False Fall: Friday Update

News:

Nothing of a writerly nature, unless you count a light redesign of the website.

However, as I wrote in a previous entry, I injured my right leg, assumed a grade II tear of the calf muscle. I was progressing all right, with some stumbles on the way, but about three weeks ago I tried using the elliptical machine. I felt okay on the machine, but after, I felt the strain. The healing process regressed, but worse, it didn’t improve much after and there’s consistent over-stress in everything between the ankles and knees.

So I went to the doctor today, and I’m getting an MRI tomorrow to determine what might be going on and how to proceed. My health insurance is basically catastrophe insurance, so I’m paying out of pocket, if you’d like to help. I’m not going to go broke, though, so don’t feel any pressure.

In less grave news, I’m finally buckling down and watching the end of MCU Phase 3. The length of the Avengers movies is prohibitive, but I’m committing to it this weekend. That’ll make proceeding with Phase 4 while working out easier (if I’m ever able to work out again).

Works in Progress:

This last week was something of a pet project week.

I wrote a novelette version of We Follow You in the Dark with more short-story pacing to see if I could write something closer to the original vibe. Because the short version and the long version have the same setting but different characters and outcomes, it’s less like a different version and more like different stories in the same universe. I’m still pursuing publishing the novel, and novelettes are murder to sell. I’m thinking about providing a collection of short story/novelette versions of longer stories, kind of a ‘what might have been,’ because, strangely enough, I happen to have written more than one of these. So they’ll be useful eventually, but for now, it was more of an experiment.

I also wrote a long short story that was supposed to go one way and ended up another, and was definitely supposed to be shorter. It’s too long to sell as a short story and too short to sell as a long story, but it’s weird and erotic and uses some of my for-funsies college subjects. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it, but it was great fun to explore that world. My wanting to finish it is why I’m writing this so late.

This week, we had a break in the three-digit heat with a delightful false fall, so I worked outside on our porch for most of the week (see the photo above). Tomorrow will probably be the last day I can do that for a few more weeks, but I assure you, the mosquito bites were worth it.

Coming up, I have a short story I need to edit and send back to the editor. Then I’ll be doing my proofreading run of Puppeteer (Thorns 4).

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire
Cruel Summer by Wesley Southard
Pornography for the End of the World by Brendon Vidito

Music I’m Listening To:

Halloween playlist (it’s that time of year)

Things I’m Watching:

Grave Encounters
Devil
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
The Wrath of Becky
The Avengers: Infinity War
America’s Got Talent series
Dr. Pimple Popper series
CSI series
CSI:Miami series
Murder, She Wrote series
White Collar series
Locke & Key series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series

Poem of the Week:

You’re looking for my sister, you say?
Well, you just missed her on her way
to the graveyard for our father’s funeral.
Such a yawn, gravestones and funereal
blacks, but someone has to represent
a repressed and resentful family.
She’s the one who stands to gain the least,
so she could not have slain that beast.