M.J. Vergo

Writing with happiness

Author: MJ Vergo

  • The Adventures of MJ

    My journey over the last six months have been that of personal adventure. While different from the adventures last year, no less interesing.

    Most exciting, at least on a personal note, is that I got married to my long time boyfriend/common-law partner. We were very fortunate to celebrate it with family and friends in more than one location. Our hearts were full to bursting with love. For each other, and for those who love us.

    I also continue to remain busy at the Word Mine – as my husband calls it – following the promotion. We released a product to our clients and have watched the usership grow. I’m also continually surprised at how storytelling makes me a stronger Product Manager. The two worlds work very well together. What I learn in one, I often can find ways to apply it the other.

    In the Personal Word Mine – also my husband’s loving term – I unexpectedly found the time to submit a short story to my writing community’s second anthology – “this time it’s vampires!” The publication will be released in October 2026. Whether or not I make the cut, I will share the link when it is available.

    For those that don’t remember, I had my very first publication in the first annual of the anthology, last year. You can find this on: MJ, have you been published?

    Writing another flash fiction, in a genre that I am not accustomed to, was a wonderful adventure. Again! While I found a quirky character in a small world early on, I struggled to find a story to tell about this distinguished gentleman. Flash fiction has to tell a complete story in 500 words or less. Seems easy enough but is more challenging than it sounds. Finding a story with real conflict and a twist eluded me.

    What worked in the end was putting my fingers on a keyboard and start typing to see what comes out.

    MJ’s Hot Tip: Writing the first draft of the story is the best way to find the story.

    Where’s the Picard facepalm gif when you need it…

    Captain Picard leaning on his elbow with the palm of his hand covering his face in dismay.
    Oh look at that, I found it.

    I found the parts that were good – the real conflict – and how to add in an awesome twist.

    I also took the chance to have my story beta read by a couple of peers in the community. I was surprised to find that felt more scary than sending the story in for submission. I loved the constructive feedback I received, along with genuine positive comments and reactions. I agreed with the issue pointed out and made some small updates, ending with a stronger story for it.

    What is amazing about this, it gave me a little more confidence to chime in on another peer’s back-of-the-book summary that they were working through. I was able to provide my own thoughtful comment. I had never done that before.

    Which lead to another amazing adventure. I was asked to beta read that novel! I am so delighted I get to, too. It’s fantastic. I cannot speak to it at all (not mine to share), but when they release it, I will share a link to their novel. It’s entertaining, thoughtful and captured me in the first chapter.

    Those are the adventures I’ve been on. Not bad for an amateur writer, learning her craft. All the while, making slow steady progress on Book 1 & 2 of The Celestine Chronicles. I’m working through Book 2’s new outline now. Still working through each lesson on each book, until it makes sense to pause on Book 2 and come back to it later.

    And I continue to work on the schedule that I set at the beginning of the year. July was a little rough with the travels and family, but generally I have kept to it and found it works well.

    And on that note, time to get to writing again!

  • April 2026 Blog Hop

    It’s time for the Quarterly Blog Hop!

    Our writing community does a quarterly blog hop, and for the first time I am joining in. Below is a story from yours truly along with links to many other stores too! All with the best price tag – free. I hope you enjoy the adventure this blog hop takes you on.

    Enjoy!

    The Little Cloud Ray

    The little cloud ray swam through the warm summer air, high above the golden fields. Small changes in her fins let her weave a long arcs before turning the other way, in an aimless meandering path. The sun warmed her dark, wide, diamond shaped body. Beneath her, eight long tentacles flowed behind like sea grass.
    She happily enjoyed the gentle caress of her tentilla on the wheat. As she passed over the plants, she let them cup individual straws of wheat trailing up and over each head. The wheat swayed softly with her passing.

    She journeyed from one field to another, watching the wheat ebb and flow with her passing, like waves on a shore. Each straw persuading its neighbours to join in the gentle sway.

    As she passed through the fields, she saw a small forest up ahead. Nestled into a ravine between the rolling hills, a small cluster of tall pine and birch trees stood proud.

    Excitedly, she tipped her fins and tail to rise up higher to get above the trees. Her tentilla slid up and over pine needles, gentle and prickly.

    She turned around to watch the trees bob back and forth, giggling at how much they moved. Each of the tree boughs wiggled in different ways, making the sway of the tree lopsided. Delighted, she circled around and came back through again. And again. Laughing each time she swam above the branches, each time a little closer, a little faster and she tried to grab onto the trees harder to make them swing more.

    CRACK!

    She twirled quickly to see the noise. One of the tall pines shivered and began an inexorable fall to the ground, brushing hard through the branches and boughs of the other trees. An enormous crash, the tree hit the ground, and a tremor shook the other trees. At the bottom of the ravine, crossing the water, the tree lay broken at its base in rough jagged edges.

    The young cloud ray gasped in horror. A great updraft spun the fallen leaves in the ravine into a wild wave. They drifted quietly back to the ravine floor as a deep silence took hold.

    She went ever so slowly, trying to hold all of her tentacles as close to her as she could to see what she had done. A tree was dead now because of her. She floated close to the ground, in front of the broken stump, sad and guilty. Mother had warned her that she needed to be careful and not to ask too much of the earth to bend to her will, unless there was need.

    Almost as if summoned, her mother arrived. The stillness of the ravine deepened.

    “Little cloud ray, what has happened here?” She spoke in a soft voice, the sound of birch leaves in spring.

    “I played too hard and I broke this tree.” The cloud ray admitted. She pulled her tentacles into her with her fins. “I forgot to be gentle, Mama. I got so excited.”

    One of Mother’s tentacles and its tentilla caressed the little cloud ray’s face. “I am glad you admitted your error. We cloud rays can be very powerful and we have to respect that we can do harm.”
    “I see that now.” She said. The little cloud solemnly ray let out one of her tentacles and laid only a few of her tentilla on the fallen tree. She moved to touch the rough cut where the tree had broken, wanting to understand the jagged, sharp feeling of the damage. She let another tentacle ever so lightly touch the trunk and its needles.

    “Is there anything I can do, Mother? To make it right?”

    There was a pause while Mother looked up to the rest of the forest. “They will be alright. I think this majestic tree was nearing the end of its cycle. There are many other healthy trees here, likely from its seed.”

    “But I cannot bring this one back, can I?”

    “No, my little one.”

    The little cloud ray was silent and still for a minute. “I understand now why we must be so careful.” She reached out purposefully to the other trees around her, laying her small tentilla on as many of them as she could touch. She closed her tiny eyes, focusing her thoughts on the trees through her contact. “I am sorry for what I have done. I hope you can forgive me.” She said.

    “That was very kind of you.” Mother said as she smoothed one of the little cloud ray’s tentacles back into place. “Let’s return to father and continue on our journey across the wheat fields.”
    The two cloud rays left the ravine with a warm caress of a gentle summer breeze.

    They did not hear the soft weeping of pine needles falling to the forest floor.

    Now that you have read my little adventure, please visit the other authors participating in the Blog Hop for more great stories:

    Baba Yaga Babysits by Katharina Gerlach

    Florals by Angelica Medlin

    The Price Of Freedom by Amy Keeley

    Danger on Raylon 4 by James Husum

    Rise by Barbara Lund

  • A plan has emerged

    A new year, a new me! Yeah, right… But really, there are some changes I would like to take on this year. I’ve been approaching it more realistically and looking at what I can do to make me a better writer and a better human.

    Last year was a wild year for me.

    I earned myself a promotion at work.

    My job is wonderful, challenging and keeps me getting up each day happy to start the day. I know not everyone has this. I try to not let myself take it for granted. It wasn’t that many years ago I was in a totally different place.

    The promotion brings new challenges, which means the day job uses up a lot of the mental juices each day. I come home tired and unmotivated to write, more often than not.

    I earned my very first publication.

    I have to stop and remind myself sometimes about that, in a pinch me sort of way. It’s amusing it wasn’t a fantasy story, but I can completely live with that. It was wonderful validation that I write words others want to read. The best compliment a writer could ever receive.

    Here I am, a published writer with great motivation to write more, but the day job gets to take all the juices. This is why there are some changes I would like to make. The day job gets to use that energy, as it keeps “us in our feasts and finery” as my partner likes to call it. But how do I set writing as a priority?

    Cue The Overwrintering Writer that came out on Holly’s Writing Classes, by her daughter Rebecca Galardo. Twinning two of my favourite pastimes, looking at the accomplishments for the year and how to prepare for next year. What is/are the big bulbs, what are the seedlings and what are the seeds to plant.

    What are your goals MJ? You ask? Well, let me tell you. They are humble, but they are truthful.

    I will write:

    • Tuesday for 20 minutes
    • Wednesday for 20 minutes
    • Saturday and/or Sunday for a total of 30 minutes

    My focus will be working on the revision of Nathalia Ceres. I love this story, I love these characters. I love being in the world. I want to share this you, so I will continue to muster through.

    I learned this year that only doing revision was slowly draining me. New to this year’s plans include to spread that time across new fiction. Focusing on more flash fiction, or short stories within Nathalia’s world. I will also get a chance to revise more, end to end, which I hope will help me get through the big novel as well. The last of the priorities is to write more for this space. I’d like to be able to share a series of flash fiction to any of those on my mailing list, as a thank you. I will make sure one writing session a week includes non-revision work, to let the muse out to play.

    And that’s the plan. Humble, but I think honest. There will be days I need to switch things around. I also recognize that illness and injury happen. I occasionally have a social life that means I am not able to always write or revise. Revising also comes with a 2” binder with a ream of paper, a pack of note cards on a 1” ring, a 1.5” binder of supporting notes, and an excel file of support notes, which means also a computer. Not terribly mobile. Not impossible, but definitely one of the weirder people in the coffee shop…

    Thank you for coming along on this journey with me. I wish you a happy start to the year.

    Come along on the adventure with me! Let’s see where winds take us today.

  • I am published!

    Cover Art: Rebecca Galardo

    I am pleased to present my first publication! Along with a number of other talented people from Holly’s Writing Classes (hollyswritingclasses.com) we present the Haunted By Tarot Anthology! Holly’s daughter, Rebecca, has put this all together to showcase the amazing work and talent of the writing community Holly put together. I am over the moon delighted to be part of this community.

    Every card tells a story. Some whisper softly into your ear. Some my have a warning for you.

    Some never stop screaming.

    In Haunted By Tarot, writers from the HollysWritingClasses.com community draw from the shadows of the Major and Minor Arcana to explore what happens when fate turns over a card… and refuses to turn it back.

    Within these pages, you’ll meet characters stalked by prophecy, questioning their future as they once saw it, put in danger by love – or lack there of. They might be consumed by obsession, or by their own deeds finally catching up to them.

    No matter their fate, one thing stands as common ground: the cards have them caught between the veil of the mystical and the mortal.

    The thin line between divination and damnation spins as each tale unveils a different facet of what it means to be haunted.

    Step into the circle.
    The deck has been shuffled.
    Your card is waiting.

    You can pick up your copy here:

    Canada or USA

  • A season has changed, again

    Well here we are again, another new season and I continue this journey of mine. The journey to not just write a novel (I’ve accomplished that) but to edit and publish a novel.

    I must admit, my day job has kept me busy and we’ve had family visiting as well. While all of that is challenging and engaging (work) and wonderful (both) it’s made it more challenging to carve out the time to write.

    I continue to very slowly chip away at the revision. I have hit 13% on Lesson 7 now. There are 8 lessons in Holly’s triage section. My new goal for the remainder of the year is to finish triage. Then the fun begins again.

    This triage section is a tough go. It’s looking at all of the bad things I did, document how much of this or that I have. While this will be so useful in the later sections, I don’t “get” to change anything yet. It is difficult to stay motivated when it’s not the super fun first draft writing that I have done until now. Which is why I’m here! I need to learn this part of my craft. I just happened to start with it a 140k word project first. Because why not start in ultra-hard mode.

    To help with the hard slog through the Never Ending Story grade Swamp of Sadness, I am enjoying working on some more flash fiction. I intend these stories to be in the same world as the big project. Some of them are characters in the story, some are just part of the world. People I need to know that play a small part in the story, but I want to know them better so they play their best in my bigger story. It’s been fun to work on small projects. They seem much more attainable. The catch is that I still don’t have a lot of time even for these, so it’s not been quick, despite their name.

    On a slightly different note, I have invested in myself a little and made my work from home/writing space better. I got a new chair which has already felt like sitting on a well supported cloud. I moved around my desk, and even in stalled some blinds to keep the glare off my monitor. All so that when I do have precious minutes to write, I can do so comfortably. I also had to replace some headphones that had a suffered a ruinous calamity.

    Imagine if you will: an eight year old pair of headphones, lovingly duct taped one side to prolong its life. Taking great care to no longer sit on them on airplanes anymore – it was only two or three times – I had the audacity to put them on my head one day this summer. The other side protested, completely detaching from the headband, the ear phone dangling quite inconveniently. In their defence, the sound still came through perfectly, but I would have to duct tape them to my head to hear it.

    And so the seasons continue, without any consult from me. I endeavour to enjoy the changing season, enjoying what warmth and beauty this season brings, knowing that once winter settles in, writing will become an escape for me.

  • Summer arrived. Really really.

    It is now the end of summer, some of the kids started back to school; some teachers go back this week to prep for their students to come back. More importantly (well, more pleasantly) summer has actually settled its warm hands upon us. We had a rather cool and wet July and early August, but the sunshine returned with a benign vengeance for the last week or so.

    The writing front has been rather quiet, but I’ve been slowly chugging along. I have two goals I’m working on for the summer (which still continues for at least 30 more days…)

    • Complete and submit the flash fiction Halloween story
    • Complete Lesson 7 of HTRYN

    I realized the anthology I wanted to submit a short story to is not from my typical genre. I had a mini crisis in the days leading up to the submission deadline to decide if I should submit with my name or use a different name. Ultimately, I decided on using my name. MJ Vergo is me as an author, and I’m ok if there are a few early stories out there in the world using MJ Vergo, even if they are not full of dragons and magic. I have yet to hear back, and I’m not anticipating to for a while yet. (subtext is I completed goal 1!)

    Writing flash fiction was a lovely experience. I’m going to toy with it a little more in the coming weeks. Lets me have some creative time as I slog my way through the waist deep mud of the swamp of sadness alongside Atrau and Artax .

    The revision (triage) is moving, albeit very slow. Like the mud in the swamp. I do think there is light at the end of the tunnel, as I am starting to understand the purpose of the lesson and how I make it work for my story. Also, I begin the spell book that is Wielding Arcana and much of the rules surrounding the magic. This was not part of the lesson initially, but I have found it was where my misunderstand came from. So while I still have not passed the 8% mark, it is valuable re-do work to do what I have captured now.

    There likely won’t be much headway this week. The day job beckons and its siren song is strong. Well, the deadlines sing loud at least.

    Onwards and Upwards.

  • Summer has arrived

    July brings lovely summer weather and a renewed sense of joy. As I write today, it is the 1st (Canada Day, for us Canucks) the sun shines, there is a wonderful breeze, and I am resting on my deck.

    I have finished some writing goals over the last while which included completing Lessons 5 & 6 of HTRYN (how to revise your novel @ https://www.hollyswritingclasses.com/) which was a big achievement for me. While I have been upfront that I am editing Book 1 of my trilogy, I am not sure if I have yet mentioned is that this is actually Book 1 and 2. Getting through a lesson is not easy. This means I am doing the triage on both books, though they will split eventually. I have two more lessons in the triage section: Lesson 7 may not be a quick one, but it may have just had a steep learning curve. That said, I am motivated to try to have the first book edited and ready for beta readers by the end of year. In order to get there, I just have to keep going, one page at a time.

    Another goal I have been working towards lately and am nearly done now, is planning a prequel story to this trilogy. The story will be told in a journal-style following a man who is changing, and the challenges that he faces. I am nearly done doing some high-level planning on the different entries. The chocolate sauce on the ice-cream is the worldbuilding definition I get out of this writing. The sprinkles on the chocolate sauce on the ice-cream is that Lesson 7 is about world building. All my little plans are coming together.

    New goals for the summer:

    Write a flash fiction story that is Halloween related. The submission deadline of August 15th, so there is some time to write and polish 500 words. I have some research to do before I can write it, but I think it’s a spooky story and should be fun to write. I will share the link to the anthology when it comes out later this year. If my writing didn’t make it in, I will share the story around Halloween!

    I will finish Lesson 7 by the end of July and Triage by the end of August. The prequel has no defined due date yet, but the worldbuilding should help it all come together. Plus it gives me the added bonus of writing new words, which is a nice change of pace when editing.

    Now, I just need to get over the cold that is wearing me down, not have a writing room hotter than Hell’s kitchen, and I’ll be set!

    Cheers,

    MJ

  • A welcome…

    Welcome to the writing of MJ Vergo! That’s me! I am not entirely certain what this website will evolve into, but I am delighted to be starting this journey. I am equally delighted to have you join me on this journey too.

    I have always been very private about my writing in the past. This is a new experience, one I will adjust to, with some time.

    I would like this site to include both pieces of writing and also my experience as a writer. Taking you along with me in the journey of writing, but also give you glimpses into the world of my current work in progress, The Wielder Chronicles.

    I will admit, this is not the first iteration of my website. The previous version had been redesigned a couple of times, and no real content was ever added. I had made it too difficult to maintain, which was really the crux of the issue. I believe this time I have achieved the feeling I want, with the simplicity necessary to keep updated.

    Thank you again for stopping by. I hope that you will continue in the future as well.

    Regards,

    -MJ Vergo