I’m going to spend most of the day making Christmas treats: chocolate fudge, Christmas crack, and snickerdoodles. For some reason, my fudge has been too dry for years, and I still don’t know why. I’ve been making some changes to the recipe, with no luck. This year, I’m using different chips. If that doesn’t work, I might try using different chips and proper butter (basically, wondering if the candy doesn’t have enough fat, due to recipe changes in chocolate chips and standard butter). If that doesn’t work, I guess I just accept that it’s going to be dry. It’s still really tasty.
News:
“Weed Killer” is featured in the first e-book from Horrific Scribes, Invasions of World, Home, Body, and Mind. No paperback, because they don’t have the contract rights for that, but a full anthology.
Works in Progress:
Quite unexpectedly, I finished the edits for In the Dollhouse We All Wait yesterday. The second half had the book’s natural momentum going in its favor. Among smaller issues, I tend to start too many sentences with ‘and’ and ‘but,’ and I write very long sentences (just how my brain works). These are known flaws. I get rid of a lot of them in my own edits, but apparently not enough.
So not only did I get the Dollhouse edits done well before Christmas, I can work on the Dracula reimagining fixes and May Cooler Heads Prevail edits. And just generally, I can take it a little easy for the rest of the month. Good, because work will probably be more demanding through Christmas Eve. I plan on taking some work days off next week, though, in addition to Christmas Day and at least part of Christmas Eve.
I’m not sure when May Cooler Heads Prevail will come out, though, because my cover artist’s house burned up. If you want to help someone really important in the indie horror community, check out that link to the fundraiser for him.
Books I’m Reading:
Raising Loki: A Memoir by Elliot Manarin Rose Madder by Stephen King The Shining by Stephen King
Things I’m Listening To:
Christmas playlist
Things I’m Watching:
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery Single All the Way Is It Cake? Holiday series (finished) 9-1-1: Nashville series Ghosts (US) series Transplant series CSI: NY series Twelve Dates ’til Christmas series Holiday Baking Championship series Sweet Empire: Winter Wars series Great British Baking Show series
Poem of the Week:
So I stand before a row of sins as salty as the remains of Lot’s wife sprinkled on Eve’s first fruit. They snap and snarl and surround me with a crowd, but all I know how to do is surround them back in hungry arms, because they know not what they do or why they weep to be held.
This week has been chaotic, car-wise. My car radio hasn’t worked since October, when my car battery died and I had to have a new one put in. I didn’t know how to fix it, so I’ve been listening to iHeartRadio here and there, but mostly nothing. Car people told me how to put in the code to get the radio back. Damn, I’ve missed having music in the car when it turned on.
But I mainly brought the car in to get my headlights replaced. I drive four to five hours in the dark on working days, so it’s really important to have working headlights. They actually tried to get me to believe that my daytime running lights were the headlights and they were very convincing. If they hadn’t known about cars, the logic would have totally made sense. But they do know about cars, so I don’t know how they couldn’t see that the daytime running lights and the brights weren’t headlights.
Had to go to another service center, which I’m pretty sure overcharged (which is why I like my usual one), but now I have headlights, and it makes such a difference. I feel much better. I have pretty good night vision (mild astigmatism notwithstanding), but side street and neighborhood driving was way too dark, even for me.
Anyway, going to a service center is hard enough to do one time. Two really took it out of me.
News:
Char’s Horror Corner reviewedQuestion Not My Salt. They have the review on Goodreads and Amazon, too, but I’m just really excited that she took on the story of her own accord and that she enjoyed it.
Works in Progress:
As promised, I finished Never & Forever (Meridian Book 8) on Friday night, pushing through 5K words to hit 141,538 words total. I was exhausted and collapsed to bed afterward. Then I got myself some chocolate chocolate-chip muffins, because that was hard and I’m proud I accomplished it. I’ll be taking on my usual double edits in January, as soon as I finished a few other things.
Took some time off to work and rest and do my car things, then dove right into edits of In the Dollhouse We All Wait. I have my weaknesses that the editor pointed out, but otherwise, it’s been a pretty smooth edit. I’m trying to take care of my mental health while working on it, because I can take on the despair of my character, but so far, it’s been manageable.
I keep telling myself that, however bad I write something, what actual people do with state-sanctioned blessings are worse. That doesn’t make me feel better, but it gives me some perspective. Very depressing perspective. What these last ten years and especially this last year have shown us about the worst people with too much power…
I’m aiming for reaching halfway through edits today or tomorrow.
Books I’m Reading:
Raising Loki: A Memoir by Elliot Manarin Rose Madder by Stephen King The Shining by Stephen King
Things I’m Listening To:
Christmas playlist
Things I’m Watching:
Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) A Cinderella Christmas Christmas at the Catnip Cafe Is It Cake? Holiday series 9-1-1: Nashville series Ghosts (US) series CSI: NY series Holiday Baking Championship series Great British Baking Show series
Poem of the Week:
you will find me under the color-fading oak food for roots and food for thought a cautionary tale untold until uncovered but perhaps it is best i remain remains unspoken and forgotten except in whispers wondering what my ghost wants and that we let the tree thrive where i fell before the fall and rest undisturbed by the turning of leaves
I shared yesterday that I have another book being indie published, this time by Crystal Lake’s extreme horror imprint Torrid Waters, which published my last extreme horror novel, Question Not My Salt, too. In the Dollhouse We All Wait is full novel length around 90K words (QNMS is around 55K), and it is highly unpleasant. However, I devoted all my effort in this novel to unflinching horror, so if you can tolerate the trigger warnings, I hope you (don’t) enjoy yourselves. It should come out in 2026.
When I sign a contract for a long-form piece, I get cake. So I had an impromptu tea party with Erin last week, as you can see.
“Infiltration,” which is one of my favorite horror stories that I’ve written, came out on September 7 through the Sans. Press anthology Out There, about horror beyond boundaries. “Infiltration” is a beautiful seaside love story during a strange red tide. You can get the book in ebook, paperback, and hardback.
I received my final outstanding rejections for poems in A Nightmare for All Seasons. That means that, as soon as I finished my present WIP, I’ll finish out the seasonal horror poetry collection, just in time to enjoy the Halloween Parade. It’s pretty much done, just need to check the extra page matter and get a proof copy to make sure everything’s good.
Works in Progress:
The words sometimes flow better than other times, but I’m keeping up with my word count goals, other than on Monday when I was sick and headache-y. I was really worried I wasn’t going to be able to write it, but though I’m not in love with everything I’ve written so far, it’s a lot easier to fix words that are there versus not there, and I’m still happy with the story itself. Having trouble grounding characterization, but maybe it’ll get easier when I change my characters’ venue.
I’m presently at 17K words, with a general goal of 85K.
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:
Deadgirl Will Trent series (finished) Matlock series CSI series CSI: NY series Wear Whatever the F You Want series Halloween Baking Championship series Hoarders series The Rookie series
Poem of the Week:
i ruminate as i masticate crisp autumn leaves anticipating a harvest apple crunch but this cinnamon season often disappoints: a belly of decay and a throat on fire
My very extreme horror novel In the Dollhouse We All Wait has been picked up by Crystal Lake’s Torrid Waters imprint, for publication in 2026. They previously published my other extreme horror novel Question Not My Salt.
A little Criminal Minds meets The Island of Dr. Moreau, the new live-in nanny to a grown-up girl meets her mansion-filling doll collection–including ones that aren’t really dolls.
I didn’t set out to write extreme horror, but the stories lend themselves for that direction sometimes. In the Dollhouse isn’t particularly pleasant and is even more extreme than Question Not, but both QNMS and ITDWAW are frogs-in-boiling-water horror, which I can’t imagine in any way reflects the present state of the world /s. This is not for the squeamish. It is for those who like the darker side of an already dark genre.
If it’s not your thing, that’s okay! I have other works coming out in the next few years that you can enjoy, like Masque in 2027, which is far more mainstream.
(The doll is Erin, and she was mine when I was little. She’s presently enjoying second life with my niblings when they visit.)
Attended Texas Frightmare Weekend last weekend with a horror/writing friend and had a great time. I like the Irving Convention Center over the DFW Airport Hyatt, which we’d outgrown two years ago. The building is better set up for a pleasant ambient temperature and doesn’t have that humid feeling of a hotel. The subterranean element of the Hyatt did feel more horror-like, and the C Terminal parking was a horrifying maze, but the Irving Convention Center is generally a much more pleasant experience. We can make our own horror atmosphere.
Highlights were the Queens of Scream panel with Jordan Ladd, Jane Levy, Marley Shelton, Cerina Vincent, and Dee Wallace and the solo panels with personal favorites Kevin Durand and Doug Jones, who seemed like the most delightful people. You’re always afraid to meet the actors you like, out of fear they’ll disappoint you by being arrogant (although sometimes that’s delightful, too, like Malcolm McDowell) or dismissive of fans, but I’m regularly more relieved than not when we meet them. (Other highlights from previous years include Alice Krige and the soon late Julian Sands.)
As far as PitDark yesterday, which I’d been looking forward to and prepping for, I received a significant amount of support from followers, but it unfortunately yielded no fruit, which took the wind out of my sails for the rest of the evening and will probably last through today. From what I could tell, a lot of us got more interest from porn bots than agents or publishers. Might have been a slow month, might just not have been intriguing enough, or maybe the earlier effectiveness of the event has run its course post-Elon.
That means In the Dollhouse We All Wait doesn’t have a home, and I’m not sure where it can find one. There’s one sub call opening in August that might be open to extreme. We’ll see. I don’t like finished works just sitting there, doing nothing, but extreme is a difficult sell. Usually, the stuff that’s in it is also in the ‘we don’t want’ section of submission guidelines.
In real life news, we are battling paper wasps building nests under our porch roof. They’re classified as aggressive, but in my experience, they’re fairly unaggressive. They just have no fear. So they’ll fly right up to your face, and they sting like the dickens if provoked. Since I’ve been spending most mornings and milder days working on the porch, I have to share space with them and point out the nests so Dad can knock ’em down. Wasps are good garden insects, but when the niblings are out here, you don’t want so many wasps at the same time, and this is the time of year they’re most industrious, trying to establish a home. Wasps are good, but not right here.
As far as the leg injury, I think the secondary injuries have calmed down, but I still have to be careful. I’m on the elliptical machine again, lower resistance and less time than when I started six years ago, but it’s so nice having anything, and I seem to be doing okay, with some adjustment to my stance. However, the originally injured muscles are still weak and atrophied a year later, no matter what I do, so I suspect that’s just my life now. Even if I can’t up the resistance or do high-intensity interval training, I’ll work on endurance instead. I’m just glad to have some decent aerobic exercise happening. It makes my cardiovascular system much happier.
Works in Progress:
After completing the long and short pitches for In the Dollhouse, I started working on a short story that’s been knocking around my head and that I’m trying to do justice to. It’s kind of turning into a novelette, which is fine. At its length, it’s not going to fit the sub call I was writing it for anyway. Just for myself at this point. Next, I’ll be writing for another sub call, borrowing from my Thorns universe to try to make a standalone short story. Then I’ll tackle the pro edits of Crooked House (Thorns 5).
Books I’m Reading:
Killing Time by Russell C. Connor (finished) Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire (finished) 100% Match by Patrick C. Harrison III (finished) Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin (I love the movie and have wanted to read the book for a while now) The Tommyknockers by Stephen King (Hated it in my first reading, so I’m giving it another try)
Things I’m Listening To:
RAIGN Fifty Shades trilogy soundtracks (never read the books or watched the movies, love the soundtracks) Abyss/Ascent playlist YouTube ambient tracks
Things I’m Watching:
Pandemonium (Texas Frightmare) Basket Case (Texas Frightmare) Brain Tumor (Texas Frightmare) The Black Quarry (Texas Frightmare) The Equalizer The Equalizer 2 The Equalizer 3 Summer Baking Championship series Under the Banner of Heaven series CSI: Vegas series (finished) CSI: NY series American Idol series (finished) 9-1-1 series NCIS series (finished) NCIS: Hawai’i series (finished) Murder, She Wrote series
Poem of the Week:
i don’t even know what to be angry about, memories slipping away like ferrous sand, leech slime through my teeth the mucus of tears. is what i remember real or am i an amalgamation of traumas and joys only occurred in dreams?
My Crystal Lake Shallow Waters entry for this month’s Resurrection theme, “Second Chance,” has been posted on the Patreon. ($5/month, basically a themed anthology every month)
I’ll be wandering around Texas Frightmare in Dallas this weekend. I love it because I’m surrounded by a bunch of people who share my enthusiasms and aesthetic, but my introvert self has to brace for the muchness of everything.
Works in Progress:
I wanted to finish editing In the Dollhouse We All Wait before Texas Frightmare, and I did yesterday. Second round of edits went much faster, and I write synopses during second edits, so that’s done and dusted, too. I’m continuing to do really well in my first round of edits, which allows the second round to be swifter, strictly polish. All I have left is to put together the long and short pitches, but the manuscript itself is ready to sub. There aren’t a lot of markets for extreme horror, but maybe PitDark will find a place for it.
My other goal was to get it below the 90K-word max of a lot of small press sub calls. I cut it down from 116,160 words in the first draft to 88,636 at the end of the third draft. That seems like a lot to trim, but my usual novel word cut is about 20-25%, so it’s not too far off—a little more than average.
I have the Dollhouse pitches to write, and then I have two short stories I’d like to tackle. After that, I start on the professional edits for Crooked House. I’m still not sure if I can afford to pay for my series standard formatting, but we’ll see what June brings.
Books I’m Reading:
Killing Time by Russell C. Connor Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire
Things I’m Listening To:
RAIGN Joseph William Morgan The Silicone Veil by Susanne Sundfor Fumbling Towards Ecstasy by Sarah McLachlan Arcadia by Eurielle The Unknown by Sea Stars When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go by Billie Eilish YouTube ambient tracks Metal soundtracks
Things I’m Watching:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) The Taking of Deborah Logan The Meg 2: The Trench The Pope’s Exorcist CSI: Miami series CSI: NY series American Idol series 9-1-1 series Jeopardy Masters series Hometown series Murder, She Wrote series
Poem of the Week:
what have we here, hidden beneath branch and planted weed, obscured with brush and scattered seed? where have we come, unbidden, and where does this winding path lead? what kind of man conceals a bad deed, and when does a path turn forbidden?
Not a damn thing. Wondering if I need to reassess strategies, goals, hopes, dreams, or maybe just expectations. Been doing this for twenty years. That’s a long time to spin my wheels. I might just be tired.
Works in Progress:
If I continue at my current pace, I should finish the first round of In the Dollhouse We All Wait edits tomorrow evening. Editing is less emotionally draining than writing, because I’m more immersed in the story when I’m writing, mentally living it more and for longer periods of time (because of course I write slower than I read). However, the more extreme parts of this story are still a bit rough to get through while editing, although it affects me in less obvious ways.
I’m really not sure how this book will be received or what place it can hold in my oeuvre, but the point now is just getting it in fighting shape.
During the second round, I’ll write the synopsis. Then I’ll put together the pitch after. I’m not positive I’ll finish before Texas Frightmare, but I should finish before PitDark.
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:
The Gray Man The Judge Mr. Bates vs the Post Office series CSI: Miami series CSI: NY series NCIS series NCIS: Hawai’i series American Idol series Spring Baking Championship series (finished) Murder, She Wrote series
Poem of the Week:
give me gold gild in a baroque style a grand chandelier crystallizing rainbows and champagne flutes stroked to make the phantom weep
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 namein 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
My short story “Swallowed” was posted for this month’s Crystal Lake Shallow Waters flash fiction contest, themed Trick ‘r Treat. So if spooky season doesn’t last long enough for you, celebrate an extended Halloween all through November with this month’s stories. ($5 tier and up)
Under Her Eye: A Woman in Poetry Showcase Vol II came out this week. Under Her Eye is a charity anthology of domestic horror poetry. A portion of the sales goes to an international organization to end violence against women. I don’t sell a ton of poetry (it’s a really difficult market), but I’m honored to have my poem “A Woman Possessed” as a part of this anthology.
I also received news that Dear Human at the Edge of Time, a collection of poems about climate change, received the 2023 Best Book Award in the Poetry Anthology category. My poem “Displaced” was a part of this one.
Sad news to report, though. Quill & Crow Publishing’s gothic horror magazine The Crow’s Quill is ending after December. They really helped give me my start with shorter pieces, so it’s disappointing that they’re closing. The zines should remain available for at least another year for 2022 issues and two years for 2023 issues, and they’re free to read.
In more sad news, that portfolio of some of the best poems I’ve written didn’t get taken up, but I did get a personalized note on one them, so that was decent. I had to sit in my unhappiness for a while and wrote another poem to feel better.
On the leg injury front, I continue to have improvement by following all my exercises, and I can tell the lower part of my lower leg is stronger than the last time I reached this point in my healing, but I’m still struggling with my gait while barefoot. I’m a hair away from normal, though, when I’m wearing shoes. I have new exercises to do, and I’ve been cleared to use the elliptical machine again for up to fifteen minutes every other day, which I’m super excited about.
My PT always exclaims how hyperflexible my feet are when I go up on my toes, unusually so, like ballerina feet, and he asks me if I’m hyperflexible everywhere else. I have some double-jointed fingers, but no. I’m just ridiculously elated that I’m flexible in at least one area of my body. Going the other way, flexing my toes back toward my knees, the foot on my injured leg only reaches half as far as my left, but it’s an improvement. It didn’t used to bend past ninety degrees at all.
Works in Progress:
I finished In the Dollhouse We All Wait on November 5, total word count of 116,160 words. It was significantly longer than anticipated, given that I’d forecast about 70-80K words. I’ll have to cut it down significantly, I think—at least under 90K if I want to try to send it off to places that accept extreme horror. But as I opined last time, I’m not sure how I feel about this story and how ugly it is in a very specific way. I accomplished certain things that I set out to do, among which was writing an absolutely awful woman villain, because we need more of them. Even so, I’m not sure what place this story has. However, sometimes writing something hits as more extreme than the reading of it, because I’m more immersed in the world rather than with a barrier of a page. In any case, I’m shelving it for a while to get other writing projects done, like I usually do with projects to get some perspective for edits.
The next day, I immediately turned around and started Lost & Alone, intending it to be the sixth book in the Meridian series under my other name, but I’d already anticipated that it might end up too short for the series. It would need to be at least above 70K after edits, during which I usually make significant cuts to the word count, and I’m not sure it’s even going to cross 60K here. If that’s the case, I’ll reconfigure it as a standalone novella. It’s the least Meridian-y of the Meridian novels, since it’s a prequel set well before Meridian becomes a bustling urban center. Like, oh no, I have a stray novella to sell…say it ain’t so.
It does mean that I’ll probably have to add another Meridian novel to my writing line-up this year as I wrap up my writing sabbatical, which is not ideal. Really wish I had another year to work on the long things on my docket, but I just don’t know how. I’m also dreading heading back into the general workforce. Despite ample evidence to the contrary, I tend to not feel like a competent and capable human being, so I’m worried I’m going to screw things up, on multiple levels.
As far as general NaNoWriMo word counts go, I’m at 48K and heading for crossing the 50K line today after finishing this post, which puts me on schedule with a little cushion, if needed.
Books I’m Reading:
IT by Stephen King Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire The First Five Minutes of the Apocalypse edited by Brandon Applegate This World Belongs to Us edited by Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
Music I’m Listening To:
Nocturne playlist Taylor Swift Joanne by Lady Gaga Jordin Sparks debut Kerosene by Miranda Lambert Kill the One You Love by GEMS Kill the Sun by Xandria Laced/Unlaced by Emilie Autumn Princess Pepper playlists on YT Don’t Panic! playlists on YT My Witchy Diary playlists on YT
Things I’m Watching:
Exorcist: The Beginning Alien vs. Predator Blade Blade II Blade: Trinity Halloween Wars series (completed) Halloween Cookie Challenge series (completed) Halloween Baking Championships series (completed) Outrageous Pumpkins series (completed) Great British Baking Show series Buffy the Vampire Slayer series Scream Queens series Kitchen Nightmares series Good Bones series Hoarders series Helix series NCIS series
Poem of the Week:
sometimes i see her the daughter that never will be sometimes i argue with her despair of what a bad mother i am sometimes i hold her in my arms after reading a book to her that i always wanted to share sometimes i want space from her but then i remember that she never was and never will be and i’m sad i’ll never know her she’ll always just be a voice a baby a child a teenager an adult that could have been
The Book of Queer Saints Volume II is officially out, as of Halloween. “Caregiver” is getting some great shout-outs in the reviews so far.
The release party was the day before, and because one of the readers wasn’t able to join us, I stepped in as alternate to do my first full reading, which was really exciting and a bit nerve-wracking, but it reminded me a lot of doing monologues back in theater, and I love reading stories out loud in general. It’s an intense, seething story, but the other four readers had funny stories full of delightful slash and splatter, so I didn’t bring down the mood too much. It was wonderful to see everyone and was surprisingly social, so I was exhausted afterward, but in a good way.
In addition, Dragon’s Roost Press released the table of contents for The Pleasure in Pain: A Queer Horrotica Anthology, edited by Roxie Voorhees, which has my story “Graphite,” about a transient graffiti artist and illustrator adding her work to an urban legend legacy. It will be coming out, rather appropriately, on February 13, 2024. I love that erotic horror is having another moment. Sex and death have often been paired in the genre, but there’s a difference between erotic horror and just sex in horror. There’s been an abundance of the latter and not a lot of the former since Clive Barker and Poppy Z. Brite. But now we have many emergent voices merging horror with sex. More sexy body horror, please! There’s a reason I write erotic horror romance under my other name. (Different monster than erotic horror, but it’s in the same family if you do it right.)
Works in Progress:
We’re in National Novel Writing Month 2023! I don’t limit myself to one work during NaNo. I combine all word counts of however many long projects I’m working on. In this case, I didn’t finished In the Dollhouse We All Wait by the end of October, which makes me sad, because I didn’t get a reading break. It’s ended up about 30K words more than predicted, which means I don’t really know what I’m going to do with it. I still haven’t finished at over 100K words. To be fair, I hadn’t figured out how to properly end it until the literal eleventh hour last night, right when I had to make that decision. So now, at least I have a direction to write.
After Dollhouse, I have two novels intended for my other name, because erotic horror romance flows really well and suits the word count needs of NaNo. Ideally, I’d finish one (that might end up a novella and reconfigured for this name’s use) and get a lot done on the other, if not all. My goal word count is 150K words, which is 5K words a day. It’s already beginning to wear on me, because I started at that daily word count for Dollhouse, but my brain, while tired, also feels kind of good with it.
We’ll see if I can manage this pace all through November and possibly December, because unless I win some kind of lottery, my working sabbatical runs out at the end of the year. Ideally, I’d have another year to work on long projects, since this year has been all about short works, but I don’t have the finances to support that, and the writing world is glutted with crowdfunding, so without something concrete to offer, that’s not an option.
Books I’m Reading:
IT by Stephen King Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire The First Five Minutes of the Apocalypse edited by Brandon Applegate This World Belongs to Us edited by Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
Music I’m Listening To:
Halloween playlist Nocturne playlist
Things I’m Watching:
Sleepy Hollow Goosebumps: The Haunted Mask Hocus Pocus Trick ‘r Treat Deliver Us From Evil Goosebumps (2015) Halloween Wars series Halloween Cookie Challenge series Halloween Baking Championships series Outrageous Pumpkins series Buffy the Vampire Slayer series Scream Queens series Kitchen Nightmares series Good Bones series Helix series
Poem of the Week:
slaughter whole lines of words fell trees to populate your lies, but screams and cries and tumbling roof and walls, burning smoke choking and stripping to raw nerve are a greater testimony than your desperate diplomatic spin. More than that, the more careful calls from inside the house, and the voices abruptly silenced.
Amanda M. Blake 