This is a response to Patty’s question directed toward me at our writer’s group.
Her question: You’ve said that you didn’t exactly create the Sacrosanct universe—you received it from the ether and are merely channeling it. How did that come about? What’s the difference between channeling that and other writing that you’ve done?
It began as a short story I wrote back in 2013. A story fueled by hormones. The club I used as a muse was a mix between two buildings that a goth night took place in, based in Asheville, NC. Those early ingredients just sat there for a long time, marinating for years.
Then in 2023, I went through The Artist’s Way with my friends — Heather, Jaime, and Jessica. Writing erotica was this tongue-in-cheek idea I tossed out during one of the exercises, fully expecting everyone to laugh it off with me. But out of everything I mentioned, that was the one that brought in this surprising sense of genuine enthusiasm. I felt encouraged in a way I wasn’t expecting.
The biggest difference between Sacrosanct and anything else I’ve ever written is the clarity. With this story, even if I don’t know the specifics yet, I can feel what’s going to happen. It’s this calm certainty in my core, like I can just reach toward the idea and the next part will flow to me. With other writing, I’ve always had to sit with it and sketch things out, or push through the sense of staring into a deep, black expanse where I genuinely have no idea what comes next. With Sacrosanct, that doesn’t exist. Instead, it feels like I’m racing to keep up with a tidal wave of information coming through. It doesn’t mean the writing isn’t challenging — I absolutely run into parts that don’t work, or places where telling something a certain way just isn’t right for the characters. But it’s always there.
The Sacrosanct universe came from experience, old stories, old ideas. The other part of Sacrosanct that feels “channeled” is how the story guides my steps in my actual life. I’ve let it show me which directions to take, which events to try, and it has opened doors to opportunities and friendships that feel strangely aligned.
But Sacrosanct didn’t just easily form into that tidal wave stream without uphill challenges. After the original 2013 short story, I took the basic idea and expanded that night into three unique stories. Each one was about 12k words and meant to show the same club night through different lenses.
The third story kept failing. I couldn’t find the right combination of characters, or the right scenario. But all of those failed attempts became material for later — more characters, extra storylines. I never threw anything away. Everything eventually evolved into what it is now.
My original claim that the main storyline came to me in five minutes is still true. After settling on the three stories, I was close to publishing them as a low-effort erotica. But I sat with them, got some helpful feedback, and started sensing that each one had the potential to be something much bigger. One morning, while I was in the shower thinking about all of this, the poetic storyline for Orlando came through all at once. It tied everything together so cleanly that I knew I had something sacred. And it had to be treated with respect.
And even now, as I’m approaching the second anniversary of Sacrosanct’s genesis as a series, I can see how much I’ve grown as a writer. The series has taught me new techniques, helped me see my own old patterns and biases, and pushed me into a different level of writing. It has been a guiding light for me. I feel like there’s a symbiotic relationship there — I respect it, and it looks out for me too.
I recommend a tour through The Artist’s Way. That book pulled a lot of heated reactions from me, and pushed back plenty, but it played a meaningful role in this whole thing.
In the end, Sacrosanct is the story I’m meant to tell.
