Category Archives: Writing

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?

Here comes the sun: Friday Update

19 Friday Apr 2024

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News:

I experience reverse SAD (seasonal affective disorder), which means that as the days get longer and hotter, my sensitivity to heat and light intensifies my mood disorder. The first warm breezes and sweaty walks of the year make me grumpy, while the first cool breezes and cold nights in October bring me joy. So whenever I feel unsettled or cranky for no reason around this time of year, I have to remind myself I’m adjusting to my new reality for the next six months. It usually hits in May, but it’s come in April this time.

I had a job interview earlier this week. The job itself seems promising, and I think it went well. I stress about interviews for a day beforehand, then have a hard time winding down after. By the time I got home afterward about thirty minutes later, I was still answering interview questions in my car right in front of my house, talking to nobody. However, after two decent interviews, I think I’ll be less terrified of them going forward. So far, I haven’t had any weird, random questions that are hard to answer because they’re out of left field. It’s all fairly straightforward, and now that I’ve worked in an office before, I have a better idea what questions to ask. I have trouble coming up with questions of my own when I don’t have enough information to know what to ask. I don’t know what I don’t know, you know?

In addition to a job interview, I had a book interview with Citywide Blackout last night on Question Not My Salt. I had a really good time and got to talk about extreme horror, about what Saw traps say about human survival instinct, and about the different kinds of cannibalism in the genre. I’ll provide the link to it next week, but it should pop up on the site tomorrow.

My workplace horror flash fiction “Eye Spy,” about mystical micromanagement, posted on the Crystal Lake Patreon earlier this week.

In other news, I watched the Nightmare on Elm Street movie series for the first time in release order (except the reboot, which I watched first). I hadn’t seen the second NOES before. So now I’ve seen them all, and it feels like an accomplishment. Also, I’ve been working on watching The Mentalist for years and finally got the last two seasons under my belt. It’s such a comfort show to me, and it was nice to finish. House and/or Criminal Minds might be next.

Works in Progress:

Thank goodness, Tooth & Claw seems to be the solution to my Book 7 problem. So, among the changes I made between restarts, just in case it’s useful to you: First, a change in tense from present to past. Then, a change in protagonist from Lis to Tara as primary and Lis as secondary (multiple POVs, which has precedent in the Meridian series). Last, changing where I start the story.

Those are all pretty much par for the course when trying to figure out what does and doesn’t work: tense, POV, who the protagonist should be, and where the story starts. It just usually doesn’t take me 50K words I can’t use to get there. However, by end of day today, I’ll have reached 50K good words in two weeks, at 5K or more words a day, except for my job interview day. Being able to maintain that word count is proof that this version is working, because in the last two versions, I struggled with 3K a day and I didn’t look forward to getting to work each morning.

In addition, I’ve been working on poetry, and I edited and submitted a short story to a submission call in the breaks between my writing. I like to write 500 words at a time and have a little treat in between, especially during higher word count days that can end up creatively exhausting. Sometimes that treat is a page or two of editing. Sometimes it’s editing or writing a poem. Sometimes it’s fifteen to twenty minutes of a low-concentration movie or show. Even these update sections are a break from my work!

It’s similar to the Pomodoro Technique, which suggests that intervals of work are more effective than marathons. I call them my In-and-Outs. Some days that sounds dirtier than others, depending on the content of my writing.

Books I’m Reading:

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

Things I’m Listening To:

YouTube playlists
Singer-songwriter playlists
Metal playlists

Things I’m Watching:

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare
New Nightmare
Freddy v. Jason
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)
The Mentalist series (finished)
NCIS series
NCIS: Hawai’i series
CSI: Miami series
American Idol series
Spring Baking Championship series
Murder, She Wrote series

Poem of the Week: (throwback to April 2023)

field mouse in search of shelter
inspects daisies and daffodils,
dandelions and clover, none a fit
cushion for her tiny girth,
finally settles on the fairy bed
of a pink tulip, pollen gilding
her humble fur with apian gold.

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

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

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

Quiet whirlwind: Friday Update

15 Friday Mar 2024

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News:

For Women in Horror Month, Jordan Triplett interviewed me for Alpha’s Court. I share my love of worms, how I don’t limit myself with genre, and how I combat negative thoughts.

John R. Little, author of Miranda, wrote some effusive praise for Question Not My Salt: “This is an absolutely terrific book, and I highly recommend it. … If you’re one of those folks who likes extreme horror, you really need to take a look. Just an awesome story from cover to cover.”

Cemetery Dance also posted a review for Question Not My Salt, excerpted here: “Don’t let the cover fool you, this is HORROR, not a cookbook…though a cookbook from this novella just might be fun to read. Imagine you’re a Canadian who goes to college in the U.S., is roomed with someone you become friends with who invites you to their home for Thanksgiving… and things go… awry. Do NOT piss off Mother. Do not ask for salt and for goodness sake, spit in that wine glass and pass it already.”

A reminder that we’re doing a read-along of Question Not My Salt at Goodreads group Horror Aficionados this month. We’ve had some fun interactions so far, including dream casting and favorite Thanksgiving dishes.

On the leg front, the reinjury seems to have mostly healed, although the muscle is still weak and needs some strength-building. I’m taking longer walks in sneakers, mostly walking around and going up and down the stairs barefoot again, which is preferable to having to wear shoes to support against the pain. I might be able to get back on the elliptical at low resistance as early as next week.

In the meantime, I seem to be dealing with some health issues—probably a bad batch of medication and possibly side effects of another, plus pulling a muscle or pinching a nerve in my neck, but I have a tendency to panic, and it’s making concentrating or doing anything important very difficult. It’s also putting some pressure on my job search, because I thought I’d have health insurance by now.

Works in Progress:

Despite concerns, though, I’ve managed to restart Shadow & Song (Meridian 7), and I finished the last required poems for the Spring section of my seasonal horror poetry collection. I can still add new poems to the Spring and Autumn sections if an idea or two arise, because they’re mini-collections rather than singular narratives like Summer and Winter, but for now, I can cross A Nightmare for All Seasons off my list as finished. I’ll probably put it together and edit it June/July 2024.

Just for fun, these are the section titles:
Verdant with Splinter and Thorn
Lusty Murders of May
The Halloween Parade
Bleak Midwinter

Also wrote and continue to work on some standalone poetry inspired by this month’s Quill & Crow Crow Calls. I like to add to my long poetry list now and then to keep it fresh. The more poetry I write, the more themes emerge for chapbooks and longer collections.

Received a handful of disappointing rejections. And yet I keep pushing, because I don’t know what else to do.

Books I’m Reading:

Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire
Killing Time by Russell C. Connor
Nineteen Little Stab Wounds by Alexis DuBon (finished)

Things I’m Listening To:

Hannibal soundtracks
Abyss/Ascent soundtrack
Silent Hill soundtracks
Kamelot

Things I’m Watching:

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
Not Dead Yet series
Will Trent series
Spring Baking Championship series
Home Town series
Murder, She Wrote series

Poem of the Week: (throwback from March 2022)

Malignant narcissist
Whose currency is abject fear
Forgets that true power
Is not making them kneel
And basking in their submission
But having them lower themselves
To kiss your filthy feet
Of their own devoted volition

Girl hungry: Friday Update

01 Friday Mar 2024

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News:

I received my contributor copies of Question Not My Salt yesterday. Sometimes I’m at a loss how to stage a book, but QNMS has a built-in background in most homes. It’s really exciting to hold a book someone else chose to publish.

If you’re interested in joining a read-along for the month of March, I’m a guest author at the Goodreads group Horror Aficionados. You can comment on the book or ask questions in an interview style, and I’m contractually bound in blood to answer. It’s a short, propelling read, so if you can stomach the subject matter, it should be a lot of fun.

“Hell Come Home,” my sad, sweet, quiet Christmas horror story won 2nd place in the Shallow Waters flash fiction contest at the Crystal Lake Patreon.

In real life news, I had my first real interview for a job this week. It went really well, despite a scheduling snafu and realizing I didn’t have much in the way of nice clothes left since the last time I was this size. Most of my wardrobe is casual. I managed to find one decent outfit, though, and I bought more and plan to shop some more later today, so crisis averted. May I just say that mastering the elastic waistband rather than rigid fastening on work slacks is a game-changing feat of fashion technology?

Works in Progress:

I’m still relaxing a bit at the moment, which isn’t to say that I’m not working. I wrote two more short stories, edited two, and now I need to edit the last one. Then I’ll probably start my editing projects. But I also want to finally finish reading IT, too, so that might come first.

I’m also starting a poetry project this month for the seasonal poetry collection coming out in September, and I’ll probably do something a little different with the Crow Calls prompts, play around with lyrical or longer poetry instead of short flash pieces. So the Poem of the Week going forward for this month will be from a previous March, I think.

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:

Fleurie
Svrcina
Blacklist playlist
Abyss/Ascent playlist

Things I’m Watching:

Martyrs
Thanksgiving
The Predator
Viral
Dead Silence
Bone Tomahawk
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series (watchalong)
Angel series (watchalong)
CSI series
NCIS series
NCIS: Hawaii series
Home Town series
Murder, She Wrote series

Poem of the Week:

cracks in the ground
widen into caverns
the rivers ripped
through now run dry
leaving empty beds with
unquenchable thirst

Goblin fruit: Friday Update

23 Friday Feb 2024

Posted by in A Few Thoughts, Poetry, Short Stories, Writing

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Photo by Daria Shevtsova on Pexels.com

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