At first, we thought the black liquid was oil, that w

I missed blogging. I didn't miss the endless battles against random attackers on my custom wordpress install, but I missed this. I missed YOU. So ... I pouted. And I shuffled my feet in the dirt. And I hemmed and I hawed and I blew my procrastination down. So here I am, back out there. A little older, not much wiser, and a little bit sassier. Whether you knew me as Tami, Taven, Whiskerwing, or even Egostistical Priest (hi there, old friends!) I'm still the same me. It feels SUPER weird not having control over my fonts and layouts but at the same time it's a little freeing. I mean, that's one less thing for me to spend my oh-so-precious free time on, right? What's that, compared to a few red links? (seriously, RED link text? What's that all about? This theme may not get to stay .... Since I've Been Gone I own a house now. Weird, right? Does it feel weird to hear it, because it totally feels weird to SAY it. A house. I own it. With a grown-up