News:

“Take It to the River” won second place for the River theme at Shallow Waters last month. This month, “Sloppy” is showing up for the Bed theme. It should post about March 10 at the Crystal Lake Patreon ($5/month tier and up to read and vote, lots of fun every month).

Works in Progress:

I didn’t forget to post yesterday. I was just busy because I’d gone over my extended deadline to submit my edited manuscript of Never & Forever (Meridian Book 8) to my publisher. I’d initially promised it about mid-February, then the end of February, then yesterday. I only was able to get it in less than an hour ago. That damn thing was a beast at 140K words, and through my double edit, I ended up cutting about 30K from it, the excess almost entirely from my tendency to overwrite.

It’s frustrating on the editing side, because I remember how frustrated I was near the end of writing that it was taking so long. All you can think about while cutting whole chunks out is how much time it feels like you wasted. But I overwrite because I don’t know what I’ll need and sometimes I forget what I’ve already written because it’s been over a week since I wrote it. By and large, the shape of the novel is in the finished first draft. I rarely add. I just need to carve.

It’s done and submitted. I wrote a synopsis and everything. I’ll need to do my publisher’s edit, then the proofreading edits, but the worst is over. Now I need to rest but also start on the promotional materials for In the Dollhouse We All Wait, for which I am (you guessed it) behind. As soon as I get some of the promo done, I think I’ll get A Nightmare for All Seasons finished up and published. It’s mostly finished in its formatting file. I just need one more run-through and to check the blank pages and get the cover finalized. I won’t do a tremendous push for it all at once. I might do something for each season this year to promote it. But poetry collections are basically pet projects. They don’t get much attention, despite my absolute love for them.

So the rest of today is for rest. Tomorrow I start on promo. I’ll probably use my day off on Wednesday to prep for self-publishing the poetry collection.

Books I’m Reading:

Raising Loki: A Memoir by Elliot Manarin
The Shining by Stephen King
Skeleton Crew by Stephen King

Things I’m Listening To:

Billie Eilish
Timber Timbre
Eurielle
Agnes Obel
Dracula Untold soundtrack
Let’s Hear It for the Girls playlist

Things I’m Watching:

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
Muppet Treasure Island
Army of the Dead
Broadchurch series
Queer Eye series
Ghosts (US) series
Watson series
Tracker series
CSI: Miami series
Home Town series

Poem of the Week:

smash the erratic cricket
because you can’t catch it
and from its depths arises
the tiniest cthulhian monstrosity
slender tentacular heads blindly
searching for a water way out
from its dying host
pod people in miniature
may they never adapt to us