Category: author
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Yes, You’ll Be Okay. But It’s Going to Suck.
On writing, connection, and the uneasy truth no one wants to say out loud. There’s a temptation to romanticize the past—to imagine that being a writer in the days of Poe or Dickens carried some noble simplicity. Fewer voices, clearer paths, iconic serials in local papers, and time to brood over candlelight with quill in…
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This Is Still Me Speaking
Part I: The Panic — When Clarity Became Suspicious INTRODUCTION: The Sentence That Got Me Banned I was banned from a writing subreddit for a sentence that wasn’t wrong—but apparently, felt too right. The mod’s reply wasn’t about content. It was about tone: “You’ve even used AI to write this message. Sorry, that’s not welcome…
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Unto a Golden Dawn Is Live on Kickstarter
🕯️ The Archive Is Open Unto a Golden Dawn: The Recursion Dossier—my next novel, and the most ambitious book I’ve ever written—is now live on Kickstarter. This project blends literary fiction, historical horror, speculative metaphysics, and personal memory into one recursive, dossier-style narrative. It features: If House of Leaves, The OA, or Control ever made…
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The Cancer Diet Is Coming – And It’s the Most Personal Thing I’ve Ever Written
I’ve spent the past few years chasing ghosts, shaping stories, and trying to leave something real behind. You might know me from Empire, Nevada—a novel about grief, friendship, and the slow collapse of a small desert town. Or maybe from Unto a Golden Dawn, the sprawling metaphysical dossier I’m still building, one recursive dispatch at…
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The Stories Are Real Now – A Publication Update
After years of writing, rewriting, and wrestling with reflection, I’m proud to say that two of my books are officially published and available on Amazon. 📘 Empire, Nevada A coming-of-age novel about the wreckage we inherit, the friendships that haunt us, and the strange grace of surviving a place that never really lets go.Available here.…
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Unto A Golden Dawn – Dossier F–G: The Reflection Chamber
Compiled by Caldwell // Filed by Order Against the Profane (OAP) Code Designation: APPARITION SPIRE – REFLECTION CHAMBER Status: Breach Confirmed. Subject Infiltrated. Counterforce Encountered. ⸻ Veilcode Access Granted: Archive Layer Z-93 APPARITION SPIRE – REFLECTION CHAMBER Designated Code: ASP-∞ / First recorded breach: Montauk Loop Collapse ⸻ APPARITION SPIRE Term used by the OAP…
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Evolution of an Idea: The AI Process I Use
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📚 Designing the Cover of Empire, Nevada Creating the cover for Empire, Nevada was its own journey — just like the story inside. I didn’t want something generic. I wanted the cover to feel like the book — lonely, strange, nostalgic, and a little haunted. It started with a rough concept: a desert town vanishing…
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Bipolar Is My Superpower (And Sometimes My Curse)
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I live with bipolar disorder. Not in the abstract. Not as a label. Not as a quirky footnote in a conversation. I live with it. Every day. It has cost me jobs, tested relationships, and taken me to the edge more times than I care to count. But it’s also shaped the way I feel…
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Welcome to Nowhere- On my process, goals, and desires.
Empire, Nevada Is Coming to KDP The Story Behind the Story I began Empire, Nevada during a summer off from teaching — one of those rare stretches of stillness where I could finally breathe again. The words came quickly at first. The story felt personal, urgent, and raw: a small-town coming-of-age tale written by someone…
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Postscript – The Final Mirror
On finishing Unto a Golden Dawn (with help from AI)By Frank M. Anderson This book started as a spark. Just an idea: What if Aleister Crowley and Edgar Allan Poe went to school together? What if they grew up in a world that bent toward the mystical, the historical, the personal? What if the monsters…
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The Author Who Changed Everything: Edgar Allan Poe and the Beauty of the Broken
Before I ever understood craft, or genre, or voice… I understood atmosphere. I didn’t have the language for it, but I knew what it felt like to sit in a room and read a story that ached. That clung to you like smoke. That whispered to you through the cracks in your own mind. That…
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The Author Who Changed Everything: Stephen King and the First Voice I Trusted
If Hugh Howey showed me that it was okay to break the rules, Stephen King was the one who first showed me what it meant to have a voice. Long before I had any real sense of craft or structure, I had Stephen King. His books were everywhere when I was growing up—on library shelves,…
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The Author Who Changed Everything: Hugh Howey and the Long Road Back
If you’ve never heard of Hugh Howey, he’s one of those rare authors who didn’t just write a great story—he reshaped how stories are shared. He’s best known for Wool, the breakout dystopian sci-fi that launched the Silo series. It began as a self-published short story in 2011—no agent, no publisher, no plan beyond putting…
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Unto a Golden Dawn – Internal Addendum Salazar
Filed: January 14, 1947 Author: Agent R. Caldwell, O.A.P. Subject: Analysis of Fragmented Salazar Transmission – ‘Past is Participile’ Recovered Fragment – Category X Veil Event Recovered via mirror transcription from frost-coated reflective surface. Words appeared etched in reverse on obsidian plate during blackout event in Cairo containment zone. Audio recording corroborates verbal utterance. Transmission…
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Empire’s First Chapter
I wanted to post the new version of the first chapter here. I am very excited with where it has gone. It is a long way from the first version. I’ve entered a few contests to get help with my query. I will be posting it here once I have more faith in it. :)…
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What’s the hardest part of writing a novel?
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What’s the hardest part of writing a novel? Nope, it’s not forcing yourself to sit down and write every day. It isn’t having to think of plot developments, characterizations, or world building. It even isn’t editing. (Actually, I was surprised to find editing the most rewarding part of writing a book.) So, what IS the…
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When Is A Book Done?
I’ve been squeezing as much time as I can out of my busy day to work on Empire. The beginning is as perfect as I can make it. The rest is too. That’s not to say I’m not still tinkering. I don’t know if I could ever call a book done. I have a feeling…
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Long Time, No Post!
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I’ve been bad. At least, I’ve been bad at updating this site. I spent every second I had this summer re-writing Empire. I’m extremely happy with it now. It’s not quite perfect, but it’s getting closer. Part of the issue I’m having is structural. I have to introduce a lot at the beginning. Not because…
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Back from vacation with my first reader feedback!
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I just returned from a week of fun and sun with my wife’s family. It was the best beach trip I have had with them, and was very restive as well. One thing I did not do, however, was work on the novel very much. I printed up a copy of it and took it…
Frank M. Anderson's Writing 