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October.
Finally.
On one hand, I feel like that scene in every movie when the villain rolls their shoulders as their newfound/ regained power settles over them (cue the ominous music). On the other hand, like half those villains, I’m also oddly unprepared for the moment. This holiday should be the time my creativity just goes wild, and instead—despite all the various skeletons and gravestones and other decorations in the garage—I just feel kind of unsure and indecisive.
Although I know a lot of that is… well, a ton of the stress and anxiety we’ve been dealing with here for the past three months or so has finally resolved. I don’t want to talk about it any more than that—not yet, anyway—but I think the sudden lack of pressure has left me a little off-balance. My beloved and I were talking last night about how mentally it sort of feels like it should be mid-August, maybe? We lost a bunch of time and now we’re stuck playing catch-up. Part of me knows I should be putting out decorations and another part of me just doesn’t want to do anything. Seriously, on one level I could just sit on the couch and do absolutely nothing for a day or six and it’d probably be kind of healthy, from a certain perspective. I know, back in the olden times, it was pretty normal for me to finish a big film project, wrap everything out, and then just sort of shut off for a day or two in my apartment. I remember one day when I spent an hour or so standing in front of a bookshelf. Not reading or organizing, just… standing there.
Anyway, I’ll probably put Halloween decorations up in a couple of days. Maybe I’ll just do Khonshu again. Or maybe last minute inspiration. Guess we’ll see.
Let’s go over some writing updates.
As you’re reading this, I just now got the first round of note from my editor for God’s Junk Drawer. Like, just now, as I was about to hit “send it” on the newsletter. Actually, it’s why the newsletter’s going out a little later than planned. But once I hit send, I’ll be diving into that. And you’ll probably hear more about it next time.
I’ve also finished the second draft of TOS. It’s a solid, beginning-to-end manuscript, about 14,000 words longer than the last draft. And now it’s ready for some tightening and polishing. My hope is to do some of that in small waves whenever I need a break from God’s Junk Drawer edits. One quick pass here, another one there, and so on. In a perfect world, both of these are done by… Thanksgiving? Then I can take a quick breather for the three or four day holiday weekend and give TOS one last read-through, and have it off to my beta readers first thing in the year.
And look, if you’re not already a beta reader, please don’t ask. Let’s not make it weird and awkward for both of us.
I also did some tiny, last-minute edits for that magazine dream project I mentioned last time. Really, it was more of just approving some very tiny edits. Said magazine has their own style—most of them do—and I pretty much just had to check with the editor on that and then give my thumbs up. The style changes wouldn’t be my first choice, but they’re also not so awful that they’re worth fighting over. Picking your battles is a notable percentage of a professional writing career.
Oh, one other thing. Last time I mentioned Combat Monsters: Untold Tales of WWII. It’s an anthology I’ve got a Carter & Kraft story in and it’s up for preorder in all the usual places (out February 11th). But if you’re in southern California (or just like signed books), you might want to hold off on that preorder. Just for a little bit. The editor, Henry Herz, is trying to set up a couple signings, so there may be scribbled-in copies available in San Diego and Los Angeles. And if you wanted to come say hi and get it personalized, that’s cool too. Hopefully I’ll know more about those in the next few weeks.
What else have I got for you…?
Cool Stuff I’ve Been Watching
Agatha All Along has been fun, but this past week I think it bumped up to really good. Finally got to see Abigail, the movie about the little ballerina girl who gets kidnapped and thought it was fantastic. If you haven’t seen it yet, I don‘t think there’s anything else you need to know going in…
Cool Stuff I’ve Been Reading
I got an advance copy of The Contest by Jeff MacAfee and it’s just fantastic. I’m bitterly jealous, which is the best compliment any writer can give another. It’s not out until early next year but I think you can preorder it now. Got my second ROM omnibus and have been enjoying that.
Cool New Toys
I stress-ordered a lot of toys over the past few months, and a bunch of them have shown up in the past week or so. A few more Animal Warriors (waaaaaay too many at this point). I emptied my Pile O’ Loot from Big Bad Toystore so I finally have my Ghost Rider and my Werewolf By Night Ted aka Man-Thing. And I just got an alert that all my long-awaited Operation: Monster Force figures are finally in stock and… well, there’s a lot of stuff in my Pile O’ Loot again
And I think that’s it for this month. Many thanks, as always, for subscribing to this nonsense.