Got my proofreading edit of Question Not My Salt in last weekend and finished it on Wednesday, so that’s all done and ready for when ARCs are offered out. While I was reading through it, I was really surprised that I managed to get some really interesting word choices into such a pulpy story. Don’t have to sacrifice quality in pulp. You can make extreme horror beautiful, too.
That means that I wasn’t able to get Tattered & Torn (Meridian 6) finished when I wanted to (today), and I wasn’t able to work at all yesterday, but I’ll be shooting for finishing on Monday or Tuesday now. I’m not sure how I feel about the ending, not least because I’m improvising, so it might need a rewrite at some point, but I’d like to have the structure in place to work with. Because this has taken me farther into December than I thought, I’ll push some of my short stories to later and just write the one due before the end of the month after I finish Tattered & Torn. Then I need to write the next Meridian novel, but I don’t think I’ll finish before the end of the year.
Books I’m Reading:
IT by Stephen King This World Belongs to Us edited by Michael W. Phillips, Jr. Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire
Music I’m Listening To:
Christmas playlist
Things I’m Watching:
A Christmas Prince: Royal Wedding Christmas Wedding Planner A Biltmore Christmas A Cinderella Christmas Christmas with a View Krampus Black Christmas (2019) The Nightmare Before Christmas Holiday Baking Championship series Holiday Wars series Elf on the Shelf: Sweet Showdown series Christmas Cookie Challenge series Great American Baking Show: Holiday Edition series Celebrity Jeopardy series Hoarders series The Mentalist series White Collar series Buffy the Vampire Slayer series Found series Transplant series Murder, She Wrote series
Poem of the Week:
so desperately want to imagine another sentence after the period because we cannot imagine the space before the sentence, to believe in ghosts, finish unfinished business. we all love closure, but sometimes the period is at the end of an ellipsis.
There actually isn’t a lot of news. A handful of rejections. The only thing is that I’m a finalist in Crystal Lake Shallow Waters for this month, themed Reflections for the end of the year. My story “The Green Room” will be popping up later this month—on December 19, if I’m counting right. Y’all know I love reading other people’s flash fiction and that it’s like having a new themed anthology every month for a minimum of $5 a month, and the reading, commenting, and voting is so interactive. Reminds me of Livejournal fanfiction.
In real life news, I had what is probably my last physical therapy session. I still have a little way left to go, but I have my exercises and instructions and, barring reinjury, should be able to manage my own PT. My bank account thanks me. My elliptical machine thanks me, too, since I can start slowly building up my time on it again (in about five-minute increments a week, unless I start experiencing problems). It’s been almost six months to the day that I tore my muscle on the stairs. I know now that I probably have to be mindful of my calves, Achilles tendons, and ankles, that they’re prone to stiffness. But I’m almost back to my normal.
Works in Progress:
I received my edits back from Ken for Question Not My Salt right at the end of NaNo2023, so I was able to take a needed break by editing. It actually wasn’t much, so I still seem to be doing pretty well cleaning things up in my pre-sub edits. Go me! I sent those back three days later, requested blurbs from some people (so hard to ask), and now I wait. I don’t know whether there’s a proofreading round. We’ll see.
Now I’m back to writing Tattered & Torn (Meridian 6) for the other name. Taking that break in the middle of writing it makes it hard to jump back in. My brain is telling me, ‘But it was done, no, it’s done, no more.’ And I’m telling my brain, ‘No, you have about 25-30K more words to write.’ And my brain is telling me, ‘Done! Done! Done!’ It’s a really fun game we play.
Hopefully, by next Friday, I’ll be done and starting the small number of short stories I’m scheduled for before tackling the next Meridian novel to close out the year.
Books I’m Reading:
IT by Stephen King This World Belongs to Us edited by Michael W. Phillips, Jr. Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire
Music I’m Listening To:
Christmas playlist
Things I’m Watching:
The Ultimate Gift A Christmas Prince Single All the Way Contagion Outbreak The Silencing Prometheus (stealth Christmas movie) Primal Holiday Baking Championship series Holiday Wars series Elf on the Shelf: Sweet Showdown series Christmas Cookie Challenge series Great American Baking Show: Holiday Edition series Celebrity Jeopardy series Great British Baking Show series (finished) Hoarders series NCIS series Dancing with the Stars series The Mentalist series White Collar series Murder, She Wrote series
Poem of the Week:
was that my sin, a flaw? for the thermals to drive my feathers up in a swell until i fell in a dive for a final swan song about the evils of ambition? how dare i enjoy the thrill of flight instead of succumbing to fate? how dare i fight?
The Shallow Waters Flash Fiction contest voting is underway. If you needed Halloween to last longer, the Trick ‘r Treat theme will ease the transition into the winter holidays. Voting ends Monday.
And speaking of winter holidays: If you like to listen to your fiction, my cryptid story “Footprints” is officially up on The Other Stories podcast (free). It was inspired by Christmas in the Ozarks, so it’s perfect to ring in the new spooky season.
Works in Progress:
Starting tomorrow, I have to return to double duty by doing the last-look edit for Avarice & Creed (Meridian 4) for my other name. First-round edits were relatively easy, and the last look should be even easier, but maintaining the 5K-word-per-day goal is hard enough without adding onto it, and I’m already exhausted, my routine thoroughly off. I pushed the 150K-word goal to be stressful on purpose so that it was the equivalent of difficulty that other people have with the typical 50K-word goal, and with the expectation I’d have to do some editing, too. But I’m running out of oomph.
However, after a few days of pulling teeth to determine how I liked this newest Meridian novel that I’m working on for the 150K goal, Tattered & Torn (Meridian 6), I started over from a different perspective and at a different point in the story, and all of a sudden it started flowing better. It’s still not necessarily my favorite of the Meridian novels, but I’m enjoying myself a lot more. I’m presently at 39,014 words for the novel and 115,094 words for the whole month.
I can make it to 150K words. I can do it. Then, although I’ll keep with the 5K/day goal, I can stop writing if I have to edit. Which is good, because Question Not My Salt first-round edits are swiftly approaching.
Books I’m Reading:
IT by Stephen King The First Five Minutes of the Apocalypse edited by Brandon Applegate This World Belongs to Us edited by Michael W. Phillips, Jr. Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire
Music I’m Listening To:
Halloween playlist Fleurie Maury Yeston’s Phantom Carter Cathcart’s Possessed – The Dracula Musical Dracula: Swing of Death by Jorn Lande & Trond Holter Moulin Rouge! movie soundtracks Reanimate covers by Halestorm Prince of Egypt soundtrack Piece by Piece by Kelly Clarkson Dreaming Through the Noise by Vienne Teng Enchant by Emilie Autumn Enchantment by Charlotte Church Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway by Barbra Streisand Closer by Josh Groban dont smile at me by Billie Eilish Dream With Me by Jackie Evancho Mother Earth by Within Temptation
Things I’m Watching:
The Wolfman The Messengers Solace Holiday Baking Championship series Great British Baking Show series Buffy the Vampire Slayer series Scream Queens series Kitchen Nightmares series Good Bones series (finished) Hoarders series NCIS series CSI series Dancing with the Stars series White Collar series The Mentalist series
Poem of the Week:
I know your face. I know your name. I know the tread of your shoes and your awkward gait. I know the shape of your spine when you finish. I know the scritch scritch scritch of your nails on my shoulders. I know where you walk, eat, breathe, sleep. I am the monster under your bed, reaching for your hand, your face, scritch scritch scritching your floorboards. Look over your shoulder and stumble into an open grave. How wide are my eyes now, killer?
Dead Letters: Episodes of Epistolary Horror is open for pre-orders, to be released December 1! I love epistolary horror—it’s the found footage of the written media world—and I’m thrilled to be part of the Table of Contents with these authors with my creature feature “The Behavioral Patterns of the Displaced Siberian Siren.” (I love how dang long the title is.)
That’s really all that’s going on this week, although the Trick ‘r Treat stories are still going strong at Crystal Lake Shallow Waters. There are some really solid stories this month. “Swallowed” was posted on Day 3, and we’re on Day 11 of 15 now before voting.
Works in Progress:
I’ve been pulling double duty this week, since I received first-round edits for Avarice & Creed (Meridian 4) for my other name. It was a really easy edit, because halfway through my third series with them, I’ve gotten really good at getting most of the substantial edits in before I send the draft in. I just finished first-round edits a few minutes ago.
However, I’ve also been trying to keep up with NaNoWriMo word count of 5K words a day, and doing both has strained my energy resources quite a bit, I’m afraid. I didn’t quite make it, 1500 words behind as of now. And I’m really grumpy on top of it, because I’m mentally tired and I’m not enjoying the Meridian novel that I’m working on right now. I finished A Woman Alone on Wednesday at 48,182 words, so it’s definitely a novella and will be edited as a separate work rather than part of the Meridian series. I’m trying to make Tattered & Torn (Meridian 6) something that I want to write, and I think I have some good ideas. I don’t know how much of this sullenness is simply that I’m tired, but since I only have a month and a half before the end of the year, I don’t feel like I have the time to take a break?
I did a flash piece as a palate cleanser, and it was a fun slice-of-life story from a bigger concept I’d like to expand on in a novel later, but that might not have been enough. But I really just think I don’t have adequate motivation to enjoy the story. Dollhouse and Woman Alone were flowing so well, even when I was tired. I’m still turning it in different directions to see what might work, and I’ll keep going for a while. If it just refuses to be pleasant, I might have to set it aside and try one of the other slated novels. I’m hoping some better nights of sleep will help give me perspective.
As of now, I’m at 78,599/150,000 words for the month.
Books I’m Reading:
IT by Stephen King Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire (finished) The First Five Minutes of the Apocalypse edited by Brandon Applegate This World Belongs to Us edited by Michael W. Phillips, Jr. Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire
Music I’m Listening To:
Witchy/pagan/villain playlists on YT Agnes Obel Svrcina Lily Kershaw
Things I’m Watching:
A Haunting in Venice The Curse of Bridge Hollow Underworld: Evolution Holiday Baking Championship series Great British Baking Show series Buffy the Vampire Slayer series Scream Queens series Kitchen Nightmares series Good Bones series Hoarders series NCIS series CSI series
Poem of the Week:
better to bring a gun to a knife fight the madman prophet is usually right always declare a zombie bite never let the killer out of your sight
My short story “Swallowed” was posted for this month’s Crystal Lake Shallow Waters flash fiction contest, themed Trick ‘r Treat. So if spooky season doesn’t last long enough for you, celebrate an extended Halloween all through November with this month’s stories. ($5 tier and up)
Under Her Eye: A Woman in Poetry Showcase Vol II came out this week. Under Her Eye is a charity anthology of domestic horror poetry. A portion of the sales goes to an international organization to end violence against women. I don’t sell a ton of poetry (it’s a really difficult market), but I’m honored to have my poem “A Woman Possessed” as a part of this anthology.
I also received news that Dear Human at the Edge of Time, a collection of poems about climate change, received the 2023 Best Book Award in the Poetry Anthology category. My poem “Displaced” was a part of this one.
Sad news to report, though. Quill & Crow Publishing’s gothic horror magazine The Crow’s Quill is ending after December. They really helped give me my start with shorter pieces, so it’s disappointing that they’re closing. The zines should remain available for at least another year for 2022 issues and two years for 2023 issues, and they’re free to read.
In more sad news, that portfolio of some of the best poems I’ve written didn’t get taken up, but I did get a personalized note on one them, so that was decent. I had to sit in my unhappiness for a while and wrote another poem to feel better.
On the leg injury front, I continue to have improvement by following all my exercises, and I can tell the lower part of my lower leg is stronger than the last time I reached this point in my healing, but I’m still struggling with my gait while barefoot. I’m a hair away from normal, though, when I’m wearing shoes. I have new exercises to do, and I’ve been cleared to use the elliptical machine again for up to fifteen minutes every other day, which I’m super excited about.
My PT always exclaims how hyperflexible my feet are when I go up on my toes, unusually so, like ballerina feet, and he asks me if I’m hyperflexible everywhere else. I have some double-jointed fingers, but no. I’m just ridiculously elated that I’m flexible in at least one area of my body. Going the other way, flexing my toes back toward my knees, the foot on my injured leg only reaches half as far as my left, but it’s an improvement. It didn’t used to bend past ninety degrees at all.
Works in Progress:
I finished In the Dollhouse We All Wait on November 5, total word count of 116,160 words. It was significantly longer than anticipated, given that I’d forecast about 70-80K words. I’ll have to cut it down significantly, I think—at least under 90K if I want to try to send it off to places that accept extreme horror. But as I opined last time, I’m not sure how I feel about this story and how ugly it is in a very specific way. I accomplished certain things that I set out to do, among which was writing an absolutely awful woman villain, because we need more of them. Even so, I’m not sure what place this story has. However, sometimes writing something hits as more extreme than the reading of it, because I’m more immersed in the world rather than with a barrier of a page. In any case, I’m shelving it for a while to get other writing projects done, like I usually do with projects to get some perspective for edits.
The next day, I immediately turned around and started Lost & Alone, intending it to be the sixth book in the Meridian series under my other name, but I’d already anticipated that it might end up too short for the series. It would need to be at least above 70K after edits, during which I usually make significant cuts to the word count, and I’m not sure it’s even going to cross 60K here. If that’s the case, I’ll reconfigure it as a standalone novella. It’s the least Meridian-y of the Meridian novels, since it’s a prequel set well before Meridian becomes a bustling urban center. Like, oh no, I have a stray novella to sell…say it ain’t so.
It does mean that I’ll probably have to add another Meridian novel to my writing line-up this year as I wrap up my writing sabbatical, which is not ideal. Really wish I had another year to work on the long things on my docket, but I just don’t know how. I’m also dreading heading back into the general workforce. Despite ample evidence to the contrary, I tend to not feel like a competent and capable human being, so I’m worried I’m going to screw things up, on multiple levels.
As far as general NaNoWriMo word counts go, I’m at 48K and heading for crossing the 50K line today after finishing this post, which puts me on schedule with a little cushion, if needed.
Books I’m Reading:
IT by Stephen King Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire The First Five Minutes of the Apocalypse edited by Brandon Applegate This World Belongs to Us edited by Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
Music I’m Listening To:
Nocturne playlist Taylor Swift Joanne by Lady Gaga Jordin Sparks debut Kerosene by Miranda Lambert Kill the One You Love by GEMS Kill the Sun by Xandria Laced/Unlaced by Emilie Autumn Princess Pepper playlists on YT Don’t Panic! playlists on YT My Witchy Diary playlists on YT
Things I’m Watching:
Exorcist: The Beginning Alien vs. Predator Blade Blade II Blade: Trinity Halloween Wars series (completed) Halloween Cookie Challenge series (completed) Halloween Baking Championships series (completed) Outrageous Pumpkins series (completed) Great British Baking Show series Buffy the Vampire Slayer series Scream Queens series Kitchen Nightmares series Good Bones series Hoarders series Helix series NCIS series
Poem of the Week:
sometimes i see her the daughter that never will be sometimes i argue with her despair of what a bad mother i am sometimes i hold her in my arms after reading a book to her that i always wanted to share sometimes i want space from her but then i remember that she never was and never will be and i’m sad i’ll never know her she’ll always just be a voice a baby a child a teenager an adult that could have been
For Halloween, enjoy this lyrical poem that will be included in my seasonal horror poetry collection, A Nightmare for All Seasons, which comes out next year.
Days growing shorter Darker the skies Harvest the fields Cooler breeze nights Pumpkin spice cider Hot apple pies Leaves tumble by Flickering lights
What is that scent That floats on the wind? What is that rumble over the road? We’ve waited all year For them to return We’ve waited all year As the fortune teller foretold
The time has come For the Halloween Parade Everyone gather round For the Halloween Parade Our town bearing signs That our children have made Three more cheers now For the Halloween Parade
Dancing brown grass Golden leaves awhirl Honey-roasted caramel Cherry-lime swirl Jack-o’-lantern here Candied orange curl For every good boy And every good girl
How we have waited For this celebration day How we have yearned For innocent little joys Whether that comes from Dancing pantomime clowns From dazzling sequins Or dark wicked play
The time has come For the Halloween Parade Bring your family down For the Halloween Parade The corn has been mazed The gravestones all laid Three more cheers now For the Halloween Parade
Haven’t we suffered Enough in this town? Haven’t we had enough Grief, pain, and sorrow? When they come here With their glamor and lights We can pretend that There is no more tomorrow
The time has come For the Halloween Parade Angels and demons come round For the Halloween Parade The contracts are signed And the debts are all paid Three more cheers now For the Halloween Parade
Yes, the time has come For the Halloween Parade All restraints come unbound For the Halloween Parade Remember the warnings Your old friends have said Three more cheers now For the Halloween Parade
Finally got the paperback for Puppeteer (Thorns 4) up on Amazon, so I should be able to share my Puppeteer playlist here soon when I get a minute.
My very short story “Sight Unseen” is out now in Novus Monstrum from Dragon’s Roost Press. I’ve written some pretty nasty things in my time, but “Sight Unseen” is what one might call ‘cozy horror.’ The editor’s eleven-year-old niece was a big fan, and I told my parents that this was one they could read. Sometimes I just like to write a nice spooky story. I think a lot of people of my generation who just want to be able to afford a house will really appreciate this one.
“Caregiver” seems to be doing well in advanced reviews for The Book of Queer Saints Volume II, including in this review in Ghouls Magazine. The QS2 ebook is actually available for pre-order now, to be delivered to your Kindle on October 31 for Halloween.
Yesterday, I took part in my first Twitter pitch party, PitDark, which is specifically for horror and horror-adjacent works. I’d witnessed them in the past but hadn’t had a finished project to pitch. It’s not ideal with Twitter as it is now, and due to the fact that it mines tweets for AI use, but I really wanted to give it a shot. Honestly, pitches in general are very similar in structure even when people do them, and I’m not too fussed about AI knowing how to do it, too. It’s the flash poetry I share that’s more of a problem. I don’t know what I’m going to do about that. If I put them in an image, it’s common courtesy to include ALT text, but then the ALT text can be mined… What a minefield.
However, as far as the pitch party goes, I did end up getting some like-requests for both things that I pitched. It’s no guarantee of anything, but it’s still pretty cool to have interest.
In real-life news, I’ve had two physical therapy sessions, and my therapist gave me exercises to do at home to help between sessions. The first session, I had a lot of weakness and resultant pain, but just a week later with the exercises, my strength has improved a lot, and differently than healing without the exercises. I’m out of the boot again and can walk almost normally in shoes. Still struggling barefoot, especially on hard floors, but my legs are definitely in a better state to support the injured muscle, and my gait is a little smoother than it was pre-reinjury. I’ll be back to PT in two weeks, and I have new exercises to do, so we’ll see where we are then.
I also finished another trip around the sun, and I’m closer to forty than I feel I should be. I don’t particularly like birthdays or New Year’s. I’m always so disappointed with where I am. My writing is about all I have to be proud of at any given time. However, regardless of how I feel, I can still enjoy the best doughnuts in the DFW area, have a wonderful birthday dinner and eclair cake, and plan for a pedicure next month (so a broken toenail can heal, no relation to the leg injury).
Works in Progress:
I’m still working on In the Dollhouse We All Wait, hoping to hit 70K tonight. I entered in my last few chapter names, so the end is actually in sight, although I’m still not positive how the last chapter is going to go. I have options, but I’ll probably decide when I get there. I’m still hoping to finish before the end of the month. Before Halloween would be even better, so I can have a short break before hitting NaNoWriMo, when I’m planning to finish two novels, even though I’ll probably have some edits to do in between meeting word counts.
Two novels in November for other name, and maybe two novels in December, for other name and mine? It’ll all depend on the editing demands, really.
However, although I went into it knowing that it would be very extreme horror, I think I’ve decided that ITDWAW is a very ugly story. There’s not even much in the way of humor. I think Question Not My Salt has a little delight to be found, but not Dollhouse. And maybe there’s a place for very ugly stories, but I don’t know how I feel about writing it right now. I want to finish it, no question, especially when I’m so close and the writing is moving smoothly, but I don’t know when I’ll get back to it for edits.
Books I’m Reading:
IT by Stephen King Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire The First Five Minutes of the Apocalypse edited by Brandon Applegate This World Belongs to Us edited by Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
Music I’m Listening To:
Halloween playlist Thorns series playlists Hannibal playlist
Things I’m Watching:
The Menu The Exorcist The Great British Baking Show series Halloween Wars series Halloween Baking Championships series Outrageous Pumpkins series Buffy the Vampire Slayer series Scream Queens series Kitchen Nightmares series Good Bones series Helix series
Poem of the Week:
Submerge in slime, surrounded by gross. A person can get used to anything. A rhyming verse stripped of its second, taboo of the perverse becoming normal when no longer forbidden fruit— cruelty easier than you might believe of yourself.
After the wealth of news last week, there’s not much this one. I received another really nice rejection and a few form rejections. I submitted some more poems, but sub calls are kind of quiet lately.
Brother and my niece are in town, so that’s fun!
Works in Progress:
I’m editing something that was accepted to an anthology with an as-yet-unannounced table of contents, and I continue writing extreme horror novel In the Dollhouse We All Wait. I should hit 40K words tonight. I think it’ll end up around 70-80K words in the end. I slowed down due to vaccinations, a bad period with really bad period cramps, and now with family in town, but I’ll be back to 5K a day starting Monday and should finish the novel by the end of the month. I’m alternating between loving it and hating it, which is pretty typical, and I think once I clean it up in edits in the new year, I’ll like it more.
Books I’m Reading:
IT by Stephen King Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire The First Five Minutes of the Apocalypse edited by Brandon Applegate This World Belongs to Us edited by Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
Music I’m Listening To:
Halloween playlist
Things I’m Watching:
Unfriended Haunt Oculus Us Get Out Jennifer’s Body Cello Wishing Stairs Halloween Wars series Halloween Baking Championships series Outrageous Pumpkins series Buffy the Vampire Slayer series Scream Queens series Kitchen Nightmares series America’s Got Talent series (caught up, WTF with that finale) Good Bones series
Poem of the Week:
A plague came to the house on Sunday. It started as fatigue, a slow puddling faint on the linoleum tile, outstretched arm reaching for the counter edge or a phone, but the cat settled next to the slow, kindling fever drooling from open mold mouth and dribbling from mucus-thick nose and eyes and ears. Wake up from fever dream to fever dream, condensation on windowpanes from sudden change in temperature, your hot flashes their own weather system. Cat left, too hot and wrinkle-faced against the smell of you, seeping through pores and from orifice. Gag, retch, vomit, shit, a new puddle on the floor. Burning the wick and melting the fat from the inside out, fever a fire, and the day outside sunny and bright. A plague came to the house on Sunday.
After a few weeks of nothing, some nice Halloween treats.
Contract is signed and other authors are sharing, so I guess I can say that my short storm horror story “The Glitter of Bile” will be published in Cosmic Horror Monthly in the new year.
“The Last Ride of Sutton Purnell” won a flash fiction contest from Flame Tree Press based on the theme ‘Nightmare Avenue.’ It appeared exclusively in their newsletter this week, but it should post to their website soon, too. Once I have that link, it will be free to read. It is absolutely gruesomely gross body horror, if you can stomach it.
The Crystal Lake Shallow Waters flash fiction contest theme for this month is Horror on Board (Boats/Ships/Subs), and my story “Arms Race” posts next Wednesday. It’s $5/month to read and vote, but it’s worth it to have a new themed anthology every month.
Earlier this week, I completed my fiftieth short story of the year! They range from micro fiction to novelette, so it all averages out.
I’m also on the short list for several calls that I’m crossing my fingers for.
Finally got to talk to an orthopedist, and she’s not alarmed by the strange overexertion, so I’ll try to endure it until I can get in to a physical therapist, who should be able to help the re-tear heal, then help me get back to a regular gait, and then the overexertion should calm down, in theory. I’m still getting quotes from PT facilities.
But in more pleasant news, I crossed another thing off my to-finish list with Nine Perfect Strangers. And I found a ten-dollar bill on a walk.
Works in Progress:
I submitted my short story collection, so now I have two short novels and a collection out in the world.
I finished the first edit of my other name’s Meridian Book 4 edits, and I’m well into the second, which always goes much faster. Afterward, I’ll palate-cleanse with a very short story or two, then jump into a pet project, probably In the Dollhouse We All Wait.
And in the midst of that, I do my daily flash poetry for the Crow Calls, a lyric poem every five days, and I’m working on an autumnal long poem for a seasonal poetry collection.
Books I’m Reading:
IT by Stephen King Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire The First Five Minutes of the Apocalypse edited by Brandon Applegate
Music I’m Listening To:
Halloween playlist Taylor Swift Fifty Shades movie soundtracks (never read the books or saw the movies, love the soundtracks) Fight Like a Girl by Emilie Autumn UNSECRET singles
Things I’m Watching:
The Addams Family The Nun No One Will Save You Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Halloween Wars series Halloween Baking Championships series Outrageous Pumpkins series CSI series CSI:Miami series Buffy the Vampire Slayer series Scream Queens series Nine Perfect Strangers series (finished) Under the Banner of Heaven series
Poem of the Week:
i would never be accused of wallowing in my own sorrow but may i render this ground unhallowed with dripping salt seeping into the ground soil downhill of the cursed gallows from where the mortician carries my son to grave upon the morrow
My story “Footprints” will be streamed through podcast The Other Stories this Saturday on Twitch and uploaded to YouTube. When I have more direct links and the official podcast recording, I’ll post those, too.
Since the MRI, I seem to have re-torn or torn something new, so I’m back in the support boot, getting compensation injuries, and shuffling around, wondering what’s wrong with me. I have an appointment with an orthopedist next Monday. I’m not positive they’ll have answers, but maybe we’ll get on the path to them, or at least on track to healing properly.
After completing Phase 3 of the MCU, I made it my mission to finish other things I’d started. So far, I’ve finished Squid Game and Devil in Ohio, and I’m on my way to finish Nine Perfect Strangers. I hope to finish outstanding thrillers before October so I can start watching more horror-y leftovers.
Works in Progress:
I’m trying not to get too giddy about the short story collection call from Cursed Morsels, which opens up October 1. My horror collection has been ready for two months, so I’m really excited to finally get it out there. If this press doesn’t bite, I’ll give the collection until about February or March before I start trying to sell the parts, with the hope to eventually put the collection out myself. Several presses open up to longer works in January, if I remember correctly.
Puppeteer (Thorns 4) is pretty much finished. I’ve got the interior files ready to go, just need to get the wrap for the paperback done, and I can’t do that until I finalize the back cover copy, which I’d completely forgotten to write. I came up with some verbiage, but I’ll let it sit for a few days to decide whether I like it. Then it’ll be in the works for publication. Less fanfare with this one, even though I’m tremendously proud and scared of it at the same time. It’s the fourth book, so the excitement is really only relevant if you’ve read the first three.
If you’re interested in starting Thorns but you’re unsure about taking on an unfinished series, I just want you to know that the end of Book 5 functions as a mini series conclusion, although there are more books to come after. Book 5 has been sent it out to beta readers and editors. That means that if you start now and finish on book five, you wouldn’t be left hanging. Basically, if I died after Crooked House (Thorns 5) was published and never put out another book, it would be a satisfying end.
I’m now working on my other name‘s Meridian series book 4 edits. Doesn’t look like I’ll finish before the end of the month, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to fit both the for-fun short novel and novella into October, but we’ll see.
Books I’m Reading:
IT by Stephen King Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire The First Five Minutes of the Apocalypseedited by Brandon Applegate
Music I’m Listening To:
Halloween playlist Puppeteer playlist Lily Kershaw Ruelle Hozier’s first album
Things I’m Watching:
The Grudge 2 The Batman Queer Eye series Halloween Wars series Halloween Baking Championships series Outrageous Pumpkins series CSI series CSI:Miami series Murder, She Wrote series Buffy the Vampire Slayer series Squid Game (finished) Devil in Ohio (finished) Scream Queens Nine Perfect Strangers
Poem of the Week:
it takes bravery to walk the fuck away, courage to let a strike fall on my face without retaliation, but god help me, i’m just too weak while I shatter your full mouth of teeth over my linoleum. if i give you bleach will you clean the bloodstain?
Amanda M. Blake 