Stories Rule Press

What’s On My Desk This Summer

Writers rarely work on just one book at a time. While readers see the finished novel, there’s often an entire queue of stories in progress behind it—drafts, edits, serials, and ideas waiting for their turn. Here’s a look at what’s currently occupying my writing desk this summer, from new thriller adventures to ongoing serial fiction and the next novel waiting in the wings.

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The Joy of Not Turning to the Last Page

What if waiting for the next chapter isn’t a flaw in storytelling, but one of its greatest pleasures?

In a world built around instant gratification, serial fiction offers something different: anticipation. Readers spend time with characters, speculate about what comes next, and let stories become part of the rhythm of their week. As The Summer Garden continues and Credible Threat: Season One joins it, Mark Posey reflects on why the joy of not turning to the last page may be more valuable than ever.

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Bones of the Priory Is Out Today

A letter from someone who should have been dead for centuries draws Sister Jacobine back to the ruins of Amesbury Priory and the place where her long, impossible life began. Bones of the Priory started as a contribution to a monster hunter anthology, but it quickly became something more personal—a return to one of my favourite characters and the secrets she has spent five hundred years trying to leave behind.

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Why Buying Direct Matters More Than You Think

Readers often wonder whether buying books directly from an author’s website really makes a difference. The answer is simple: it does. Direct sales help fund editing, cover design, and future books, while creating a closer connection between readers and the authors whose stories they enjoy.

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The Things We Plant

Some of the most important things in life begin as something small and uncertain. A packet of seeds. A first chapter. A conversation. Standing in the garden this spring, watching green shoots push through the soil, reminded me that growth is often invisible until suddenly it isn’t—and that the things we plant today may become far more than we ever imagined.

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Reading Requires Trust

Reading isn’t just “content consumption.” It’s time. Emotional investment. Trust. You’re handing several hours of your life over to another person and hoping they take you somewhere worthwhile. That’s why stories that feel genuinely human matter more now than ever.

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The Year of the Horse

Some years are quieter than others. Some years are meant for rest.
And some years? Some years hand you a shovel, a wheelbarrow, and a horizon full of work worth doing.

In this reflective new post, Mark Posey writes about turning sixty, building twenty raised garden beds, rebuilding the future of Stories Rule Press, and why this season of life feels less about chasing and more about building — steadily, patiently, one load of compost at a time.

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What We’ve Been Watching Lately (And Why I Can’t Stop Thinking About It)

Lately, Tracy and I have been watching The Americans, and it has completely hooked us. Not because of the spy story—although that’s excellent—but because everything about it feels real. The relationships are messy, the choices are complicated, and the 1980s setting feels lived in instead of staged. It’s the kind of show that doesn’t just entertain you for an hour. It lingers afterward and leaves you wondering what you would have done in the same situation.

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Why Readers Matter More Than Writers Sometimes Think

Writers spend months — sometimes years — alone in a room inventing characters, places, and entire worlds. It can start to feel like writing is a solitary act. But the truth is, a story isn’t finished when the writer types the last sentence. It comes alive when someone reads it. When a reader laughs, gasps, misses their bus stop, or stays up far too late turning pages — that’s when the story truly becomes real.

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A Writer’s Christmas List

christmas scene with books

Every December, writers are supposed to talk about numbers and goals. But what really matters is the reader—the person who gives a book their time and lets a stranger’s words take up space in their head. This is a writer’s Christmas list, not of wants, but of hopes: time to read without guilt, stories that feel like company, and the reminder that books matter because they connect us.

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A Little Marital Bragging (Okay, Maybe a Lot)

Mark takes a moment to brag — loudly and unapologetically — about Tracy’s incredible achievement: completing the thirteen-book Once and Future Hearts series and preparing its exclusive hardcover Kickstarter. From behind-the-scenes glimpses to outright spousal pride, this post celebrates the epic scope of the project and why the upcoming campaign is such a milestone.

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Release Day! I’ve Joined the Uncollected Anthology—And Sister Jacobine Has Opinions

Mark Posey joins the long-running Uncollected Anthology with Bones of the Priory, a dark, atmospheric Sister Jacobine story in the new Monster Hunters issue. Jacobine returns to the ruins of her childhood nunnery expecting quiet reflection—but what she finds is her immortal sister Margaret, and a confrontation centuries in the making.

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