News:

“Falling All to Pieces” has posted at Crystal Lake’s Patreon for the 19th Century Horror theme in the Shallow Waters flash fiction contest. ($5/month tier or higher for reading and voting)

Works in Progress:

I finished my rewatch of Hannibal and took copious notes and screen pics. I’m well into the essay and feel like I’m practically writing a book (it’ll probably end up novelette-length), but I’m enjoying myself nevertheless, having tons of fun talking about one of the things I’m semi-obsessed about. I might have enough material for another essay or several mini-essays, but I’ll wait before giving those a shot.

Every time I stop writing, I’m never sure if I’ll be able to write again. I might never grow out of that; it’s like performers who have stage fright their entire careers. It’s been twenty years since I wrote my last essay, because I burned way out writing them for college, with all my English and social sciences classes. But I know the format (in short, you tell them what you’re going to tell them; tell them; then tell them what you told them, macro to micro), I don’t have to strictly follow the format (because it’s not academia), and I have no plans to publish, although I might in the future. That opens me up to just writing for fun, and it’s been a long time since I did that.

Work has been chaos because I’ve been trying to take advantage of promotion opportunities, which gives me chunks of extra cash–necessary after the car woes earlier this summer and some clothing needs. I’ve had a few days off after not taking last Friday off, and I’ll be working this Friday, though I usually don’t, but not working tomorrow, which I usually do.

I don’t know if I can finish the essay tomorrow during my day off, but I’ll get a huge bit of it done, then grab bits until my next day off, I think.

It’s just good for me to try new writing things now and then. It uses different pathways in my brain, lights new cells. Neuroplasticity is healthy.

Books I’m Reading:

It was All a Dream 2: Another Anthology of Bad Horror Tropes edited by Brandon Applegate (finished)
The Jackal Man by Russell C. Connor

Things I’m Listening To:

Miranda Lambert
Fourth of July playlist

Things I’m Watching:

Hannibal series (finished)
Matlock series
America’s Got Talent series
Criminal Minds series
The Closer series
Hawaii Five-O series
Will Trent series (finished)

Poem of the Week: (throwback to July 2022)

the bat in my belfry
shrieks in my ears
whisper echolocation
tinnitus alarms
and chews the meat
found among the
curved ivory cave
it calls home