DeAnna Knippling's Blog

October 2025 fiction project: The Witch House #2

This is a children’s story, which means that I can get away with saying things I want to say to adults by saying them to children instead.–Miss Emma, Librarian New Project! I’m posting a heads-up for a project that I’m starting today, a sequel to my middle-grade horror novel The Witch House. (Middle-grade = ages 9-12.) If you’re […]

100 Best Gothic Stories

So hear me out: I think that modern Gothic fiction depends on not just rehashing old Gothic tropes, but including elements from the modern Goth subculture. Reviewing recent novels that are labeled strictly as Gothic leads to a certain paucity of choices, a sense of the same stories being told over and over out of […]

House of Masks – A Gothic Space Opera on Kickstarter

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! I mean… I would like to announce that My new gothic space opera novel, House of Masks, is live on Kickstarter.  If you love modern gothic fiction with a science fiction twist (and have feeling a bit like you might want to set a few things on fire lately), please click the button to take […]

Modern Gothic Fiction: From Haunted Castles to Morally Gray Survivors

So I’ve read a lot of both classic and modern Gothic fiction over the years. Gothic stories make me happy…I mean, in a cynical, disaffected, melancholy and perhaps overly dramatic way, they make me happy. I suspect it’s because I grew up in the 1980s and am neurodivergent, and had to crawl under my desk […]

How to AI-Proof Your Writing

AI writing is easy…and that’s a problem You’ve been working with AI a lot lately and have figured out how to use it to help improve your writing. Emails, blog posts, website text, social media, fiction, essays, resumes, white papers, slide decks, report summaries, book reports, homework, sales copy…you name it. The basic process goes […]

Carrying Crow and the Tale of the Two Gold Coins: A Free Dark Fantasy Short Story

This was an experiment in writing a short story with a particular type of plot; I’ll talk about that below so there aren’t spoilers. I’m working on a Kickstarter centering on my new novel House of Masks and on the first three books in my Haunted Houses series (A Murder of Crows, The House Without a […]

The Carrying Crow and the Tale of the Two Gold Coins: A Free Dark Fantasy Short Story

This was an experiment in writing a short story with a particular type of plot; I’ll talk about that below so there aren’t spoilers. I’m working on a Kickstarter centering on my new novel House of Masks and on the first three books in my Haunted Houses series (A Murder of Crows, The House Without a […]

The Ultimate Writing Career Toolkit: 10 Game-Changing Books from the 2025 Write Stuff StoryBundle

Are you serious about writing? Do you want to build not just a craft, but a career? Then this bundle is for you. The 2025 Write Stuff StoryBundle is packed with ten books by experienced, professional authors and publishing pros—each one designed to help you grow, stabilize, and strengthen your writing life. Whether you’re just […]

Making Tracks: An Audiobook Production Guide for Indie Authors by J. Daniel Sawyer

Intro 2025’s “Write Stuff” Storybundle has kicked off – ten books to help you on your writing career path. (Including my book Enrichment Activities: 30 Days of Stay-at-Home Learning, Business, and Self-Care Activities for Writers.) I’m writing profiles for each of the books in the bundle. They’re all very practical books, either with concrete steps […]

Authors and Interns: Build Your Creative Team with Robert Jeschonek

intro: 2025’s “Write Stuff” Storybundle has kicked off – ten books to help you on your writing career path. (Including my book Enrichment Activities: 30 Days of Stay-at-Home Learning, Business, and Self-Care Activities for Writers.) I’m writing profiles for each of the books in the bundle. They’re all very practical books, either with concrete steps […]