I’m not quite there yet, but there was a sigh of some relief after Election Day. On the federal level, Congress is a bit limited in what it can accomplish, and the tension between progressive and establishment Democrats might undercut any efficacy. On the state and local level, however, I’m holding out for some real change, particularly in my flipped home state.

News:

I’m technically taking a break from writing flash fiction for the Shallow Waters contests, but I got an idea for this last theme, so my story “Beyond His Eyes” is a finalist for the Mountain Horror theme at Crystal Lake’s Patreon. It’ll probably post about on the 14th.

Works in Progress:

I had to do some traveling this weekend. Untethered from the Internet during the car trips, I got some of the pre-editing done for Masque, at least when I wasn’t falling asleep. (I don’t have this problem when I’m driving, but apparently the drone of the highway has a soporific effect.) I think I’ve made a dent in the changes that need to be made in the first half of the book. I’ve just hit the next place I need to make some changes. Turns out adding characters really shakes up a novel.

I’ve gone back and forth between hating myself as a writer and thinking I might actually achieve the task. I guess we’ll see which one of me is right after I go through all the changed scenes again to clean them up and send them back to the editor.

Books I’m Reading:

The Violence by Delilah S. Dawson
My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones (finished)
Camilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Things I’m Listening To:

Halloween playlist
Beyond the Black

Things I’m Watching:

Haunted Mansion (2003)
Muppets Haunted Mansion
Get Out
Gothika
Meg 2: The Trench
Haunted Mansion (2023)
NCIS series
The Amazing Race series
Widow’s Bay series
The Hunting Party series
Hoarders series
Slasher: Guilty Party series (finished)
Halloween Baking Championship series (finished)
Marianne series (finished)
Kitchen Nightmare (reboot) series (finished)
Is It Cake? Halloween series (finished)
Brilliant Minds series

Poem of the Week: (throwback to November 2022, in honor of all the Halloween baking shows I just finished)

the gender reveal cake
cut through the center
reveals purple pus-filled
boils and green tentacles
emerging from what
should have been
a candy-filled void.
what exactly
are we having?