June 20, 2025
bowl of cherries on a table with greenery around image - TEXT: Ice Cherries, Fiction, Tandy Malinak
Published by Tandy Malinak at June 20, 2025
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Ice Cherries

The storm’s coming was awful enough. The cherries would be ripening in a few short days, and the last thing they needed in this moment was too much water. But I couldn’t do anything about it. It would pass and leave whatever wreckage it chose to leave and I’d clean up as best I could.
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May 31, 2025
Rows of books on shelves in brown-tones. - TEXT: Got Resources? - Tandy Malinak - Writer's Book Roundup - writer's guide
Published by Tandy Malinak at May 31, 2025
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Got Resources?

One of my favorites is writing resources: I love finding books or articles that I can dive back into again and again to hone my craft and (hopefully) help others to hone theirs. With that goal in mind, today I’d like to share a little about five of the many, many useful books that grace my overstuffed shelves.
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March 29, 2025
Book cover in red and fawn - The Book - Writer's Resource, Nonfiction Review by Tandy Malinak
Published by Tandy Malinak at March 29, 2025
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The Book – A Review

The Book is as much a history lesson as it is a mystery, revealing more than it conceals, but always leaving a few things a little unraveled for our imagination to wonder at — for so history itself, with its often patchy evidence, demands.
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May 6, 2024
various time watches and pieces
Published by Tandy Malinak at May 6, 2024
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Worldbuilding 101: Timelines, Your Story Sequence

Timelines establish the sequence or schedule for your story. Everything on them should be necessary to the world or your characters and must be done in a precise order so that what you create makes sense in story form.
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March 13, 2024
Image of eclipse with text: My favorite things, the total solar eclipse, Tandy Malinak
Published by Tandy Malinak at March 13, 2024
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My Favorite Things — The Total Solar Eclipse

Totality lasted less than 3 minutes — such a tiny fraction of time compared to the years I’d spent waiting, hoping, planning, and preparing. It overwhelmed the mind yet further rooted a desire for more at the same time.
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February 18, 2024
notebook, pencil camera laid on top of a map
Published by Tandy Malinak at February 18, 2024
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Worldbuilding 101: Story Setting, Your World’s Framework

Story setting is more than just the physical stuff. It’s the mood and culture, period and genre, and many other things all wrapped into one. But it’s worth parsing out to find the sticky spots in your work that need more detail.
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November 18, 2023
various construction site images
Published by Tandy Malinak at November 18, 2023
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Worldbuilding 101: Characters, the Story Foundation

Your characters are worldbuilding tools, but they are also much more. Use them correctly, interact with them as if they were real, and you’ll see them come to life. They’ll become the guides to your storyline and world.
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October 26, 2023
Published by Tandy Malinak at October 26, 2023
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Worldbuilding 101: Maps, the Story Blueprint

Your map represents the world your characters live in. It might be as small as a doll’s house or as large as a multi-galaxy supercluster, and that’s fine…provided you can keep it all straight.
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