News:

Question Not My Salt has received its 100th rating on Goodreads. I’ve never cracked forty on anything solo I’ve ever written, so that’s a big deal for me. I’m so grateful for everyone who’s helped make QNMS the gross little wonder that it is.

I just signed the contract for a spot in the spring edition of Ghoulish Magazine, which is one of my dream publications still left, with a weird short story, “For a Good Time,” that I think pretty much started my short story run in 2021 and triggered all the work I’ve done for Bathroom Omens, my bathroom horror collection that will come out as soon as “Glory to God” rights revert back to me in a few years.

Works in Progress:

I had to work really hard on the grocery shopping front to meet a promotion designed to have shoppers working as much as possible through Christmas Eve. I was able to stop after a batch of three orders on Christmas Eve, but prior to that, I busted my butt, and now I am tired. The promotion has allowed me to take the rest of the week off, if I want.

I haven’t done any writing work, although the Dracula reimagining is sitting open on my desktop. I’ll probably wait until Monday to start, honestly. I’m in dire need of a break, and I’m reading The Shining for the season. Still Christmas in my eyes; twelve days of it, after all.

I’ll have another break New Year’s Eve through January 2. Maybe I’ll knuckle down on it then. The way I’m planning it, 2026 is going to be a calmer writing year, because I’ve been going pretty hard for twenty-five years now. Between my two names, I have over thirty published novels and lots of short stories. Like I said, I’m tired.

I’ll do my usual retrospective on New Year’s Eve or Day.

Books I’m Reading:

Raising Loki: A Memoir by Elliot Manarin
Rose Madder by Stephen King (finished)
The Shining by Stephen King

Things I’m Listening To:

Christmas playlist

Things I’m Watching:

Holiday in the Wild
Santa Girl
Krampus
It’s a Wonderful Life
A Castle for Christmas
The Santa Clause
9-1-1: Nashville series
Ghosts (US) series
Transplant series
CSI: NY series (finished)
Twelve Dates ’til Christmas series
Holiday Baking Championship series
Sweet Empire: Winter Wars series (finished)
Great British Baking Show series

Poem of the Week: (throwback to 2023)

not looking for
truth or beauty
tonight
turn off the light
i’ll take a
pregnant silence
to spoken violence
if i don’t have
to see
we don’t have
to know
let’s go