After a lot more time at the car place than I would have liked and eventually having to get a loaner car, and after way more money than I wanted to spend, my car has working a/c again and safety elements have been fixed. That’s still been my stress landscape for this last week, but hopefully I’m over that hill and I can start replenishing my coffers.

News:

I did an interview with Don Anelli for In the Dollhouse We All Wait at his blog Don’s Horror Reads. He also wrote a solid review for Dollhouse.

Ian Gielen also reviewed Dollhouse for Memento Mori Ink Magazine.

By and large, the review response seems to be that it’s definitely extreme and harsh to get through, but it’s more than gruesome gore and torture; there’s a psychological horror element and attention to characterization that keeps readers going. Which is what I was going for, so I’m thrilled.

“Changing Room,” a story set in my nineties era and mall life, was included in Squirm Books’ queer anthology Skin Deep, which came out on the 13th.

Works in Progress:

I spent Monday and Wednesday cleaning out my closet and setting up my new shelving unit for books. I’ve never assembled furniture before, and I’m surprised and proud of how well it went. I have more cleaning to do, but my walk-in closet is now a walk-in again, and I get to look at my pretty books and know exactly what I have. I also found my sixth grade(!) copy of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which I need for an essay I want to write and I wasn’t able to find before (which is part of the reason why I wanted to get my books out of the closet; other reason is that the shelving in there was made for storage, not books).

I watched the latest season of Hoarders to ready myself for the process. It’s not only motivating, but it prepared me for throwing out a bin of clothes from the attic that appeared (and smelled) to have been peed on by a rodent or two. I saved one shirt that didn’t have any pee stains, and it seems to be okay after washing, but the rest really needed to go. Not one likes waste, but I’m not comfortable donating things that have been peed on, even after a wash.

I’m genetically predisposed to some hoarding behavior, fighting that all the time. Sometimes, however, it gets out of my control, and it’s hard to find time to fix it that I wouldn’t rather devote to writing. I managed to keep the mess mostly out of sight this time, but it made getting things from my closet difficult. Without a writing project, I have no other excuse but to tidy.

Yesterday I received the final line edits for Never & Forever (Meridian Book 8), so I’ll be working on that for the next week and finish out the closet cleaning afterward. Then I’ll apply myself to May Cooler Heads Prevail edits.

Books I’m Reading:

I’m Sorry If I Scared You by Mae Murray (finished)
Skeleton Crew by Stephen King

Things I’m Listening To:

Singalong playlist
Lily Kershaw

Things I’m Watching: (I am a multi-faceted weirdo)

Frankenstein (2025)
Spiral
Hostel: Part III
Cinderella (Brandy)
Cinderella (Disney 1950)
Longlegs
Sinners
Under Paris
Power Rangers: Reignition series
Goosebumps (1995) series
Ghosts (US) series
Elsbeth series
True Haunting series
Prodigal Son series

Poem of the Week: (throwback to April 2022)

The placid white clouds
have all turned gray.
The streets of pearl
have shattered away.
What happened to
these Elysian fields
to fade to brown
from the final seals?
Feathers floating
down from above.
Send in the crows
instead of the dove.