Hyba Is Writing

February 2024 Writing Update This month has been a month of transformation. I have made decisions that I still feel a bit nervous about - decisions about my writing career and what I'd like to do, once and for all.   There's actually a lot to get through in this month's update, so here's a little list of sections to help guide you: Becoming a full-time fiction author Muslim representation in my fiction Developmental editing services This Week's Writing Lesson Social Media Decisions Murder in Heliopolis editing update +  A note on organization and breaking down the novel editing process 1. Becoming a full-time fiction author It's scary to say, "I'm going to be a full-time, professional author!" and throw yourself into a career where you'll spend months - perhaps years - without earning any money as you write and edit and prepare books. It's a scary thing to decide that that's what you want to do, and that you're going to give it you...

Murder in Heliopolis Aster Lockwood: Character Introduction Aster Lockwood is known to the world as the wealthy founder of Greenland Farm, the agricultural producer that bought fierce competition to The Farms. He leads a quiet life, doesn't like talking to interviewers or the media, and is generally reclusive. But is that all there is to it? When Cassia Grove is found murdered in the home she shared with Aster Lockwood, and he is placed at the scene of the crime at the time of her death, the police naturally suspect him. The only problem? Aster Lockwood is missing. Not only is he missing - his entire identity is a complete anomaly on PATET's databases. Fingerprints that can't be identified, photographs that are missing past a certain point in his history - these are just the beginning of the mystery that is Aster Lockwood. Who is he, really? Where is he? And - most importantly - did he kill Cassia Grove?   Though I've since decided I'm not a fan of this portrait, I...

March 2024 Writing Prompts   15 Writing Prompts for March A ship runs ashore on what the crew believes to be an uncharted, deserted island. A group of neighbours create an underground tunnel system to connect their homes. A character is cursed by a witch and transformed into a cat. "You're lying to me. You're always lying to me." A character experiences a sudden growth spurt - and it just keeps going! After putting on an enchanted necklace, a character is transported to 1920s Vienna. An architect focuses on a grand new project at the expense of their marriage. A small village is harassed by a group of bandits looking for a special object. Twenty boarding school students go missing overnight. A hypnotist uses their influence to have their clients steal money. A messenger arrives at the royal palace with bad news. Two children let their imaginations run wild during a play date. "You have no idea what you've done!" A villain and superhero team up to save th...

The museum was hollow. Empty. The last of the artifacts had been sent out that morning, and now all that was left were a few unimpressive bits and bobs, remnants of a society that never truly thrived. It was all they had to their names, all that really ever came out of this small, bleak land. It was right, of course, that the artifacts be returned to the territories they were looted from. It was right that they be reunited with their cultures, their peoples. But it probably means I'm out of a job here , she thought grimly as she walked the now empty exhibit halls and galleries. The museum would have to find a way to survive, but already she could tell that downsizing was probably going to be one of their first moves.  Their next move? She wasn't entirely certain. A rebranding, perhaps. Maybe they'll showcase modern artists. Maybe they'll rent out galleries to companies and wealthy craftspeople who could afford it. Maybe they'll focus on education, on science, on his...

Worldbuilding: A-Lanes in Murder in Heliopolis As early as Chapter 1 in Murder in Heliopolis , Detective Laith Alazraq gets in his Camino Forest - the vehicle he is provided by the Heliopolis Police Department - and uses what are called the A-Lanes to get to the crime scene in The Hills as soon as possible.    What are the A-Lanes? The term 'A-Lanes' is short for 'Authority Lanes'. These are a range of roads, tunnels, and bridges which are generally reserved for emergency services, such as ambulances, police, and other important vehicles. While there isn't too much traffic in Heliopolis - most people use public transportation - the A-Lanes bypass entire blocks of buildings in The Forest and cut straight through entire neighbourhoods. This can be the difference between life and death in pressing medical emergencies or other critical situations. Much like any other system in Heliopolis, the A-Lanes and the processes which regulate them are all automatically controlle...

Years he had lost to his false conviction. Years he had lost, without his children, without his wife, without his family and friends. Years in a grey cement building with grey walls and grey bars and grey chairs and grey everythings .  And now, finally, a birthday gift unlike any other for his sixty-fourth year on Earth: his release. Someone, somewhere, had found evidence exonerating him.  A vial of evidence in the back of a fridge, long forgotten by forensic investigators. Overlooked by everyone, for twenty-five years.  And then an intern had found it while cleaning out the fridge. Noticed the date on the sample. Brought it up to his supervisor.  So simple, so easy. Such a small thing.  And within it, his freedom. Oh, he was roiling with rage. Rage at the system for being so sloppy, rage at the prosecution for making him into a monster at the trials, rage at the fact that neither of these people - none of the ones who had forced him into twenty-five long years ...

The Rise of Self-Publishing Among Younger Generations I have a little theory that's been rattling around in my brain lately. I've been watching a lot of investigative reports and reading articles and seeing first-hand experiences and opinions about work-life-balance expectations for younger generations, and how that is affecting the workforce at large. In sum, for us young adults, it's all about wanting to have a life, and not dedicating our entire existence to a corporation or job that would fire us in a heartbeat - job security and loyalty be damned. And who can blame us, really? We get paid low wages that do not cover the cost of living, or do so barely. We work long hours, get asked to do more, with that smaller pay. We can't have houses or homes of our own; we can't own land; we can't start families, because we can't afford it on the aforementioned small pay. We're facing a reality where most of us have to take on side-hustles just to get by. And th...

A crust-less quiche was placed upon the long buffet table.  Cole had been too tired to make a crust - all that flour and kneading and flattening and whatnot - it was all just too much work. The filling, on the other hand, was a quick twenty-minute thing. It was good enough for the school potluck, anyway. Healthy and delicious - eggs and spinach and mushroom and cheese. What more would they want?  " Cheese? " Cindy, a fellow PTA parent asked, scrunching her nose. "We have lactose-intolerant students, Cole. Are you serious? I mean - what are you going to do if one of the kids has a bad reaction to the food, Cole?" Clearly, her world was crumbling.  So, Cole decided to ensure his addition to the potluck was a little less deadly. He grabbed one of the fifty-odd sign-up sheets scattered around the table, flipped it on its back, and wrote in big, dark letters: INCLUDES DAIRY. He folded the paper and placed it near his dish, so that it was clearly visible to all passers-by...

  Murder in Heliopolis Afan Keliat: Character Introduction Affluent Heliopolitan businessman and investor Afan Keliat worked with Cassia Grove for many years. When news of Cassia's murder reach his ears and detectives begin asking him questions, he realizes just how little he knows about his business partner. What she involved in something shady? Had her strange relationship with her husband reached a boiling point? But there are whispers that Afan was involved. After all, he got control of all of Nymphaeales after Cassia's death... 💼 Learn more about Murder in Heliopolis - including other characters - on the dedicated page here . Also, if you would like to be an alpha reader, please read this post .

It wasn't until after his death that she began to understand him. Until then, she had never truly known him.  There was so much about her husband that she had taken for granted.  He didn't talk to his parents, because they couldn't accept that he left their faith in favor of another. He grew up in a small town, and had always wanted to live in a big city, to experience that life. He worked in the pharmaceutical industry, and made an extremely comfortable living. He took care of the financials, which she'd never minded, because she wasn't so great with numbers. He wanted a family, so they'd been trying to have a child. He wanted a small farm out in the country, and they'd been saving up to purchase land. He didn't have a problem with her working, but felt it was his duty to take care of her, regardless. So many little things - put together, they'd made up the foundation of her life - made up the entirety of everything she knew about the man she'd ...

He wasn't sure how long he had been sleeping. He wasn't sure if it had been sleep - or if he was now awake. All he knew was that time had passed. Of course, time had passed. It was the only certainty. How much time - again, he wasn't sure. His eyes would not open; his lids struggled against a weight he couldn't identify, couldn't understand. Slowly, his senses returned. The frigid temperature of his body was not his own - he was floating in a liquid, and small currents rushing past his body - his arms, his sides, his legs - like water jets in a bath that had long grown cold. His fingers felt numb and cumbersome; his toes ached for warmth. The muffled sounds, the pressure against his ears - this, too, began to make sense. He was submerged. Submerged. He jolted with a start. Was he drowning? He couldn't open his eyes, couldn't move all that well - his muscles wouldn't respond, his arms and legs weighed down, restricted by something. Or perhaps it was noth...

Murder in Heliopolis Warda El Yazidi: Character Introduction Intelligent, charming, and wise beyond her years, Dr. Warda El Yazidi is an unstoppable force. Her determination and perseverance have rewarded her with the perfect, happy life: a successful marriage with Laith, her dream job, and a rich personal and spiritual life. When her husband is assigned to a murder investigation, however, her life is sent into a tailspin. A quick portrait made using children's markers and color pencils! In the blink of an eye, Warda finds herself navigating a new life - one where her husband's job reveals chilling realities lurking behind the perfect facade of PATET and puts them in a constant state of vigilance. And, worst of all, her own hands are tied: she can't help Laith, apart from offering emotional support, and what he doesn't tell her might just get them killed... As a general surgeon at the Central Hospital of Heliopolis, Warda has been in her fair share of stressful situati...

Pulled-to-Publish Fanfic Books: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Mini disclaimer: I'm not a legal professional, I have never published a repurposed fanfiction, and I'm not an expert on pulled-to-publish stories. These are just some thoughts and opinions based on my research. While scouring the internet for my dose of fiction-related news in an attempt to stay updated with current bookish affairs, I came across a term I had never seen before: pulled-to-publish fiction. So, of course, I had to dive in and do some research, and I uncovered an interesting little slice of the publishing industry I was previously unaware of. The term pulled-to-publish, sometimes abbreviated as PTP, refers to stories that were previously available for free on an online platform, but were pulled from the platform so that the author could publish and sell them.  It has generally been used in the context of fanfiction - more specifically, books that were once fanfiction works, which were then edited so t...

He had a hard time reconciling religion and life. Which was ironic - because religion was supposed to be a way of life. A framework for living. But these days, more often than not, he found himself scared to commit fully to the framework he had chosen. Which was also ironic, because what in the world was he scared of? If he did what he was supposed to do, then it was only heaven that awaited him, and nothing else would change that. He came to the conclusion that there was too much noise. Too much happening all around him. Too many people with too many messages. Too many media outlets spouting too much sin. Too many friends who would turn their backs on him the moment he tried to be more faithful to his beliefs. It wasn't that he wanted to be a recluse; not particularly. But what else was left for him, when the world had gone half-crazed with sin? When even the believers dropped virtue for vice? When the devils walked among them, and the world crumbled around them, and he was expect...

Character Backstories, Vol. 11 Detective Spencer Nicoletti & "Eva" Since I'm not sure if I'll use the same character portrait graphics for my OCs moving forward, I didn't want to go through with Warda's OC intro yesterday. But I also decided that I would release another volume of Character Backstories to replace it. And here we are. This time around, the two random names I picked out of my little box are: Detective Spencer Nicoletti from Marie/Elise and the mysterious "Eva" from An Entity In Your Midst .  Detective Spencer Nicoletti ( Marie/Elise ) Detective Nicoletti is the lead homicide investigator in the case of Elise Bellerose's murder. But what's his backstory? There's not much that is revealed about Spencer in the current draft of Marie/Elise. In my mind, he was a detective in the big city, but missed the mark on a very important case, which led him to be reassigned. Despite this failure, Nicoletti is generally viewed as being...

A quote from Ch. 1 of Murder in Heliopolis , the second draft.   Since I started my new writing routine, I've written a huge amount.  Murder in Heliopolis 's second draft stands at about 12k words , and it's only been three or four days! Within this new draft, nine original scenes have been edited and five new scenes have been added in the POVs of other characters. This is more than I had originally planned to add in these first three chapters in my revision notes. New POVs so far include: Fleur Verdi Toma Pom Grot Antrum Cassia Grove and one more POV that is purposefully not named 😉 I have also made a new portrait for one of the MiH characters, and am considering re-making the rest of the portraits I had already made (Laith, Warda, and Afan) in this same style. They would just be more realistic pencil drawings, so the style would change dramatically. A quote from Ch. 1 of Murder in Heliopolis , the second draft. So, it's a lot. And that's just Murder in Helio...

I've added a new page to my blog, which you can find linked on the left of the window, which takes you to a list of common Islamic phrases that I may use in my blog posts and in my writing. I will update it as more phrases appear, but if you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me via this form or leave your question in the comments. You can check out the page here . As I was writing editing Murder in Heliopolis, I realized that I never translated or explained many of the phrases in Arabic that Laith Alazraq and Warda El Yazidi sometimes say. Then, I realized the same is true of many of my social media or blog posts where I also use these phrases or their abbreviations. So, I figured it was high time I had a reference page available for my readers. I hope this helps give you a better understanding! 💚

There was something in her lungs. She always felt like that when her allergies started kicking up a fuss. Something in her lungs - right between her lungs and her throat, really - that just wouldn’t come out, no matter how many times she coughed, no matter how many times she cleared her throat. Stubborn and unyielding, it stayed there, taunting her, torturing her. She had taken her medicine. Always, she had taken her medicine. One day, her doctor had told her. One day, you won’t need this medicine anymore. You’ll be able to live your life without worrying about your allergies, about your lungs. The older she got, the harder it was to believe that. Every time she went to see her doctor, it was the same result. A clicking of her tongue - a dissatisfied tut - and the prescription of new medications. She hated it. At times when her body caved, when it was one medical issue after another - one illness, followed by one injury, followed by another illness, and so on - those time...

He had always been in tune with the universe around him. His mother said he was a blessed child, and had given him the name Grigori on account of the fact that angels walked with him. But there were no angels here. Not here, in this cold, metallic lab. Not here, in this old leather chair. The straps dug into his arms and legs. Another day, another experiment. Sometimes - and it frightened him that this was an increasingly common thought - he wished he had never met Elena. What in God’s name had compelled him to walk to that trail that day, a full two weeks before he had planned to? Why had the universe pushed him towards her? Was it all of this? So that he could find himself a prisoner? A lab rat? There was something wrong with this place. Outside of this chair - outside of this room - he saw nothing. The usual senses he had were gone, and the universe was mute. Or perhaps he was deaf. He couldn’t receive the messages anymore - not unless he was sitting here, in this room, in this chai...

When Elena told people what she did for a living, she knew the kinds of reactions she would have to field. When it came to men who were interested in her, there would be some awkward prodding, but eventually they would steer the conversation elsewhere. Remote viewing was, she had learned, not a particularly successful conversation topic on a date. Grigori was different. She knew he was different from the start. Neither of them would have met, were it not for a chance encounter at the hiking trail she visited every few months. A hiking trail he only ever visited once a year, and which he would walk in honor of his father's memory. He was a stern-looking man with an intimidating build, but Elena had felt unusually calm around him. She knew he posed no threat. Was it her extrasensory powers? She wasn't certain; she'd never really put much stock into her ability to read people. She sought information. She looked for messages, for visions. She didn't look into pe...

UPDATE: ALPHA READERS I've decided to get a lot more serious about completing Murder in Heliopolis and making it the best story it can be. So, I'm getting more organized. Previously, the alpha reader process was very simple and loose: read the story partially or entirely, send some feedback my way, whatever it may be. The general process is still the same. Only now, I'd like alpha readers to give me their feedback via this Google form . It asks for your general thoughts regarding the characters, settings/worlbuilding, and the plot. You don't even have to have read the whole story. If you DNCed it - you can still fill this form out. Let me know why! I'd love to make the story better for readers. I've also added a deadline for alpha readers to send in their feedback: May 5, 2024. I'm hoping to have the second draft of Murder in Heliopolis completed by then, which means I'll be moving on to beta readers. When the call for beta ...

Character Backstories Vol. 10 - Salva & Angela  Today's Character Backstories belong to: Queen Salva ( The Qarran Tales ) Angela Gibbons ( Apartment )   Salva Queen Salva was not born to be a queen. In fact, her transformation into a queen was truly one of rags to riches. It was a beautiful summer day, and all of Vakkar was celebrating an annual festival of the harvest. Salva was visiting relatives in the city - a different world compared to the small village life she was used to. Nobody could have imagined that the King himself would traipse along into their midst, that he would fall for her the moment he set eyes on her, and that he would make this commoner his queen. And nobody could have imagined the terror that he would unleash upon her as soon as their wedding vows had been sealed. Salva survived her husband's temper and his fists for years, but it soon became clear to her that her son might not. When the King was found murdered in the castle, it was difficult for he...