November 1–7: Week minus-1

🤝 Interview Your Characters — Use any of the free resources below to "interview" your main characters as you would a real person: their background, fears, quirks — so you know them well before you start writing.

• Reedsy: Access their interactive web questionnaire directly through the Reedsy Character Questionnaire Blog Post or browse their visual layout templates on the Reedsy Studio Character Templates Page.

• Gotham Writers Workshop: View and download their action-oriented questions on the Gotham Writer's Toolbox Character Questionnaire Page (they also offer a Proust-style questionnaire on their Gotham Proust Questionnaire Page).

• Faber Academy: Read through their massive list of deep-dive questions on the Faber Academy Ultimate Character Questionnaire Article.

🗂️ Find Your Aesthetic — Build a mood board (Pinterest is great for this) of images that capture the feel of your story: settings, fashion, color palettes. You're not researching facts yet, just gathering the look and vibe of your world.

Clarity through the Holidaze

WE'LL START POSTING HERE REGULARLY IN OCTOBER 2026

as we build momentum toward our January kickoff

For Susan

written by Marc Prudhon 
when he generously donated to the Lyle Dagnen scholarship fund on #GivingTuesday 2017

This small effort of mine will try to make all see.
How much Susan Brooks Fleming meant to me.
She succored me in my darkest time of strife.
When all I felt I wanted, was the ending of my life.
She was my sister, mother, daughter, my love, but not my lover.

I know not if words exist, to express how we were to one another.

When Shakespeare wrote those words, that "All the Worlds' a Stage'
Too many times to count, her script and mine were on the same page.
I lay no claim to even a tiny piece of her talent, her souls narration.
Time and time again, her words were what gave me inspiration.
With private messages, phone calls, in bright days and nights wee hours.
We would talk of Dragons, Gods, Goddesses, and other arcane powers.
No private thing was too hard to speak, no subject under this worlds sun.
Sharing together, hours on end, yet we never seemed to get done.
One would have to say goodbye for now, cut it short at last.

When her life or mine forced us to undertake some other task.
I say now, Susan, Sis, and your alter ego Lyle Dagnen.
Ride free thru all those other worlds, Upon your Black dragon.

Lyle Dagnen memorial scholarship

Helping unpublished authors realize their publishing dreams

in loving memory of author Lyle Dagnen

Susan Brooks Fleming, known by her nom de plume Lyle Dagnen, was a prolific writer with an unparalleled depth of knowledge and compassion. Her work evoked not only the fantastical and romantic, but also inspired hope for the world we now live in as well as the world as it may become.

Facebook friends near and far, along with family and neighbors, had their foundations shaken with the news of Susan's passing in July, 2015. She touched those who knew her in profound and lasting ways with wit, wisdom and pathos.

E. Gads Hill Press will take on the herculean task of compiling as many of her works as we can acquire in order to publish a Lyle Dagnen compendium, and la Vie Sirene magazine will continue to include her musings in each issue, as long as the magazine runs.

Susan, you will always be with us, whether on the page, up in the skies riding your black dragon, or in our hearts, reminding us how truly magical a single person can be. 

We love and miss you, 

~your tribe