Summer break: Friday Update
News:
There are a few things I really do not like to write and perspectives I don’t want to linger in long. “Predatory” covers one of those, so I’m just really glad it’s only flash fiction. As a horror writer, though, I always find a way to bother a pressure point, poking through all those hard limits. “Predatory” is my entry for the Camp Horror theme of Crystal Lake’s Shallow Waters contest, posting this month. We’re almost at the end, if you’re interested in one last slash at summer camp.
Works in Progress:
Circumstances forced a more extended break on me, between period cramps, burnout, and existential despair (received a rejection for In the Dollhouse… and don’t know what to do with it). I’m still not sure if my brain’s quite done resting. I think I might start back up tomorrow, because my creativity is tired but starting to get restless anyway. I’ll write the oozy novelette, then take another short break before diving into the Dracula reimagining.
I did get a little work done this week, though. I got my Crooked House (Thorns 5) files back from the formatter, so now I just have to send the specs and back cover copy to my cover artist. When she’s finished, I should be able to get CH uploaded. I’ll be doing some of that today.
Also, I’ve been meaning to get into creative nonfiction, and I started that yesterday with a flash piece for a sub call. My fiction is much more interesting than I am, so CNF hasn’t been much on my radar, but I have a few articles knocking around that I’d like to try. It’s good to do new things now and then.
Things I’m Reading:
The Tommyknockers by Stephen King (finished; still not great but more enjoyable than first read, and I had an entirely false memory about a scene in it, which is weird)
Why Didn’t You Just Leave edited by Nadia Bulkin and Julia Rios
Needful Things by Stephen King (comfort read before trying something new)
Things I’m Listening To:
YouTube ambient playlists
Things I’m Watching:
Chariots of Fire
The Beekeeper
The Day After Tomorrow
Monolith
Immaculate
The Ritual Killer
Matilda
Sleepaway Camp
CSI: Miami series
CSI: NY series
Abbott Elementary series
Great British Baking Show series
Hoarders series (finished)
Resident Alien series (finished)
White Collar series
Supernatural series
S.W.A.T. series
Grey’s Anatomy series
Kitchen Nightmares series
America’s Got Talent series
Murder, She Wrote series
Poem of the Week:
wrenched into a scream,
limbs tangled under sheets
into an unsolvable knot.
no sword to self-slice,
though with concentration
i may fall off the bed
and, whimpering, roll away.
