Curtis Schlak's
Mindery

Recent Posts

Submission call for Dread Monday anthology
5 Oct 2024
My First Horror Short Story Submitted

I submitted my first horror short story!

A quotation reading "You are not what you do. You are what you repeatedly think."
16 Jul 2024
Train Your Mind To Succeed

Going from being a coder to a writer requires a fundamental shift in my reality

A man standing with an umbrella under an app badge at 9,999+
3 Jun 2024
The Bane Of The Badge

I cannot abide badges. There is no way to escape them.

Two people jumping at the beach with the sun setting behind them by Jill Wellington
28 May 2024
The Power Of Two

A different way to provide estimates for features if you're tired of story points, T-shirt sizes, or burrito options.

A cheerful bald man giving two thumbs up by Andrea Piacquadio
16 Oct 2020
Coping the Nice Things

In which I visit my inability to accept the nice.

Current Projects

Private

Untitled Novella

Sci-fi/Fantasy novella
Status: Writing

Writing (done)
100%

Editing
0%

When a demon and an angel hitchhike on the first extrasolar mission, they must figure out how to work together to save the ship's crew and themselves.

Paused
Terraformers animationTerraformers animation
Animation project
Status: In development

I am working as a script writer, artist, rigger, and animator on this fun and philosophical series.

Paused

When The Dead Die

Sci-fi novel
Status: In design

Luz Barber is a senior officer at the US Department of Wraith Relations, the government agency put in place to make sure ghosts are treated well on the job. In this world, it was discovered a hundred years ago that everybody becomes a ghost before moving on to the real and unknown afterlife.

Now, someone is killing ghosts before they can move on, eradicating souls from existence. When Luz's partner, Teodor, becomes the prime suspect, the shadow of guilt also falls on her. Now, she has to prove her innocence and find the real killer before her fellow agents find her, or the killer ends her.

Paused

Return to Qisma

Dark Fantasy novel
Status: Ready to write

Back in college, Dawn and her roommates played a card game that would magically transport them to the fantasy realm of Qisma until, one game, they came back from Qisma with no knowledge of their trip and one of them dead. That night, she packed her things and ran away.

Now, thirty years later, Dawn has buried her past and rebuilt a new life as a successful activist in Seattle, about to adopt her two foster kids, and marry a beautiful social worker. Her idyll life is shattered when she receives a note in her own handwriting demanding that she return to Qisma. When she ignores it, her children are threatened and her fiancée is nearly killed.

With revenge on her mind, Dawn sets off to northern California to return to Qisma, to find out who hurt her fiancée, and to finally come to terms with her past.

51 books, 25,593 pages read this year

Oh, boy, I like to read. Here are the 51 books I've read so far this year the most recent book first. Each is linked to The StoryGraph, a better alternative to Amazon's GoodReads.

Old thoughts

Here is some old stuff that I've written dating back to 2011. A few articles are okay. The rest of it, YMMV.