C. L. Ingro

Box and Docs

September 12th, 2026

I know the title is trash. It’s 7am, and I’m still up. Work with me.

Sometimes I have no idea where I fit in this literary adventure that I’m on. I’m Black, but I don’t write only POC characters. I’m a bisexual female, but I write predominantly gay and bisexual male characters. I’m a human being, but I write vampires. See what I mean?

I occasionally wonder if it would be easier if I crammed myself into a single box. That’s never been my style, though. In writing or life in general. And while I absolutely love and appreciate being able to read stories with only POC characters, predominantly gay and bisexual females, and regular old human beings, I’m never going to be that writer myself, at least not exclusively. And I think that’s okay?

Plus I’ve been on this rock for just over half a century now, so old habits and all of that.

On the bright side, I was going through some old Word docs and found a Harborview Immortals flash fiction that I wrote in 2015 and completely forgot about. And it’s actually kind of… good? Good enough to include as bonus content in Two Princes, even. I’m pretty excited about that.

Have a great weekend.
Every Story Everywhere All at Once

August 30th, 2026

I blame Bluesky.

The writing community over there is fantastic. I haven’t been this inspired to write so many things since my LiveJournal days, the only difference being that back then, most of my inspiration was centered around fanfiction. I’ve resurrected stories from upwards of twenty years ago that I never thought I would even want to finish; I reread them and, after some initial cringing, I kicked myself for giving up on them. Now, they’re officially on The To-Do List.

I’ve also started going through old comic and manga projects that never took off because I no longer work with my former partner/artist. Harborview Immortals was originally meant to be a comic series, and I converted it to a series of novels. I can’t think of any reason why I can’t do the same thing with the other comics and manga I created, so they’re all on The To-Do List now, too.

For example, this is Vinny. She has a very unique gift and can do some pretty badass things. And after creating her, I let her languish on my hard drive for almost seven years. Shame on me. (Drawn by Horaz SC.)

But now I’m more determined than ever to write her story. And many others.

Wish me luck.
Flash Tease

August 23rd, 2026

(Apparently, “flash tease” is a p-hub category. You learn something new every day.)

In addition to working on my current stories, I’m also rewriting a Harborview Immortals Halloween-themed prequel flash fiction that I plan to post here in October, before Two Princes is published in November. I commissioned a friend of mine to do a piece for it, and she sent me a preliminary sketch last night.

Here are some sketch teasers:

As someone who can barely draw a straight line, it always makes me happy to see my characters make the leap from my brain to actual images and not just words. I think I’m going to be very pleased with the end result.

But for now, words await.

Happy writing.
Aspirations

August 9th, 2026

Once upon a time, back when I was taking a break between day jobs, I fancied myself writing all day, every day. I was going to tackle all my stories and make serious progress!

As it turned out, the only things I tackled were naps. Lots and lots of naps.

Sometimes I think I would like to try again. But I happen to like my current day job. My bank account likes my current day job, too. Maybe I’ll revisit the idea in ten years or so, when I semi-retire.

Until then, I’ll just have to write around my job. And my naps.
Ch-ch-ch-changes

July 26th, 2026

A couple of weeks ago, when I was (finally) getting ready to move forward with getting Freeroll published, I reached out to the person I always worked with to hire them for formatting and all that fun stuff. Unfortunately, that person was no longer able to work with me. My first reaction was to immediately look for someone else to do the job, all the while in the back of my mind practicing my “by the way, I write M/M stories that contain the occasional instance of thorough adult activities and semi-frequent references to those activities” spiel because I understand that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. But then I thought, why not just do the job myself?

So I did. And it didn’t kill me. And then I went back and did a little tweaking to Family Matters and The Rising Son, and that didn’t kill me either.

I’m really happy with how everything turned out. I should have trusted myself with the process from the beginning.

Anywho, the Published Works page has been updated. Now I need to go work on adding more to it.

Have a great rest of the weekend.
Better really late than never.

July 17th, 2026

Almost exactly one year ago, I posted that I was going to publish my last old pen name story “within the next few weeks.” Time flies when you’re procrastinating.

Freeroll: a no-lose situation.

Daniel’s addiction to, or rather, enthusiasm for gambling has finally caught up with him.

After showing up uninvited to a not so secret (or legal) poker tournament and holding his own for longer than anyone expected, he finds himself indebted to an alleged crime lord who doesn’t accept payment plans. But instead of having to sacrifice his body parts to pay what he owes, he’s tasked with driving the alleged crime lord’s nephew, Javier, to Florida and back to Pennsylvania for… reasons. Simple enough, right?

Although it sounds entirely too easy to be legit, the idea of a road trip with an extremely attractive stranger is distracting enough to stop worrying so much about what might be hiding in the metal briefcase that Javier is bringing along for the ride. Mostly.

Over the next five days, Daniel will manage to avoid facing certain truths about himself and his gambling “hobby.” However, his assumptions about Javier will be shattered, again and again, in the best possible way.

All versions (ebook, print, and audio) available here.
Ja.

July 12th, 2026

Daily writing prompt
Are you a lifelong learner?
View all responses

Absolutely. To be otherwise is to be stagnant.

Picture it. Florida. Mid-1990s. My brother had just left the Army and moved back to the States from Germany, where my nephew was born and raised up until then. I remember the look on his three-year-old face when he realized that I could speak German. The realization that this “auntie” he had just met knew how to speak to him in a language he recognized was absolutely precious. I’d like to think that it made him feel a little bit more comfortable in such a new and strange place. And he grew up to be a wonderful human being, so I’m going to take a pinch of credit for that.

I didn’t originally decide to learn German because of that; I started learning it before my brother even met his future wife. Even so, it ended up coming in clutch. I will treasure that memory for the rest of my life.
Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale

July 5th, 2026

Over the years, I have found many a literary gem over at Smashwords, including some of my forever favorite stories. I highly recommend checking out their Summer/Winter sale!

And oops, I tripped and dropped a little flagrant self-promotion all over myself. How clumsy of me. 🙂

Happy reading!
Two Princes Excerpt

April 19th, 2026

I wanted to share the opening scene of Two Princes featuring my favorite vampire twins. Their conversations are entirely too much fun to write.

See my Published Works page for info about the two preceding stories, Family Matters and The Rising Son.

Enjoy!

*~*~*~*
(more…)
Morning is evil.

November 30th, 2025

Daily writing prompt
Are you more of a night or morning person?
View all responses

“I am most definitely a night person,” she said as she typed her reply at 5:30am, having not even considered going to bed yet.

… Maybe this is why I write about vampires?