First Monday of October! The month where we’re allowed to be as grim, as scary, as ghostly and ghastly as we want! Of course, I mostly write horror. I channel those things all year long. But it’s nice to embrace those things in public. I won’t go on about how things have changed, you’ve seen it too. I’ll just be grateful.

Horror lofi mix on Youtube

Get the important stuff out of the way: I’m not gonna publish Wish Upon a Storm this year. Three weeks or less is not enough time for me and my editor buddy to work on it, and the work I have done on it feels like pulling teeth. I’m also juggling other stories along with it, maybe too many. If I want to achieve my goals, I need to put some things down. And right now, Wish is easy to put down.

I’ll pick it up next spring, around the time I aim to release the Runner Owen mystery short story collection.

My goals haven’t changed, however. Three short stories released in three months, with a 20k+ novella in January. Can I do it? I don’t know. But I’m gonna learn a lot either way.

So what am I working on? Glad you’re curious!

This month’s short story is… still untitled. 😓 I feel like it needs a pun, but I’m undecided. I’m writing a cozy omegaverse mystery, see. Yes, me, writing cozy anything. I didn’t see it coming either. But I need a good break from my more intense stories and something easier to write since I’m doing this on short notice. So, cozy it is.

I’m not unfamiliar with the cozy mystery genre, or at least I read a lot of it before my mother died. I loved the Cat Who… and Midnight Louie series. The latter had a book about a romance convention I still think about. It was set in Las Vegas! I should track it down, see if it holds up. It was written in the 90s, and in hindsight, extremely progressive. The Cat Who books had their moments, too, though some were also wince-worthy…

And since you’re also curious, I bet: It’s omegaverse because I find the idea of writing a modern setting without any twists hopelessly boring. I need magic, advanced tech, paranormal anything, to make a modern setting interesting. Why would I write about the present day? At least the past is set in stone. No wondering what awful thing is gonna happen tomorrow.

Here’s a quick elevator pitch:

Gage Gables is a depressed omega, fresh into an early retirement from his private detective job after an accident left him disabled. When an anxious friend invites him to a Halloween party, Gage expects boredom, not a murder. Now Gage must use his experience to find the killer before they can escape, or his pain knocks him down.

I’m putting maybe more of myself into this story than usual. Gage’s disability mirrors my own. I’m currently writing this from a wheelchair, which I use when out of the house for long periods of time. I also use a cane. Gage uses both in this story. Unlike me, however, his pain eases up when he sits down. Mine doesn’t. That’s a bit of wish fulfillment on my part, I think.

This story will have both m/f and m/m romance elements to it, though no romance subplots. Content wise it’s less intense than other stories I’ve got brewing, like most cozies should be. Above all I hope it’s a good mystery. That’s what matters.

My other short stories are a Runner Owen mystery (sequel to Honoria) and a PSI tale that possibly takes inspiration from Pickman’s Model. We’ll see. The novella is the darkest of them all. Let’s just call that one ‘Fish Bloodborne’.

My body is complaining. I should call this here. Feel free to reply back to this or send me a message on Bluesky if you’d like to chat, I’m always available, unless I’m not.

Until next time, y’all, remember: Support human creatives, read banned books, and don’t let the bastards grind you down.

Vincent Lore