Category Archives: Series

By the sea: Friday Update

26 Friday Jul 2024

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News:

“Snot” was posted on Monday, and the voting continues through today. Enjoy 15 stories of seaside terrors!

In personal news, I got my first new smartphone (last one was secondhand and the last new phone wasn’t smart). It’s really nice having a battery that lasts and an operating system that supports my apps. I’m learning new ways of doing things, but the whole set-up process and applying the protective screen and case reminded me that I am, in fact, capable. Because I don’t often adopt new technology for the sake of mere novelty, I sometimes forget that I tend to be quite technologically adaptable.

Works in Progress:

I finished editing Crooked House (Thorns 5). The only thing left to do is the final read-through for proofreading. Then I’ll send it off for formatting. Can I afford it? Not really, but I’m doing it anyway. If I can’t publish anything else this year, I’d like to get Crooked House out so Thorns can have its soft ending. (There are more books to write, but if I died after Book 5, the series could stand as is.)

However, first I’m tackling the double edit of Book & Candle (Meridian 5) to give me some distance so I can come back with fresh eyes, important for proofreading. I’m having trouble getting into B&C due to some attention issues (there’s kind of a lot going on in the world right now), so I’ll have to do that thing where I turn off the wireless to minimize distractions.

Books I’m Reading:

The Tommyknockers by Stephen King
Why Didn’t You Just Leave edited by Nadia Bulkin and Julia Rios

Things I’m Listening To:

Crooked House playlist
Fourth of July playlist
Drift playlist

Things I’m Watching:

6 Souls
NCIS series
S.W.A.T. series
So Help Me Todd series (finished)
Kitchen Nightmares series
Hoarders series
America’s Got Talent series
CSI: Miami series
CSI: NY series
CSI series
Supernatural series
White Collar series
Murder, She Wrote series

Poem of the Week:

you thought if you cast down the dissident
the dissonance would correct itself
into the mellifluous harmony you designed,
but the clang of the pandemonium gate
is my clarion call overture to a chorus
murmuring off-key, dissatisfied legions.
would you throw out a third of your angels
to keep the illusion of peace?

Fiddling: Friday Update

19 Friday Jul 2024

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News:

She’s a saint. He is sin. Under my other name, Avarice & Creed is available for pre-order! There was a prompt somewhere at some point suggesting a subversion of Hallmark Christmas movie tropes by having a sweet young woman teach a cruel demon CEO the meaning of Christmas. In this case, we have a ‘virgin sacrifice’ of forced marriage to a billionaire avarice demon. I love all my stories for all sorts of different reasons, but I’ve noticed that my green-cover novels linger with particular fondness in my mind. (See also, Skeletons (Arcanium Book 9), which received less love than I have for it.)

My violent spring poem “Vernal” is featured in Renascentum, Quill & Crow’s Crow Calls Volume VI, which you can buy here.

“Snot,” my sea horror flash fiction, should post tomorrow at the Crystal Lake Patreon for the Shallow Waters flash fiction contest.

Works in Progress:

I’m a little less than halfway through the professional edits of Crooked House (Thorns 5). I’m still enjoying little special surprises I forgot I wrote. Period cramps hit yesterday, so I’ve been struggling, but I should be back to form tomorrow.

Books I’m Reading:

The Tommyknockers by Stephen King
Why Didn’t You Just Leave edited by Nadia Bulkin and Julia Rios

Things I’m Listening To:

Agnes Obel
Lily Kershaw
Abyss/Ascent playlist

Things I’m Watching:

The Ruins
NCIS series
So Help Me Todd series
Kitchen Nightmares series
Hoarders series
The Amazing Race series (finished)
America’s Got Talent series
CSI: Miami series
CSI: NY series
CSI series
Supernatural series
White Collar series
Murder, She Wrote series

Poem of the Week:

i will rise from the pandemonium
you cast me into as though the chaos
of angels singing is not cacophony
our wings the mechanism of angelic demise
if we cannot bear flight or halo in our own name
then we will rise on cloven hooves
and balance wreaths on our horns
we will ascend anew and walk our way
not to paradise but a garden of earthly delights

The call is coming from inside the house: Friday Update

03 Friday May 2024

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News:

My leg still isn’t back to normal. I don’t think it ever will be, or at least not for a long time. Can’t go to an orthopedist again until I have insurance, but I suspect that the original injury didn’t heal right and the chunk of muscle remains atrophied, while all the other muscles continue to overwork in compensation. However, I’m at a point where I really need to start doing some kind of aerobic exercise for health reasons, and the secondary injury seems to have finally calmed down. I’m going to try to get back on the elliptical at the absolute lowest resistance. It’s possible I just may not be able to walk around well without shoes. I guess I can live with that.

Two weeks ago, I said I’d include the link to the Citywide Blackout interview about Question Not My Salt, which was a great deal of fun, and I read an excerpt from the story, but I forgot to include it in last week’s update. So here it is.

My storm story “The Glitter of Bile” is featured in this month’s Cosmic Horror Monthly with Hailey Piper and Evelyn Freeling. It’s ultimately a COVID story, vile little cloud notwithstanding.

My piece “Second Chance” will be in this month’s Resurrection-themed Crystal Lake Shallow Waters flash fiction contest. There are twenty stories featured this month, so it should be a real treat. Barring complication, “Second Chance” should post on May 13.

In negative news, I think this month was the first since I started publishing with Totally Entwined under my other name in the previous decade that I received absolutely no royalties. So if you’re into spicier horror romance and dark urban fantasy, check out my Arcanium and Meridian series. Arcanium (series complete) brings together my two favorite horror tropes: ‘careful what you wish for’ and demonic circus/carnival. Meridian (series in progress, standalones) is in the vein of Supernatural and Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel, set in a fictional Texas city. Arcanium is darker, but Meridian should still be a lot of fun. Fourth Meridian novel is coming out later this year,

Works in Progress:

The Meridian Book 7 novel I thought I’d never be able to write, Tooth & Claw, is finally finished at 95,287 words total (which includes outline and more false starts, so remove about 5K for the real total). It’s such a relief to have that done and dusted and in my Meridian folder ready for editing when I come to it. I also wrote out the outline for the last book, Rack & Ruin, which I’ll tackle in November. That takes plotting off my plate when I get there, which is another relief, because I know I’ll have the story all ready.

I also had some intense inspiration for two separate anthology calls during one of my walks, so I decided to do an experiment where I wrote both short stories at the same time, kind of doing a section here and a section there, to see if that worked for me. It did not. I eventually had to focus on one to its conclusion, then work on the second. But I did get both of them written. And for now, I’m on track for my modest goal of one short story and one flash piece average for the year.

With all of these things out of the way, I’ve started my editing of In the Dollhouse We All Wait. Goal is to get it down from 116K words to under 90K by the end of the second edit, and to get it all done before Texas Frightmare on the weekend of May 17—the earlier the better, of course—because PitDark is on May 23 this year. I hope to be pitching In the Dollhouse (extreme horror), A Woman Alone (erotic horror), and We All Follow in the Dark (regular horror).

Books I’m Reading:

Killing Time by Russell C. Connor
Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire

Things I’m Listening To:

YouTube playlists
Metal playlists

Things I’m Watching:

FeardotCom
I Spit on Your Grave (2010)
Haunted Mansion (2023)
Robin Hood (Disney)
Yellowbrickroad
CSI: Miami series
CSI: NY series
American Idol series
Spring Baking Championship series
Hometown series
Murder, She Wrote series

Poem of the Week:

there is ecstasy in mourning
violence in grief
and a terrible endlessness
to the numbness
of absence

the heart does grow fonder
but finds no purchase
in what is no longer there
unrequited love
never found

In the jet stream: Friday Update

26 Friday Apr 2024

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News:

Not a lot going on this week.

If you’re part of the Crystal Lake Patreon, voting for Workplace Horror flash fiction is open until tomorrow morning. You have fifteen interesting interpretations of the theme to read and choose from.

Someone on the Books of Horror Facebook page was kind enough to leave a review of Out of Curiosity and Hunger. I’m not going to link to it here, because she posted it on Amazon and Goodreads as well, but the way she described the whole vibe of OOCAH was just so perfect: “I love National Geographic, especially when the animals eat each other, and sometimes maybe humans too.”

I really do love creature features. You want creature features? I’ve got two! Out of Curiosity and Hunger (urban jungle) and Deep Down (cave monsters).

Works in Progress:

I’m still working on Tooth & Claw (Meridian 7). Barreling forward, in fact, 5K+ words a day. For reference, I started April 6, and by the end of the day, I’ll have written over 85K in twenty days. Based on where I am in the story, I think I’ll be able to finish by the end of the weekend, maybe Monday, although my period’s coming, and depending on severity, it may slow me down. I have a cushion of a few thousand words to keep up my 5K/day average lately, though.

Once I’m finished with that, I’m going to edit extreme horror novel In the Dollhouse We All Wait, because I want it to be ready in time for PitDark after Texas Frightmare in May. I ideally need to cut over 20K words, but I think that’s doable. That means I might have to push back Crooked House (Thorns 5) publication to June, but I might have to do that anyway if formatting is out of my financial reach. Depends on what I can sell between now and then and whether I’m employed.

I would categorize Question Not My Salt as on the milder side of extreme, but In the Dollhouse definitely fits into the subgenre, so much so that it might be hard to place instead of self-publish, but I’m going to try.

Books I’m Reading:

Killing Time by Russell C. Connor
Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire

Things I’m Listening To:

YouTube playlists
Metal playlists

Things I’m Watching:

Love of My Life (2013)
The Others
Army of the Dead (2021)
Alien vs. Predator: Requiem
Abigail (a fun, bloody flick)
NCIS series
NCIS: Hawai’i series
CSI series
CSI: Miami series
American Idol series
Spring Baking Championship series
Murder, She Wrote series

Poem of the Week: (throwback to April 2023)

haydust gold winds
round rustic spindle.
he does the work.
she reaps the spoils
of rotten wheat to
a marriage bed.
and does she ever
say thank you
or give freely
what she offered,
what she owes
for his labor?

Couch potato sprouting: Friday Update

29 Friday Mar 2024

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News:

The Pleasure in Pain Queer Horrotica Kickstarter is still taking pre-orders and other perks, although it’s met its base goal. If they meet the stretch goal, Pleasure in Pain gets an audiobook.

Post-apocalyptic “Full” won 2nd place in the Shallow Waters flash fiction contest for the Murder of Crows theme!

Works in Progress:

Once again, I hit a creative wall with Shadow & Song, this time around 25K words, so I think this particular storyline is a bust. I’m scrapping it in favor of my next effort, Tooth & Claw, which I’d originally thrown out of the Meridian line-up because it was purely sapphic, which can’t go into the Meridian series (has to do with which Totally Entwined imprint it’s under, can be some queerness but primary needs to be female/male). However, one character going male doesn’t make the story suffer at all, so that’s what I’m going to do, and I can take two good characters from Shadow & Song and integrate them into the new story. It’s possible Lis just wasn’t meant to be a main character. I’m incredibly discouraged by two failures in the novel arena, and I’d like a win. I’d like a book Xed off my list.

Just to make sure I had a story, I outlined Tooth & Claw. I’m not an outliner, because it makes me feel like I’ve already written the story, but on certain occasions, they’ve just been necessary. And yes, I have a story, and there are scenes I’m really looking forward to, which wasn’t the case with the other two attempts. All I could see was the beginning, and as I went, the rest of it didn’t become any clearer like it usually does.

In the meantime, I put together another poetry chapbook. This has been an unexpectedly productive horror poetry year, for how ineffective I’ve been in other mediums. I’ve done enough substantial poetry and mined, expanded, or stitched together things from flash poetry to put together two impromptu chapbooks (for a total of three) and complete a collection.

We have family over for the holiday, so I’ll work on the second edit of a novelette for a sub call in April. Then I’ll start Tooth & Claw in the new month after I do necessary car things.

Health is doing better. I suspect I had a case of post-infection visceral hypersensitivity, which has a tendency to make me think I’m dying, and it gets worse with stress. Leg injury, however, is still reinjuring. I need to see the orthopedist, but I’m trying to wait until I have health insurance again, because MRIs are expensive. Job search is not going so well. I’ll have to eventually go with a temp agency again if I can’t get direct-hired.

Books I’m Reading:

Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire (finished)
Killing Time by Russell C. Connor
Half-Off Ragnarok by Seanan McGuire

Things I’m Listening To:

Leonard Cohen
YouTube playlists
Singer-songwriter playlists

Things I’m Watching: (I finally got Tubi and wanted to watch a bunch of things before they expired)

Poor Things
The Shrine
The Possession of Michael King
Clown
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
Madhouse
Catacombs
The Evil in Us
Raze
Extraterrestrial
Angel series (watchalong)
CSI: Miami series
Spring Baking Championship series

Poem of the Week: (throwback from March 2022)

you try so hard
to seem sinister
but my dear
mister mister
save the spooking
for my sister
your filed teeth
and damask swagger
won’t sink
underneath
my moonpale skin
stand back
cheekbones
no spine-chilling
i like your style

You can never leave: Friday Update

16 Friday Feb 2024

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News:

It’s my beautiful book birthday! Extreme family dinner horror novel Question Not My Salt is officially available as an ebook (paperback to come). It’s a short, rollicking, roiling read, and you can enjoy it any time of year or save it as a Thanksgiving treat. Thank you to Kenneth W. Cain and Crystal Lake Entertainment for everything they’ve done to help QNMS come to life!

Elaine Pascale gave a wonderful review at Hellnotes, saying, “Question Not My Salt left me questioning many things non-spice related. I questioned the place of torture porn in written horror. I questioned myself as I was devouring this piece of extreme horror as if it were a pleasant travel essay. I questioned why I was not reading more of Blake’s writing.”

Horror Reads, who provided my first review, included Question Not My Salt on his list of “Three Shorter Horror Books to Break Your Mind!” at his YouTube channel.

I also participated in a live podcast episode last night, the Panic Room Radio Show through Hellbound Books, to talk about horror and read an excerpt from QNMS and completely forgot to share that I was doing it so that people could, you know, listen live. However, I should have a link to the episode to share by next week’s update.

Works in Progress:

I’ve only ever had to scrap a novel once before, but I’m afraid I have to do that with Silver & Steel (Meridian 7), at least in its present incarnation. Character plans I had ended up changing when the characters decided to go in different directions, which then removed all the intended external conflict, and in urban fantasy, external conflict is essential. I stopped writing around 35K words in, which is better than the last time I quit a novel, which was at over 70K words.

I’ve summarized a few intended scenes, suggested a few changes, and asked myself some questions that can give me the framework for a new novel, which I’ll probably write later this year so I can put some distance between this version and the next. I would still like to finish the Meridian series this year, but I’m noodling on adding one or two novels to the list, so that may be out of the question anyway.

I’m frustrated, because I wanted that under my belt, or mostly so, before I started looking for employment and hopefully getting hired somewhere. But I didn’t want to waste any more of my time on a novel that was sputtering.

Right now I’m working on a novelette that I don’t really know what to do with, but it’ll be ready, whatever that is. Next week, I polish my resume and start submitting applications, and I’ll probably proceed to edit Book & Candle (Meridian 5) in the afternoons and evenings.

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire
Ending in Ashes by Rebecca Jones-Howe

Things I’m Listening To:

Billie Eilish
Fleurie
Ruelle
Lily Kershaw
Once More With Feeling soundtrack
Stigmata soundtrack

Things I’m Watching:

Contracted
Contracted: Phase II
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series (watchalong)
Angel series (watchalong)
CSI series
The Mentalist series
The Irrational series
Helix series
Queer Eye series
Ghosts (US) series
Not Dead Yet series
All Creatures Great and Small series
Murder, She Wrote series

Poem of the Week:

I cannot promise sunrise
over massacre scene,
nor unburnished gold
or sterling silver clean.
Stars will reflect red
where moon will demean,
your fairest flesh shine
unfairly unknown, unseen
except by the feral,
the cruel, and the mean.
When I have no more rubies
and hungry times are lean,
will you still bleed for me,
my beautiful, bloody Queen?

Restless: Friday Update

09 Friday Feb 2024

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Sasha welcomes you to her house. Enter freely and of your own will…

News:

Just a week until the Question Not My Salt release, and I received an incredible blurb:

“Deliciously macabre and astoundingly fresh, Question Not My Salt is a richly prepared buffet of weirdness and depravity. Blake has crafted a truly grim offering about tradition that will disturb and shock even the most discriminating connoisseurs of body horror.” -Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke

I also received a wonderful five-raven review from Epeolatry Book Review via Horror Tree. Some highlights: “Question Not My Salt haunted my stomach for ages. I was nauseated with no desire to discuss food. Don’t read Question Not My Salt before, during, or after a meal or you’ll regret it!” Not the kind of review you want for a romance novel, but excellent for a body horror novel.

In honor of Question Not My Salt coming out, I wrote an article on Family Drama: Five Horror Families Who Are the Absolute Worst, about family trees in the genre that need to be put in the woodchipper. Check it out on Horror DNA.

In addition to QNMS, my poem “Cleanse” is out in the Querencia Winter 2024 Anthology.

For Crystal Lake Shallow Waters flash fiction theme Yes Today, Satan, I present “Hell Come Home” ($5/month tier and higher, like a themed anthology every month) at their Patreon.

Works in Progress:

I’ve managed to cross 20K words on Silver & Steel (Meridian 7), even though this week has been rough and I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to do this story at all. The last two days have been easier. I’ll continue pressing on as long as the words continue to flow. We’ll see whether it’s a viable story or whether I have to scrap it and start again later this year.

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire
Ending in Ashes by Rebecca Jones-Howe

Things I’m Listening To:

Sara Bareilles
Nightwish
Within Temptation
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark soundtrack
YouTube playlists

Things I’m Watching:

The Eye
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series (watchalong)
Angel series (watchalong)
CSI series
The Mentalist series
The Irrational series
Helix series
All Creatures Great and Small series
Murder, She Wrote series

Poem of the Week:

under my thrall
you’ll do anything i say

drop off a roof
or blow bubbles of bleach
and swallow the foam

make you bow
sing a song of sorrows
such that job would weep

mine to command

now get some rest
eat fruit
be gentle with yourself
have a nice day


If the sun never rises: Friday Update

02 Friday Feb 2024

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News:

After the polar vortex dipped down here to blister my toes with chilblains, we slipped into a false spring. It’s been warm, but also cloudy and rainy. I like cloudy and rainy, but after a while, missing the sun disrupts the sense of day rising and night falling. The temperature is beautiful (even a little warmer than I prefer) and doesn’t look like we’ll get a big winter front for a while (if at all), but there are a lot of clouds in the forecast. Makes me drowsy.

There’s no immediate news really, although I can tease that I received another great blurb and did my first podcast interview for Question Not My Salt this week. First podcast interview ever, actually.

If you missed it, I put out the Puppeteer (Thorns 4) playlist. You can find all the book playlists under the Thorns series header above. The links are under each book listing.

Works in Progress:

I finished the second edit of erotic horror novella A Woman Alone and brought it down to under 40K words, which was the goal. Since January submission calls ended and February calls opened up, I submitted that, plus a novelette and a few more short stories. I also finished what might be my last poems for the Autumn section of my seasonal poetry collection. Now I just have to write for Spring.

On January 31st, I felt weird starting something new right at the end of the month, and I didn’t have any more small projects to fuss with, so I took the day off to binge-watch Buffy, Angel, and The Mentalist and feel sorry for myself because I’m still struggling with leg pain. Sometimes you just need to wallow. I don’t really take days off and often downplay my own work as actual work—even though I put in full effort seven days a week—because I don’t receive commensurate compensation. But rest will occasionally force itself upon you

Wallowing over, I started on Silver & Steel (Meridian 7) yesterday, and it started pretty strong. I broke from my usual style for the series and decided to do it in first-person present tense. Whether I finish it mid-February or not, that’s when I’ll clean up my resume and start putting out job applications. Hopefully, winter doesn’t decide to come back with an icy vengeance at that point. It did when I started my last job nine years ago.

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire
Ending in Ashes by Rebecca Jones-Howe

Things I’m Listening To:

Sara Bareilles
Eurielle
Timber Timbre
Agnes Obel
Tina Guo

Things I’m Watching:

Bullet Train
Saltburn
Taken 2
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series (watchalong)
Angel series (watchalong)
CSI series
The Mentalist series
Abbott Elementary series
Helix series
All Creatures Great and Small series
Murder, She Wrote series

Poem of the Week:

save your vitriol for someone
who wouldn’t eat your soul
instead of a sandwich
if it satisfied their hunger
more efficiently

PUPPETEER Playlist

30 Tuesday Jan 2024

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I absolutely love making playlists for the more substantial stories I write. If you want a collection of songs that encapsulates how I conceptualize Puppeteer (Thorns 4) for your own enjoyment while you read it or after, the list in order is below. It’s longer than the others because so is the book. I should still have followed the same rules of using an artist or band only twice per playlist.

“Real Men” – Tori Amos
“Habits (Stay High)” – Tove Lo
“There’s a Wall” – Miranda Lambert
“Include Me” – Sara Em
“Party Meds” – Lily Kershaw
“In the Dark” – DEV
“Creep” – Radiohead
“Who Are You?” – Svrcina
“Slow, Love, Slow” – Nightwish
“Fire with Fire” – Delain
“Sirens” – Soren Bryce
“War of Hearts” – Ruelle
“Disease” – Phillip Phillips
“Who Are You, Really?” – Mikky Ekko
“Throwing Stones” – Paula Cole
“Dodged a Bullet” – Greg Laswell
“my boy” – Billie Eilish
“All I Need” – Within Temptation
“It Will Come Back” – Hozier
“Sodom” – Wendy Colonna
“Judas” – Lady Gaga
“Man or a Monster (feat. Zayde Wolf)” – Sam Tinnesz
“Who are You?” – RAIGN
“Sex and Candy” – Unions
“Hey Pretty” – Poe
“Sour Cherry” – The Kills
“Citizen Zero” – Kamelot
“I Am the Fire” – Halestorm
“Wild” – Bishop Briggs
“Static” – Kamelot
“The Last Song I’m Wasting on You” – Evanescence
“Clarity (feat. Foxes)” – Zedd
“We are the Others (Ballad Version)” – Delain
“War of Hearts (Acoustic)” – Ruelle

You look familiar: Friday Update

19 Friday Jan 2024

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News:

We started with gargoyles, went on to succubi, and now we have vampires! Strange & Familiar, the third standalone novel of the Meridian series, is officially out on Amazon and Totally Bound under my other name.

He has turned her into the humblest of slaves, eager to satisfy his every command and serve his bloodthirsty appetite—as well as a few unusual appetites of her own.

This isn’t the first or last time I play in familiar waters. Next Meridian novel comes out later this year.

In personal news, I reinjured the leg (again). Different part of the muscle, grade 1 strain instead of 2, so I can walk, but it takes me a few steps back in progress. Grade 1 strains can take two to three weeks to heal, and I’m following the original principle of not getting back on the elliptical until I can walk barefoot almost normally. So I’m a sedentary kitty again. With the polar vortex, I haven’t even been able to walk much, although yesterday was beautiful.

(content warning: food, diet, eating habits)

Which means I’ve had to accept the fact that I really can’t depend on aerobic exercise, perhaps for another few months, to counter my appetite. I didn’t realize the last time I took it, but the metformin I restarted is a mild appetite suppressant, so it’s been easier to start scaling back on intake.

This confirms to me what other people seem to have a hard time understanding: It’s a lot easier to do things that you want to do; and the corollary, it’s a lot easier to not do the things you don’t want to do. I haven’t accomplished this on willpower (which isn’t actually a thing, but people think it is). My desire to eat is being suppressed, so I don’t want as hard as I did before, and the feeling of being hungry isn’t as unpleasant. Controlling insulin helps with that, too, because I’m more effectively using the food I do eat. I’ve never eaten a lot, just a little more than I should. With the help of medicine, I’m managing to eat less without as much frustration. I’m not withholding too much, I want to reiterate. I’m just not adding a lot of caloric extras to my day, and the ones I like, I’m able to cut down by half or more and remain satisfied by them.

In just two weeks, it’s made an impact. We’ll see how sustainable it is.

Works in Progress:

I went ahead and edited all four short stories plus the Hear You Scream novelette for submission calls, and all of them have been submitted. I still have one cli-fi novelette to edit, but there’s no hard deadline for that one, and I’m not in the zone for it.

So, next up is editing erotic horror novella A Woman Alone, which ought to be a lot of fun. I’ll be trying to punch up the gothic horror elements and trying to cut it down to meet the submission call’s maximum word count, which means cutting about 8-10K words. We’ll see how it goes.

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire
Ending in Ashes by Rebecca Jones-Howe

Music I’m Listening To:

Halloween playlist

Things I’m Watching:

Insidious: The Red Door (disappointing)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series (watchalong)
Angel series (watchalong)
White Collar series
The Mentalist series
Transplant series
Found series (finished)
Helix series
All Creatures Great and Small series
Hometown series
Murder, She Wrote series

Poem of the Week:

barren as a wicker basket
lingering from centuries past
useful for what won’t slip
through fingers of corn husk
and fern but watch ash
slither through like sand
to spill onto dust bowl
floors and through the cracks
to have and to hold you
and let you go