Hyba Is Writing

Review: 'I Warn You Three Times' - CBS Radio Mystery Theater This episode, ' I Warn You Three Times ', follows the story of a couple who seem to deeply distrust each other, and a journalist who picks up on their strange situation... And it has a splash of the supernatural! Episode Plot (Spoilers) A beautiful woman is driving, stops at a red light, and holds up traffic when it turns green. When a police officer drops by to tell her to get driving, she tells him that her husband was just there with her, and that he went round the back to wipe the rear windshield. The only problem is - there is no husband, nobody at all round the back of the car! The police officer tells her to stop holding up traffic, and she tells him she can't drive. The woman, Hetty, reports her husband, Tom, missing. He shows up at the police station, utterly confused and states that he was certainly not with her in the car. She meets a reporter, Fred, who is interested in her story, and she warns

Review: 'Lost Dog' - CBS Radio Mystery Theater In this episode, ' Lost Dog ', a woman with a severe phobia of dogs and an abusive husband tries to get treatment for her fear in order to appease his desire for a dog. The show's host hits the nail on the head: in this story, you have to ask yourself if the real monster is the dog, or the husband, George. Episode Plot (Spoilers) Julia Smallwood is a piano teacher who experiences physical and psychological abuse from her husband, the alcoholic and demanding George. When talking to her 20-year-old piano student, Ronnie, she reveals that her latest bruises are a result of a disagreement with her husband regarding dogs. George wants dogs, and Julia is terrified of them.  George decides that a dog is an absolute necessity, so he tells Julia to go get her problem fixed. Julia starts seeing a hypnotherapist. Ronnie confesses that he likes Julia, and realizes that she has new bruises on her neck and shoulders - so he decides t

The New Plan: Digging up an old WIP First order of business: I'm taking a break from my web fictions. I've been wanting to write for my web fictions for the past few weeks, but have felt absolutely no motivation to. As a result, I feel that the writing I've done for them has not been up to my own standards, and it is frustrating, to say the least. Recently on Tumblr, I announced that I'd be pulling out from Writathon (which was also my Camp NaNo goal): https://hyba.tumblr.com/post/681826612274216960/alright-after-a-bit-of-consideration-im-pulling Nevertheless, we soldier on! I have many ideas buzzing around in my head, and while I won't be updating the web fictions for a couple of weeks (or more), I will be jotting down these ideas or otherwise recording them for when I do finally find the motivation and desire to write for these WIPs. While I don't feel like working on A Cure for Happiness, The Beast of Ildenwood, or Murder

Worldbuilding: A Cure for Happiness - Cleansing Fire Yet another element of my worldbuilding that someone wanted to know more about! Here's the response that I gave them over on tumblr : This is a type of fire that is used for cleansing in a variety of different situations, but mostly in farming. It isn’t necessarily destructive, but it does a great job helping you cleanse an area and prepare it for growing more crops. Cleanse it of what, you might ask? Quite simply, it’s good at getting rid of interdimensional pests. They’ll eat your crops and pop out of existence right under your nose! Nasty little buggers. But a regular cleanse with some cleansing fire will keep them away.     ~⭐~ Grab the 2022 Reflection & Productivity Journal here for $2.00 ! Try out a full-month sample free here ! Check out my psychological thriller Apartment . Add it to your TBR on Goodreads ! Read my solarpunk mystery Murder in Heliopolis on Royal Road , Inkitt , or Tapas . ( Binge on RR! ) Looki

Worldbuilding: A Cure for Happiness - Trees with Eyes! Someone wanted to know more about the trees with eyes over on tumblr , so here is a little about them: At first glance, this seems creepy. Okay, no matter what I say, it’s always going to be creepy. But hopefully less creepy if I explain it? So here goes: Brieuc’s countryside village exists at the foot of a mountain, and perched on the edge of the mountain, overlooking the village, is a mysterious castle. To get to that castle, you’d have to go up the mountain. But there’s a most peculiar forest you’d have to go through… A forest where every tree has eyes, and all of them follow you around as you pass through… How to explain the eyes? They’re… almost vestigial. Is that the right word? Probably not. Basically, the eyes do see, but they don’t see . They see you walking around among them, but they don’t see enough (or get sentient enough) to then judge your clothing style or wonder why in the world you’re wrapped in all those

Worldbuilding: Mirror Spirits in A Cure for Happiness Someone wanted to know more about mirror spirits over on tumblr, so here's the response: This is a type of domestic spirit that “haunts” a house or other location. In Brieuc’s family home, there is a mirror spirit that tends to pop up and take control of their reflections, much to his irritation. It’s not a scary spirit - just a thing that happens to share their home - and it’s been there for generations, but it can be a bit annoying to be brushing your teeth and have your reflection start doing weird things. Bit of a playful, mischievous creature. Sometimes lonely, so it likes to have the company, and it likes to strike up conversation. A mirror spirit isn’t necessarily anchored to the mirrors, but it can only show itself through reflective surfaces like mirrors. Like any other domestic spirit, however, it is anchored and restricted to the house or other location which it haunts. I’m still working on the

Worldbuilding: Smoldering Tortoises in A Cure for Happiness This time, someone asked me about my smoldering tortoises from A Cure from Happiness , so here's my little worldbuilding post about them ( from tumblr ): To be fair, there is something slightly terrifying about the smoldering tortoise, as adorable as it sounds in my head. A smoldering tortoise is a tortoise with a cracked-ember-type shell. Basically, imagine something kind of like this but as a shell: ( Image from Pixabay. ) I will draw it one day, but for now, I hope this will help you visualize what I’ve got in my brain for the smoldering tortoise! ^^ They’re really great at warming your house during the winter or colder days, so it’s nice to have them pop in and get used to your fireplace. They will likely not wander out of your fireplace if your create a good environment for them, but even if they do, it’s not particularly dangerous as long as you’re keeping an eye on what they’re up to. Wouldn’t want them to put your

Worldbuilding: Iridescent Sheep in A Cure for Happiness There are iridescent sheep in A Cure for Happiness! Someone asked me to talk a little more about them, so here's the post ( from tumblr ) where I explain more about the sheep: So, these sheep have iridescent wool, which is neat because *iridescent* , but it’s also neat because I recently learned about the only mammal to have iridescent fur: the golden mole. ( Here’s a link to a short article about it. ) And apparently, its iridescent fur does great at repelling water. So basically, these iridescent sheep have iridescent wool that also does a great job at repelling water. Which makes it wool that you can create jackets and raincoats and cloaks out of, so that you, fellow adventurer, can wear them in the rain without becoming a sopping wet mess as you travel. In A Cure for Happiness , Brieuc’s family farm has iridescent sheep. They sell the wool to factories that then take that wool and turn it into yarn which they can then sell

A Cure for Happiness - WIP Intro A while back, I introduced my newest project, A Cure for Happiness , over on my tumblr blog. I also completely forgot to introduce it here on my blog! So, here we are, about two weeks later: After much consideration, I’ve decided that I will not, in fact, be writing for The Beast of Ildenwood for Camp Nano / Writathon. Instead, I will be moving forward with this new fantasy story that I started plotting in March with the hopes that I could use it for the writing challenges!   Yep - that’s the cover, in all of its quickly-sketched glory. 🤣 One day it will be replaced with something more professional, but right now, this is the cover for this one-month challenge story.   Blurb: Down-on-his-luck Brieuc returns to his home village penniless, set to take over his late father’s farm. At first, he feels a sense of relief and contentment at having returned to a place so calm and joyful, but the more time he spends in the village, the more he realizes

Review: 'The Bullet' - CBS Radio Mystery Theater This time around, I listened to the episode called ' The Bullet ' over on the CBS Radio Mystery Theater collection that you can find and listen to for free over on the Internet Archive .  Episode Plot (Spoilers) This guy called Jerry seems to have survivor's guilt and starts seeing, many years after his death, an old army buddy of his who died on a patrol that was supposed to be Jerry's. Only Jerry can see his friend, which prompts him to wonder if he's crazy. His wife tries to support him, and he sees a psychiatrist, but he keeps seeing this deceased soldier friend no matter what he does.  When Jerry realizes that his friend has returned from the dead to fix the "Plan" - some fate-like construct where Jerry was supposed to die on his patrol and Marge was actually supposed to meet Jerry's friend and marry him, giving birth to a boy who would later become an important historical figure - Jerry has

Murder in Heliopolis: A Solarpunk Mystery You can read Murder in Heliopolis for free on Royal Road , Tapas , and Inkitt . (Highly recommend reading it on Royal Road, as the formatting is best suited to that platform, given that this story was made for the RR Writathon back in Oct/Nov/Dec 2021.)  Murder in Heliopolis is currently ONLY available on these three platforms. If you find it on any other platform, it is there without my permission. Below is a table of contents linking to each chapter on each platform. (This is always being updated.) Table of Contents The All-Seeing Eye of PATET                        [ Royal Road | Tapas | Inkitt ] A Visit to Greenland Farm                            [ Royal Road | Tapas | Inkitt ] Nymphaeales on the Floats                             [ Royal Road | Tapas | Inkitt ] Cassia Grove's Slate                                        [ Royal Road | Tapas | Inkitt ] Underwater Dining at Aquarius                    [ Royal Road | Tapas | Inkitt ]

Review: 'The Return of the Moresbys' - CBS Radio Mystery Theater So, when this story started out, the idea of a man wondering if his wife could come back from the dead as an animal (a bird, a snake, a fat cat) took me by surprise! But it certainly intrigued - how would that add up in a mystery? Then, the main character, Richard Moresby, turned out to be a gold-digger, and his heiress wife ended up talking about the mystery of the universe, and I wanted to know even more.  In this blog post, I'm sharing my thoughts on the CBS Radio Mystery Theater episode ' The Return of the Moresbys '.  Episode Plot (Spoilers) So, this silver-eyed guy Moresby meets this young lady called Una on the beach. He brushes her off at first - until he realizes she's crazy rich! When he realizes that , he's suddenly very interested in her, and he ends up marrying her. Only, Una turns out to be extremely spiritually curious, and ends up joining a temple under a certain Dr. Singh, who

The Beast of Ildenwood:  23. Allies in the Trees It is nightfall when the party of three finally arrives at the Sheffar Forest’s hidden settlement in the trees. As they approach, she takes in the sight – the way the starry night sky fades against the light emanating from the houses and wooden structures atop the ancient trees, each and every one of them possibly as old as the tree that rests in the middle of Ildenwood Forest. Here and there, between the trees, a wooden bridge sings a subtle creak in the nighttime breeze. Music spills out of the main building – the largest building, where they met the Bandit King before. As exhaustion settles into her bones, Lahab still cannot believe that they are alive – that the Cragenbacks they hold are real – and that they have survived an encounter with the Mussena in the Starlight Cavern. It is a miracle, and as she stares at the back of the Wanderer’s head, she wonders if it might have gone any differently had he

March 2022 Writing Update Monthly Page - 2022 Reflection & Productivity Journal As some of you may remember, I like to keep track of everything I do every month - important accomplishments and big tasks that I’ve successfully completed or worked on.  Since I released my 2022 Journal , I’ve been using it almost every day to record the things I’ve done as well as (to a lesser extent) challenges I’ve faced and plans moving forward. If you’ve grabbed yourself a copy of my journal, you’ll see that at the end of each month is a monthly review page. I already make (or try to make) monthly writing update posts on my blog (coming soon for March), but I think I might start sharing screenshots of my monthly pages from my journal, so here we go:   Click for better quality. Writing Update for March 2022 As you can see above, March was a busy month for me writing-wise, but I want to get a lot more done in April. I have my work cut out for me; it's Camp NaNo and Writathon, and I've got