Tag Archives: quill & crow

The horrors persist, but so do I: Friday Update

11 Friday Jul 2025

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

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Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

News:

So I shared yesterday that Masque has been acquired by Quill & Crow Publishing House, which is the most amazing news that I’ve been sitting on (for only a few days, fortunately). I’ve published with them before: poems in their Crow Call anthologies, short stories in their zine and anthologies. It’s been a hope of mine to get a novella or novel on their backlist. I didn’t write Masque for them, but I thought while I was writing it that it would be perfect for their particular brand, and I wanted it ready for the next time they opened submissions.

I’m really excited for what the future holds for the final manuscript, but we’ll have to be patient. It’s slated for publication in 2027, with the final draft completed by this time next year. My experience with Q&C editors has been excellent thus far; I’m looking forward to rigorous edits. I’ll keep you abreast of what’s going on as it develops.

Works in Progress:

I finished the fix and final edits on May Cooler Heads Prevail, so it’s ready for when I can build up enough savings for a professional edit (I’m already on her schedule for October). I’m simply incapable of determining what genre it is, which makes it very difficult to figure out where to try submitting it. But it’s a fun, relevant little novella, and I wanted something to drop before the end of the year. I already have a delightful cover for it from Don Noble of Rooster Republic Press.

I’m waiting on an acceptance or rejection of poems presently in A Nightmare for All Seasons, so it’s nice to have something more definite on the docket. And I’m still trying to figure out if I want to try to find my Dracula reimagining a home or self-publish. I’m also mulling over a short Halloween collection of short stories and a psychosexual gothic collection of novellas/novelettes that are too horror-y for my spicy name but too spicy for horror presses (it’s my curse), but that may be for next year.

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:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Score album
Songs from the Valley by Sandra McCracken
Storybook by Linda Eder
The Strange Case of… by Halestorm
Suicide Squad album
Svrcina by Svrcina

Things I’m Watching:

The Quiet Place: Day One
Copycat
Red Notice
The Last Witch Hunter
Van Helsing
CSI: NY series
Doctor Odyssey series (finished)
WandaVision series
9-1-1 series
Found series
Say Yes to the Dress: Tan France series
Say Yes to the Dress series (finished)
America’s Got Talent series
Brooklyn Nine-Nine series

Poem of the Week:

the parlor room stinks, stuffy and close.
the family lies in the living room
where blood dries tacky on the upholstery
and television blares reflections onto
wide unfocused eyes. have you heard
of the troubles? do they haunt you?

Introducing…

10 Thursday Jul 2025

Posted by in Novels

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I’m incredibly thrilled to return to the Q&C fold, this time with my beautifully lush novel Masque—a bucket list story, with influences from historical romance, gothic fiction, noir, slashers, and body horror, and I can’t believe it’s going out into the world in 2027.

And, like Drift, it’s probably one of my more mainstream stories as well, accessible to a wider audience without as worrying of a warning before reading. I can’t wait for you to read it, but we’re both going to have to be patient.

Fiddling: Friday Update

19 Friday Jul 2024

Posted by in A Few Thoughts, Novels, Series, Thorns

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News:

She’s a saint. He is sin. Under my other name, Avarice & Creed is available for pre-order! There was a prompt somewhere at some point suggesting a subversion of Hallmark Christmas movie tropes by having a sweet young woman teach a cruel demon CEO the meaning of Christmas. In this case, we have a ‘virgin sacrifice’ of forced marriage to a billionaire avarice demon. I love all my stories for all sorts of different reasons, but I’ve noticed that my green-cover novels linger with particular fondness in my mind. (See also, Skeletons (Arcanium Book 9), which received less love than I have for it.)

My violent spring poem “Vernal” is featured in Renascentum, Quill & Crow’s Crow Calls Volume VI, which you can buy here.

“Snot,” my sea horror flash fiction, should post tomorrow at the Crystal Lake Patreon for the Shallow Waters flash fiction contest.

Works in Progress:

I’m a little less than halfway through the professional edits of Crooked House (Thorns 5). I’m still enjoying little special surprises I forgot I wrote. Period cramps hit yesterday, so I’ve been struggling, but I should be back to form tomorrow.

Books 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:

Agnes Obel
Lily Kershaw
Abyss/Ascent playlist

Things I’m Watching:

The Ruins
NCIS series
So Help Me Todd series
Kitchen Nightmares series
Hoarders series
The Amazing Race series (finished)
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:

i will rise from the pandemonium
you cast me into as though the chaos
of angels singing is not cacophony
our wings the mechanism of angelic demise
if we cannot bear flight or halo in our own name
then we will rise on cloven hooves
and balance wreaths on our horns
we will ascend anew and walk our way
not to paradise but a garden of earthly delights

A string of requiems: Friday Update

21 Friday Jun 2024

Posted by in A Few Thoughts, Novels, Poetry, Writing

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Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Pexels.com

News:

Last year, I wrote one of my favorite long poems about the beauty, passions, and sorrows of the crone, set in a near-future fantasy world where feminine power is celebrated. It took a while, but “All of Us Witches” and its wonderfully me parentheticals found a home with Small Wonders Magazine. You can read it for free at the link.

The Table of Contents for Renascent: Crow Calls VI from Quill & Crow Publishing was revealed this week, too, and my poem “Vernal,” a sestina about a vicious spring, will be included in the anthology coming out July 15.

Works in Progress:

Last week was a mixed bag. Did a day trip for my nephew’s birthday party, which meant good writing both ways. I experience car sickness, but writing isn’t like reading because I’m not focused so much on the words I see, so car trips are good writing times, at least. However, I discovered on this trip that what I thought were allergies or a cold was actually the flu when a fever and accompanying headache hit. The next day, my brain couldn’t brain while it continued fighting the fever, so there was no writing of any kind. I started feeling better about Tuesday. I’m still recovering but nowhere near as mucosal, thank goodness, because I’m so annoying when I blow my nose. I’ve managed to get some good word counts in, despite dealing with the ambush of fatigue. However, as I type, my period’s starting, which isn’t going to help, either. I should be at about 90-95K words, but I’m at 87K, which still isn’t too shabby, all things considered. (I promise I’m resting.)

As things are, I’m not sure I will be able to finish writing Masque in time to do two rounds of edits before the end of the month, but I’m still going to try. As I’ve reached the last act, I’ve had to alter my outline, so the ending looks different than it did and is actually sooner than I thought it would be. It’s doable to finish in the next three days, I think, although to make the end of the month deadline, I’d need to be finished writing today, alas. I’ve accomplished a lot in the month so far, but naturally, all I can see is how I likely won’t meet my goal. Also won’t be able to write that short story I wanted to do for a deadline on the 23rd, but that’s okay.

Books I’m Reading:

Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin
The Tommyknockers by Stephen King

Things I’m Listening To:

Delain
Nightwish
Bach’s Requiem Mass
Mozart’s Requiem Mass
Baroque and other classical music playlists
Paganini vs Vivaldi

Things I’m Watching:

Volcano
Mirrors
Cabin Fever: Patient Zero
Under the Banner of Heaven series (finished)
Maryland series (finished)
Will Trent series (finished)
Kitchen Nightmares series
Summer Baking Championship series
The Amazing Race series
America’s Got Talent series
Abbott Elementary series
CSI: Miami series
CSI: NY series
Supernatural series
Murder, She Wrote series

Poem of the Week:

these bizarre incidents have no explanation
officials say
citizens are urged to stay indoors after dark
and lock doors
close curtains and avoid looking at lights
in the sky
and should someone knock on your locked doors
do not open or
ask who’s there

This is the end: Friday Update

01 Friday Dec 2023

Posted by in A Few Thoughts, Novels, Series, Short Stories, Writing

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News:

It’s the last issue of The Crow’s Quill, which I’m so disappointed about, but I’m honored to help close out this gothic zine with my weird apocalyptic slice-of-life story “The Sisters of Our Perpetual Wounds.” As always, it’s free to read. Usher in the end with us.

In addition, my climate horror story “The Behavioral Patterns of the Displaced Siberian Siren” comes out today with the highly anticipated Dead Letters: Episodes of Epistolary Horror from Crystal Lake Entertainment, edited by Jacob Steven Bohr. We had a beautiful review from Vogue Horror in which my story was given an amazing call-out. I made a funny sound when I read it.

Works in Progress:

I finished NaNo2023 by reaching my 150K-word goal exactly. Like, I finished the sentence and hit the mark around eleven last night. Then I finished the final edit of Avarice & Creed (Meridian 4), because I’ve been doing double-duty writing and editing again this last week. I am exhausted, my sleep schedule and tea schedule are off, but NaNoWriMo is over, I’ve written 150K words, and A&C is finished, so I can relax a bit. I’ll still be aiming for 5K a day when I’m writing, but I no longer have to do both.

Over the course of November, I finished the last 28K or so words of extreme horror novel In the Dollhouse We All Wait, wrote the entirety of erotic horror novella A Woman Alone, wrote a short story that I edited down to flash fiction, then wrote about three-fourths of erotic urban fantasy romance novel Tattered & Torn (Meridian 6) (order may end up changing). That was the aim for this month, to get a big chunk of work done. I plan to get another big chunk of work done this month as well, with a little grace. My hope is to finish Tattered & Torn, write about two to three short stories for calls, then write the next Meridian novel (I haven’t decided which yet). If I have time, I have some novelettes or long short stories that I want to write.

Then I’m just not sure what next year is going to look like. Unless someone leaves me a mysterious inheritance of a vast sum of money and a haunted estate, I’ll have to figure out something.

In the meantime, I received the first round of edits for Question Not My Salt, which is really exciting. Kenneth E. Cain and I have finalized the cover and everything, so I have at least one thing to be excited about in 2024. I can take a short break from writing while I apply myself to these edits, then dive back in until the next round.

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
The First Five Minutes of the Apocalypse edited by Brandon Applegate (finished)
This World Belongs to Us edited by Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire

Music I’m Listening To:

Christmas playlist, of course. I have a vast and incredibly varied playlist full of old, new, traditional, original, all different shades of genre, which I think is the key to enjoying Christmas music. I think most people are sick of Christmas music because the same forty songs by the same people are played ad nauseum. You get a little more variety on Christian stations, but otherwise, no wonder some people dread the holidays.

Things I’m Watching:

A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish
Holiday Baking Championship series
Holiday Wars series
Celebrity Jeopardy series
Irrational series (caught up)
Queer Eye series (finished)
Great British Baking Show series
Kitchen Nightmares series
Hoarders series
NCIS series
CSI series
Dancing with the Stars series
The Mentalist series

Poem of the Week:

feelings turn
colors after
a trauma

waiting for
the mind to
reabsorb
and pressing
on the bruise

“The Warmth of Many Skins”

17 Tuesday Jan 2023

Posted by in Short Stories

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My winter gothic tale “The Warmth of Many Skins,” LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD x HUSH, is loose upon the world in the second volume of BLEAK MIDWINTER, SOLSTICE LIGHT, from Quill & Crow. It appears to be doing well in some early reviews. I’m blushing.