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Amanda M. Blake

~ Of fairy tales and tentacles

Amanda M. Blake

Tag Archives: mystical listicles

For what it’s worth: Friday Update

25 Friday Jul 2025

Posted by amandamblake in A Few Thoughts, Novels, Poetry, Series

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Tags

crystal lake shallow waters flash fiction, gathered here today, graveside press, meridian, mystical listicles, poem, sins of the asylum

Photo by Elle Hughes on Pexels.com

News:

“Sins of the Asylum,” a deeply gothic lyric poem, appeared in Gathered Here Today from Graveside Press, an open casket anthology of poetry and illustrations. You can get it cheaper direct from the press.

All seventeen Mystical Listicles stories have been posted at Crystal Lake’s Patreon, and voting is open to $5/month tiers and above for another 20 hours or so. I think the theme was a big hit this month—in part because it was about form rather than content and lent itself to a greater variety in subject—and I reiterate how much fun I had putting together the finalists. I would love to do it again.

Works in Progress:

I finished Tooth & Claw (Meridian Book 7) edits and sent them to my publisher. I should receive the proofreading edits next week. In the meantime, I’m tackling some short stories before the end of the month, some of them for calls and some of them just for the heck of it. I might even do that creative nonfiction piece I want to write about Mary Reilly, too. As soon as T&C(M7) is completely finished, I’m really nervous about doing Never & Forever (M8) because my attention span is still kind of shot, but I guess I’ll just take it a day at a time.

Books I’m Reading:

The Fisherman by John Langan
Raising Loki: A Memoir by Elliot Manarin
Texas Bigfoot by Lyle Blackburn

Things I’m Listening To:

Hannibal soundtracks
Fourth of July playlist
Emilie Autumn

Things I’m Watching:

The Amateur
Con Air
Found series
CSI series
9-1-1 series
The Amazing Race series
Say Yes to the Dress: Tan France series
America’s Got Talent series
Brooklyn Nine-Nine series

Poem of the Week:

flowers someone else leaves
makes for a charming host
but i would never leave you
i miss you the most
i feast on your grave
raise a livelier toast
your headstone a pillow
i sleep with your ghost


Pendulum falls: Friday Update

04 Friday Jul 2025

Posted by amandamblake in A Few Thoughts, Novelettes/Novellas, Writing

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Tags

crystal lake shallow waters flash fiction, editing, may cooler heads prevail, meridian, mystical listicles, poem

Photo by Lokman Sevim on Pexels.com

News:

The Mystical Listicles have begun! 17 horror flash fiction pieces will be posted to the Crystal Lake Patreon this month, for $5/month tiers and up to read and vote on. The titles alone made me happy, but I had a really good time reading these submissions, and I would absolutely do this again. It’s on my bucket list to edit an anthology.

Tattered & Torn (Meridian Book 6), under my other name, is out now! A fallen angel with empath abilities and a pair of police detectives who handle the more mysterious cases in Meridian join up when the angel falls and children start going feral on the city streets.

Works in Progress:

Working on May Cooler Heads Prevail continues apace. Wednesday helped me leap forward a bit, and I’m on holiday today and tomorrow, albeit with family at home, so I might get some more work done on it. There’s no rush. Based on my calculations, I’ll need about another three months to meet an editing budget. Making not much money isn’t fun, but I suppose it’s better than not making any.

Books I’m Reading:

The Fisherman by John Langan
Raising Loki: A Memoir by Elliot Manarin
Haunted Plano, Texas by Mary Jacobs (finished)
Texas Bigfoot by Lyle Blackburn

Things I’m Listening To:

The Blacklist playlist
The Ring/The Ring 2 soundtrack
Hannibal soundtracks
The Silent Force by Within Temptation
Songbird by Eva Cassidy

Things I’m Watching:

Red Lights
Dracula Reborn (Tubi, not good, but had to try)
Predator
Hamilton
CSI: NY series
CSI series
Doctor Odyssey series
America’s Got Talent series
Home Town series
Home Town Takeover series
Brooklyn Nine-Nine series

Poem of the Week:

the subsistence of memory
a bright point of remembrance
in a pitch-black sea of forgotten
and psychedelic colors of fabrication
of what are we made? what happened
or the hand-stitched scrap quilt
we cobbled together of prisms
black holes and singularities?

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