Tag: Not Fiction

Looking Ahead!

Ladies and Gentlemen: Mark. Your. Calendars!

It’s shaping up to be a busy October/November! After so much focus on getting Innocent Vampire (and the Audiobook) prepared for release, there’s a few events coming up I wanna make everyone aware of!

I’ll be at Brown’s Harvest (in Windsor, CT) on October 24th and Booktopia (in Fairfield, CT) on October 25th!

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You’ll also be able to find me at the Norwalk Author Celebration on November 7th! Come for excellent books, interesting panels, and lots of live author readings!

As I’m writing this, I agreed to head over to Two Brothers Cafe on Saturday, November 14th from 3-6 for their Holiday Bazaar! This will be the last in-person event before the release of Blanc LaBelle and the Innocent Vampire!

And last, but not least, we are having an actual release party for Blanc LaBelle and the Innocent Vampire! The good folks over at Klekolo World Coffee (in Middletown) are opening their doors so we can celebrate the release of Innocent Vampire in style on November 16th! More details on that to come, but set aside the evening of the 16th for as close to a midnight release as my Early Bird Brain will allow these days!

As always check the Event Page at the top of the site to get all the information and updates!

Blanc LaBelle and the TTRPG

It’s no secret that I love Tabletop RPGs. D&D, Monster of the Week, Kids on Bikes (and Brooms), even Honey Heist. One of the things I love about the Blanc LaBelle Universe is that it is so expansive and anyone can jump in where they feel comfortable! To that end, I made a quick RPG Guide for using the Blanc LaBelle Universe as a setting for your own games! I made a home game with a few of my other RPG friends and whipped together this as a framework.

Do you want to explore Fae Town? Want to find home in your own Magi Town? Or would you rather be a dragon living in a remote forest in the Above? The sky is the limit!

Blanc LaBelle RPG GuideDownload

Tell me about your home games! Would you ever use Blanc LaBelle’s Universe as a setting for your game? What would you want to play as?

An exciting new addition!

Hello everyone! Been a little while since it’s been “just us” without a story to bring us together! I hope we can still get along (if not, there’s a new fiction post coming tomorrow)!

I wanted to take an opportunity to talk about an exciting new addition to the Nicholas Westbrook Writing Universe (the NWWU, for those who prefer initials). I’ve felt like my mailing list has been a bit ignored recently, so I wanted to give anyone who signs up something kind of regular! After a lot of work on my social media, I came to the realization that big companies can just…pull the plug whenever they want, but they can’t take away my mailing list (ideally). So, I’m very happy to announce my Rose and Thorn Newsletter!

(“But what is the Rose and Thorn Newsletter?”)

Excellent question! The Rose and Thorn Newsletter will be a biweekly update (that’s every two weeks, not twice a week). It will include a Snapshot that will tell you what my current project’s working title is called, my word count (and/or pages edited), as well as recently attended and upcoming events! Additional, each issue will feature some recent thoughts in the form of Rose and Thorn. The Rose will be something good (a popular event, a personal milestone, or a creative thing that finally feels like it came to fruition). The Thorn will be something challenging to do with my writing experiences (something I’m struggling to make work, a project I need to put aside, or something I’ve been trying to work on).

It will share the highs and lows that come with being an indie author (because believe me, there’s a lot of both). But you’ll get to see how the sausage is made if you subscribe to the mailing list! Sign up below and join in on the future adventure!

The first one will be released Monday, September 14th, so sign up and be there for the beginning!

Announcing: Fan Art Contest!

Now that Blanc LaBelle and the Troll’s Daughter has been out for a little while, I’m hoping that people have gotten a chance to read through it. If you enjoyed it, maybe you have some distinct pictures in your head. Did a setting speak to you? Did a character’s face come clearly in your mind? Maybe you saw a map of the Under appeared in your mind’s eye? Well, now is your chance to share it with an art contest!

I’m going to be running a fan art contest! Entries will be collected on various social media (specifically Facebook, Instagram, and BlueSky) by tagging my social media account on your art! Every entry (meaning posting on BlueSky and Instagram will mean two entries) will equal an entry into a final drawing for the grand prize: a signed paperback version of Blanc LaBelle and the Troll’s Daughter, a promotional bookmark, some promotional stickers, and one of the wooden promo tokens. In one month, on June 18th, I will be choosing one of the artists at random to decide the winner!

UPDATE: The Contest has been pushed out to August 14th! Plenty of time to add your art to the contest!

Rules:
1) You must be 18 or older to enter.
2) You must be a resident of the US (sorry)
3) Absolutely No AI Art! Gotta put my foot down on this one.

So, post your art and tag me on Facebook, BlueSky, and Instagram! I’m so looking forward to seeing your creations!

Fantastic Nonfiction

Nonfiction can be tough for people to get into. If you’re looking for something that isn’t just “War History” or “Biography”, these are some of my best recommendations for nonfiction.

  • Tiger – John Vaillant
    This is the story of a man eating tiger in Eastern Russia. That is an oversimplification and barely scratches the surface of what this book contains. It is an epic adventure from the initial deaths to the hunt to the ultimate conclusion. It is a story about a hunt to the death, a tracker and prey. The book breaks down the progression smoothly and reads more like a novel than a recounting of a historical event.
  • Physics of the Impossible – Michio Kaku
    As a science fiction enthusiast, I love looking at the big science topics and wondering how plausible they would be. Kaku is a master of this, breaking down the ideas into pieces and asking how close we are. Whether it’s hover cars or time travel, Kaku is very good at breaking the concepts and physics down into something understandable and ultimately deciding how likely it is to be in our future. Whether it’s a few years away or requires a major re-understanding of our laws of physics, this puts expectations into clear categories without being a buzzkill.
  • Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell
    When I was in college, we read this one as part of a Intro to Psychology course. Since reading it, I’ve always felt that Gladwell is one of the best nonfiction writers out there. Taking seemingly unconnected examples and connects them with not only solid facts and research, but a very clear connective theme. This book is a great example of that, finding patterns and connections of all the “greats” in whatever their field is. It almost feels like one of those “productivity hack” suggestion, but it truly changes how I viewed “excellence”.
  • Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel – Carl Safina
    As someone who works with animals, the connection between humans and animals has always been something that fascinates me. Our idea of intelligence, empathy, and understanding are all often measured against human performance to determine how “smart” an animal is. But we’re just beginning to understand how animals think and this book is a wonderful exploration of that field!
  • Elephant Company – Vicki Constantine Croke
    This is probably my number one recommendation when it comes to nonfiction. It’s about an elephant logging company in Burma during WWII. There were elements of war history, biography, and animal adventure, but written in a way that was more of a story. Even my mom, who doesn’t read much, thought this was a good read! I definitely recommend this for anyone who enjoys adventure, history, animals animals and the connections we have to them!

On Trolls

Mira is not like most trolls. She’s only half-troll, after all, but she’s also different compared to most contemporary depictions. Her clan doesn’t necessarily shun the sunlight or live under bridges, but there are some who fit the brutish stereotype we’ve come to accept today.

Working on this book, obviously, I knew that trolls were going to be an integral group to sort out: from their laws to their biology. From Lord of the Rings to Dungeons and Dragons, trolls have made their way comfortably into modern media. They’re often seen as dim, ugly brutes with only an interest in destruction. I wanted slightly different trolls and did a lot of exploration. They are most popular in Scandinavian folklore, mixed in with Giants and Fiends (often used interchangeably). There are no set rules: there are some stories where they aren’t even villains as we’ve come to expect.

Here’s a few of my favorite stories that I stumbled across in my research.

The Troll’s Daughter:
Believe it or not, this one I found after I had started writing the story. The story goes that a young man is traveling, looking to make his new life. He’s offered a job by a stranger on the road, offering increasing amounts of money once a year for three years. The stranger turns out to be a troll and king of the woods. The troll has the young man work by feeding the animals in his menagerie, allowing him spend his free time in the form of various animals including a hare and a raven. While swimming as a fish, the young man meets a beautiful woman. She tells him she is the troll’s daughter and helps him trick the troll into letting them marry. With the Troll King defeated, all the animals are released and the new young couple have a vibrant forest kingdom to rule over.

Heddal Stave Church Troll:
According to local legend, Heddal Stave Church was built by a troll. Five farmers wanted to build the church and a stranger approached saying he would build the church. His conditions demanded that the farmers do one of three things before the church was finished: the farmers had to guess the stranger’s name before he was finished or he would kill them. They agreed, but the stranger worked quickly and was prepared to finish by the third day. While trying to think of the stranger’s name, one of the farmers– Raud–heard a mountain troll woman singing a song to her baby about her husband. She revealed the troll’s name in her song and Raud addressed the troll by name the day of the deadline. Some stories say that the troll family ran away (despising the sound of church bells) and others say that Finn is still there, turned to stone and holding up one of the pillars.

The Hall of the Mountain King:
The powerhouse musical number actually comes from Peer Gynt (Henrick Ibsen’s opera) is the theme for a great troll king who haunts Peer’s nightmares. Peer, intent on become the heir to the troll kingdom, comes demanding the hand of the king’s daughter in marriage. The Mountain King agrees as long as Peer agrees to live as a troll. When things get too real (including the removal of Peer’s eyes), Peer learns that he actually can’t back out anymore. The sequence ends when Peer is set upon by the Mountain Kings subjects and he wakes up.

Three Billy Goats Gruff:
This is probably where your mind goes to when you think of prominent troll stories. It’s a pretty basic story: there’s a troll that lives under a bridge and threatens to eat anyone who goes across his bridge. The first goat asks him to wait for the next, saying that his brother is close behind and will be a more filling meal. The second goat says the same, offering an even more filling meal with his brother coming behind him. Turns out, the third billy goat gruff was a bit more than this troll can chew. The biggest goat isn’t afraid of the troll and challenges him, ultimately killing the troll so no one is eaten by him again.

These are just a few of the fun stories I’ve found in my research. By diving into the folklore and mythology, you can see the influences that these classic stories in our contemporary depictions of trolls. Find out more about the trolls in the Blanc LaBelle universe on May 12th, 2026 when I release Blanc LaBelle and the Troll’s Daughter.

Hidden World Fantasy Books

I am a huge fan of hidden world books. Living in Seattle for a while, there were so many places I would visit that felt like they were hiding more than I could see. The 24-Hour Diner had it’s secrets to be certain, labyrinthine bookstores at Pike’s Place contained hidden entrances to somewhere, and local landmarks held hidden stories that only those who knew would tell. The thought of magic, monsters, and more just beneath the surface of our world intrigued me enough that I eventually started creating my own, the Under and the Fold, hidden in plain sight.

There is no shortage of hidden world books, so here is a brief (very brief) collection of some of my favorites that stuck with me.

  • Nightwatch – Sergei Lukyanenko: This is probably one of the closest one-to-one hidden worlds I’ve been able to track down. Sorcerers, vampires, and curses are all in plain sight in contemporary Moscow. Cellphones and computers are used alongside magic and shapeshifting all headed by a secret organization that fights to keep the balance between the magical and the mundane. It’s a bit more grim-dark than the Hedgefield, but it’s probably one of my favorite hidden world stories.
  • Ninth House – Leigh Bardugo: Set in New Haven Connecticut, this is another story where the few know about the fantastical. There are fewer monsters, but plenty of magic to make up for it. The city as a backdrop to the spectacular feels very clear here. Again, we have secret organizations maintaining the balance between those who use spells and rituals and those who do not. Lethe House works very similarly to Blanc LaBelle and his allies: just trying to keep peace with mixed results.
  • The City We Became – N.K. Jemisin: This is probably the most literal ‘Hidden City’ on this list. The city itself becomes a character (multiple characters, actually, but you’ll have to read it). The city is a part of the magic and each district offers a different kind of power to it’s user. LaBelle is a foundation figure in Hedgefield, but he knows the city better for it. The places, while not hidden, have a much deeper influence in the magical sense.
  • Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel – Susanna Clarke: This one is more fitting for a historical fantasy, set in the 1800s rather than a modern setting. Magic is real, but only a very select few (our titular friends) have access to it at the time of the setting. There are spirits, mischievous and monstrous, that coexist with the magicians and slink in the shadows of mortals. The intersection between men and magic is another major theme that I cover in the Blanc LaBelle series (for better and for worse).

What are some of your favorite hidden world stories? Do you love a magical school hidden from human eyes or do you prefer the magic to be right under your nose?

Your next Hidden World love could well be in the universe of Blanc LaBelle and the Troll’s Daughter, available May 12, 2026!

Piecing Together

Every writer–no matter where they are in their writing journey–has a Trunk Book. It’s a story you started when you weren’t ready and had to give up. A story you wrote that never quite came together or a series of ideas you didn’t know how to connect beyond a few scenes and a loose plot. Maybe time got the better of you, or a busy schedule determined that your story would be put on hold, or perhaps you just lost steam about it and moved on to another idea. The Lost Characters, the Abandoned Quests, and the Snippets of Dialogue that you loved all linger together in the bottom of a trunk: digital, physical, or mental.

Personally, I have a particular file on my computer that I call the Graveyard: projects that didn’t quite pan out, short things I wrote in high school, and things that just never settled quite right for whatever reason. Sometimes, like a literary corpse snatcher, I go back to old projects and do a bit of grave robbing to piece together old ideas into something new. I have found myself revisiting this folder a lot recently.

The question that hits me again and again is “What needs to be fixed?” before I can do anything with it. Is it the tone of the story? Does a character not have enough motivation or do their actions seem inconsistent? Who or what would be needed to drive the story forward and what is stagnant that doesn’t seem to fit the pace? Answering these questions help me decide what to do with these old cadavers of story. Some stay in the Graveyard to age a bit, but some seem ripe enough to try and resurrect.

I am, admittedly, guilty of Email Writing a Novel. While working desk jobs–stuck behind a computer with shifting workflow–I would often send emails to myself. When an idea hit me that was remotely more interesting than another spreadsheet or company email, I would email my personal email what was on my mind. Trapped behind a desk, I built gateways to my own adventures. I uncovered an old email thread I had written and decided to tackle it again.

The most important thing about Graveyards or Trunk Books is that it doesn’t destroy things that didn’t work at the time. It saves them so they can percolate in a safe place without constantly trying to fix what’s broken. The most important part of writing is–unsurprisingly–writing. If you’re stuck in a Trunk Book, sometimes it’s healthy to set it aside until you’re ready to stitch together a new monster. Hopefully, your results will be more beneficial than Dr. Frankenstein’s body building.

Arranging Titles

I’ve been considering re-shelving my books recently. Between a few moves, borrowing books and trying to construct a To Read Pile out of the book fort that is becoming my apartment, I’ve wanted to arrange them in a way that would please me and make them more accessable.

In my mind, there are two main obstacles when it comes to book shelving and both of them come from size. The first is oversized books: large in either length or width in a way that makes them difficult to shelve. The second is paperbacks, which are easy to find space for but don’t use all of the space efficiently. Bookshelves are designed for the larger end of books, but don’t always allow the user to optimize the space. So, how do I make all my books fit without losing too many in the process? Personally, I think bookshelves should come with mini-shelf attachments: just enough to hold another row of paperbacks a little above the row in front of it. This would really help the paperback problem to optimize the shelf space without having to double stack and lose the titles behind them. I tend to keep Oversized books on top of shelves with bookends to support them or arrange them in their own section. Dungeons and Dragons Manuals tend to make their own section next to my TV rather than a shelf (any Ikea bookshelf would crumble under the weight).

I like to arrange my books by subject as much as possible. Most of my books are fiction (Sci-Fi and Fantasy, mostly), but I also have books that are on different sciences, writing practices, history and mental health. With all the moves, my shelving recently has been “where’s the space?” and that hasn’t been working for me recently. I’d like to get that to be my main organization system and kind of build from there. Right now, I have a few paperbacks stacked on the shelf over my fireplace, but I want to try and work out something to prop up a second row of paperback for my regular bookshelves to make use of that space. I want to try and put all my nonfiction books together at the very least, but I have to take stock of what I have and what I don’t. With the holidays and my birthday approaching, I want to try and make any room I can for new additions to the collection.

How do you organize your books? Subject? Size? Author Name? Color?