The Cat & the Comma Issue # 32

Last night marked one of my most favorite times of the year: Halloween. As a kid, I so loved the ability to dress up in costume and go door to door for sweet treats I often didn’t eat the rest of the year. I loved the chill in the air. I loved the pumpkins, and the haunts, and the unanimous agreement that, for one night only, we all could pretend to be something else and scare the shit out of each other.

I don’t get to do much of that anymore, but the sentiment still remains.

This year was similar. I live in an apartment, so I didn’t have kids stop by my door asking for tricks or treats (though I would have provided either, if asked). And I myself am considered too old to do such a thing. But still, in our own way, we celebrated.

Anyway. Let’s talk about October.

Misc. Professional Update

A Sharper, More Lasting Pain turned one this month! October 10th, 2024, I released my debut novel out into the world and out of the confines of my own brain. While I’ve admittedly been terrible at advertising it (social media remains the bane of my existence), I am incredibly proud with how it has been received. Between 8 Indie Ink Award nominations, being told I was someone’s favorite book of 2024, having multiple people live-chat their responses in my Discord DMs… It’s intimate. It’s personal. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Speaking of ASMLP, we’re getting to the tail end of a Halloween sale. ASMLP is currently 99 cents until tonight. This time of year is a perfect time to read it.

Which leads me to Nonbinary November! Nerdy_Little_Creative over on Instagram was kind enough to get together a group of nonbinary authors and readers to kick off a reading event elevating books by and about nonbinary people! You can reference this post going over the challenge, or reference this graphic:

Additionally, it is registered as a reading challenge over on Storygraph, which you can look at and update your progress for here. You can even use ASMLP for the challenge, ahem. Throughout the month, I will be sharing on my Instagram lots of books which would satisfy the challenge, so keep an eye out!

October also allowed me to take part in another local author event at my Barnes & Noble, which was a lot of fun! And if you again check my Instagram, you’ll see a post about the day, including a picture of Pickle, an African Bullfrog a fellow author brought in. How neat!

Looking into November, I don’t currently have any major events planned. It’s a slow wind-down to the end of the year, to be honest. I prefer it that way.

Writing Update

I set out for October to be a productive month, given how it was supposed to be the month I sprinted to 31k across a variety of projects. Instead, I was confronted with an intense and serious wave of burnout. I did get some work done, regardless…but it was a struggle.

First, The Distance Between Stars and Salt, which is now at 70,448 words. The end of this draft is quite literally within sight… Just in time for me to apply to Round Table Mentorship! I am doing a quick sprucing up of it before I submit it for consideration. Wish me luck!

Here’s a snippet of where I’m at right now:

Your eyes, three once more, narrowed. “You’ve… you’ve been asleep for some time,” you said. “I didn’t want…”

You didn’t finish the thought, and I couldn’t begin to guess what you were attempting to suggest. Still, I made to push myself upright—

Only for an animalistic bellow to escape me as my hands touched earth.

“Saints.” You yanked me forward by my shirt collar, slumping my injured hand across my lap. “Don’t put pressure on your hand.”

My gaze drifted like leaf-fall to my lap and to the bandaged lump of flesh resting on top. Even the slightest flex of my hand was enough to send another shudder of pain through me.

If you’re intrigued by this project and what comes out of it, you can currently read the whole zero draft—or up to chapter 20 of the first draft—if you become a member of my Patreon! It even is formatted like how I hope the final product will look like.

No matter how many times I tell myself I’m going to work on Those Who Emerge from Ashes, something always manages to get in the way. Right now, that is Flesh of My Flesh, Dark of My Dark, a novel whose genre I’ve struggled to define. I’ve called it a few things: dark romantic fantasy, fantasy horroromance, dark Maltese steampunk fantasy… Still not 100% sure what I would like to call it, but hopefully my writing group can help me narrow it down. The outline is complete, in any case… and it’s a bit of a hefty one. Again, we’ll see what my writing group says about it, because I want to have the outline tweaked before I start officially writing it.

Finally, let’s bring out the word tracker.

And now, stats:

For the month of October, I wrote a total of 19,039 words and an average of 1,587 words per session. And here’s an updated breakdown of what stage of writing I’ve spent what amount of words on, too:

Media Update

I once again keep rotating which books I’m reading and when. For example, I am drawing towards the end of The Cradle of Eternal Night, as well as Metal from Heaven by August Clarke. Both are wonderful, dyke-heavy reads.

As for games, I continue my slow trek across Hallownest in Hollow Knight, and have begun to dive into the remastered Final Fantasy Tactics. The latter is highly lauded and I’m eager to dive into it, though the combat has been killer for me. I’m also working more through Pokemon Black 2 post-game—though I’ll soon be trading for my spouse’s White 2, since I have and completed the original Pokemon White. I love these games so much. They’re peak Pokemon to me.

Still, when I picked up Pokemon Legends: Z-A, I knew the experience wouldn’t quite compare…but I still find myself disappointed nonetheless. At least megas return, I guess, and I can make my trainer incredibly cute. The catching mechanic is neat, the battles are made more unique now by the change in combat mechanics. Still, the story leaves much to be desired and Pokemon’s penchant for laziness in terms of graphics and performance are abundantly clear still. A bit of a sad entry, which makes my departure from the franchise all the more disappointing. I will still play the older games, but it’s clear Pokemon is now heading in a direction I no longer want to follow. Bittersweet, I suppose.

On the media front, most of what I’ve been watching has been video essays, to be honest. So not too much to say here.

Blog and Video Update

I did one livestream this month, wherein I worked on the outline for Flesh of My Flesh, Dark of My Dark for a while. You can see into my thought process yet again on how I approach outlines, my intentions with the novel overall, and more. And, even better, you can hear this one! I did a soundtest beforehand, which helped. The audio mixing is a bit… mid later on, but still it is a marked improvement.

In terms of essays, I have officially completed my essay on class divides in writing spaces and it will go live later this month. Probably in a week or so? So keep an eye out for “Cost of Entry: On Class and Writing Communities”!

The Cat Recommends

I like to use this space to shout out other indie writers, cause I think we could all use a boost from time to time. This time, I’m using the space to shout out Nicole Leland and her newest release, Hearts of Bark and Scale! It just came out on the 27th—congrats!

The world is blood and pain, but still there’s love.

All Kvisti has ever wanted is to protect her desert village in a way that would make the Mother Tree proud. Unfortunately, an old injury has left her once-potent dryad powers broken, and she can’t even stop the ruthless magic poachers that invade her village for the scraps of magic she still holds.

Snake shifter Iason is bound to a criminal snake den for the sake of his rare healing magic. But the magic poachers want his magic, too. When the poachers throw Kvisti in the same magic-proof cell as Iason, the two are inexorably drawn together, bonding over past traumas. In their isolation, they begin to heal each other, finding a connection deeper than they imagined possible.

But when disaster strikes the poachers, Kvisti and Iason are abandoned in their cell with no hope for freedom.

In a world that thrives on cruelty and despair, love may be their only salvation. Can Kvisti and Iason break free of their prison and the pasts that haunt them before their connection is torn apart? Will the delicate new feelings taking root in their hearts bloom, or will the desert bury them? When blood and pain are a constant, love is a fragile thing—but one worth fighting for.

You can read more about Hearts of Bark and Scale here and purchase it here!

The Cat Thanks

One of the perks for higher-tier patrons is shout-outs at the end of newsletters. Special thanks to Ceph and Larkspur. If you want to have your name here with theirs, subscribe to my Patreon!

And that’s a wrap. I wish you well on all of your endeavors and hope you stay safe.

Kindest regards,

Alex