August newsletter

What's new in August?

Has my word died?

Certainly not.

And if it were never alive,

I wonder what soul would know.

My heart weighs heavy,

Each letter clear to me,

And yet the eye upon the page weighs it less.

Brevity is meant to be a sign of a good word.

Yet it comes to life as it grows.

Still, I wonder…

If I pour my heart into each word,

Can it be so

That I'm attending my own funeral?

- 22:25

Hey again! Another month, another run back of what’s going on! I mentioned in the past that I’m terrible at naming poems, so I often just give them a timestamp and refer to them as a collection called ‘Times My Words Got Away From Me’ so here’s one of those from earlier this year. I’ve really fallen off of writing poetry in recent years, but this has given me a chance to re-explore my poetry, so yay for that! Anyway, let’s jump into what I’ve worked on this month!

What are you working on for Substack?

• You may have recently seen my Love Letter to Doom essay. It was really cathartic to get those feelings/thoughts out there, and I also had a fascinating back and forth with

  Caitriana NicNeacail
  in the comments. I recommend going to see what she had to say, because I really appreciated it.

• The Weather Reports is out! Thank you to

  Jon T
  for facilitating such an awesome collaboration and thank you too all the writers who have taken part. If you haven’t had a look, I highly recommend you check out everyone’s stories! I’m especially proud of my own, and if you enjoyed the Love Letter to Doom, I think you’ll find some love in your heart for Mr. Vasquez and Beth too.

• I wrote a new Sci-Fi Today that needs editing, but will hopefully be out at some point in September. We’ll certainly see though! Also, the story that I said would be off Substack last month? I’m thinking of moving it to on Substack and releasing it in tandem with the next Sci-Fi Today. I created a playlist just for this so if you want to look at more science-y stuff, go have a look!

• I have written up the next episode of The Marrow Chronicle! I was hoping to have it out by the end of August. If it is, I’ll link it here, but if not, expect it soon! Here’s the Horror Story Playlist though where you can find all the old episodes

What are you working on outside of Substack?

• Work on Substack has been going well, but work outside of Substack has been going OFF. For starters, do you remember how I said I was struggling with finding the motivation to edit Famine of Flame? Well, I locked in, and the second draft is done! A copy is with my good friend/alpha reader and hopefully she’s enjoying it, but we’ll see.

• Beta reads are still out for Beyond Corrupt Eyes, but I’m looking forward to revisiting that for edits, but that will be all in good time. I’m hoping to send out agent queries and all that by the end of the year, but I think that’ll depend on how much feedback I need to take heed of when the time comes.

• I recently had a dream that played out in front of me like a movie. Think of it as Sci-Fi meets Folk horror. At first it was just a dream that I wrote down because I thought it was interesting, but now I’m hooked on the concept. BUT it’s a big concept. This is novella length at the smallest, but I’m thinking this is going to be a novel. I think I’ve got something good going with this. It’s called Andromeda’s Empire, and here’s the opening lines (as of right now, I’m not quite happy with it yet)…

“Do you ever wake up from a dream, but when you wake up, you’re not you? And your head - it’s - it’s too big for everything that makes you, you? I think that’s what happened to me.”

• I had a spark of inspiration for a new story called Pilgrim of the Witch. I haven’t decided if it’s going on Substack or somewhere else, but I’ll decide eventually. Eventually. Clearly I just have too many ideas right now.

How’s your dissertation going?

Dissertation is heating up! By the time you’re reading this, I’ll have all my data collected and I’ll be really leaning into writing my dissertation and doing some small side research projects in my free time! I have a paper to get into a draft format for feedback from my PI, and then I’ll be compiling my data into really doing the hard dissertation stuff. I’m feeling pretty great though!

I will note, I have some potential upcoming projects that just might require extra attention (cough cough, I may have found a job, cough it might be in a different country, cough, what’s the housing market like in Edinburgh? cough), so forgive me if my posting becomes a little sparse as I try to get a postdoctoral fellowship potentially, hopefully, I really really really hope! Its not a guarantee, but I'm working my ass off to make it possible. Not speaking this as a brag, more speaking this as a hope that if I keep myself focused and trained on it, it’ll be more likely to happen.

What are you reading right now?

So, I finally finished Your Brain on Art! I have… mixed feelings on it. I think there’s a really good message in there about the significance of how the arts can change you, but I think sometimes this book over promises on some things and if you go to look at these things outside the context of the book, you’ll realize they’re either misrepresented or not quite as they seem. I will say educationally, it is actually pretty solid on discussing the nervous system in the first chapter so if you’re ever interested in the nervous system, the first chapter is pretty solid neuro 101.

I also started Octavia Butler’s Blood Child and other short stories and I’ve got to say, this anthology is SO GOOD. Feels good to be reading fiction again, goodness me. I’ve been having such a hard time reading this year. I don’t know why, but it just has felt like pulling teeth, but I’m finally feeling like I’m back into a groove, so I’m hopeful to get caught up on my TBR. Also, The Evening, and the Morning, and the Night is one of my favorite short stories ever, and I’m not sure why it isn’t talked about more, but Butler was killing it with that one. I also absolutely love Amnesty. Easily one of my favorite alien invasion stories. The two big twists at the end make it especially good.

I’m also starting She Who Knows at

Olivia Keller

’s reccomendation, but I’m taking a break from it to read The Weather Reports on Substack, which if you haven’t then you should too (linked above). Gotta say though, She Who Knows is REALLY good. I can’t wait to dig back into it even more.

What are you playing right now?

Honestly, I haven’t playing a lot of games lately. There just hasn’t been time. My partner and I are still slowly going through Date Everything which has been a ton of fun still!

I’m also prepping a mini campaign of Dungeons and Dragons to run starting next month (I’ve really got too much going on), and I think that counts as play(?), so I’ll include that in my updates too!

Okay, that’s it, that’s the end! Thanks for reading! I’m hoping next month to have mini short story zines ready to go and share with people locally so fingers crossed for that, but you’ll find out in the next update!

Thanks again for being here! I appreciate it. If you’re new and have no idea what’s going on, how about subscribing?

Or if you’re so inclined, consider leaving a tip if you’re as aware as I am that moving expenses are going to be BRUTAL next year. Alright, catch you soon and thank you as always!