Category Archives: Novels

Wearing jack-o’-lanterns: Friday Update

18 Friday Sep 2026

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News:

Nothing this week.

Works in Progress:

This cold has been kicking my butt, for some reason, but I have made it to 33K on the We Follow You in the Dark rewrite, hope to make it to 35K by the end of the day if I can avoid napping for too long. I’ve been getting a lot of sleep and reading plenty, which is uncommon for me. I hope I can sustain it when I can actually add cardio back into my routine.

I’m not sure if I’ll meet my goal of finishing by the end of the month. That disappoints me. But I don’t think it’ll take me much longer than that.

Books I’m Reading:

The Jackal Man by Russell C. Connor
The Violence by Delilah S. Dawson
The Deep by Nick Cutter

Things I’m Listening To:

Let’s Hear It for the Girls playlist
Halloween playlist

Things I’m Watching:

Enola Holmes 3
The First Omen
Gone Girl
Falling into Place
The Blackening
Best Medicine series
Criminal Minds series
The Closer series
America’s Got Talent series
Hawaii Five-O series
The Following series

Poem of the Week: (throwback from Sept 2022)

do not concern yourself
with enigmatic words
of high-styled prescience
too often only understood
in hindsight or used
as a bludgeon by those
who fear what comes
or who would bring
what comes sooner
useless prognostication
or self-fulfilling prophecy

Manufacturing fall: Friday Update

11 Friday Sep 2026

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The pool spa is shaded in the mornings, and it was actually quite cool to dip in for the whole hour I was reading. When you get out and feel a breeze, it’s like having a little dose of fall in summer.

Plus, I’m writing a haunted experience novel and listening to Halloween. So it may be hot as hell here in Satan’s fajita skillet, but I try to make fall moments where I can. The brown leaves make me sad, though; that’s not fall, that’s tree exhaustion, and their distress distresses me.

News:

Nothing this week.

Works in Progress:

My body decided to catch another cold this week (I tested negative on all basic baddies). That’s two colds in four months, when I hadn’t otherwise gotten so much as a sniffle since starting the grocery gig. Still in the ‘feeling not quite like myself’ phase of it. Once I feel more like myself, despite persisting symptoms, I’ll probably be in a better place to push a little harder on the We Follow You in the Dark rewrite. For now, I’m being as gentle as possible, because I’m only sleeping properly every other night.

I’ve made it to about 21K words, which I would say is about a third of the way through. If I had wanted to get through the whole thing by the end of house/pet-sitting, I would be disappointed. I still think I’ll be able to get it done before the end of the month.

Books I’m Reading:

The Jackal Man by Russell C. Connor
The Violence by Delilah S. Dawson
The Deep by Nick Cutter

Things I’m Listening To:

Let’s Hear It for the Girls playlist
Halloween playlist

Things I’m Watching:

Valentine
Immaculate
The Rite
The Long Walk
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Haunted Harmony Mysteries: Prelude to a Wedding
Ghosts (US) series
The Closer series
America’s Got Talent series
Hawaii Five-O series
Prodigal Son series (finished)
The Rookie series (finished)
The Following series

Poem of the Week:

squishy little yellow elephant
i thought i forgot you
left in a box in the burning attic
with the other memories
crinkle crinkle little star
your soft yellow legs took you so far
i don’t remember did i take you out?
did i leave the door open?
what else came through the door?

The great American road trip from house to home: Friday Update

04 Friday Sep 2026

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This is a year of milestones. Because of working the grocery shopping gig and trekking back and forth from home to where I’m house-sitting (a little farther than the last place where I house-sat), I crossed 100K miles on my car. Miss Emma may be getting up there in car years, but she’s doing well, all things considered. Can’t say the same for the one driving her and the milestone quickly catching up to her in the next few months. I feel like I’m starting to fall apart; human body maintenance is even more demanding than car body maintenance.

News:

Nothing this week. I’m taking a few months off from working the Shallow Waters themes. I wasn’t happy with the last story. It was fine. Fine. But it didn’t excite me or make me proud. That tells me to step away for a bit. Still reading the finalists every month, though. It’s a lot of fun.

Works in Progress:

I started the We Follow You in the Dark rewrite. Although things were a little shaky to start out with, because there were still some questions I hadn’t answered yet in my head, I think I’ve ironed those things out. I’m looking forward to how the character changes will alter the story, which is a good sign. I think any clumsiness in this rewrite can be fixed in the edit.

Got a rejection on that short story collection. That kind of hurt, even though I was expecting it. The longer works always hurt a little more. I’ve been getting a lot of rejections lately in general. Doesn’t help that the horror short story market has contracted, which means more people are fighting for fewer anthology spots.

Books I’m Reading:

The Jackal Man by Russell C. Connor
Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman (finished)
The Violence by Delilah S. Dawson

Things I’m Listening To:

Let’s Hear It for the Girls playlist
Halloween playlist

Things I’m Watching:

The Whisper Man
Nope
Ready or Not
The Closer series
America’s Got Talent series
Hawaii Five-O series
The Rookie series
The Following series

Poem of the Week: (throwback to Sept 2022)

i cannot emphasize too strongly
the catastrophic slide of civilization
that was always a tenuous veneer
and now slips down the face of it
like wax in a climate crisis
a collective effort undercut
by an individualistic myopia
and a sense that freedom
never meant sacrifice
on every level but rather
from the undesirables
of which there should be none
in no world is the eagle
more important than the ant

A new window, a new view: Friday Update

28 Friday Aug 2026

Posted by in A Few Thoughts, Essays/Creative Non-Fiction, Novels, Short Stories, Writing

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News:

“Pick a Card” was posted at Crystal Lake’s Patreon for the Shallow Waters theme Mad Magic. (For $5/month tiers and up)

Works in Progress:

I’m pet- and house-sitting for a while, so we’ll see how the new environment affects my productivity. The company, of course, is adorable.

I finished my essay on The Others and The Awakening, 4770 words total, which means three essays done and dusted. I have a few more I want to do this year, but with the new venue, I want to work on something that doesn’t have required viewing, so I’m going to at least start on my rewrite of We Follow You in the Dark to make it more sellable. I’m not sure how this is going to go, especially since the original was good, but I think it’s worth a try while I’m waiting for edits to come in.

It reminds me of Nocturne, in that what will change is almost solely on the character side. There will be whole swaths of the novel that stays the same, which will hopefully help me get through this in less than a month. I’d love to finish it during the house-sitting, but I’m terrible at gauging how long things will take and I’d rather not get my hopes up that I’ll finish it up that quickly, even with extra days off work. As I’ve resolved to continue, I plan to be gentle with myself rather than push toward word goals or a conclusion. I won’t return to word goals until I start The Twelfth Wife later this year, and they’ll be less demanding than in the past.

Books I’m Reading:

The Jackal Man by Russell C. Connor
Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman

Things I’m Listening To:

Fourth of July playlist
Let’s Hear It for the Girls playlist
Eurielle

Things I’m Watching:

Buddy
The Closer series
America’s Got Talent series
Hawaii Five-O series
The Rookie series
The Following series
Private Practice series
All Creatures Great and Small series (finished)

Poem of the Week:

from shadows,
light strikes angles, curves,
gleaming mouths, slavering ivory.
freeze like rabbit in the way of a hare,
little nose quivering against ordure
and offal dragging along the floor.
it shuffles, searching blind through
your shuddering beam,
then beyond.
brief relief.

Severance: Friday Update

08 Friday May 2026

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News:

One of my Crystal Lake Shallow Waters flash fiction winners was read on the House of Shadow and Ink’s YouTube channel by narrator Bree Allison. It doesn’t take long and should give you the shivers. Cli-fi horror story “Growing Things” can be found here.

Due to changes in Draft2Digital’s new maintenance fees that apply only to low earners, thus punishing the unsuccessful who can’t afford the fees because we don’t make the royalties to afford them, I’ve had to delist all my books from both my names. That means that all of my self-published titles can only be found at Amazon going forward. This is not ideal; I’m not happy about fewer options, and it’s probably going to hurt other book sellers like Smashwords and Bookshop. Seems like it leaves Amazon in a much better position to screw everyone over—like always, but more. I’ll work on removing the universal links for wider distribution from this site.

Works in Progress:

I finished the repairs of the Dracula reimagining, and I’m much happier with it on the other side than I was with the previous repairs. I once again thank past Amanda for doing her last edits with tracked changes. I flew through the novel.

I’ve been slowly working on the edits for May Cooler Heads Prevail. They’ve been requiring some thinking at each step, but I think the slower speed may be worth it in the end.

I’ve been ruminating over some essays I want to tackle afterward. I’m really looking forward to trying to put words and structure to thoughts I’ve had for a while.

Books I’m Reading:

Skeleton Crew by Stephen King

Things I’m Listening To:

Singalong playlist
Beyond the Black
Delain

Things I’m Watching:

Saw: The Final Chapter
Kate
Gunpowder Milkshake
The Gray Man
Saw X
Hoarding: Buried Alive series (finished)
NCIS series
Tracker series
Prodigal Son series

Poem of the Week:

she said never
to return but
my chest burns
i tell her
i have nothing
left to sing
she preempts me
to remind me
that I am empty
more hollow than
the dog cage
and the rubber room
the tattered stage
the milky womb
she leads me
to the porcelain tub
and seeds me
in tile never scrubbed
until I am shadow
and insinuation
another sarcophagal body
asleep in limbo

A little freedom: Saturday Update

25 Saturday Apr 2026

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News:

My article in honor of In the Dollhouse We All Wait, “Pay to Play: Five Horror Films Where the Rich are the Absolute Worst,” was posted to Horror DNA. I love writing little pieces like this. I should do it more often.

Works in Progress:

I was working furiously on the proofreading edits for Never & Forever (Meridian Book 8) and really wanted to get it done yesterday, so I focused on getting that done before tackling the update. I finished about 1 a.m. today and sent it on. It was a pretty easy edit, very few changes, but I’m obligated to do a full read-through for each editing round, just in case.

So I finished the final edit on the final book in the Meridian series, which means I’ve completed one serial, two trilogies, and two series under my Aurelia T. Evans name. There’s another trilogy on the horizon for next year, too. Not sure what I’m going to do after that. But if you like shapeshifters, gothic urban fantasy, demonic circuses, angels/demons, supernatural horror, and spicy content, do check out my other name’s books. And the Meridian series is entirely composed of standalones. You can read everything or a few, and in any order. I only ask that you save Never & Forever for last, because it feels very much like a capstone.

I have no obligations now for a while, so I’ll probably tackle the (hopefully) final fix to the Dracula reimagining, then apply myself to the edits on May Cooler Heads Prevail to release in May. This is what I’ve been working toward this year, this freedom to rest, to learn how to slow down, because I’ve been running the race for over two decades now, and I don’t think I can do things the same way anymore, especially if it doesn’t really support me financially.

Books I’m Reading:

Skeleton Crew by Stephen King

Things I’m Listening To:

Singalong playlist
Lily Kershaw
Silent Hill soundtracks

Things I’m Watching:

Ghostbusters
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
The Woman in Cabin 10
Jigsaw
Saw II
Saw III
The Conjuring: Last Rites
Home Town series
Hoarding: Buried Alive series
NCIS series
Tracker series
Power Rangers: Reignition series
Prodigal Son series

Poem of the Week: (throwback to April 2022, also featured in Dead Ends)

let the earth cover
my prone body
like a weighted blanket
god so comfortable
have you tried this
best sleep i’ve ever had
cannot recommend enough
five stars
i could sleep forever

Where’s the love: Friday Update

17 Friday Apr 2026

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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.

She’s heeeeere: Friday Update

10 Friday Apr 2026

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News:

She’s here! In the Dollhouse We All Wait is officially out far and wide, in ebook and paperback. An evergreen reminder that this is splatterpunk/extreme horror and not for everyone, but if you’re already deep in the horror thicket and you enjoy the philosophical nuance of the Saw and Hostel movies, this is probably your speed. It has all the trigger warnings (except animal cruelty, unless taxidermy counts), so read responsibly. I’m still very excited.

You can read an excerpt here at Linzé Brandon’s A to Z Blog Challenge, where I is for IN THE DOLLHOUSE…

I also have an in-depth interview at Crystal Lake’s YouTube channel, if you want to hear me talk about where DOLLHOUSE comes from and what it means to me.

The paperback of A Nightmare for All Seasons has been approved. Both the glossy and matte looked really good, but I liked the matte better. Both the ebook and paperback are now live.

“Mirror Writing,” a narrative poem, is a finalist in this month’s Shallow Waters flash fiction contest at Crystal Lake’s Patreon, near the end of the 20 posted stories. ($5/month tiers and up to read and vote, lots of fun)

Works in Progress:

I thought about doing a bit of creative non-fiction this week, but car troubles have dominated my landscape. These things do mean that I got some solid reading done. No writing progress on anything, which is actually kind of a relief, in a way. Still resting until I get the proofreading edits for Never & Forever (Meridian Book 8).

Books I’m Reading:

Raising Loki: A Memoir by Elliot Manarin (found it, finished)
The Shining by Stephen King (finished)
Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman (finished, almost in one sitting while waiting at the car place)
Skeleton Crew by Stephen King

Things I’m Listening To:

Singalong playlist
Lily Kershaw

Things I’m Watching:

From Dusk Till Dawn
Anaconda (2025)
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
Celebrity Jeopardy series
Hoarders series (finished)
True Haunting series
Matlock (new) series
Tracker series
Prodigal Son series
Wayward series
Home Town series

Poem of the Week: (throwback to April 2022)

an afterlife dilemma
empyrean light blinding
to a blissful ignorant eye
or gehennan revelation
sour gnostic bite from
yggdrasilian roots

Scrubbing dirt: Friday Update

03 Friday Apr 2026

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Yep, I’m well into burnout. My brain isn’t functioning properly, and I’m making mistakes I don’t usually make, breaking my usual processes by accident. It’s time to take care of myself as well as I can, step back as much as I can.

However, I got my contributor’s copies of In the Dollhouse We All Wait, and she’s beautiful! (Cover art by David Kozlovsky) I also got my proof for the paperback of A Nightmare for All Seasons. It’s glossy, and I want to check it in matte, plus I noticed alignment issues, but I’m insanely happy with this poetry collection, even if poetry is a niche area.

News:

The paperback of A Nightmare for All Seasons needs to wait for the changes and approval, but the ebook is finally available now here.

To celebrate the release of In the Dollhouse We All Wait next week, Crystal Lake is putting the ebook of Question Not My Salt on sale for 99c.

As with Dollhouse, take care of the content warnings, but if you enjoy gross and gruesome, you’ll have a blast with Question.

Works in Progress:

Since finishing the Never & Forever initial edits, I’ve been doing writing adjacent work, like finalizing A Nightmare for All Seasons on Amazon and Draft2Digital, creating promotional materials for it, doing an interview for In the Dollhouse We All Wait (of course I just have to be doing all these long-titled projects all at once). I’ll continue doing not much on the writing side until the proofreading edits come through for Never & Forever. Once that’s done, I’ll work on May Cooler Heads Prevail, but with no deadlines. I want to put it out in May or June, so there’s no hurry. I think I want to tweak the Dracula reimagining one more time, too.

When I want to write again, I won’t be able to stop. In the meantime, I’ve got plenty of edits to work on and books to read.

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:

Singalong playlist
Billie Eilish
Megan Joy
Eurielle

Things I’m Watching:

Ghostbusters: Answer the Call
Man on Fire
Celebrity Jeopardy series
Matlock (new) series
Queer Eye series (finished)
Tracker series
Prodigal Son series
Home Town series

Poem of the Week:

carve away the splinters
but save the marrow
fashion a key from bone
the skeleton key
of suffering
of screaming pain
it’s the only way
you can ever
get out

White noise: Friday Update

27 Friday Mar 2026

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I’ve had some pretty alarming symptoms of incipient burnout, including crashing out at least once, between personal and global concerns. As though in sympathy, one of my tires burst just a few months after fixing another wheel issue. Instead of medical fees, my bank account is suffering from tire and wheel replacements.

Writing work is like pulling teeth. No sleep is enough. I haven’t worked out in over a month, if you don’t count playing pickleball. I do know that I have to take a rest and soon, or else something in my brain or body is going to break instead.

News:

In the Dollhouse We All Wait has been doing pretty well in Amazon ratings and in preliminary reviews, considering the subject matter.

Works in Progress:

Just finished the first round of edits from my publisher for Never & Forever (Meridian Book 8). Last week, we had family in town, which is wonderful but exhausting, and it made finishing the work really difficult. I promised it by this week, though, and delivered. I have the proofreading round left to go. Then I’ll be done with the book and the series. I’m ready to be done, but I’m not ready for the Meridian-verse to be over, which means I can’t win.

Probably from now until I get the proofreading back, I’ll mostly read and get A Nightmare for All Seasons out there once I have the cover/paperback wrap. Maybe run through the Dracula reimagining one more time to tweak a few things that crossed my mind. Only when Meridian is over will I head into May Cooler Heads Prevail.

But seriously, though, post-Meridian, I need to have no deadlines for a while. Just everything in its own time, if at all.

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:

GEMS
Sea Stars
Cajsa Silk
Meridian playlist
Let’s Hear It for the Girls playlist

Things I’m Watching:

Pig
Abigail
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come
Celebrity Jeopardy series
Matlock (new) series
Queer Eye series
Watson series
Tracker series
Prodigal Son series
Home Town series

Poem of the Week:

The soil has opinions on the fertilizer,
the buds an argument over optimal sunlight,
while the wasps and bees do battle for
pollination rights and the aphids object to marigolds.
Rats wait in the wings for dead of night,
while hornworms munch through screaming fruit.