• Answer 1: Creating Quaraun the Insane
• Answer 2: Creating BoomFuzzy the Unicorn
• Answer 3: Creating GhoulSpawn the Crazed

Since people often ask which books I recommend to writers, here is a section of books I use when writing my novels.

Books I use when writing novels:

Note, some of these are writing books, but most of them are NOT. These are the references books that I use when writing almost every novel I write. These books are always on my desk and I reference them constantly, daily, over and over again.

And when you see what books I use to write The Quaraun novels with, than you can understand why they are like they are.

As you can see I rarely consult writing books when I want to figure out how to write something. Which is why I'm continually baffled by so many newbie writers who rush to ask other writers how to write.

You think of a thing, then write what you see in your head. It really is that simple. You just write down everything you see.

You do not need writing how to books or advice from authors to figure out how to write the story you want to tell.

Note too that I bought these books new and for cover price and many of them are self published short run books with only 100 to 1,000 copies printed (if you didn't know DnD books were self published and often had only 100 to 1,000 copies published than, you don't your DnD very well) and as such have been out of print for 20+ years and often sell for $500 to $3k+ now today, so, I don't expect you to be able to amass this same collection of 10,000+ DnD books I have, but, you wanted to know which books I use when I write my novels and here they are:

FAQs: What books do you use to look up English Grammar rules?

You probably won't like this, but I am constantly practicing English Grammar, by daily doing High School Grammar lessons. I diagram 100 sentence a day and have done so since 1996. 

Yes. While you all want the instant quick answer to writing rules, so you skip school and take the easy way out, I go through an entire High School manual in a couple of weeks, and when I get to the end I start over again.

I didn't have the luxury of going to school like you did, so I had no choice but to teach myself. I did the entire ABeka Grammar series starting from Grade 4 to Grade 12, then repeated it starting at Grade 7 to 12, and repeat it from Grade 7 to Grade 12, continually ever since. It takes me about 8 months to complete all 5 years' worth of textbooks. And when I reach the end, I start over again, and when I reach the end again, I start over again.

When I say I constantly practice English Grammar, I mean what I say and I actually practice English Grammar and I find it quiet annoying when school-skipping idiots respond to that by saying: "But I write every day and I never improve."

Did I tell you to write every day? No. I most certainly did not. I told you to practice English Grammar. There's a hell of a big difference.

Practice makes perfect. If you want to perfect your writing skills, you must first perfect your Grammar skills. If you continually write without knowing your errors, you only practice the art of writing errors and perfect the art of writing errors perfectly incorrect.

You will never be a skilled writer if you are not first skilled at Grammar.

Before you can practice writing, you must first practice Grammar.

I've not listed all the books below as there are so many. Each grade consists of a set of books:

   *   The Student Textbook

   *   The Teacher's Manual

   *   A Student WorkBook

   *    A Teacher's WorkBook Answer Key 

   *   A Student Tests and Quizzes Book

   *   A Spelling, Vocabulary, and Poetry Manual

   *   A Teacher's Answer Key For The Spelling Book

   *   A Reading/Literature Student TextBook

   *   The Reading/Literature Teacher's Manual

   *   A Student WorkBook For Reading/Literature

   *    A Teacher's WorkBook Answer Key  For Reading/Literature

   *   A Student Tests and Quizzes Book For Reading/Literature

Each book costs between $40 to $70, average that to $50 x 12 books per grade = around $600 per grade, times 5 grades (Grade 7 to Grade 12) = around $7,200 to buy the entire set of books and complete all 5 years from Grade 7 to Grade 12... so, you'll need to dish out quite a bit of money if you seek to gain the same writing skill I have using the same method I use to practice Grammar.

Do note that ABeka books are considered to be 4 grades ahead of the grade listed. For example, what ABeka book teaches in 4th Grade is what is taught in 8th Grade in Public Schools, while the12th Grade books is a college level. ABeka books are not used in standard public schools, they are used by private schools that specialize in teaching gifted/child prodigies that are too far ahead of their age group to be taught at a normal grade range.

Answering readers' FAQ:
Why is so much of the Quaraun series set in the 1970s & 1980s? Why not set it in current times?

>>>Why is so much of the Quaraun series set in the 1970s & 1980s? Why not set it in current times?

When Quaraun times travels to the future, the story IS SET IN CURRENT TIMES.

The date Quaraun arrives in is ALWAYS the same day that I wrote the scene.

Meaning, if Quaraun ends up in 1978, it's because I wrote that scene in 1978.

Meaning, if Quaraun ends up in 1982, it's because I wrote that scene in 1982.

Meaning, if Quaraun ends up in 1994, it's because I wrote that scene in 1994.

Meaning, if Quaraun ends up in 2013, it's because I wrote that scene in 2013.

MOST of the short stories in the Quaraun series were written between 1982 and 1987, and as Quaraun is ALWAYS in the current time of the date I'm writing, and because I wrote most of those scenes in 1982 to 1987, that means most of the scenes end up set between 1982 to 1987.

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FAQs: When you say to read in order to learn what good writing looks like, but than you say don't read anything self published or written in the past 50 years, what than do you suggest I read to learn what good writing looks like?

I recommend 3 things.

   *   1: I recommend the Reading/Literature TextBooks of the ABeka Grammar series that I previously mentioned above. I also recommend reading EVERY PAGE IN ORDER of EVERY volume of the series starting with Grade 4 and ending with Grade 12. (Those books are listed below).

   *   2: WELL WRITTEN classic literature. (Listed in the second column below)

   *   3: American and World History TextBooks. (Listed in the third column below)

   *   4: Science TextBooks. (Listed in the 4th column below)

These are the books I personally read to see/examine how good quality writing looks on the published page and teach myself to improve my own writing by mimicking the writing style seen in the books listed below.

These books are how I taught myself to read and write. I was not allowed to go to school and spent 27 years of my life, since I was 8 years old, locked in a cage, tortured, beaten, and starved.

As an adult I used these books to teach myself as I had no other way to gain an education.

Again, not every book is listed, as there are too many to list them all, but enough are listed to get you started.

   *   1: I recommend the Reading/Literature TextBooks of the ABeka Grammar series

   *   2: WELL WRITTEN classic literature.

A note here... I make it a point to read no fewer than 100 books a year - 2 books a week. Some years I have as many as 300 books by reading a book almost every day. I own more than 300,000 books and have read more then 10,000 of them with a goal to attempt to read them all. As such, I can't even begin to list anything close to all of the books I read. Though I will point out 90% of them were written before 1950 and all of them are hardcover or paperback, not one of my 300k books is an ebook or an audio book. I don't read ebooks nor do I listen to audio books.

   *   3: American and World History TextBooks.

Yes, I DO classify reading History and Geography books as good, quality recommended daily light  reading that should be done in between regular novel and short story reading.

It is my belief that when one ONLY reads fiction, ones view of what is goof writing becomes warped. Thus I recommend reading historical documents, including to go to your local museums to read important documents about your town/state/region. This is especially important if you, like me, write local tales, stories set in your home town/state/region.

This is also why I have such a strong grasp on describing the places Quaraun travels to in the novels I write, without my ever having set foot outside of Maine.

    *   4: Science TextBooks.

Yes. Once again, like with History and Geography, I DO classify reading Science books as good, quality recommended daily light  reading that should be done in between regular novel and short story reading.

I firmly believe that if one does not have a working knowledge of the world around you, not just it's history and geography, but also it's plants, animals, rocks, functions, ad place in the universe, that one will not be able to successfully write descriptions of the world character in your novels live in, because without knowing how your own world exists, how can you even begin to know how to create a fictional world?

As such, I put reading science books as highly important for anyone seeking to write novels.

And again, as I was not allowed to go to school and was locked in a cage from the time I was 8 until I was 31, I did not start studying science until I was an adult, and as such, I started with Grade K5 and went all the way through to Grade 12, doing so in 3 years, so that I could apply for a GED which I got when I was 37. The Science books listed below are the ones I used to do that with, and again mostly by ABeka as I absolutely refuse to use books with frutie tuttie Evolution or Big Bang hocus pocus mumbo jumbo. 

Also, I quickly discovered that as young as 4th grade, vile degradations of sex perversion and utterly disgusting lessons about sex are in Science books published by perverse public school textbook publishers, so I burned them all in the wood stove I will NOT recommend any of the horrifically horrendous, disgustedly perverted sex fill Science books published by non-Christian companies.

It's no wonder the American population has children so perverse and degraded, when they stoop so low as to spend more than 75% of their science textbooks being devoted to the vile disgusting top of sex education. It's utterly deplorable. Sex has no business being in schools. With that kind of filth being taught to children it's no wonder American's gone to shit.

• 100+ Cozy Fantasy Writing Prompts for NaNoWriMo & NovNov 2025

• Finding Your Character’s Goal Through Mundane Moments (Character Creation & Development - NaNoWriMo & NovNov 2025) --with 500+ Writing Prompts!

• 30 Cozy Fantasy Writing Prompts - June 2025 - 30 Day Edition

• 30 Cozy Fantasy Writing Prompts, Queer Throuples/Polycules Slice of Life Edition

• 30 "TRUE COZY" Cozy Fantasy Writing Prompts

• 🫖 30 More Cozy Fantasy Writing Prompts - June 2025

• Writing Character Driven Flash Fiction for NaNoWriMo & NovNov 2025 -with 90 Cozy Fantasy Slice of Life Writing Prompts

• A shit ton load of daily writing prompts and writing dares to use for National Novel Writing Month, 2025 edition!

The Park Bench Method of Writing

The Adventures of Quaraun The Insane: Paperpacks & Hardcover Editions on Amazon:

Not sure what the series is about? 

Check out 

The Quaraun Series Prologue

and

Faeries vs Elves (In The Quaraun Series) A Pink Necromancer World Lore Post

and

Worldbuilding MoonQuakes and Disabled Characters for Fantasy Writers

and

How well do I know Quaraun? - Let's find out!

to find out more about the plot and lore of the series.

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Not sure which story to start with? These here are good places to start, to get a good introduction to the three main characters:

• Absinthe Slushies: An Ode to Frozen Green Fairy Wine

• Bone Dice

• BoomFuzzy's Chowder Dilemma

• The Cellar's Forgotten Treasure

• Chaos in The Lighthouse - Shattered Panes, Shattered Minds

• The Cliff-Side Temple

• Control or Protection?

• A Dark and Stormy Night

• Drying Herbs

• Excited For The New Baby

• Five Ways To Save Money in Las Vegas

• The Golden Dragon Keys

• Herons in the Dunes

• If your ass ain’t freezing or your brains ain’t scrambled, you’re ain’t really trying

• Kiss Me Fuckin' Arse - Just Another Day in the Ice-Laced Ruins of The GodForsaken City

• Lens and Light Maintenance

• Macaroni and Cheese: A Creamy Pasta Dish Drenched in Melted Cheese, Often Topped with Breadcrumbs- It's Never That Easy

• A Map Worth More Than Gold

• The Morning After a Night of Teaching Wizards To Gather Magic With Cards

• Necromancer of the Parched Sands in the Desert of Diona

• Necromancy-A Day in the Life of a Bumbling Necromancer-Again

• Nightmare Nook

• Paddlewheel Maintenance

• The Phooka's Dragon School

• The Red Hakama

• Springtime by the River

• Spirit-Walk Slippers

• Sticky Rice, Bare Fingers, and Slippery Chopsticks

• The Sweet and Sour of Lemons

• The Terror Bird

• 3 Perspectives on an Apple

• The Valuable Mystery of the Talking Saloon Door and How We Nearly Got Shot Over Stale Tacos

• Vendetta over Vittles

• A Very Important Clump of Grass

• Wagers and Wiles in the Godforsaken City

• The Washer Woman & The Fae

• Weather Forecasting Stones

• You Never Know What Info You Might Pick Up in the Afterlife aka Quaraun's Near Death Experience (A NDE Fiction)

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Or if after reading those, you still are looking for more free to read stories, there are over three thousand of them on this site, too many to list here, but here a few dozen to get you started...

...you can just jump in and try reading some of the free to read online stories first before committing to buying the books:

• Abyssal

• Addlepated: Stupid and Confused

• All the roads are gone

• Alone

• Ancient Coin Hoard Unearthed

• Angry Ocean Waves at Sunset

• The Arrival

• The Art of Destroying a Human Village for Fun and Profit

• At the High Priest's Altar

• Back At The Tavern and Still No Shrimp

• The Bandits and the Pink Necromancer

• The Banshee Sisters: Bean-Nighe and Ben-Neeyah In the Swamp of Death

• The Beacon Room at the Top of the Black Tower Lighthouse

• The Beauty of a Silk Moth Hatching

• The Beginning of the End

• Bellicose: Warlike! Aggressive! Hostile!

• Beneath a crimson sky, the silk weaver wove pink silk.

• Beneath Malevolent Stars

• The Black Sock, Again

• Blizzard

• The Boat Fiasco

• The Book Burning Maggots, a You Can't Spell Hatred Without Red Hats

• BoomFuzzy's Gingerbread House from Hell

• The Brownies & The Witch, or Why Faeries Don’t Wear Socks

• The Bumbling Pursuit of The Pink Necromancer

• Candied Nightmares

• The Candle Con in Ember Hollow

• The Candy Corn Unicorn

• Captured By The Lich Lord

• The Cast Iron Frying Pan

• Cattail Pollen Spaghetti with Wild "Oregano"

• A Chilly Light Drizzle Becomes Snowfall on the Shore

• Chocolate Bliss

• Chocolate in the Neon Shadows

• Christmas in 40th Century Dystopia

• Christmas With The Krampus Family

• The City of Death

• Clam Digging in the Rain

• The Clock Ticks Away

• Clotheslines, Games, and the Village

• Code Ghosts

• Comet Fall Snow Day Blitz

• Conundrum in the Bazaar

• Corsets, Elves, and Undead Faeries

• Crabapples in the Rain

• Cranberry Muffins

• The Crooked Dice

• The Crows Are Restless

• Crullers and Curses at Midnight

• The Curse of the Liquid Gold

• The Cursed Mirror

• Dangerous Tides {A Pink Necromancer Drabble Dozen, featuring Etiole}

• Dark Damp Basement

• A Day At Witch Pond & Fleeing To The Forest

• Deadly Shores of Noodle Beach

• The Demon Cultists and The Coming of The Darkness

• The Demonic Music Box

• Desolate Nostalgia on a Frozen Shoreline

• The Diamond Forest in the Bio Dome

• The Disbelief of Humans

• Discovering A Floating Castle

• Dismal Day at the Street Market

• The Doors' Dark Secret - A Wedding In A Zombie Apocalypse

• Dreams of Purple Pearls

• The Drunk Moon Elf

• Echoes of the Glass Forest

• Echoes of the Unseen

• An Eclipse in the Faerie Glen

• An Eclipse Looms Tonight

• An Eerie Discovery

• Eerie Symbols in the Snow

• The Egg That Was Not an Egg

• The Elf With Crippled Hands

• Ember

• Enable

• The Enchanted Map

• Encountering ghostly apparitions in the swamp

• Evil Eggplants Stalking Outside

• Evil McEvil of The Twirly Moustache

• Existential Crisis Perspectives - 3 Perspectives on an Existential Crisis

• Exploring the Swamp's Forgotten River

• A Fall in the River

• A Field of Poppies On The Road To Witch Pond

• 15 Drabbles About Being Transgender

• The First Flicker of Dawn

• Fishing in the Rain

• Five Ways To Save Money in Las Vegas

• Fizzy and Frigid

• A Flapdoodle Wizard’s Duel

• Fleeced for Fizz

• Fog & Peach Melba Toast After Last Night's Rain

• Footprints In The Sand

• Forest Kings and Their Antler Crowns

• The Fragrant Smoke of Flavoured Herbs

• Freshly Baked Sugar Cookies

• The Frilly Nest of Panic

• A Garden of Pink Chrysanthemums

• Get your hands off my dress!

• GhoulSpawn & The Cultists

• GhoulSpawn Said The Moon Don’t Laugh

• GhoulSpawn's Toasted Marshmallow Magic

• A Glass of Fresh Milk

• Gloom Blob of Doom: The Dreadful Dripping of the Doom Blob of Gloom

• Glumpish, Grumpy, Sullen, Gloomy

• Golden Field, Pink Glories

• The Golden Mask

• The Graveyard That Ate the Living

• The Great UnSeelie Court Swindlers

• He Always Comes Back

• Heirloom Tomatoes

• Help! He's trying to feed me!

• The Herd Approaches

• The Howl on Silent Moor

• How to Create a Literary Empire with Just Your Bum Poems

• How To Kill a Lich

• How to Hijack a Human Supply Train Without Getting Shot

• How to Overthrow an Entire Settlement Without So Much as Lifting a Finger

• I Need To Feel Safe

• Ignoramus — An Utterly Ignorant Crowd of Humans

• IkuTursu's Cursed Depths of the Swamp Where Pine Boughs Whisper

• Incandescent Shadows Over Driftwood Bay

• The Infected Survivor

• Inner Fortitude

• Insidious Love

• Invigorating Cool Air

• Iron Hooves and Burning Roads, Krampus on Wheels

• The Ivory Tower of Greed

• The Jar of Pickled Toes

• Jibber Jabber Ramblings by the Fire

• The Jolly Red Lich King

• Journey Through the Zombie-Infested Swamp on the Blue Monkey

• Judgement An Ode To The Lunatics Preaching The Rapture of September'25

• Kelim and The Necromancer: Finding Finderu

• Kelim Meets Quaraun The Insane

• Lanterns Over the Faerie Glen

• Leaving Your Bed Messy Isn't Exactly the Apocalypse

• The Leprechaun of The Deep North

• A Lich's Lament For a Mortal Lover Growing Old

• A Lich's Reflections On Escaping The Swamp of Death

• The Lich's True Form Revealed

• The Lighthouse’s Glass-Eyed Horror

• The Lighthouse Keeper

• The Lighthouse That Leapt, Space Dock 13's First Jump Through Space

• The Long Road

• The Loot Tree

• Lord of the Hive

• Lost In The Forest of No Return-Trying To Find Directions

• The Lost Library and The Snowglobe

• The Lotus' Silent Prayer on the Sandy Shoreline

• Lover's Triangle

• Make tea and go for a rainy forest walk

• Maple Cotton Candy Served as a Topping on Vanilla Ice Cream

• A Market Day Disaster

• Market Day Weekend - Three Days In The Life of The Pink Necromancer

• Marsh Serenity Reflection

• Mayonnaise

• Meeting Mallac

• Melt, Ya Safe With Me

• The MerMan's Wrath

• Milkweed Meadow

• Mint, Madness, and Motor Parts

• The Mischief of the Purple Unicorn

• Misplaced Utensils and the Cascade of Confusion

• Monsters & Mayhem: How Black Tower Became Pink (8+ Parts)

• The Moon and The Drowned

• The Moon Goddess Laughs From The Rooftops

• The Moon That Hungers

• The Moon and The Mirror

• Morning Sickness at The Shattered Stein (TW: MPreg Yaoi)

• A Mysterious Door

• No Goldfish, Today?

• No Place for Birth

• The Noodle of Power

• Not Little Red Riding Hood

• Obsessive Love-Dangerous Love

• An Ode to My Shattered Sanity

• Ominous

• One River In Three Perspectives

• Open Grave

• An Ordinary Day

• A Path of Twisted Trees

• A Peaceful Night on the Tundra

• The Peaceful Shores of Noodle Beach

• Phantom Tides

• Pickling Perfection

• Pickles, Panic, & Permafrost

• The Picnic

• Pink Marabou Trimmed Rainbow Leg Warmers, a Purple Feathered Black Leather Codpiece, and an Emerald Green Overly Fluffy Scarf

• The Pink Necromancer's Deceitful Carpet Weave

• Pink Sheep, Cheesy Burritos, and The Grim Reality of Zombies

• Pliable Clay on the Potter's Wheel

• Pocket Lich Unleashed: Quaraun Murders Finderu

• Preparations for the Street Market of the GodForsaken City

• Psychotic Dead Things

• Quaraun's Beauty Makeovers

• Quaraun's Candle Business

• Quaraun's Irritable Day

• Quaraun and The Wandering Turtle City

• Quarreling Over the Last Slice of Pizza

• A Quiet Day on The Blue Monkey

• The Quiet Evening in the Pink Silk Tent

• A Quiet Evening In The Rain

• A Quiet Night on The River

• A Quiet Place To Sweep

• A Quiet, Relaxing Foot Rub

• The Rain-Drenched Alley

• Raining Cats & Dogs

• Readers vs Readers, What Really Makes a Reader, a Reader?

• Remove!

• The Return of ZooLock

• The River Boat Man-Woman

• The Sacred Pink Secret (TW: Mpreg Yaoi)

• Safety and Emergency System Activated. Please Being Calm

• Santa's Floating Dead Body

• Santa's Letter To Satan

• The Screaming Contest

• The Seagull

• Sea Slugs and Clam Chowder Bread Bowls

• Secret Meeting Hidden Behind Closed Doors

• Shadows on the Clam Flats

• Shipyard at Dusk

• The Silence of the Unseen

• Silks in the Snow

• The Singing Crabgrass Crabs — A Green Fairy Wine Tale

• A Sinister-Looking Stone Well

• Six Days Earlier

• The Snake's Prophecy of Doom Upon The Fractured Moon

• A Solitary Black Sock

• Spinning Dreams in Silk

• The Soul Eater

• Spacious Space

• Spooky Scary Skeletons - A Graveyard Waltz

• Stillness in the Garden's Chaos

• Stone Cakes for the Road

• Survival Preppers Of The Zombie Apocalypse

• The Swamp of Death

• The Tavern in the Faraway Town

• The Temple City of The Green Goddess, Where Every Street Has a Name

• The Terrifying Cliffs of Noodle Beach, featuring Etiole

• That Afternoon When Quaraun Got Stuck In a Crab Trap

• That Big Bad Darkness in His Heart

• A Threatening Letter

• Too Busy Cooking Lemon Tarts

• Toobe's Well-Prompted Apocalypse (A ChatBot Plans Global Domination)

• The Trade Caravan

• A Tumble In The River

• The Vacuous Tavern Fool

• Waiter, There's A Head In My Soup

• Wandering Merchant: The Trader’s Cryptic Goods (Part 2 of ShipYard At Dusk)

• What I Wish I Knew Before Not Becoming an Astrophysicist

• When a Government Tries to Cover Its Crimes

• Why the Sea is Salt

• A Winter Wizard

• Wishing For Lobster Rolls-Never Make Wishes In The Presence of Wizards

• WORMS!

• Wrath of the Sacred Pink JellyFish

• Yelling at the Snowstorm

• You've Only Known Our World Through The Eyes of a Madman

• You trust that nonsense over a map?

• Zombies Are Not the Worst Thing Here {TW: Love fucking wins}

• Zwodder: A Drowsy Stupid State of Mind

Hmmm... soooo... I was making the above list to ALL the links to EVERY Quaraun story published on my website here, and adding it into the footer of my site, here as you can see, which loads on every page, and then I realized... wait... there are over two thousand Pink Necromancer stories up free to read on my website, I can't put two thousand links on every single page! Whoops! LOL!

So, now I'm putting list to ALL the links to EVERY Quaraun story published on my website here on this page instead and just link that page to the footer instead. But also I'll just leave some of the links in the footer, as you can see above.