July 2024: Busy Recharging!
What I’m Working On
I have been playing a weird waiting game where it’s been too far from the release date for As Those Above Fall (September 13) to do a lot of publicity. So I’ve been working on the manuscript for The Jehovah Project. Not quite ready to reveal the plot of this one yet, but soon! My goal is to work on a chapter a week until it’s done. But it’s massive: ATAF came in at 83,000 words and TJP is 120,000! That’s like, half a book longer!
AND it is now time to switch into high gear publicizing ATAF! I am sending press releases to independent bookstores - especially ones specializing in horror - podcasts, and horror influencers, as well as The Horror Writer’s Association and other places that have newsletters about upcoming books. So expect a lot more appearances and announcements about that soon!
More exciting news: my short piece “Five Years Later” is featured on THIRT33N podcast and can now be listened to for free! And it’s wonderful - I cried listening to how perfect it is. Funny side note: the Adrian character is loosely based on a friend. The story makes no reference to an accent for that character, but the friend in question has a Southern accent. And the podcast gave her a Southern accent! Wild. Content includes frank discussion of embalming and decay. And it’s tearjerker - have your tissues ready!
This month has also included some rest and recharging: my partner and I rode our motorcycles 2,780 miles/4,473 kilometers through two countries, five states, and two provinces! I got a lot of plot points for the current manuscript worked out as we rode over mountain passes, across prairie, through the Rockies, and past forests. What a great way to rest and recharge! Follow all my adventures on Instagram at EclecticAcademic.
What I’m Reading
I finished Sparrow in a Tin Can by C.K. Turner, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. I met C.K. at StokerCon in June - he is also published by Winding Road Stories, my publisher. And he is a wonderful, delightful person!
Aaaannndd…this is the most beautiful book I have read in a long time. It has a fascinating premise: “Pastor Phillips burns his own church to the ground, and the small town of January, Vermont, will never be the same. Because unbeknownst to anyone, even himself, Pastor Phillips kick-starts The Rapture. Soon, Heaven’s little train will roll into town to pick up the good and leave the bad behind. But Heaven, same as any bureaucracy, is subject to the occasional clerical error, and two boys get left behind—with the bad growing badder by the hour! Because it turns out that a church is a holding facility for sin. A junkyard of people’s worst parts. Dropped off Sunday mornings for the better part of 200 years, it has become a celestial biohazard. A busted landfill. Cracked and leaking into town. Making men sick.”
It’s lyrical, poetic, and literary. It’s also chock full of religious imagery, which I love. (I have a Ph.D. in Religious Studies.) However, it’s not for everyone: if you prefer prose that is conversational vernacular, this one probably isn’t for you. C.K. is also a poet and that shines from every line in this book. I absolutely love it and will reread it several times.
I also briefly met Christa Carmen at StokerCon, and her book won a Stoker in the best new novel category! It’s gothic horror that also pays delightful homage to the genre in clever ways. (It’s worth reading the note at the end about how she does this.)
Gothic horror isn’t my jam, and so I’m sure I missed some references because I haven’t read widely in that sub-genre. If you like gothic (Shirley Jackson, Algernon Blackwood, etc.) this one is sure to please!
Up next: The Z Word by Lindsey King-Miller! And my TBR is OUT of CONTROL. Here are just a handful of titles I’m planning to read soon:
Angel of Indian Lake - Stephen Graham Jones
No Gods for Drowning - Hailey Piper
Baby Teeth - Zoje Stage
The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead
So much to read!
What I’m Watching
Honestly, I haven’t been watching a lot! Too busy. It’s easy to fit in a few pages between other obligations, tasks, and events. More difficult to watch a movie or show in a few spare moments here and there!
I did manage the first several episodes of The Boys, season four. While Homelander remains one of the most terrifying villains of all time, this season didn’t grab me like the last ones - it feels a bit like more of the same. But don’t get me wrong: I’m still enjoying it!
What have YOU watched lately that you’d recommend? Doesn't have to be horror. Leave me a comment!
Cute Kitties
You made it to the end! Or did you just scroll down to the cute kitties? I’m onto your tricks!