Like a normal human being: Friday Update

24 Friday Oct 2025

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To the tune of “This is Halloween”: This is 39. This is 39. 39. 39. 39. 39.

Let us not speak of it again. I’m not entirely sure what happens after 40.

News:

Tooth & Claw (Meridian Book 7) came out on October 18. A demon hunter from childhood meets a vampire and a werewolf who don’t kill, and they introduce her to a different world than the short, bleak life that she’s been raised in. This particular story was originally supposed to be a standalone, but the first two attempts to write the seventh Meridian novel didn’t work, and it shared some features with the standalone idea, so so I pulled them together to fix the problems. I’m really pleased with the result. Sort of like Skeletons (Arcanium Book 8), it’s a bit of a subversion of the usual themes in Meridian, which keeps things interesting for me.

Works in Progress:

I should reach 82K on Never & Forever (Meridian Book 8) by the end of the day. Definitely at a difficult point, but I think as long as I get it on the page, I can fix it in edits. I’m actually having a really good time, during both the spicy scenes and the regular scenes. That happens when you have characters you like hanging out with.

I need to cut down a short story this weekend, but then I should get back into N&F.

Books I’m Reading:

Raising Loki: A Memoir by Elliot Manarin
Rose Madder by Stephen King

Things I’m Listening To:

Halloween playlist

Things I’m Watching:

Sleepy Hollow
The Haunted Mansion (2023)
Black Phone 2
SWAT series
Hannibal series
Matlock series
All Creatures Great and Small series (finished)
Is It Cake? Halloween Edition series (finished)
CSI: NY series
Halloween Wars series
Halloween Baking Championship series

Poem of the Week: (throwback to October 2023)

don’t mistake my
calm solitude and
solemn attitude
with local witch
in a moment
I can make
an abrupt and
wicked switch

Halloween playlist: Halloween, Actually

23 Thursday Oct 2025

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Today’s playlist subsection consists of songs about Halloween and the whole experience of it. Surprisingly short, to be honest.

Halloween:

  1. “All Hallows’ Eve” – Inkubus Sukkubus
  2. “Everyday is Halloween” – Dangerous Muse
  3. “This is Halloween” – Nightmare Before Christmas
  4. “You Make Me Feel Like It’s Halloween” – Muse
  5. “Halloween Main Theme” – Tina Guo
  6. “Candyman” – LVCRFT
  7. “People are Strange” – Johnny Hollow
  8. “Who’s at the Door?” – UNSECRET (feat. Sam Tinnesz)
  9. “We Got the Treats” – LVCRFT
  10. “Halloween Song” – SMITH
  11. “Spooky (Little Girl Like You)” – Classics IV (Dusty Springfield also has a great version, but the Halloween lyric changed)
  12. “I Miss You” – blink 182
  13. “Jackolantern’s Weather” – 311
  14. “Everyday is Halloween” – Ministry
  15. “Halloween Dance” – The Reverend Horton Heat

Halloween playlist: Night/Darkness

22 Wednesday Oct 2025

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Today, we’re dwelling in darkness and embracing the night.

Night/Darkness:

  1. “Beware of Darkness” – Hidden Citizens (with Ranya)
  2. “Daughters of Darkness” – Halestorm
  3. “Black Hole Sun” – Haley Reinhart
  4. “Black” – Sarah MacLachlan
  5. “Light in the Hallway” – Pentatonix
  6. “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” – Twisted Insane (parody music from the series that shall not be named, but royalties probably not going in her pockets)
  7. “Paint It Black” – Inkubus Sukkubus (also Siobhan Magnus’ American Idol version, and the cellist’s from Wednesday S1)
  8. “Whispers in the Dark” – Skillet
  9. “Goodnight Moon” – Shivaree
  10. “Moon Trance” – Lindsey Stirling
  11. “Dead of Night” – Ruelle
  12. “Drowning in Darkness” – Beyond the Black
  13. “In Love with the Darkness” – Xandria
  14. “Afraid of the Dark” – Unions
  15. “In the Middle of the Night” – Within Temptation
  16. “Halo of the Dark” – Beyond the Black

Halloween playlist: Creature Feature/Monsters

21 Tuesday Oct 2025

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Today’s theme is creature features and monsters, so this is where the horror movie monsters that don’t have their own category hang out and monster mash.

Creature Feature/Monsters:

  1. “Venus Fly Trap” – MARINA
  2. “Bloody Mary” – Lady Gaga
  3. “The Invisible Man” – Queen
  4. “Hide and Seek” – Lerion & Lauren Paley
  5. “Black Widow” – Iggy Azalea (feat. Rita Ora)
  6. “Spiderweb” – Haley Reinhart
  7. “Poetry for the Poisoned, Pt. 1: Incubus” – Kamelot
  8. “Mutate with Me” – The Humpers
  9. “Vulture” – Tristania
  10. “Black Vultures” – Halestorm
  11. “Balrog Boogie” – Diablo Swing Orchestra
  12. “Enter Sandman” – Metallica
  13. “Monster” – Lady Gaga
  14. “Teeth” – Lady Gaga
  15. “Some Kind of Monster” – Beyond the Black
  16. “Monsters” – Ruelle
  17. “I’ll See You in My Dreams” – Moonspell
  18. “Loverman” – Nick Cave
  19. “Lovely Creature” – Nick Cave
  20. “Goo Goo Muck” – The Cramps
  21. “Monster Mash” – Bobby Pickett
  22. “Frankenstein” – Gene Moss
  23. “Monster” – Panzer AG
  24. “Monsters” – Hurricane Bells
  25. “Spiders” – The Mist
  26. “Queen Bee” – Tina Guo
  27. “Monster” – Eminem (feat. Rihanna)
  28. “Boris the Spider” – The Who
  29. “Bodysnatchers” – Radiohead
  30. “All Along the Crooked Way” – Inkubus Sukkubus

Halloween playlist: Movies/TV

20 Monday Oct 2025

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Today’s post includes songs from or about horror TV series and movies. I didn’t include just plain theme songs from the most common horror movies, although I have them in my full Halloween playlist, unless they were covered or altered in some way or if they were taken from someone else’s music. You can find horror theme song albums lots of places. Songs about specific horror monsters are in another subsection of the playlist.

Movie/TV/Theme Songs (about or from): (posted)

  1. “Dream of a Witch’s Sabbath” – Hector Berlioz (The Shining)
  2. “Tubular Bells” – Mike Oldfield (The Exorcist)
  3. “Ave Satani” – The Omen
  4. “A Nightmare on My Street” – DJ Jazzy Jeff
  5. “The Well”/”Television” – The Ring/The Ring 2
  6. “Your True Face” – God Module (samples from Nightbreed)
  7. “Twisted Nerve” – Kill Bill
  8. “Hello Zepp” – Saw
  9. “Monochrome Kiss” – AmaLee (Black Butler)
  10. “The Host of Seraphim” – The Mist
  11. “Vampire Hunters”/”The Brides” – Bram Stoker’s Dracula
  12. “Dangerous Type” – Letters to Cleo/”Dark Secret” – Matthew Sweet (The Craft)
  13. “Tip Toe Through the Tulips” – Tiny Tim (Insidious)
  14. “Swan Lake Opening” – Tchaikovsky (Black Swan)
  15. “Red Right Hand” – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (Scream)
  16. “Aperitif” – Hannibal Season 1, Vol. 1 (includes Bach’s Goldberg Variations)
  17. “Purple People Eater” – NOPE
  18. “Pet Sematary” – Ramones
  19. “Haunted (from Fear Itself)” – Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  20. “Final Destination” – Within Temptation
  21. “Batman, Wolfman, Frankenstein and Dracula” – LVCRFT (feat. Spencer Ludwig)
  22. “Remain (from Old)” – Saleka
  23. “Carry On Wayward Son” – Kansas (Supernatural)
  24. “Closer” – Nine Inch Nails (Se7en)
  25. “You’re Not Here”/”Letter from the Lost Days” – Silent Hill 3 (Silent Hill movie)
  26. “Rain of Brass Petals: Three Voices Edit” – Silent Hill: Revelation
  27. “Opening (Sarah’s Theme)” – Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
  28. “Hatching Baby Raptor” – Jurassic Park
  29. “Into the Fire” – Dokken (Nightmare on Elm Street 3)
  30. “Cry Little Sister” – Blutengel (Lost Boys, I Know What You Did Last Summer)
  31. “Mary, Mary [Stigmata Mix]” – Chumbawumba
  32. “Danse Macabre” – Camille Saint-Saens (“Hush” (Buffy the Vampire Slayer))
  33. “Fun with Knives” – Velvet Acid Christ (Event Horizon samples)
  34. “Cold” – Aqualung and Lucy Schwartz (Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Pt. 1)
  35. “Straight to Hell” – LVCRFT (feat. Sabrina Spellman) (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, to the tune of “Skeleton Sam”)
  36. “Ghostbusters” – Ray Parker, Jr.
  37. “In the Acts of Violence” – Dawn of Ashes (samples from Alien 3)
  38. “Spooky” – God Module (samples from Return of the Living Dead)
  39. “Be Careful What You Wish For” – Wayfarers/”The Wish Box” – tomandandy (Wish Upon)
  40. “Running Up That Hill” – Kate Bush/”Master of Puppets” – Metallica (Stranger Things)
  41. “What You Feel”/”Walk Through the Fire” – Buffy the Vampire Slayer “Once More with Feeling”
  42. “Bad Romance” – Lady Gaga (Hitchcock movie references)
  43. “I Was a Teenage Werewolf” – The Cramps
  44. “We’ve Only Just Begun” – The Carpenters (1408)
  45. “Eyes on Fire” – Blue Foundation (Twilight)
  46. “Once Upon a Dream (Young Ruffian Remix)” – Lana Del Rey (Maleficent)
  47. “Love Crime from the Wrath of the Lamb” – Siouxsie Sioux (Hannibal Season 3, Vol. 2)

Halloween playlist: Dead/Zombie

17 Friday Oct 2025

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Today’s subsection of the Halloween playlist is in honor of the dead and those risen from the dead.

Dead/Zombie:

  1. “Dead March” – Suicide Commando
  2. “Dead of Night” – Depeche Mode
  3. “Life, Life” – Young Frankenstein
  4. “Skeleton Sam” – LVCRFT
  5. “In the Woods Somewhere” – Hozier
  6. “Dead is the New Alive” – Emilie Autumn
  7. “Back from the Dead” – Halestorm
  8. “Spooky Scary Skeletons” – LVCRFT
  9. “Cemetery” – Headstones
  10. “Dead Man’s Party” – Oingo Boingo
  11. “Ain’t No Grave” – Hidden Citizens (feat. Adam Christopher)
  12. “Skeleton Tree” – Auri
  13. “Dead Heart Beat” – LVCRFT (feat. John Kassir)
  14. “Corpses (A Zombie Love Song)” – God Module
  15. “Carrion” – Fiona Apple
  16. “Death Couldn’t Tear Us Apart” – LVCRFT
  17. “Jesus was a Zombie” – Zombie Girl
  18. “Garden of Graves” – Rua
  19. “I am Stretched on Your Grave” – Kate Rusby
  20. “Skeletons” – Maddie Poppe
  21. “Raise the Dead” – RAIGN
  22. “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” – Blue Oyster Cult
  23. “Battlefield” – Panzer AG

Waiting for you: Friday Update

17 Friday Oct 2025

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News:

Nothing to share this week.

Works in Progress:

Never & Forever (Meridian Book 8) is definitely looking long. I wouldn’t be surprised if it went past 120K in the first draft. Nothing wrong with an ambitious novel, but it definitely tests my patience.

Taking an extra day off a week is helping, though. Usually I only take one day off a week, but October is complicated anyway, and I needed the extra 3K-word days to help me feel like I’m moving forward more. Of course, it makes me crave the days I did nothing but write and could get 21K words a week instead of 11K. I’ll survive. I’ll hit 69K by tonight. In my list of nine story beats, I’ve crossed out four, and I’m almost through five.

Can’t believe that when this novel is done, I’ll have finished writing the Meridian series. Feels like a whirlwind. That’s taken years.

Books I’m Reading:

Raising Loki: A Memoir by Elliot Manarin
Rose Madder by Stephen King

Things I’m Listening To:

Halloween playlist

Things I’m Watching:

The Witches (1990)
The Craft: Legacy
Haunted Harmony Mysteries: Buried at C
Dracula Untold
SWAT series
Hannibal series
All Creatures Great and Small series
CSI series
CSI: NY series
Halloween Baking Championship series

Poem of the Week: (throwback to 2023)

i don’t understand
why the celebration
as we creep ever nearer
to your cruel revelation

why would you encourage
unnecessary acceleration?
long as you’re spared damn
the rest of the population

i cannot condone the
vacuous participation
in widespread violence
and genocidal devastation

all in the name of
joyful damnation
by a merciful God
of glorious creation

Halloween playlist: Killers

16 Thursday Oct 2025

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Today I’m sharing the subsection of the playlist devoted to killers, whether real or fabricated, and victims. A few of them have references or samples to movies, but they felt more applicable to this subsection than the movie reference one.

Killers

  1. “Haunted” – Evanescence
  2. “Die, Die My Darling” – Metallica
  3. “Lonesome Hunter” – Timber Timbre
  4. “The Curse of Milhaven” – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
  5. “Among Us” – Susanne Sundfor
  6. “Dead and Lovely” – Tom Waits
  7. “The Zodiac” – Kamelot
  8. “Ed Gein” – Twisted Insane
  9. “Killer Instinct” – Dawn of Ashes
  10. “In the Lake” – Emilie Autumn
  11. “Tear You Apart” – She Wants Revenge
  12. “Trigger Happy Jack (Drive By a Go-Go)” – Poe
  13. “Run from Me” – Timber Timbre
  14. “Buried” – UNSECRET (feat. Katie Herzig)
  15. “Heathens” – twenty one pilots
  16. “Predator” – Gadi Sassoon (feat. Elenna Canlas)
  17. “Scavenger” – Emilie Autumn
  18. “Psycho Killer” – Talking Heads
  19. “Criminal” – Unions
  20. “The Killing Season (UNKLE Remix)” – Mark Lanegan Band
  21. “Happy Birthday” – The Birthday Massacre
  22. “I Am Coming to Paris (To Kill You)” – Timber Timbre
  23. “Bat Outta Hell” – Twisted Insane (samples from Zombie’s Halloween)
  24. “I Want You” – Delain
  25. “Should’ve Known” – Erotic (samples from House of 1000 Corpses)
  26. “Song of Joy” – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
  27. “Henry Lee” – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (feat. PJ Harvey)
  28. “Where the Wild Roses Grow” – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (feat. Kylie Minogue)
  29. “Deep Red” – Apoptygma Berzerk
  30. “Murder in the Red Barn” – Tom Waits

Halloween playlist: Hauntings/Ghosts

15 Wednesday Oct 2025

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Today I’m sharing ghost stories in the form of songs.

Hauntings/Ghosts:

  1. “Ghost House Heart” – Delain
  2. “The Haunting (Somewhere in Time)” – Kamelot
  3. “There’s a Ghost” – Fleurie
  4. “Ghost Town” – Adam Lambert
  5. “Haunted” – Poe
  6. “In Twilight Hours” – Kamelot (feat. Jennifer Haben)
  7. “Ghost Love Score” – Nightwish
  8. “Lonely Ghost” – O + S
  9. “Haunted” – Kelly Clarkson
  10. “House of Leaves” – Poe
  11. “Boy and the Ghost” – Tarja
  12. “If I Burn” – Emilie Autumn
  13. “Ghosts” – James Vincent McMorrow
  14. “All is Lost” – Katie Garfield
  15. “A Lovely Affair” – Death Cab for Cutie
  16. “He Haunts Me” – Extreme Music
  17. “Ghost” – Neutral Milk Hotel
  18. “Passage” – Vienna Teng
  19. “Ghosts of Mulholland” – Emily West
  20. “Retrogradation” – Informatik
  21. “Everywhere Ghosts Hide” – UNSECRET (feat. Erin McCarley)
  22. “HAUNTED” – Isabel LaRosa
  23. “The Shirt of a Ghost” – Katie Melua
  24. “Dead Boy’s Poem” – Nightwish
  25. “Ciaran’s Well” – Tarja

Halloween playlist: Witches/Magic

14 Tuesday Oct 2025

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Witches/Magic:

  1. “Season of the Witch” – Lana del Ray
  2. “Blueberry Head” – Tuna Helpers
  3. “Elizabeth: i. Mirror Mirror” – Kamelot
  4. “Abracadabra” – Lady Gaga
  5. “Witchy Woman” – The Eagles
  6. “Burning Times” – Inkubus Sukkubus
  7. “The Shining Path” – Tristania
  8. “The Spell” – Kamelot
  9. “She’s My Witch” – LVCRFT (feat. Dani Miller)
  10. “Lady Geneva” – Inkubus Sukkubus
  11. “Rhiannon” – Fleetwood Mac
  12. “Darkened Days to Come” – Sirenia
  13. “Liar (Murder Mix) – Emilie Autumn
  14. “Threefold Law” – Nemesea
  15. “Witches Song” – Juliana Hatfield
  16. “Witchcraft” – Frank Sinatra
  17. “I Put a Spell on You” – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
  18. “A Night on Bald Mountain” – Modest Mussorgsky
  19. “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” – Paul Dukas
  20. “The Witches of Eastwick: Devil’s Dance” – Gil Shaham, Jonathan Feldman
  21. “Spell Eater” – Huntress