Beat the drum slowly: Friday Update
News:
I’m back in Crystal Lake’s Shallow Waters flash fiction contest with “Full,” for the theme of A Murder of Crows. This is one of three stories that I set in the same post-apocalyptic world, because it intrigued me so much in the first story, “The Sisters of the Perpetual Wound,” that I wanted to explore it some more. I may return to it again someday. “Full” should arrive at the Crystal Lake Patreon around March 18. In the meantime, there are fifteen other short pieces that will be shared this month (for $5 tier and up).
Queer erotic horror anthology The Pleasure in Pain launched its Kickstarter, which is essentially a preordering service, with some other cool rewards. My story “Graphite” is included among a killer TOC.
Works in Progress:
It took me ridiculously long to edit one regular-sized short story, but then I started my March poetry project, which has been a lot of fun. I wrote my first two sestinas! I had a weird block on understanding the form, but someone explained it better to me, so I had to try it.
Even better, two weeks after abandoning Silver & Steel (Meridian 7), I figured out during a hot shower how to fix the problems I had with the first draft attempt, where I essentially wrote out the external conflict during character development, which left me with nowhere to go in urban fantasy. As soon as I get some more poetry and my taxes done (ugh), I’ll start again, which I’m really excited about. I wanted that under my belt now so that I’d be able to finish writing the series by the end of the year. The new title will be Shadow & Song (Meridian 7).
Books I’m Reading:
IT by Stephen King (finished, finally!)
Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire
Ending in Ashes by Rebecca Jones-Howe (finished)
Killing Time by Russell C. Connor
Things I’m Listening To:
Hannibal soundtracks
YouTube playlists
Drift playlist
Things I’m Watching:
The Invitation (2022)
Gothika (Unrated)
The Hoarder
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series (watchalong)
Angel series (watchalong)
American Idol series
CSI series
CSI:Vegas series
NCIS series
NCIS: Hawaii series
White Collar series
The Mentalist series
Ghosts series
Home Town series
All Creatures Great and Small series (finished)
Murder, She Wrote series
Poem of the Week: (throwback from March 2022)
Others hail beginnings
As the potential
For something wonderful,
But no one ever said
A new start would precede
An improvement.
