Category Archives: Short Stories

Twisted nerve: Friday Update

05 Friday Jul 2024

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Drift is an excellent vacation read, short and sweet. Highly recommend reading it by the water.

News:

My sea story “Snot” is a finalist in this month’s Crystal Lake Shallow Waters contest. Enjoy the Horror in Paradise theme for $5/month.

Works in Progress:

I finished Masque soon after last week’s update for a total of 110,972 words. I’ve already come up with a few ways to improve it in the first edit. Given my attention span, I think I’m almost certainly burned out from pushing the pace (not to mention reasonably afraid and depressed with the state of the Union), so I took the weekend to try to recover. Editing all month should help that, too.

I’m working on the edits for May Cooler Heads Prevail now and should finish the first edit by end of day. Since it’s so timely with its themes, it’s difficult to push through, but depending on escapism is difficult, too, because it feels like falling for bread and circuses, being the toad in the boiling pot and telling myself everything is fine and I don’t need to worry. The trouble is that I don’t know what to do if things go more wrong than they already have. If the rim of the pot is too high, what’s a poor toad to do when they realize the pot is boiling?

Books I’m Reading:

Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin
The Tommyknockers by Stephen King

Things I’m Listening To:

Old Favorites playlist
Fourth of July playlist
Witchy YouTube playlists

Things I’m Watching:

The First Omen
Midsommar
Under Paris
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
Hamilton
The Bay
Elsbeth series
Kitchen Nightmares series
Summer Baking Championship series (finished)
Hoarders series
Worst Roommate Ever series (finished)
The Amazing Race series
America’s Got Talent series
CSI: Miami series
CSI: NY series
Supernatural series
White Collar series
Murder, She Wrote series

Poem of the Week:

the universe is a night-blooming flower
creation its opening into light in darkness
stardust the persistent scent of jasmine
expanding in hedonistic spread
but preparing eventually to close


Basket case: Friday Update

24 Friday May 2024

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News:

Attended Texas Frightmare Weekend last weekend with a horror/writing friend and had a great time. I like the Irving Convention Center over the DFW Airport Hyatt, which we’d outgrown two years ago. The building is better set up for a pleasant ambient temperature and doesn’t have that humid feeling of a hotel. The subterranean element of the Hyatt did feel more horror-like, and the C Terminal parking was a horrifying maze, but the Irving Convention Center is generally a much more pleasant experience. We can make our own horror atmosphere.

Highlights were the Queens of Scream panel with Jordan Ladd, Jane Levy, Marley Shelton, Cerina Vincent, and Dee Wallace and the solo panels with personal favorites Kevin Durand and Doug Jones, who seemed like the most delightful people. You’re always afraid to meet the actors you like, out of fear they’ll disappoint you by being arrogant (although sometimes that’s delightful, too, like Malcolm McDowell) or dismissive of fans, but I’m regularly more relieved than not when we meet them. (Other highlights from previous years include Alice Krige and the soon late Julian Sands.)

As far as PitDark yesterday, which I’d been looking forward to and prepping for, I received a significant amount of support from followers, but it unfortunately yielded no fruit, which took the wind out of my sails for the rest of the evening and will probably last through today. From what I could tell, a lot of us got more interest from porn bots than agents or publishers. Might have been a slow month, might just not have been intriguing enough, or maybe the earlier effectiveness of the event has run its course post-Elon.

That means In the Dollhouse We All Wait doesn’t have a home, and I’m not sure where it can find one. There’s one sub call opening in August that might be open to extreme. We’ll see. I don’t like finished works just sitting there, doing nothing, but extreme is a difficult sell. Usually, the stuff that’s in it is also in the ‘we don’t want’ section of submission guidelines.

In real life news, we are battling paper wasps building nests under our porch roof. They’re classified as aggressive, but in my experience, they’re fairly unaggressive. They just have no fear. So they’ll fly right up to your face, and they sting like the dickens if provoked. Since I’ve been spending most mornings and milder days working on the porch, I have to share space with them and point out the nests so Dad can knock ’em down. Wasps are good garden insects, but when the niblings are out here, you don’t want so many wasps at the same time, and this is the time of year they’re most industrious, trying to establish a home. Wasps are good, but not right here.

As far as the leg injury, I think the secondary injuries have calmed down, but I still have to be careful. I’m on the elliptical machine again, lower resistance and less time than when I started six years ago, but it’s so nice having anything, and I seem to be doing okay, with some adjustment to my stance. However, the originally injured muscles are still weak and atrophied a year later, no matter what I do, so I suspect that’s just my life now. Even if I can’t up the resistance or do high-intensity interval training, I’ll work on endurance instead. I’m just glad to have some decent aerobic exercise happening. It makes my cardiovascular system much happier.

Works in Progress:

After completing the long and short pitches for In the Dollhouse, I started working on a short story that’s been knocking around my head and that I’m trying to do justice to. It’s kind of turning into a novelette, which is fine. At its length, it’s not going to fit the sub call I was writing it for anyway. Just for myself at this point. Next, I’ll be writing for another sub call, borrowing from my Thorns universe to try to make a standalone short story. Then I’ll tackle the pro edits of Crooked House (Thorns 5).

Books I’m Reading:

Killing Time by Russell C. Connor (finished)
Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire (finished)
100% Match by Patrick C. Harrison III (finished)
Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin (I love the movie and have wanted to read the book for a while now)
The Tommyknockers by Stephen King (Hated it in my first reading, so I’m giving it another try)

Things I’m Listening To:

RAIGN
Fifty Shades trilogy soundtracks (never read the books or watched the movies, love the soundtracks)
Abyss/Ascent playlist
YouTube ambient tracks

Things I’m Watching:

Pandemonium (Texas Frightmare)
Basket Case (Texas Frightmare)
Brain Tumor (Texas Frightmare)
The Black Quarry (Texas Frightmare)
The Equalizer
The Equalizer 2
The Equalizer 3
Summer Baking Championship series
Under the Banner of Heaven series
CSI: Vegas series (finished)
CSI: NY series
American Idol series (finished)
9-1-1 series
NCIS series (finished)
NCIS: Hawai’i series (finished)
Murder, She Wrote series

Poem of the Week:

i don’t even know what to be angry about,
memories slipping away like ferrous sand,
leech slime through my teeth the mucus of tears.
is what i remember real or am i an amalgamation
of traumas and joys only occurred in dreams?

Brace for impact: Friday Update

17 Friday May 2024

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News:

My Crystal Lake Shallow Waters entry for this month’s Resurrection theme, “Second Chance,” has been posted on the Patreon. ($5/month, basically a themed anthology every month)

I’ll be wandering around Texas Frightmare in Dallas this weekend. I love it because I’m surrounded by a bunch of people who share my enthusiasms and aesthetic, but my introvert self has to brace for the muchness of everything.

Works in Progress:

I wanted to finish editing In the Dollhouse We All Wait before Texas Frightmare, and I did yesterday. Second round of edits went much faster, and I write synopses during second edits, so that’s done and dusted, too. I’m continuing to do really well in my first round of edits, which allows the second round to be swifter, strictly polish. All I have left is to put together the long and short pitches, but the manuscript itself is ready to sub. There aren’t a lot of markets for extreme horror, but maybe PitDark will find a place for it.

My other goal was to get it below the 90K-word max of a lot of small press sub calls. I cut it down from 116,160 words in the first draft to 88,636 at the end of the third draft. That seems like a lot to trim, but my usual novel word cut is about 20-25%, so it’s not too far off—a little more than average.

I have the Dollhouse pitches to write, and then I have two short stories I’d like to tackle. After that, I start on the professional edits for Crooked House. I’m still not sure if I can afford to pay for my series standard formatting, but we’ll see what June brings.

Books I’m Reading:

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

Things I’m Listening To:

RAIGN
Joseph William Morgan
The Silicone Veil by Susanne Sundfor
Fumbling Towards Ecstasy by Sarah McLachlan
Arcadia by Eurielle
The Unknown by Sea Stars
When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go by Billie Eilish
YouTube ambient tracks
Metal soundtracks

Things I’m Watching:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
The Taking of Deborah Logan
The Meg 2: The Trench
The Pope’s Exorcist
CSI: Miami series
CSI: NY series
American Idol series
9-1-1 series
Jeopardy Masters series
Hometown series
Murder, She Wrote series

Poem of the Week:

what have we here, hidden
beneath branch and planted weed,
obscured with brush and scattered seed?
where have we come, unbidden,
and where does this winding path lead?
what kind of man conceals a bad deed,
and when does a path turn forbidden?

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

Third-time charm: Friday Update

12 Friday Apr 2024

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News:

We were in the path of totality. Above is my eclipse kit. We ate mini Moon Pies while we stared up at the moon-covered sun. It was edge of twilight all around. I’m used to the light getting disquietingly thinner during a partial, but never bad-storm dark like that. And the sight of the corona around the moon is just like the pictures, but there’s a difference between looking at pictures—which look like a black circle Photoshopped over the sun–and seeing it in person. It still looks fake, but you know no one has manipulated the sky, which makes it so unreal and cool to see.

In industry news, Pleasure in Pain is getting mixed early reviews on Goodreads (through NetGalley), but “Graphite” is proving to be a standout in the collection, which feeds my ego just fine, thank you. Don’t worry, my ego is underfed and only gets healthy with the occasional meal.

Also, I never made it public because no contract was signed, but Bathroom Omens, my bathroom horror prose/poetry collection, received some publication interest. After a bit of upheaval, though, I decided to withdraw it from consideration for now and start submitting the individual pieces instead. In theory, this should allow the collection to do some work for me first, since collections are a harder sell to audiences. I’d like these stories to be read, because they’re some of my best, even if word counts mean that some of those best are hard to place in the short story markets.

Go forth, my filthy little pretties.

Works in Progress:

This seventh Meridian book has been a job of work, to borrow from Buffy. Two previous versions, false starts, finally resorting to an outline (not a bad thing, just atypical). After two more false starts, I finally managed to get a good opening to Tooth & Claw. I am much more confident in this version than the last two, and the outline proves I have a whole story. It also takes some of the long-term lifting off my shoulders, because I don’t have to remember everywhere I’m going, just the scene I’m in and the next. With my memory issues, that’s really been helpful.

In addition to putting my collection to work, these last two days has involved handfuls of submissions and handfuls of rejections, but I’m still getting holds and personalized rejections, so it’s not all negative.

In the coming week, I’d like to push my daily word counts, if possible, and hit 50K words, because I have a job interview on Wednesday, and should I have good luck there, I’d like to get as far into the book as possible before heading into a new job. But I also want to take a short break at 20K or 25K words to edit a short story for sub and finish out my poetry for the month.

Books I’m Reading:

Killing Time by Russell C. Connor
Half-Off Ragnarok by Seanan McGuire (finished)
Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire

Things I’m Listening To:

YouTube playlists
Singer-songwriter playlists

Things I’m Watching:

Train to Busan
The Autopsy of Jane Doe
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (finally first time watching; Netflix has all but one NOES movie streaming)
Angel series (watchalong, finished)
White Collar series
NCIS series
NCIS: Hawai’i series
CSI: Miami series
Will Trent series
American Idol series
Spring Baking Championship series
Murder, She Wrote 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.

Curve ahead: Friday Update

05 Friday Apr 2024

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News:

The Pleasure in Pain: A Queer Horror Anthology is officially available in e-book and paperback on Amazon, with my story “Graphite,” loosely inspired by the Japanese fairy tale “The Boy Who Drew Cats.”

My short story “Eye Spy” is part of this month’s flash fiction finalist line-up for Crystal Lake Shallow Waters at their Patreon, themed Workplace Horror. I really do like writing for these and Apex’s flash fiction prompts. It’s good exercise in a lot of different horror directions.

Works in Progress:

I feel like I still make writing schedules like I still write at the same pace as in my twenties. I didn’t get to start on Tooth & Claw yet, but I edited and submitted a novelette, wrote eight substantial poems, and wrote a short story for a sub call. I’ll be starting my third attempt at Meridian Book 7 today after finishing this post.

I came up with an idea for a creative non-fiction article, which is new for me, unless you count the Introduction to the Bathroom Omens short story collection. I don’t know when I’m going to tackle it, but I put it on my list for this year.

I feel like I’ve been submitting a lot but not getting responses at the same pace. I’m bracing myself for a deluge of rejections to try not to take them personally.

Because I’m still doing long poems based on the Crow Calls prompts for this month, I’m going to do some throwback flash poetry for the Poems of the Week, this time from April 2022.

Books I’m Reading:

Killing Time by Russell C. Connor
Half-Off Ragnarok by Seanan McGuire

Things I’m Listening To:

YouTube playlists
Singer-songwriter playlists

Things I’m Watching:

Spider-Man: Far From Home
Wonka
Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
Bodies Bodies Bodies
Is It Cake? series (finished)
Home Town series
American Idol series
CSI: Vegas series
The Mentalist series
Angel series (watchalong)
Spring Baking Championship series

Poem of the Week: (throwback to April 2022)

all I want
is a quiet life
with books on my nightstand
and a cat purring in my lap
while clean rain drums
picture windows
before swaying trees
and a cup of hot chocolate

and instead you turn over
in obscene thread count sheets
and cheap socks
and choose violence

you do not know
what you awaken

Dissolve: Friday Update

22 Friday Mar 2024

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News:

This has been a body horror kind of week.

“Full” is up at the Crystal Lake Patreon for the Shallow Waters Flash Fiction Contest, themed Murder of Crows. It’s a creepy-crawly post-apocalyptic meal for the starving, available to read for the $5/month tier and up, which also buys you voting rights. There are some really good pieces, but they feel criminally underread this month.

My gross, pink horror story “Indigestion” also came out this week in the Last Girls Club Spring Equinox 2024 issue. There’s a print version, but here’s the link to the .pdf version.

Works in Progress:

I passed the 20K-word mark with Shadow & Song (Meridian 7). I still go back and forth as to whether I like it, but anhedonia is a real thing I deal with on the daily, and some of the changes I made do improve the story and give me a reason to continue. I think I’ll know by the end of the month whether this version story is going to work.

I took a day off from working on S&S to edit a bunch of the new poems I’d written this month to put them on my availability list and figure out which ones I could use for a chapbook that I submitted earlier this week.

Books I’m Reading:

Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire
Killing Time by Russell C. Connor

Things I’m Listening To:

Fleurie
Evanescence
Singer-songwriter playlists

Things I’m Watching:

The Abyss
X
Renfield
Baskin
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series (watchalong) (finished)
Angel series (watchalong)
CSI series
CSI: Vegas series
CSI: Miami series
Spring Baking Championship series

Poem of the Week: (throwback from March 2022)

typing through lines
driving through signs
swallowing all the wine
sleeping subprime
such a dreary crime
wasting all this time

Beat the drum slowly: Friday Update

08 Friday Mar 2024

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News:

I’m back in Crystal Lake’s Shallow Waters flash fiction contest with “Full,” for the theme of A Murder of Crows. This is one of three stories that I set in the same post-apocalyptic world, because it intrigued me so much in the first story, “The Sisters of the Perpetual Wound,” that I wanted to explore it some more. I may return to it again someday. “Full” should arrive at the Crystal Lake Patreon around March 18. In the meantime, there are fifteen other short pieces that will be shared this month (for $5 tier and up).

Queer erotic horror anthology The Pleasure in Pain launched its Kickstarter, which is essentially a preordering service, with some other cool rewards. My story “Graphite” is included among a killer TOC.

Works in Progress:

It took me ridiculously long to edit one regular-sized short story, but then I started my March poetry project, which has been a lot of fun. I wrote my first two sestinas! I had a weird block on understanding the form, but someone explained it better to me, so I had to try it.

Even better, two weeks after abandoning Silver & Steel (Meridian 7), I figured out during a hot shower how to fix the problems I had with the first draft attempt, where I essentially wrote out the external conflict during character development, which left me with nowhere to go in urban fantasy. As soon as I get some more poetry and my taxes done (ugh), I’ll start again, which I’m really excited about. I wanted that under my belt now so that I’d be able to finish writing the series by the end of the year. The new title will be Shadow & Song (Meridian 7).

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King (finished, finally!)
Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire
Ending in Ashes by Rebecca Jones-Howe (finished)
Killing Time by Russell C. Connor

Things I’m Listening To:

Hannibal soundtracks
YouTube playlists
Drift playlist

Things I’m Watching:

The Invitation (2022)
Gothika (Unrated)
The Hoarder
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series (watchalong)
Angel series (watchalong)
American Idol series
CSI series
CSI:Vegas series
NCIS series
NCIS: Hawaii series
White Collar series
The Mentalist series
Ghosts series
Home Town series
All Creatures Great and Small series (finished)
Murder, She Wrote series

Poem of the Week: (throwback from March 2022)

Others hail beginnings
As the potential
For something wonderful,
But no one ever said
A new start would precede
An improvement.

Goblin fruit: Friday Update

23 Friday Feb 2024

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News:

My interview with Crystal Lake Entertainment host A.F. Stewart is up on YouTube, where I talk about my inspiration for Question Not My Salt.

Question Not My Salt is also a March 2024 group read at the Goodreads discussion board Horror Aficionados. The Group Read thread hasn’t been created yet, but if you want to read along next month, feel free to join us!

I’m not too attached to rankings, but it’s been interesting watching QNMS’s since its release. It’s consistently higher than I’m used to my books being (in the hundreds rather than the hundred thousands), which means I’m getting modest but steady purchases. Out of Curiosity and Hunger ain’t doing too badly either (for me), since I’m a contender for the Indie Book Brawl at Books of Horror at Facebook, and people are starting to find it.

Works in Progress:

I’ve started applying for jobs and have no idea what my future holds or when, but as far as I’m concerned, my writing sabbatical is over, and that means allowing myself a little mental rest. This also means a certain amount of disorganized chaos. I intend to start editing in March, but there’s still a week till then.

I wrote a short story for a themed contest, and I have one more short story I’d like to write for a themed call. On a whim, I created a poetry chapbook that I’m not sure whether I’m sending in or saving for later, and I’m stitching it together today. Contemplating whether I have enough available short stories for a themed short collection. Having an existential crisis. Sad that our False Spring seems to have been the start of Actual Spring (although we’ve been known to have odd cold snaps in March-May). You know, the usual.

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:

Lily Kershaw
Delain
Abyss/Ascent playlist
YouTube playlists

Things I’m Watching:

Hostel: Part II
Hostel: Part III
Mandy
Frozen (horror)
Devil’s Pass
Bite
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series (watchalong)
Angel series (watchalong)
CSI series
The Mentalist series
The Irrational series (finished)
Helix series (finished)
Queer Eye series
Abbott Elementary series
All Creatures Great and Small series
Murder, She Wrote series

Poem of the Week:

for four hundred years
i abstain
chalice dry
length of long tongue
desiccated

so that when some
young thing
bleeds
for me

i am compelled to
devour

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