To the tune of “This is Halloween”: This is 39. This is 39. 39. 39. 39. 39.

Let us not speak of it again. I’m not entirely sure what happens after 40.

News:

Tooth & Claw (Meridian Book 7) came out on October 18. A demon hunter from childhood meets a vampire and a werewolf who don’t kill, and they introduce her to a different world than the short, bleak life that she’s been raised in. This particular story was originally supposed to be a standalone, but the first two attempts to write the seventh Meridian novel didn’t work, and it shared some features with the standalone idea, so so I pulled them together to fix the problems. I’m really pleased with the result. Sort of like Skeletons (Arcanium Book 8), it’s a bit of a subversion of the usual themes in Meridian, which keeps things interesting for me.

Works in Progress:

I should reach 82K on Never & Forever (Meridian Book 8) by the end of the day. Definitely at a difficult point, but I think as long as I get it on the page, I can fix it in edits. I’m actually having a really good time, during both the spicy scenes and the regular scenes. That happens when you have characters you like hanging out with.

I need to cut down a short story this weekend, but then I should get back into N&F.

Books I’m Reading:

Raising Loki: A Memoir by Elliot Manarin
Rose Madder by Stephen King

Things I’m Listening To:

Halloween playlist

Things I’m Watching:

Sleepy Hollow
The Haunted Mansion (2023)
Black Phone 2
SWAT series
Hannibal series
Matlock series
All Creatures Great and Small series (finished)
Is It Cake? Halloween Edition series (finished)
CSI: NY series
Halloween Wars series
Halloween Baking Championship series

Poem of the Week: (throwback to October 2023)

don’t mistake my
calm solitude and
solemn attitude
with local witch
in a moment
I can make
an abrupt and
wicked switch