Rebecca Jones-Howe's Blog, page 19

Canada Day 2016

I worked on Canada Day, which in some ways sucked but in other ways was also great because I recently sold a reprint of my short story, “Tourist” and made pro rate bucks for the first time ever, and after getting those sweet writer funds sent to my PayPal account, I subsequently went round the online shops to take advantage of that post-Brexit exchange rate. I spent all of my writer dollars. I also spent maybe a fair chunk more of the regular sweat and tears retail job dollars.

So the extra money will be nice. I also had some time left after my shift to have dinner with my parents to take my kid out for some water park fun. I also figured that for once I’d start having some photos taken of me so I could share my pattern-mixed ensembles with the world. Side note: I recently had a co-worker tell me that I dress like Emilia Clarke’s character from Me Before You (minus the cotton-candy furry sweaters, because ugh), and I figured I’d stop being paranoid about how I look in pictures.

Luckily Canada Day was relatively mild for Kamloops, so I was able to don a flannel plaid shirt and floral skirt to evoke Canadian style without resorting to wearing that cheesy Canadian t-shirt I’ve never bothered to own.

I also made Caesar’s for my family this year, which was nice because we actually had celery salt in the pantry and all the right ingredients. There was something really special about making legit drinks and putting some real love into it. Makes me think that I might attempt to make other cocktails properly, instead of just mixing two-three parts gin and whatever juice I have on hand like I usually do.

Playlist: Better Places

Like a lot of writers, I try to make playlists for the stories I write while writing them. Sometimes the music I listen to doesn’t quite jive with the theme I have going, so some songs get nixed and replaced with other songs I’ve I’ve written/edited/published said story. Not all stories end up with real playlists, but every so often I end up with a tale that also gets a cemented playlist I end up really proud of.

“Better Places” is set a B&B that is now currently known as the Peachland Castle near Peachland, British Columbia. That “castle” has a really rich history with an eccentric immigrant named Eddie Haymour who purchased the property and the nearby island on the Okanagan Lake with plans of building an Arab-themed theme park. It’s since become a questionably-rated B&B, but has always lived in my head in the dilapidated state it was in when I first noticed on the side of the highway in the early 2000’s. I’d always hoped to use it as a setting in one of my short stories, so when I came up with the concept for “Better Places”, I knew that the Peachland Castle would be the perfect setting. The story is set in the semi-arid desert area of the Okanagan, which gets incredibly hot and dry during the summer. I thought it’d make an interesting conjunction with the zombie theme I brought into the story. When I picked songs for the playlist, I really wanted the story to have a bit of a westernized, yet dark and rural feeling to it. Probably my favourite song is Feist’s, “A Commotion”, which is not only Canadian, but really drives home the urgency and the passion that drives the story’s protagonist to ultimately do what she does.

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Not Writing, Renos, More Not Writing

I loved writing short stories because I could spend a couple weeks or a month at most on one small little world and a handful of characters and then leave. A one night’s stand’s worth of writing, really.

So now that I’ve got a collection out there, well, I’m having a difficult time committing to some hardcore novelling. Iv’e been rambling about getting a novel in the works for over a year now, and I’d argue that being a new mom had a lot to do with getting in the way, but now that I’ve got the hang of that and the hang of being back at work again, I’m spending nights awake until 3 AM watching videos on the US primaries and getting pretty much nothing done.

This past week I was doing renos, so I pretty much had my computer shut and my hands dirty with laminate dust and all that jizz/jazz. Half the time Jon and I argued about who was being more of a dick to the other. The worst of our renos was after we ripped up the carpet and the underlay and realized just how uneven the floors were in our dining area. It’s a true downside of owning a home that was previously owned by DIYers who also had no clue what they were really doing. Bound to do things right, though, we had my uncle come up and tell us that we had to level the floor with some self-levelling cement, which I’ve used when we were adding the suite to our basement, and that stuff is just a real pain to get the mixture just that right point of self-levelling, and then having to wait for it to friggin’ dry before you can even put in the real floor atop the mess.

Nevertheless, what and what I learned from that experience is that the key to successful DIY home renos is that you need a buffer helper to come in when the arguing is at its peak, which was what our friend John provided most times he came over in the middle of a spousal argument. The other half of renos was us and my sister and her husband having a pretty good time making jokes and putting up tarps and painting the ceiling and moving furniture back and forth and here and there and playing Tetris with it trying to just make some room to work in and IS THERE NOTHING WORSE THAN DOING RENOS ON A HOUSE YOU’RE CURRENTLY LIVING IN?!?!?!?!?!? Sometimes, when you’re stressed, a good workout helps, as my sister demonstrates:

So now that that’s somewhat over (we still gotta do them pesky baseboards and the floors in the kitchen, and a bit more painting in the kitchen, which I am completely over because I feel like I’ve been painting for an eternity now, and maybe, probably, most likely, the rest of the renos will be one of those projects we vow to finish at some point but never actually ever get to. Though now I have these beautiful teak-shaded laminate floors that I love and adore and make my furniture look fantastic and maybe one day I’ll even share some photos if I can ever clean up the laundry that I still have yet to get a handle on.

I’m at my computer at its home on the dining room table now, and the top is a disaster, and I’m drinking a cuppa tea and things are pretty much the same save for the fact that my muscles are aching like you wouldn’t believe. I was going to write but now I’m back to procrastinating with a bath like usual.

I started my first chapter over for like the 56th time last night and it’s coming together pretty good, so…

Talking VILE MEN on This Is Horror + The Scary Reviews

I’ve spent the last month or so doing coverage on VILE MEN. It’s been a great experience and I’ve had a wonderful time talking with Martin at the Martin Lastrapes Podcast Hour (episode coming in April), and with Bob and Michael at the This Is Horror Podcast. The first half of my This Is Horror interview was just posted, and you can have a listen by clicking RIGHT HERE.

The Scary Reviews has also given VILE MEN a positive review as a part of their extensive “Women in Horror Spotlight”. I’ve also just finished up an interview with them, which will be posted next week, so stay tuned for that.

In the meantime I’ve been trying to piece together my new novel. I’ll try to keep updates going on that, as well as working on my vlog.

Still Talking Up Vile Men

I’ve spent the last month or so doing coverage on VILE MEN. It’s been a great experience and I’ve had a wonderful time talking with Martin at the Martin Lastrapes Podcast Hour (episode coming in April), and with Bob and Michael at the This Is Horror Podcast. The first half of my This Is Horror interview was just posted, and you can have a listen by clicking RIGHT HERE.

The Scary Reviews has also given VILE MEN a positive review as a part of their extensive “Women in Horror Spotlight”. I’ve also just finished up an interview with them, which will be posted next week, so stay tuned for that.

In the meantime I’ve been trying to piece together my new novel. I’ll try to keep updates going on that, as well as working on my vlog.

Vloggin’ It!: “I’m not 30 yet. I’m starting a vlog.”

So now that I’ve done the first year of having a kid and publishing my book at the same time, and now that I’m back at work slaving away at retail again, I figure it’s about time to slot ACTUALLY WRITING back into my daily routine.

In fact, I’m going to try getting back into the old blogging habit I once had when I was a teenager.

Except no.

That’s already a goal I’m not going to achieve, because I’ve proved it impossible time and time again. So now I”m doing something different. I’m getting with the cool kids and starting a bloody blog, because there’s no way this can go awry:

Vote for VILE MEN in the 2015 THIS IS HORROR AWARDS

I’m pleased to announce that VILE MEN has been nominated for “Short Story Collection of the Year” in the 2015 This Is Horror Awards.

Two anthologies that I also have stories in, Exigencies and Choose Wisely: 35 Women Up to No Good, have also been nominated in the Anthology of the Year category. My publisher, Dark House Press, has also been nominated for Publisher of the Year.

Obviously, it would be great if you could vote for me, and voting is super easy. Just send an email to awards@thisishorror.co.uk with the subject “Awards 2015”. Be sure to include the “Anthology of the Year” category with your vote. (Be sure to check the official awards page for full voting rules!)

Interview on CFJC Midday

On Friday I did an interview with the local CFJC Kamloops station on the Midday show with Susan Edgell. First time doing television stuff, but I think I stuck to my talking points and came out alright. At the end of the interview I discuss my book signing at Chapters (which occurred today). I’ll be posting pictures from that event soon.

Book Signing @ Kamloops Chapters

I’ll be holding a book signing at the Chapters store in my hometown of Kamloops, British Columbia on October 3rd, from 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM.

Bring in your copy of VILE MEN, or buy yourself a fresh one, get it signed, and get some of the free goodies I’ve spent my time working on.

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone!

VILE MEN Review @ That Shakespearean Rag

VILE MEN has received its first blog review from Steven Beattie over at That Shakespearean Rag. The review itself does contain spoilers for some of the stories (just a heads up for you spoiler-phobiacs!), but Steven does says some great things about the collection:

…Vile Men traffics in dark material with a refreshingly direct approach: Jones-Howe is unafraid to confront her subject matter head-on, and the violence and sex (and frequent sexual violence) is explicit. The best of these stories demonstrate an acute psychological understanding; what is most disturbing about a character like Jonah is precisely how recognizable he is.

Read the full review HERE. Huge thanks to Steven for the kind words.