The first draft of this newsletter was basically just me complaining.

Mostly about how it feels like the past three or four newsletter I’ve started with some version of “well, that month sucked, but at least it’s over.” And then I realized sweet jebus, yeah, I really have done that, haven’t I? Everything just keeps building up and building up and it feels like there’s never an actual chance to relax and just recharge for a bit.

A friend of mine calls it resilience targeting. Well, I mean, she didn’t come up with the term, but she’s the first person I heard it from, and she’s talked and written about it a lot. Really simply put, resilience targeting is where you’re put in a position where you don’t get to recover from things. Maybe your resources get reduced or stripped away. Maybe you just keep getting awfulness thrown in your face again and again and again until you just accept that you’re always going to have awfulness thrown in your face. Remember that Battlestar Galactica episode where the Cylons keep showing up every half hour and the fleet has to jump over and over and over again with no time to sleep or relax? They’d escape one attack and just immediately have to start planning and prepping for the next one. And we find out they’ve been doing this for six days straight?

That’s resilience targeting. It’s wearing people down rather than actually beating them. I mean, beating them’s the ultimate goal, yeah, but the idea is to keep up the firehose of assaults—physical, mental, emotional—until they lose the ability to fight back. They don’t lose as much as eventually just... give up.

This past month has had a lot of bad stuff, on a personal level. Not to mention (maniacal laughter) all the awful stuff on the national/ global level. There’s been good stuff too, yeah, but the bad overwhelms it. And even when I did have some downtime it just... it never felt like enough. Like nothing got done on either the “random weekend project” front or on the relax/ recharge side of it. I mentioned last time that I started a list just so I could actually see that I accomplished things.

But even with all that... yeah, this past month sucked. But at least it’s over.

What’s the point of this? Just to let you know you’re not the only one who feels like they’re getting worn down. Like you’re not getting a chance to recharge. Things are bad and they’re very likely going to get much worse. Especially after this past month.

It’s tough, but don’t let the bastards wear you down. They want you to give up. They want you to just accept getting this thrown in your face, to think this is normal, that this is how things should be.

But it’s not. They’re losers who have to keep lying to get any sort of win. So take a breath, stretch, maybe grab a nap if you can, and remember you’re stronger than them in every way that matters.

Anyway... let me tell you some writing/ publishing news. That’ll be more fun.

I heard from my editor end of last week and he thinks after this round of edits we just did TOS might be... pretty solid. Like, maybe “moving on to the next phase of the process” solid. We’re going to talk again discuss a few last things, and then... copyedits, I think?

I also got to see an early cover for the book and... it’s pretty cool. I wasn’t sure how they were going to do it, but they managed to do some very clever things. There were some nitpicks but overall it was a fantastic starting point. Maybe I’ll get to do one of those fancy cover reveals sometime soon.

Yeah, I know. It’s happening fast. The goal is to have the book in your hands this time next year. No seriously. Kind of amazing for a book I haven’t even told you the title of, yes? And I’m already working on the book after that which may be out just as fast.

Let’s call that one ATCS for now.

So that’s all cool.

Also worth mentioning my short story collection, Dead Men Can’t Complain (+ Other Stories) is on sale right now at Audible. You could grab it for one credit or for a measly five bucks if you’re not an Audible patron. Yes, at the moment it’s only on Audible, which I know is a sore spot for some of you. The short version why is... well, they paid for it? If a lot of are you really interested, maybe I could give the long version next time. or maybe in a ranty writing blog post.

Also-also... Remember last month when I mentioned I had some codes for free copies of the God’s Junk Drawer audiobook? Well... I’ve still got two left. They’re sitting here waiting for someone to claim them so just, y’know, say something.

Oh, and WonderCon is in less than two weeks! I’ll be there. Will you? My rough schedule is something like this...

Friday-- wandering the floor.

Friday 8:30, room 300C—Neighborhood Nightmares, talking about small town horror and folklore with Rodney Barnes, Jendia Gammon, Denise Tapscott, moderated by Dennis K. Crosby

Sunday 12:30-2:30, room 204C—The Writer’s Coffeehouse, talking about, well, whatever you want to talk about. You ask the writing/publishing questions and we answer them. We being me, Jendia Gammon, Henry Herz, Lisa Kastner, Scott Sigler, and Ben Spada.

Sunday 3:00-3:45, autograph area—I mean... we’ll be autographing stuff. Books. Other people’s books. T-shirts? Action figures? Come by, say hi, get a book scribbled in.

Maybe I’ll put all of this in a clever graphical-image-type-thing and get that out to you next week.

What else is there to tell you about...?

Cool Stuff I’ve Been Watching
The season finales for School Spirits and Starfleet Academy were both fantastic and I really hope both shows get another season. I’m also watching the final few episodes of My Hero Academia, which are fantastic and heartbreaking at the same time. And after all the crap we’ve been going through, my beloved and I sat down the other night to watch Paddington in Peru, and it was just ridiculously delightful.

Cool Stuff I’ve Been Reading
I picked up the first few issues of Thundarr the Barbarian by Jason Aaron and Kewber Baal and it’s surprisingly good. Like, I thought the right person/ people could do something clever with Thundarr, but these folks have done something really clever and I like it a lot. I also finished Cullen Bunn’s Bones of Our Stars, Blood of Our World which is both fantastic and seriously horrifying (in a fantastic way). And I got to read Craig DiLouie’s new one, The Summer Fun Massacre, which was wonderfully creepy. That’s out this summer, if you want to preorder a copy.

Cool New Toys
That Big Bad Toy Store box I mentioned last time showed up, but to be terribly honest with everything going on I haven’t had time to open most of it. It’s all sitting in a pile behind me here in my office. I also got my gigantic Bodvar the Bear from Four Horsemen, who I got out of the box and then, well... did nothing with. He’s just over there on the printer. Like I said, it’s been a month.

Look, I took this little GodziBurst Gigan out of his package, just so we’d have a toy picture to end on. He’s barely three inches tall. Isn’t he cute?

And I think that’s all I’ve got for you this month. As always, thanks for reading. Please like and subscribe. keep circulating the tapes, and I’ll talk with you again next month.