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Around the bend: Friday Update

30 Friday May 2025

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News:

“The Devil’s Bathtub” won this month’s Shallow Waters flash fiction contest. I think the link leads to an open post where you can read the story for free, if you like.

Because I won, I got an Author Spotlight interview, which you can read here. And one of the perks of winning that started literally the month after the last time I won is that you get to decide the next theme for everyone to work on next month and curate the finalists—kinda like training wheels for editing an anthology, which I’d love to do someday. (And it comes with a decent honorarium, which I’m also excited about.)

We’ll share the theme and start taking entries next month, for posting in July.

Last weekend, I attended Texas Frightmare with a friend. I want to be a vendor there someday. Maybe next year?

Works in Progress:

The deadline for Q&C’s open submissions is the end of May 31, so I’m scrambling to finish Masque edits tonight so I can pare down the synopsis and put together the pitch before work tomorrow. As a result, I’m taking yet another day off from work (and I haven’t worked out since last week), but I put in some extra work on other days of the week, and I’ve determined that I’ll still make more this week than last (when I had to take time off for Frightmare), especially with the prize money for “The Devil’s Bathtub” added on.

I have about 33 more pages to edit, which is…doable. The narrative is speeding up from the emotional climax to the plot climax, so I’m editing faster, too. Honestly, it hasn’t required a lot of extra effort. Minimal cutting, mostly punctuation decisions and breaking up some sentences for readability’s sake. But it still takes time to go through everything.

After Masque has been submitted, I’ll go back to Tooth & Claw (M7) for the second round, and I think I figured out how to fix the Chekhov’s gun problem. And, of course, I’ll be reading for the July Shallow Waters contest.

Books I’m Reading:

The Fisherman by John Langan
Playlist of the Damned edited by Willow Dawn Becker and Jess Landry
Raising Loki: A Memoir by Elliot Manarin
He Left Her at the Altar, She Left Him to the Zombies by Katie Cord (Frightmare, finished)

Things I’m Listening To:

Delain
Kamelot
The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall album

Things I’m Watching:

The Equalizer 2
Stranger (1991) (Frightmare screening)
Damsel of the Doomed (Frightmare screening)
Jeopardy Masters series
Home Town series
Home Town Takeover series
Say Yes to the Dress series
CSI series
CSI: NY series
Brooklyn Nine-Nine series

Lips of honey: Friday (kinda) Update

16 Friday May 2025

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My audacity for being late comes from being social this morning and afternoon, when I’d usually be drafting the update. This happens so infrequently that I can’t refuse it when it does happen.

Then, due to heat and humidity, I had a massive headache coming home after working, so I needed to wait for that to settle down, too.

News:

“The Devil’s Bathtub” posted on May 11 at Crystal Lake’s Patreon. Those familiar with Bluebirds (Thorns Book 3) might have recognized the locale for the horror story—not the same place, but the same inspiration.

Works in Progress:

It took a little longer to finish up the first round of edits for Tooth & Claw (Meridian Book 7) than anticipated, so I’ve only been working on Masque second-round edits for a few days.

T&C (M7) had about 13K words cut, from 89K to 76K. I’m not satisfied with the climactic scene, because I feel like I didn’t use Chekhov’s gun, but I don’t have time to address it right now. I’ll muse over possible solutions until I can return to T&C.

I’ve only been working on Masque for three days, and I’m about a tenth of the way through, but I’m still charmed. I’m really fond of this piece. There’s something about the writing that tickles my brain. I think it’s because the alt-history style allows me to embellish and play without being as jarring as in contemporary.

20 pages in 2-3 days is not going to cut it if I want to make the deadline, so I have got to buckle down. Could this country not have a crisis for a few weeks, please?

Books I’m Reading:

The Fisherman by John Langan
Playlist of the Damned edited by Willow Dawn Becker and Jess Landry
Raising Loki: A Memoir by Elliot Manarin

Things I’m Listening To:

Old Favorite Playlist
Delain
Cindy Morgan
Let’s Talk About Love by Celine Dion
Live Around the World by Queen + Adam Lambert
Live for You by Rachael Lampa
Lost Whispers by Evanescence
Love and War by Fleurie
Lover by Taylor Swift
Lover. Fighter. by Svrcina
Mean Girls Original Broadway Soundtrack
Midnight in the Garden by Lily Kershaw
My December by Kelly Clarkson

Things I’m Watching:

Home Town Takeover series
Say Yes to the Dress series
Spring Baking Championship series
Elsbeth series (finished)
NCIS series
CSI series
The Equalizer series
Brooklyn Nine-Nine series

The endless poison: Friday Update

02 Friday May 2025

Posted by in A Few Thoughts, Novelettes/Novellas, Poetry, Short Stories, Writing

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News:

A Coup of Owls announced their 2025 line-up of novelette collections, and my raw, grimy, sexy story “Glory to God,” about a displaced goddess at a gloryhole, comes out in their Halloween 2025 collection featuring Othered horror romance. This is a story I conceived of over fifteen years ago but didn’t have the inspiration or guts to write until I was initially putting together my bathroom horror collection.

My body horror poem “Exhibit” is featured in this issue of Memento Mori’s free newsletter Morsus Vitae.

I did an interview roughly a year ago with the Merry Writers Podcast, and they posted it earlier in April, but I missed it. You can find it at a number of podcast places, but also here on YouTube. I talk a little about Question Not My Salt but mostly about my writing process and my love of the horror genre.

In addition, although “Turning Tail” didn’t win anything last month, my story “The Devil’s Bathtub” is a finalist in this month’s Crystal Lake Shallow Waters flash fiction contest, featuring the theme Fools. It should post for $5/month tiers and above on May 12. This one is a story I’ve wanted to write for a while, loosely based on a place on my grandparent’s land in the Ozarks.

Works in Progress:

I’d hoped that gig working during the afternoons and early evenings and being too tired during the nights would lead to more focused work during my mornings and my Wednesday ‘weekend.’ This has not been the case. I’m sorry, but this administration (federal and state) is soul-sucking, and the anger and helplessness I feel all the time is not conducive to productivity. When logic, reason, and compassion don’t work as arguments, my brain gives a near constant 404 error. It’s not good for me.

I’ve managed to make a dent on the first round of edits on Tooth & Claw (Meridian Book 7), but not as big of a dent as I would have wanted. My plan to finish the first round before doing second-round edits on Masque, however, remains. But I have to remember that Texas Frightmare is this month, and that takes at least three days off my schedule for writing. I want the world to be a better place so I can do my work, damn it.

Concerned that tariffs will eventually lead to less gig work for me as it finally hits inventory or to skintier tips (which we’re heavily dependent on, so remember to tip your gig workers).

Books I’m Reading:

The Fisherman by John Langan
Playlist of the Damned edited by Willow Dawn Becker and Jess Landry
Raising Loki: A Memoir by Elliot Manarin

Things I’m Listening To:

Old Favorite Playlist (basically everything I listened to in college)
Svrcina
It’s No Secret Anymore by Linda Eder
Jekyll & Hyde: Resurrection Soundtrack
Joanne by Lady Gaga
Josh Groban by Josh Groban
Kaleidoscope by Rachael Lampa
The Last Five Years Original Cast Recording

Things I’m Watching:

Mufasa: The Lion King
Talk to Me
Ghosts (US) series
Will Trent series
Watson series
Elsbeth series
NCIS series
CSI: NY series
CSI series
Criminal Minds series
Slasher: Guilty Party series
The Equalizer series
Brooklyn Nine-Nine series
The Bondsman series

With the undertow: Friday Update

18 Friday Apr 2025

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News:

My cat story “Turning Tail” has been posted on Crystal Lake’s Patreon as a finalist for this month’s Shallow Waters theme of Old School (Creature Feature). These stories are available to read and vote on if you’re in the $5/month tiers or higher.

Works in Progress:

I finished the final edits for Tattered & Torn (Meridian Book 6) and the final edits of the first chapter of Tooth & Claw (M7) that will be included as a teaser at the end of T&T, so that’s done and dusted and sent off to my publisher with a sigh of relief. Tattered & Torn is already available for preorder, if you’re interested in a story about a fallen angel with empathic powers.

I had trouble getting started on a flash piece yesterday, but I’ve tackled a lot of it today. I don’t know if I can finish tonight, but I’ll try for end of tomorrow morning at the latest. I want to do another piece of flash for the month, but meeting my self-imposed editing deadlines might be hard enough to accomplish.

Books I’m Reading:

The Fisherman by John Langan
Playlist of the Damned edited by Willow Dawn Becker and Jess Landry
Raising Loki: A Memoir by Elliot Manarin

Things I’m Listening To:

Evanescence
Emilie Autumn
Rossini’s Stabat Mater by the Wiener Philharmoniker
Resist (Instrumentals) by Within Temptation
Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson
Broadway My Way by Linda Eder
Church of Scars by Bishop Briggs
dont smile at me by Billie Eilish
Evita movie soundtrack
Falling into You by Celine Dion
Fear & Fable by Fleurie
The Fifty Shades movie soundtracks
For the Throne album (music inspired by Game of Thrones)
Fumbling Towards Ecstasy by Sarah McLachlan

Things I’m Watching:

Geostorm
Smile 2
Celebrity Jeopardy series
Watson series
Elsbeth series
The Hunting Party series (finished)
CSI series
Slasher: Guilty Party series
S.W.A.T. series
Brooklyn Nine-Nine series
The Bondsman series

Since the troubles started: Friday Update

04 Friday Apr 2025

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News:

My flash piece “Turning Tail” is one of the twenty finalists for this month’s Shallow Waters flash fiction contest, theme Old School (creature features), at Crystal Lake’s Patreon ($5/month and up tiers). If everything goes the way it should, it’ll be posted on April 19.

My sweet-and-sour clown story “Exile” is out today in Undertaker Books’ Carnival of Horror. You can purchase it here. There have been a few reviews so far, and “Exile” is reviewing well so far.

I started in the gig economy earlier this week. The first day did not go well. The second day went better. I have things I really do not like about it and things I really do. What is clear is that it’s not a viable long-term option, so I’m continuing to send out resumes. But it should cover health care costs, at least. And the things I do like about it make it worth the while for now.

Works in Progress:

I finished the first publisher’s edit of Tattered & Torn (Meridian Book 6) and sent it in. I’m working on the Tooth & Claw (Meridian Book 7) edits now, but they’re going to be even slower now that I’m gigging. I’ve got to be more efficient with my available time.

Books I’m Reading:

The Fisherman by John Langan
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Playlist of the Damned edited by Willow Dawn Becker and Jess Landry

Things I’m Listening To:

Abyss/Ascent playlist
Knowing soundtrack
Top 40 radio

Things I’m Watching:

Wicked
Mystery Island: Winner Takes All
Meltdown: Three Mile Island series (finished)
The Residence series (finished, highly recommended)
The Irrational series (finished)
Reacher series
Watson series
Elsbeth series
Criminal Minds series
S.W.A.T. series
Brooklyn Nine-Nine series
Kitchen Nightmares series

Salt the earth, gentlemen: Friday Update

31 Friday Jan 2025

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I’m sorry, I just can’t.

News:

I won joint 3rd place with “Delirium” at the Crystal Lake Shallow Waters flash fiction contest this month.

I’m trying to get back into playing piano to help with some of my cognitive issues. Anhedonia is a helluva drug, and my sightreading is really rusty, but I’m adjusting.

Works in Progress:

Still working on the Dracula reimagining. I have good days and bad days. I’m about two-thirds of the way through.

Books I’m Reading:

The Fisherman by John Langan
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Things I’m Listening To:

Agnes Obel
Fleurie
Joy Oladokun
Lily Kershaw
Odessa
Patty Griffin
Ruelle

Things I’m Watching:

Angels in the Outfield
Hannibal series
Will Trent series
Celebrity Jeopardy series
Grey’s Anatomy series
The Equalizer series
Found series
The Irrational series
Abbott Elementary series
Home Town series
White Collar series
NCIS series
Columbo series

Poem of the Week:

a great and terrible null,
the vast expanse of shadow
ripping into something darker
than space, a yawning chasm
as fierce as though it has teeth.
gaze into your abyss, false prophets,
for this is the end that you conjured.
is it as righteous as you thought?

Poring over front pages: Friday Update

24 Friday Jan 2025

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News:

“Delirium” should appear in a few days on the Crystal Lake Patreon for the month’s Liminal Spaces Shallow Waters contest, voting a few days after that, if you want to enjoy a month’s worth of liminal flash fiction horror.

I had some good news that fell through because I withdrew, so I’m still reeling a bit from that.

Works in Progress:

I continue editing the Dracula retelling, but as anticipated, the inauguration inaugurated a great deal of distraction and fear, which is not conducive to productivity. I hope to finish it before the end of the month, but I won’t at the present pace.

Given that the future I thought we were going to have in a reasonable world is gone, I’ve lost a lot of urge to publish and gained a greater urge to hunker down and just write my things until the world makes sense to me again. I don’t know when that’s going to be.

I’ll have things to put in the WIP section of my updates. I’ll finish the Meridian series. I’ll still put out A Nightmare for All Seasons, maybe other poetry collections in the future, because they have the lowest of stakes. If a submission call crosses my path, and something I’ve written or that I have an idea for fits, I’ll take it. I enjoy doing the Shallow Waters prompts. But I don’t think I’ll be in an almighty desperate rush to be read or to try to make a living off of this anymore.

That future is gone. For now.

Books I’m Reading:

The Fisherman by John Langan
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder (finished)

Things I’m Listening To:

Fleurie
Lykke Li
Lily Kershaw
Ruelle/Maggie Eckford

Things I’m Watching:

Moana
Knives Out
Brilliant Minds series (finished)
Hannibal series
Will Trent series
Celebrity Jeopardy series
Grey’s Anatomy series
The Equalizer series
Found series
The Irrational series
Abbott Elementary series
Home Town series
White Collar series
NCIS series
CSI series
CSI: NY series
Columbo series
Broadchurch series

Poem of the Week:

ghost haunting the organ sewn in place of your own,
echo of DNA memory, the graft of a soul
hitchhiking in yours for a while. see, feel things
not your own. honoring that which gave you life again
won’t hurt. two hearts in symbiosis on borrowed time.

Snowed in: Friday Update

10 Friday Jan 2025

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Oh yeah, it’s Friday. Sorry, been snowed in since yesterday, so time has no meaning. And this is Texas, so snowed in pretty much means that there is snow or ice and it’s sticking, so Amanda doesn’t go outside in it. Amanda doesn’t do wet cold.

News:

I’m back in the Shallow Waters contest at the Crystal Lake Patreon ($5/month tiers and up). This month’s theme is Liminal Spaces, and my story, “Delirium,” comes out around January 29, the second to the last in a group of 20 pieces of flash fiction. Join us if you like bite-sized themed horror fiction.

Preorders for WriteHive’s cozy speculative anthology Rescuing Curiosity are open now, coming out March 6. My story, “Marginalia,” is part of this one. I rarely write cozy or stories set in the future, so this was out of my comfort zone twice.

Works in Progress:

I finished the first edit/rewrite round of Masque two days ago, taking the story from 110,972 words (including about 4K words of notes and outline) to 97,811 words, which is a perfectly respectable number. So that’s the first rounds of the Dracula reimagining and Masque done and dusted. I’m taking a few days off to do a few smaller things before diving back in. The submission call I anticipated isn’t open, so I’m not in a hurry to meet a hard deadline by end of the month.

The last two days, I’ve been furiously working on getting A Nightmare for All Seasons for publication, including purchasing an affordable cover, reading the poems out loud to make sure they’re right, writing the introduction and the back cover copy, creating graphics for the main title page and section title pages (which I’ve never done before, and I’m really proud of myself for doing through Canva for free, even though they’re basic; it takes the book to the next level and emphasizes that these are five discrete sections), and meticulously formatting the uploaded document in Atticus (which had already paid for itself before this). Atticus is set up for prose, not poetry, so it’s fiddly, but I’m really happy with the end result.

I’m waiting on getting the cover back, and I have to also wait on some outstanding poems on sub, because I didn’t know I was going to include Lullabies for an Apocalypse in the collection when I sent those poems out. At this point, I’m hoping I can self-publish this sometime in February if I receive rejections. Longer, though, if something’s accepted and I have to account for exclusive rights. Yes, if someone’s willing to pay me for poetry, damn right I’m delaying for a pet project few people are going to read. Either way, it’ll be ready. I should set it up in the Poetry/Short Story page tomorrow.

Through the weekend, I think I’ll work on a few flash fiction pieces on the docket. Then I should be able to start on second-round edits for the Dracula reimagining.

Books I’m Reading:

The Fisherman by John Langan
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder

Things I’m Listening To:

Christmas playlist (finally got through the whole collection, which is a lot, and now I’ve got it on random until I start working on the Dracula reimagining again)

Things I’m Watching:

Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Jumanji
I Saw the TV Glow
The Holiday
Barbie
Murder, She Wrote: The Celtic Riddle
Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell
Glass Onion
Wishmaster 4: The Prophecy Fulfilled
Prince of Darkness
Brilliant Minds series
Found series
The Irrational series
Abbott Elementary series
Home Town series
Longmire series (finished)
Great British Baking Show: Holiday Edition series (finished)
Monk series (Season 6 finished for New Year’s binge watch)
Columbo series
CSI: NY series
S.W.A.T. series

Poem of the Week:

take care not to offend
your friendly neighborhood
coven of witches
lest your foolishness
burst from you like stuffing
and leave you in stitches

Summer break: Friday Update

23 Friday Aug 2024

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News:

There are a few things I really do not like to write and perspectives I don’t want to linger in long. “Predatory” covers one of those, so I’m just really glad it’s only flash fiction. As a horror writer, though, I always find a way to bother a pressure point, poking through all those hard limits. “Predatory” is my entry for the Camp Horror theme of Crystal Lake’s Shallow Waters contest, posting this month. We’re almost at the end, if you’re interested in one last slash at summer camp.

Works in Progress:

Circumstances forced a more extended break on me, between period cramps, burnout, and existential despair (received a rejection for In the Dollhouse… and don’t know what to do with it). I’m still not sure if my brain’s quite done resting. I think I might start back up tomorrow, because my creativity is tired but starting to get restless anyway. I’ll write the oozy novelette, then take another short break before diving into the Dracula reimagining.

I did get a little work done this week, though. I got my Crooked House (Thorns 5) files back from the formatter, so now I just have to send the specs and back cover copy to my cover artist. When she’s finished, I should be able to get CH uploaded. I’ll be doing some of that today.

Also, I’ve been meaning to get into creative nonfiction, and I started that yesterday with a flash piece for a sub call. My fiction is much more interesting than I am, so CNF hasn’t been much on my radar, but I have a few articles knocking around that I’d like to try. It’s good to do new things now and then.

Things I’m Reading:

The Tommyknockers by Stephen King (finished; still not great but more enjoyable than first read, and I had an entirely false memory about a scene in it, which is weird)
Why Didn’t You Just Leave edited by Nadia Bulkin and Julia Rios
Needful Things by Stephen King (comfort read before trying something new)

Things I’m Listening To:

YouTube ambient playlists

Things I’m Watching:

Chariots of Fire
The Beekeeper
The Day After Tomorrow
Monolith
Immaculate
The Ritual Killer
Matilda
Sleepaway Camp
CSI: Miami series
CSI: NY series
Abbott Elementary series
Great British Baking Show series
Hoarders series (finished)
Resident Alien series (finished)
White Collar series
Supernatural series
S.W.A.T. series
Grey’s Anatomy series
Kitchen Nightmares series
America’s Got Talent series
Murder, She Wrote series

Poem of the Week:

wrenched into a scream,
limbs tangled under sheets
into an unsolvable knot.
no sword to self-slice,
though with concentration
i may fall off the bed
and, whimpering, roll away.

Human masks: Friday Update

02 Friday Aug 2024

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News:

“Snot” made it to third place in last month’s Shallow Waters flash fiction contest.

I also sold a poem, but I’m not sure whether I can share more details than that.

Works in Progress:

Summer is a slow time for horror writers, and the markets have gone down in general, too. However, things start kicking up in August, and I submitted two novels, some poems, and at least six short stories yesterday alone. Crossing my fingers, but I’ve learned not to necessarily hold my breath.

I finished the first edit of Book & Candle (Meridian Book 5), and I’ve started on the second round. Ideally, I hope to finish it by the end of the weekend so I can proofread Crooked House (Thorns Book 5). After that, I have a novelette and a novel to tackle.

Things 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: (as you can probably see, I’ve started just listening to all my music alphabetically)

Within Temptation
Aida soundtrack
Aladdin (1992) soundtrack
All I Ever Wanted by Kelly Clarkson
All of Me by Mandy Harvey
All That Echoes by Josh Groban
All That For This by Crystal Bowersox
Alright, Still by Lily Allen
Amaranthe by Amaranthe
American Idol singles

Things I’m Watching:

Anaconda
Twisters
S.W.A.T. series
Grey’s Anatomy series
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:

give two children a tree to climb
they will eat from its fruit
give Pandora a box and say
it must never be opened
deflect the blame for the
inevitable enviable curiosity
of those who never knew better
until seeds were sown
and knowledge released