Brandiwynš¶ v.2026, also known as Michelle Tuesday, is a musician, educator and writer hailing from Columbus, Ohio.
La Bene Vita
The (Tentative*) Topic Rotation Self Sundays: Personal blogging days about family, leisure, work, and health. May be boring.
Music Mondays: Commentary, articles, and links highlighting music, theory, and ed topics.
Writing Wednesdays: Discussion on the art and business of writing. "Invalid Item" Thursdays: A weekly original short story submission.
Friday Reviews**: Every Friday, I will review a minimum of one short story on WDC.
* I reserve the right to change the topic of the day at any time, at least until I acquire a million followers and gain official "influencer" status, at which point I shall be more consistent in order to meet the expectations of my adoring public.
** I can only commit to one review per week. If you would like your short story to be in my reviewing queue, please send me a WDC review request. Checkout my public reviews toget a sense of what to expect.
One possibly issue among asking AI to quantify your verbs for flavor is that it is also trained on the internet, which is the worst of all possible bullies. Whimsy isn't necessarily a good thing to it. AI can be introduced to brain rot by reading twitter but they haven't figured out how to fix it afterward.
I saw a post on Twitter the other day (originally from a few years back) that said, "I'd much rather be 'too sensitive' than whatever the fuck has happened to half of humanity." Sadly, I think of that quote often these days...
My initial idea was to develop the Druid Archives series further and actually complete one of books 2 through 10, all of which are in progress. (Book 1, "Poor Witch" [E], is still technically in progress, but at least I have a complete draft.)
But the Prep did what it's supposed to do: it gave me a new idea, and a trio of crime-fighting teen witches was born on Day 2.
By Day 3, the protagonist of that story, Maya, revealed to me that she was a descendant of the witch from Poor Witch and a Druid Healer named Kaleb (or Emergence, depending on whom you ask.)
Meanwhile, back on Day 1, I started a short story for "Invalid Item" . The prompt was to write a story about a rabbit sneaking into a garden. By Day 2, "Snickers" was adopted by the titular protagonist from Poor Witch (who is also, apparently, Maya's ?Ćgreat grandma.)
In the 18 years I've been an active member of WDC, I could count on one hand the number of times I've entered the Cramp. Something inspired me to take Prep '25 seriously and write for real, not just my typical brainstorming word vomit. I read that prompt, and Snickers introduced himself immediately.
In the wee hours of Day 5, I had yet to be inspired with a background story about Maya. She's not speaking to me much, other than to share her lineage.
But my Muse was obsessing over an idea that's not yet fully formed, involving this rabbit who, like Maya the teen witch, wormed his way into my Druid Archives world.
Also, my Muse has been screaming for two decades to stop trying to write mature stories. My audience is young people; when I speak to kids and young adults, the words come effortlessly. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who knows my profession (teacher and employer of other teachers), and I guess it's not a surprise to me either, but I've been resisting because I want to express my own self and experiences, which span five decades now. I've (technically) spent more than half my life as an adult.
Sadly, my stupid Muse doesn't care what I think or want to express.
I'm still not sure where she's taking me this year, but at least she's made it clear we're staying in the Druid Archives.
Folks, this is how Prep works. This is why we say you can show up on Day 1 without a hint of an idea. We do this for 31 whole days. The ideas come. The story evolves.
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, also known as Michelle Tuesday, is a musician, educator and writer hailing from Columbus, Ohio.
Thursdays: A weekly original short story submission.