CL Stegall - Author

06/08/2026

OK! If you are a writer, and have been writing for any real length of time, you've probably wished you had some way of better organizing your thoughts, ideas, and stories.

I know I have...so I built a little suite of Author's Tools to help me...and thought, what the heck...others might want this as well!

So, I've opened my own Etsy Shop (yeah, I know...never thought I would be on there)...with specifically working writer's tools.

You can find:
1) Series Bible Template for Authors | Novel Planner, Continuity Tracker (Fillable PDF) -- GREAT for authors who write series fiction and need a way to maintain all of the info in a nice, formalized place;

2) Serial Fiction Season Planner | Episode Guide, Cliffhanger Tracker -- I love this! I created it so that I could keep track of the seasons of my upcoming thriller serial, WARLOCKS, a paranormal spy thriller;

3) Author Royalty Spreadsheet | Excel Google Sheets Income Tracker -- because we ALL need to know how we are doing, financially...and working authors' royalties are paid out in weird ways sometimes...so this keeps track of them ALL!

Check them out and see if any of them work for you!

Shop Writer tools by a working author. by CLStegallAuthorTools located in Dallas, Texas.

05/01/2026

I'm a happy boy!! (60 years old and YES...still just a boy.)

With the final book in my Greek Mythology series publishing TODAY(!!), I took a moment to look at how people are receiving the first book in the series, "The Broken Night"... Needless to say...I'm happy.

The whole series is now available!

Books 1 & 2 (I need to get the 3rd added to this page): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GMDM5R2H?binding=paperback

Book 3: https://www.amazon.com/Jealous-Dark-Book-New-Scions-ebook/dp/B0F9W9M5SS?s=books

04/27/2026

I know a lot of writers who write in different genres and have several pen names (pseudonyms).
I never thought I would really do that...however, I have been writing a fun little series of "Cozy Mysteries" and I just think they are SO different than the other works I have done that it deserves its own "space".
I thought of it this way: would I want to hang out with the Valensi and Garou of "The Valensi Chronicles?" Would I want to be associated with ANY of the Greek demigods of "The New Scions?"
The answer, after some serious thoughts was: Nope.
It's fun to "visit" and see what those crazy rascals have gotten themselves into lately...but, I wouldn't want to be "friends" with any of them. (More because my life would be in constant danger. And, I got enough of that earlier in my life!)
However, with the people of Madison Wall, Texas... I find I really want to visit the "fictional" town...I want to learn more about the quirky inhabitants and learn more of their secrets. Walt is such a cool, calm guy...he is kind of what I would love to be. (And, sort of was/am...but that is yet to be revealed in the books.)
Bosco is nearly the perfect canine companion to Walt. But, even he has his "quirks."
So, yes, I am releasing a new series of novels that are fun "beach reads" and lighthearted mystery affairs. And, I am releasing them under the pen name of "D.J. Whitfield."
It suited the genre and was "similar' enough to my own name.
I am NOT hiding things...just expanding my own library of work in the best way possible.
I am in the zone lately...so...why stop?
"Small Repairs", the first novel in the Madison Wall Mysteries series arrives May 15th.
I really hope folks like it. And, like me...look forward to returning!

04/16/2026

This is where Paris begins. Not in anger. Not in power.

In the moment *after* she ran out of tears.

That particular kind of cold — the one that comes when you've already lost everything and you're still standing — is what she's made of. It's what she's been made of since she was seven years old on the streets of Bristol.

*WAIF* — The Valensi Chronicles, Book 1
📖 Link in bio

04/15/2026

There's a moment in writing — usually somewhere in the murky middle of a manuscript — where the book stops being *yours* and starts being *itself.*

The characters start making decisions you didn't plan. The plot finds a door you didn't know was there.

It happened with WITCH (Book 3 of *The Valensi Chronicles*). I spent about a week in a quiet argument with a character named Rahne before I finally admitted she was right and I was just trying to control something that had already decided what it was.

Best thing I ever did was get out of her way.

Has your creative work ever taken over on you — and turned out better for it? 💬

04/14/2026

Meet Nyx — goddess of Night, and one of the most ancient and feared beings in all of Greek mythology.

She wasn't born of Olympus. She emerged from *Chaos* itself — one of the first things to exist in creation. Even Zeus, king of the gods, thought twice about crossing her. He didn't want to make Night angry.

She is the mother of Sleep. Of Death. Of Dreams. Of Discord. Of Fate itself. The Greeks didn't simply fear the dark — they personified it, gave it a name, and that name had teeth.

The New Scions series lives in the long shadow she casts.

Ancient gods. Modern stakes. Legends that never truly died. 🌑

*The New Scions* — Book 1: The Broken Night · Book 2: The Chaos Arena
📖 Link in bio

04/09/2026

She's been running since 1888. She's survived the Hierarchy, a death warrant, and the Florida humidity.

The least the universe could do is stop checking her ID. 😏

*WAIF* — The Valensi Chronicles, Book 1
📖 Link in bio

04/08/2026

The hardest character I ever wrote wasn't a villain.

It was a character who *wasn't a hero* — who made choices I didn't agree with, for reasons that made complete sense to her. Somewhere between morally gray and deeply human, Paris showed up in Book 1 and refused to be anything else.

She didn't wait for permission to be complicated. She just *was.*

Writing her taught me more about craft than any book on the subject. Turns out, the most interesting characters aren't the ones who do the right thing — they're the ones who do the *only* thing they know how to do, and live with the weight of it.

Have you ever met a character — in a book or in your own writing — who refused to be anything less than fully themselves? 💬

04/07/2026

One of the oldest recorded "vampire" cases in history didn't come from Transylvania.

It came from a small Serbian village in 1725 — a man named Petar Blagojevich, who died and was then blamed for the deaths of nine neighbors in quick succession. His exhumation was officially witnessed and documented by an Austrian military officer. The report described a body that showed no signs of decomposition, fresh blood at the mouth, and new skin growing beneath the old.

The Habsburg Empire took it seriously enough to send investigators.

The Valensi, for their part, are deeply unbothered by any of this. They were never dead to begin with. They breathe. They eat. They age — just sixty years to every one.

But they are very, very old. And they remember when these stories started. 🩸