February 1, 2025

Snuggle close, its February!

February Check-in

February 2025

Hey Friend!

Welcome to this new space! You might notice this looks a little different than my previous messages to you. I’m writing to you from my new newsletter platform Buttondown! This is a lot cheaper and hopefully just as easy to use. You shouldn't experience much difference but it feels nice to me to note that for you.

This month has been….a lot. Between the political upheaval and fearmongering we’re experiencing here in the U.S., the fires in Los Angeles, my day job, my social life and my writing life? This is a pace I’m unused to at this time of year. Which of you upset the gods and caused this?

But really, sending you so much affection, peace and rest. This time is hard friends but we have each other. Just remember that.

You may have seen that I posted a card from the rest deck which I’ve been using every morning to put me in a better space to take care of myself through out the day. I don’t care what your ritual is but find something that allows you to take at least a single moment to yourself in a day. That can be meditation. That could be going outside and just breathing fresh air. It could be journaling. Whatever it is just take the time for yourself. It’s not going to solve all your problems but you deserve it, just because you’re here with us. And I hope you stay with us, stay in the fight.

But get the rest you need.

I’ve spent this month working on short fiction. After having been in novel mode for the last four months this was harder than I expected but a necessary exercise. I managed to mostly keep to my word count goals having written one story that was 4,261 words and one that’s 7,786 words. I even added an extra story when I finished the other two. Are they any good? Can’t tell yet. But they’re done and the nice thing about that is the next time I see a cool call for submissions I have some stories I can look at and make edits to.

And if you’re writing, babe, let me tell you having something lying around just in case is kind of a game changer. The number of times a call has come out but there’s only two weeks from the time I see it and when the story needs to be subbed is wild!!! Build a backlog. You might feel silly in the moment but you are helping future you who you’re probably going to screw over in some other way lol so do at least one nice thing for them.

In February, my plan is to go back to one of the novels I wrote last year and do a full re-write. For our purposes I’ll refer to this project as WSMS, have fun trying to guess the title (don’t do that I don’t want to have to lie to you), and I’ll likely be working on it the next two months. By the end of Q1, I’m hopeful to have nearly a complete draft that I feel excited to give to beta readers so I can work on other projects. We’ll see how it goes but that’s what I’m thinking right now and I’m kind of excited to get back into that world and make it even cooler and improve the writing. Well, hopefully improve the writing. The goal is to have an even stronger draft that I can then edit to be even stronger and if I’m lucky I’ll get querying again soon with this project.

But that’s off in the future somewhere in the great beyond of my hopes and dreams.

via GIPHY

Goals Review:

• Write Shorts/Novelettes: 2/5

• Write novels: 0/2

• Edit shorts/Novelettes: 1/5

• Edit Novel: 0/1

• Beta Novel: 0/1

I did the absolutely fantastic panel on California and SFF with the coolest group of humans. I couldn’t attend all of the other session on the Symposium but the one thing I was struck by is the idea of an archive for creators today. So many of us today write online and simply update the doc and don’t keep versions or notes etc. I often keep the docs I’ve made handwritten notes on for a while but imagine some day someone caring about those hand written notes. Or letters I’ve received etc. I’m not selfish enough to think people are going to be salivating for my archive but the truth is I don’t know. None of us do. So just maybe keep those docs you think are just taking up space in your drawer. Some day a young writer might look at that marginalia and think about their own work and being inspired.

I don’t have any upcoming panels or speaking gigs at the moment! If you know someone whose looking for panelists, don’t forget my name ;)

Reading

	With everything that’s been going on this month I really needed some grounding and I figured out that Octavia E. Butler, Queen of Science Fiction (and much more), would have words that would help. I was right. I got so many little nuggets on writing, on the world we’re living in now. Truly reading this changed my chemistry and gave me stillness in our world of chaos
	I’ve heard the name Chuck Tingle for years and enjoyed the titles of the erotica but never really took it seriously. As Chuck Tingle has shifted to Queer Horror though, it’s been really tempting. The amazing horror book club at A Seat of The Table decided on this book for the month and I was delighted. I really enjoyed this. The main character Mischa is a screenwriter and he’d been asked to do something for $$$, kill his characters. And when he doesn’t readily agree suddenly the characters from his films start showing up and trying to kill him. It GOOD. Some people might find things wrap up to easily but I had a great time.
	Imagine for a second that you’re the courier between two star crossed lovers (separated by a wasteland, family dynamics and societal pressures). You’re riding your mana-bike across this wasteland and falling in love with the two lovers yourself. And suddenly your perfectly curated life of being the unrequited third wheel gets blown up. And did I mention toxic exes?

Watching

	I enjoyed this movie! If you’re looking for an action movie that is also dealing with grief and guilt then this is the movie for you. The earth has been invaded by an unbeatable force that can’t go above 8,000 feet, but very few humans have survived to make it that high. Anthony Mackie has to go below the line to save his ill son and Morena Baccarin is going with him as a guilt-ridden scientist who wants to figure out how to beat the monsters. This was a fun film to watch with my wife on a Saturday night. They even have a little set up for a sequel and I wouldn’t be mad at seeing one.
	I mostly keep these little reviews positive and that’s by design. I like for you all to know what I like and not worry about what I didn’t. But this was the only movie I saw in theaters and I wanted to…share that with you all. I think the thing to know about this movie is, it has some great actors in it. They are not necessarily doing great acting, but there are great actors. This is likely the last of the Sony Spiderman Villain-verse and honestly, they are going out with a whimper and not a bang. The story wasn’t compelling and cohesive. Too much back tracking and flashbacks. And almost no chemistry between any of the characters. Just Yikes.
	I don’t watch everything on Smosh Pit but I watch a LOT of things. I find the Smosh folks very funny, though it is a lot of white people. What can I say, it makes me smile. I especially enjoy: Reddit Stories, Who Meme’d it, Beopardy, and You posted that right now.

Listening