Amanda M. Blake's Blog, page 3
August 1, 2025
It’s too hot for theft: Friday Update
The title reference is that someone took items out of my cart and stole it, along with 2/3 of a large iced chai latte on the hottest day yet. I had a meltdown in the middle of Market Street. I realized how ridiculous it was while it was happening, but usually by that point, it’s too late to stop and most often an accumulation of grievances that goes beyond the instigating event. So I’m tired today, but I feel better. (I did buy another iced chai latte, but I wasn’t happy about it.)
News:
Nothing to share this week.
Works in Progress:
I wrote, edited, and submitted two short stories, and now I think I’m going to take a short break until I get the proofread of Tooth & Claw (Meridian Book 7). I have books I want to finish and a tired brain. I’ve still been submitting in the background, but you just never know what’s going to stick.
I also made an e-book cover for a story that I have trouble categorizing. I’m not even sure if it’s more representative of this name or my other name, although I wrote it for this one. It’s pretty cool that I made a cover, though. It’ll be ready when I figure out what to do with the story.
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:
Fourth of July playlist
Under My Skin by Avril Lavigne
Things I’m Watching:
Found series
CSI series
9-1-1 series
The Amazing Race series (finished)
Say Yes to the Dress: Tan France series
America’s Got Talent series
Brooklyn Nine-Nine series (finished)
Poem of the Week:
the trees are tired
yet still majestic despite
the abject failure of
heedless curators
whose denial is their
greatest betrayal
to themselves and those
they are charged to serve
if we must use the ax
we must also bear the spade
July 25, 2025
For what it’s worth: Friday Update
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
July 18, 2025
Sweating bullets: Friday Update
Seriously. So hot. Humid. No breeze.
News:
No news this week.
Works in Progress:
I took on the “Glory to God” edits for A Coup of Owls and turned it back in. Still so pleased with that grimy little story.
My publisher got the edits for Tooth & Claw (Meridian Book 7) back to me faster than anticipated, so I’m working on that now. I hope to be three-fourths finished by the end of the day. I have a few extra days off of work, today and Monday, so I should be able to finish by the end of Monday. I’ll probably work on some short stories while I’m waiting for the final proofreading edit to come back. Then I’ll start writing the last Meridian novel, Never & Forever (Meridian Book 8). We’ll see if I’m capable of writing something long again.
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
Hannibal TV show soundtracks
Synthesis by Evanescence
Taking Chances by Celine Dion
Things I’m Watching:
Predator 2
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
CSI: NY 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:
futility is concrete
blocks on my feet
looking for a lake
shuffling along
spark-ridden tarmac
burning skin with rubber
such a long way
left to go
till the water
swallows the heaviness
to steam
July 11, 2025
The horrors persist, but so do I: Friday Update
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?
July 10, 2025
Introducing…
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.
July 4, 2025
Pendulum falls: Friday Update
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?
June 27, 2025
Like ants in a hill-fire: Friday Update
News:
My plague poem “Sacrificial” came out in The Cleansing Power of Fire from Infested Publishing on June 21.
“From Black Clouds” comes out today in Kosmos Obscura from Graveside Press. If you buy it directly from Graveside, it’s $1 cheaper, so if you have a yen for some cosmic horror, head here. Storm horror is my jam. It haunts my dreams, so it haunts my fiction.
We’re nearing the end of the opportunity to submit for next month’s Shallow Waters contest, under theme Mystical Listicles, with yours truly selecting the finalists. The sub call ends at the close of June 30.
Works in Progress:
I finally finished editing Tooth & Claw (Meridian Book 7), worked up the synopsis, and sent it in, but I’m kind of ashamed that I kept missing important emails from my publishers while I was struggling to get things done the last two months. I check that email regularly for a few weeks at a time, then stop for a while, and naturally, that’s when the emails were sent. So embarrassing and unprofessional of me—a tragedy of errors. I swear I’m not ignoring emails on purpose.
I’m supposed to work on May Cooler Heads Prevail next, which is a harder and harder story to handle as cooler heads continue to not prevail and actions continue to not have consequences. I can’t deal with this world at all. I don’t know how to function when things don’t at least sometimes work as they should. Maybe Cooler Heads will end up autobiographical if things keep making my brain short out.
Books I’m Reading:
The Fisherman by John Langan
Raising Loki: A Memoir by Elliot Manarin
Haunted Plano, Texas by Mary Jacobs
Things I’m Listening To:
The Blacklist playlist
Reputation by Taylor Swift
The Shadow Theory by Kamelot
Showtime, Storytime by Nightwish
Things I’m Watching:
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Jurassic World: Dominion
Nefarious
28 Weeks Later
Trainwreck: Poop Cruise
Ocean’s Thirteen
CSI: NY series
Doctor Odyssey series
America’s Got Talent series
Home Town series
Home Town Takeover series
Abbott Elementary series (finished)
Poem of the Week:
smoke on the horizon like clouds pluming to the atmosphere
into anvils with black underbellies with static electricity
smoke on the wind without the benefit of hickory breathe
in the poison particles piercing filters and penetrating cilia
smoke on my mind with a fire in the sky and poison in my blood
scattering in the cells like atmospheric ice released in rain
Brooklyn Nine-Nine series
June 20, 2025
Breathe: Friday Update
News:
My steamy little horror flash fiction, “Origami,” posted on the Crystal Lake Patreon for this month’s Shallow Waters theme of Satanic Panic. ($5/month tier and up)
Works in Progress:
I feel like I’ve been working on Tooth & Claw (Meridian Book 7) forever, but I’m close to the end. I think I’m just tired. Once it’s done, I’ll probably write a few short stories before hitting May Cooler Heads Prevail, hopefully to prepare for self-publishing. I have a few short pieces I might put together as well, to hold until I can afford something more substantial.
I’m still waiting on an acceptance/rejection for some poetry before publishing A Nightmare for All Seasons. Sigh.
Books I’m Reading:
The Fisherman by John Langan
Raising Loki: A Memoir by Elliot Manarin
Haunted Plano, Texas by Mary Jacobs
Things I’m Listening To:
Silent Hill playlist
The Blacklist playlist
Reputation by Taylor Swift
Things I’m Watching:
Smile
Jurassic World
Jeopardy Masters series (finished)
CSI: NY series
Brooklyn Nine-Nine series
The Equalizer series (finished)
Poem of the Week :
that thing in the field was once a tree
in a field of green it is surrounded by gray
darkening to the black of obsidian glass
where lightning has charred it a hundredfold strikes
into a stub of gnarled bark and twisted rings
above the tangle of roots as though it tried
to climb from underground to escape
and curls there now like the memories of corpses
in the excavated ashes of Pompeii
June 13, 2025
Storms to summer: Friday Update
News:
In personal news, I finally got my car A/C fixed. It’s been years, but for the sabbatical year and the unemployment year, I could just drive when my A/C wasn’t struggling so hard or I didn’t drive at all. I put it off for as long as I could to try to amass some savings to cover it, but starting pretty much today, we’re moving from storm season to summer. Last Sunday, I tried to get ahead of the derecho hitting the NTX area, but I failed and ended up delivering in nearly opaque rain conditions at night. Which was fun. In a totally not fun way. Now we’re heading into ‘sweat just by existing outside’ weather, so I’m super glad my air conditioner is no longer just blowing slightly less hot air when the sun is shining on my car hood. Expensive, but damn, worth it. I also got to read a big chunk of The Fisherman while I was waiting all morning.
If you’d like to help me cover the cost of car repairs from the last few months, I wouldn’t say no to buying your author a Ko-fi or buying one of your author’s books. There have been a lot of expenses lately and not quite enough income. It’ll start equalizing soon (I hope), but I wouldn’t refuse a little help. I’ll start posting poetry here again, so think of it as tossing a penny to your poet, if you can spare.
In writing news, I forgot to share the submission call for this month’s Shallow Waters flash fiction (<1500 words) theme at the Crystal Lake Patreon last week. It’s Mystical Listicles! Usually the theme is content-based, but I felt like shaking things up with a form-based theme, to see what people bring me. For full sub info, click here, but here’s the gist:
“This is something I sometimes saw during my fanfiction days. It seems like a perfect structure for flash fiction, and I’d like to see what horror can bring to the form. These can be top ten fave or least fave lists, twenty interesting facts, fifteen things to do or not do at a location, instructions, grocery lists…whatever checks your boxes and terrifies. They can be utterly random, subtly narrative, or a story in beats (and they don’t necessarily have to be supernatural, I just like the rhyme).”
You don’t have to be a member of the Patreon to submit, become a finalist, or even win. You do have to be in a $5/month tier or higher to read other finalists and vote.
Works in Progress:
I’ve been editing short pieces that have been sent back to me from publishers, and I got Tooth & Claw (Meridian Book 7) problems fixed then a chunk of it edited over the weekend, but since then it’s been slow going (not least because I spent all Tuesday morning at the car place). A lot of real life things and real world things getting in the way. However, I’m happy with where the novel is right now, and if I can concentrate for longer than five minutes, maybe I can polish it properly.
Books I’m Reading:
The Fisherman by John Langan
Playlist of the Damned edited by Willow Dawn Becker and Jess Landry (finished)
Raising Loki: A Memoir by Elliot Manarin
Haunted Plano, Texas by Mary Jacobs
Things I’m Listening To:
Silent Hill playlist
Piece by Piece by Kelly Clarkson
Poetry for the Poisoned by Kamelot
Things I’m Watching:
The Nun
Watson series (finished)
Jeopardy Masters series
WandaVision series
CSI: NY series
Brooklyn Nine-Nine series
The Equalizer series
Poem of the Week :
homeless nameless loveless heartless
i am someone’s daughter under this sky
i didn’t crop from nothing
like Venus from the sea
a spontaneous lifeless seed
discarded or left for dead
does someone dream of me
June 6, 2025
We all float down here: Friday Update
News:
My story “Floaters,” accepted for Stories to Take to Your Grave, through Undertaker Press, is available to read for free here. It’s not so creepy as Pennywise. Instead, it’s a hopeful little thing imagining a different kind of interment after the oceanic ecosystem collapse.
Works in Progress:
I did manage to finish the edits for Masque on Friday night and pared down the synopsis and wrote the pitch on Saturday before sending it out on submission, so I met my deadline and my goal. After that, I was worn out and had work to do, so I haven’t gotten a lot done, but I’ve made a few alterations on Tooth & Claw (Meridian Book 7), and I should finish up the fixes on it before doing the second edit, which shouldn’t take too long.
And I’m starting to do flash poetry again, after a break of a few months.
Books I’m Reading:
The Fisherman by John Langan
Playlist of the Damned edited by Willow Dawn Becker and Jess Landry
Raising Loki: A Memoir by Elliot Manarin
He Left Her at the Altar, She Left Him to the Zombies by Katie Cord (Frightmare, finished)
Things I’m Listening To:
The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall album
The Phantom (Maury Yeston) Original Cast Album
Things I’m Watching:
Moana 2
Fear Street: Prom Queen
The Equalizer 3
Earthstorm series (finished)
Jeopardy Masters series
Say Yes to the Dress series
CSI series
CSI: NY series
Brooklyn Nine-Nine series
The Equalizer series
