Not Bimontly
So. Um. This year has not gone great.
There’s a thing that can happen where you think things are going less terrible than they are, and then reality catches back up to you.
If you’re reading this, chances are you know my mom died earlier this year.
It was a lot.
And then, when I thought maybe I was digging myself out of that hole*, my day job went to shit.
(*It was a metaphorical hole. Also, is digging really the best way to get out of a hole? Why is there a shovel in the hole? And if there can arbitrarily be a shovel, why not a ladder? Also also, there was no ladder in this metaphorical hole. Also also also, the job-shit was also metaphorical. If you squint, there’s some kind of extended fertilizer metaphor at play here maybe. Also also also also, I have not gotten more parenthetical-averse in my time away.)
Anyway. Things got worse. Then they got better. But not much better. The things that were bad are just as bad in retrospect. The things that are bad now are still roughly as bad as they were a week or a month or a bimonth ago.
Only my stamina for putting up with this shit (and/or digging up through it?) has improved.
And that only marginally.
“Cool, Drew! Thanks for sharing!”
Shut up, Imaginary Interlocutor. Nobody likes you.
So what’s new?
That Which is New
I finished reading a book or two.
I mentioned Wee Free Men by the great Terry Prachett in my last newsletter. (Don’t feel bad. I didn’t remember either, but I went back and checked and it’s true!) It started great and ended pretty well, but it gets more plotty (and therefore more conventional) as it goes. The best stuff is in the first third, which is ironic*.
(*Because my ADHD brain frequently only gets that far in novels, and usually I feel bad about it, but if all the best stuff is in the parts I am already reading WHY SHOULD I FEEL BAD**?!?)
(**About that specifically. I am clear on the reasons I feel bad about other things.)
I don’t know whether my own work falls afoul of the same problem, but it’s worth thinking about as I write the new stuff:
Are the things that are unique about the story you’re telling as relevant and vivid at every moment in the piece?
If you write things, you can ask yourself that too! It’s not copyrighted. If you have interesting thoughts about that, you can email me or share them online probably.
I also finished a How to Live Safely in a Science-Fictional Universe by Charles Yu, which is the sort of meta-fictional nonsense that I usually adore. But for some reason, this one didn’t connect for me. I think maybe I wanted it to confound my expectations more, but instead it just did the very weird thing I expected. Maybe you’ll like it though! It has some fun ideas in it.
Also, not a book, but my wife and I started rewatching ER right after the last season of The Pitt ended, and we’re almost done! For folks who don’t know, there were 15 seasons of ER and we are somehow midway through season 14. Which is a lot of hospital trauma comfort watching, but it’s been that kind of year.
Also, I Write Things
There was a long stretch where I wasn’t writing this year, but I am again.
I’m about 115 pages into the manuscript for Percival Gynt and the Academy of Death! now, which is maybe 40% of the way?
It is mostly doing what I want it to do, which is to be silly, mysterious, frequently heartbreaking, and occasionally gross.
I continue to share chapters as I go with my wife and kiddo, as well as my weekly writer’s group, who have all provided invaluable feedback.
(My kiddo recently told me that the ending of Chapter 9 was “too sour”!)
So far, the characters Footface and Gree appear to be early favorites.
Here are names of the first ten chapters:
The Boy in the Box
Translation Errors
A Rival Day
Speak of the Devil
3 Periods at the Start of a Sentence
The Worst Thing Ever
Superimpositions
Quiet Conversations
The Second School
Red Mode
Meanwhile, I’ve made a few chapters of headway into the novella will serves as the direct sequel to A Dark Hole Darkly, which is almost certainly going to be called Another Something Darkly.
(The plan remains to pair it with Ghost & Zombie, hopefully in time for… a Halloween.)
Here are the names of the first six chapters of that:
one
two
three
four
five
six
Um.
I guess those titles are less evocative?
Last Thing Last
I have successfully noticed (!) that October is ADHD Awareness Month.
If you’re reading this newsletter, there’s a strong possibility that you’ve already bought a copy of A Dark Hole Darkly. If not, you can find out more about it (including how to buy) here:
If you DID, did you know that Christmas is coming? Also Hannukah? And probably various people’s birthday’s*???
(*Not THOSE people, obviously. I was talking about the OTHER people.)
It’s a great gift for folks who don’t realize they have ADHD yet.
See you next time!
