Updates: November 2021
Hello, everyone. I wanted to hop on in and give you some general updates about the site and all the things I am working on.
First, I’m having a great time digging into TV series again. I got off on Chucky by a week because of burnout, but I’ll be playing catchup and have the reviews for episode five and six this week on the site. This is my favorite TV show to come along in a long time and I want to do right by it. I’m imagining a later article or series where I explore the entirety of Child’s Play as a franchise and I’ve already penciled in the Chucky series near the top of the list with Bride of Chucky.
Dragula has been a blast to go through again, especially with my decision to keep things as positive as possible. From your response, there is an audience for that. I love a good Dragula Reddit discussion and actively participate on that forum. Here, I’m exploring the episode through my knowledge of horror and what the contestants bring to the contest itself. As the Boulet Brothers say every episode, “Drag is art and art is subjective.”
I mentioned it above and went into detail on Twitter, but I did come very close to burning out again. I worked something like 37 days in a row on writing projects connected to this site without a break. This included the #31DaysOfHorror challenge, doing press at New York Comic Con, and launching the new game, book, and soundtrack. It reached a point where my brain said “no” and I had to listen. I want to get back up to eight new articles a week, but it will take time to rebuild that stamina.
Haunted is doing better than I anticipated. The game is being well received and the short story collection is my best work to date. People who buy my books as a courtesy and then never say anything about them are actually calling me up to tell me how much they enjoyed it and encouraging their friends and family members to buy it. I’ve found a renewed confidence in my voice as a writer and I’m excited to see where that goes next in fiction. As for the game, people seem to be all in for getting the bundle and that makes me very happy.
In non-fiction, #31Days: A Collection of Horror Essays, Vol. 2 is almost complete. The recommendations section is done, the introduction is done, and the actual formatting of the book is done. I’m about halfway through the new versions of all the essays that could use new versions. The challenge of #31DaysOfHorror is knowing when it’s time to call good enough good enough and revisit later. I should have preorder information available by next week. It will come out in December, just like last year’s, and I hope you check it out.
Fiction wise, I have two competing projects racing to completion and one that I can definitely announce. My new standalone short story collection is called I Hate May: A Collection of Weird Fiction and will be coming in May 2022. This includes my award-winning psychological horror story “Locked,” as well as a bunch of other short stories inspired by awful things that happened to me last May. There are five stories ready to go with a few more competing for room in the collection. The other two projects are very different weird fiction novellas: a dystopian story about art and a meta horror story about hauntings.
I’m also going to have time this weekend to finally catch up on audiobook content. I make it a point to keep my work as accessible as possible and that becomes harder with longer works like entire short story collections and non-fiction collections. That’s not an excuse, and I apologize for falling short there. Haunted will be first, followed by the SD Media Digests (vol. 3: July-December 2021 coming in January) and #31Days…Vol.1. I am a one person operation and can only pull so many directions at once.
On the gaming front, I have two titles mapped out for future interactive weird fiction collections. I will reveal that one is inspired by my short story “Stone Cold” featured in Take Out & Other Stories: A Collection of Weird Fiction. The other is a hypertext novel I’ve been trying to make happen since everyone was competing for a spot in your top 8 on Myspace. Programming Haunted: A Slip Story gave me the clarity I needed to set the actual form and voice of that idea.
The final update is about my storefront. It took me a while to set up, but I am now selling the paperback editions of my books through my own store. These are physical stock of Take Out & Other Stories, Haunted, and #31Days…Vol. 1 that I will ship out with a signed bookplate, a matching bookmark, and a few other surprises when you order from my Ko-fi. These are less expensive than purchasing through Amazon and prevent you from having to shop through Amazon. I’m currently only shipping to the United States as I need to figure out the safest way to send books internationally. I’m working as fast as I can on that.
Those are all the updates I’m ready to share right now. Thank you again for all of your support. I hope you have a wonderful day.
