ISSUE 003. NEW BEGINNINGS
The birds are chirping, even as the lightning flashes.
Dearest Reader,
It has certainly been a while! Last we spoke I had recently returned from Melbourne, now a year later much has happened, much has changed, I am changed.
But first some housekeeping for those new or returning, as well as for myself. Deathly Devoted is a craft and musing newsletter by yours truly, Ren CS Platts. It used to be hosted on Substack but I have moved, as Substack has some very shady aspects that I cannot in good conscience abide. So, here we are with a completely fresh start!
Other than the new home, my list of current works in progress has altered slightly. The ones that I will currently discuss in varying degrees of detail are (in order of priority):
Death Defying; an adult Gothic fantasy about, you guessed it, Death! It has 3 POV characters, Alistair, Lenore, and Mina. I’m currently re-drafting it for what I hope is the final time before I begin editing it!
Bloodied Pearls (this is a stand-in for the actual title); an adult Gothic romance/horror about mortality and immortality and love that transcends those barriers.
Little Witches; a very, very new WIP that is Little Women meets the work of the Brothers Grimm. I will be conducting research for this project in the new year, it’s currently just percolating. But I look forward to teasing out threads of plot in the coming months!
I also work on this newsletter (and hope to become more regular with it, let me know what you’d like to hear about from me!) and short stories intermittently, though I plan to work on short fiction in order to stretch my writing muscles! With housekeeping out of the way, let us dive into some exciting personal developments, new favourites, and how I’ve been going with words lately.
THE WRITER
So!!! In the last year I finished my Diploma of Library and Information Studies 😭, a long process that was genuinely so rewarding. I am so happy to have the piece of paper saying I FINISHED SOMETHING. Then, a week or so later I started my Bachelors of Information Studies. I’m a little over halfway through, thank you Diploma credits, and am definitely loving the journey. Perhaps the most exciting piece of news though is that I’m officially working in libraries! I am a library assistant and loving it even more than I imagined.
Between that and moving (a stressful process at the time) I’m feeling more like myself than I perhaps have ever? It helps that I am enjoying my job, enjoying my hobbies, and it feels so wonderful to be in a space where I feel safe and comfortable.
THE WRITING
Amidst the new job, several personal things going on, and moving I admittedly got… no writing done. Like, at all. Which tanked my mood until I realised that was WHY I was in a foul mood. Now that the dust has very much settled my writing muse is steadily returning and with a vengeance. Alongside Death Defying I have begun keeping a few journals, each with a different purpose. The line that opened this newsletter was something I wrote in my daily pages journal (something I’m attempting to varied success, as I read Julie Cameron’s Write for Life). It was what I could hear and see at the time, shout out to the birds that have taken to hiding in our roof and the stormy weather. As I wrote it, I felt it resonate and sink into my bones. It’s how I’ve felt several times this year and many years previous. The lightning may flash but the birds will chirp regardless. They must continue to chirp.
As I have restarted it before, Death Defying no longer frightens me as it once did. I can see the end with absolute certainty, even as I only write down the foundations of it in a notebook. I am attempting a new method of plotting and I hope it will see me through this draft. I want to see this book done. I want to begin plotting the next and the next after that. I want something more to show for my years of work.
I will continue to try.
CRAFT TALK
Rewriting is not for the weak. Writing is not for the weak, actually. It’s hard, even on the good days, to muster the energy. For me it is a very vulnerable act. Even writing mostly fiction, as I do, I can’t help but pour myself into every word. Perhaps that is why I’m so eager to dive back in now, when I am feeling the best I have as an adult.
It is when I’m feeling like this that I can feel comfortable digging out my weaker parts. My fear of abandonment, of death, of forgetting who I am and what it is that makes me me. I look forward to working on book, to writing my daily pages, and finding out more about myself. I look forward to poking at bruises in the form of memories and potentially finding something new to pour out onto the page. I feel anew and I hope that my work begins to reflect that.
CURRENT FAVOURITES
I have been very lucky to read, see, and listen to some absolutely brilliant pieces of work in the last year; but I’ve tried to narrow it down a bit for the sake of my fingers and your time! Let us speed run some books I’ve loved to begin:
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab. V.E. continues to be my favourite modern author, weaving stories and delectable prose in a way that is equal parts addictive and envy inducing. This latest novel is no exception, even as I yearn for more of that world and those women. I will always adore messy women in fiction. Especially when they’re gay.
This Vicious Hunger by Francesca May, for more messy, gay women making mistakes and corpses along the way. Definitely a hidden gem from this year and I was so grateful to receive and eArc of it!
House of the Beast by Michelle Wong was an absolutely fantastic exploration of toxic relationships, whether that be with faith, or romantic in nature. The author’s illustrations throughout only added to my enjoyment and I could not recommend it enough!
The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson is a fast-paced and immersive first book in the Eternal Path Trilogy! It’s part murder mystery, part trial based novel with a fascinating religious and magic system. Neema is a brilliantly crafted main character who I felt immensely sorry for throughout.
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. Unlike anything I’ve ever read or may ever read again. Thank you Riah for the recommendation, this still haunts me. Tragic and funny and just so damn weird.
Savage Blooms by S.T. Gibson is an erotic fantasy romance that I would only recommend to a very specific type of reader. It is Gothic to its very core and tackles subjects that may make some uncomfortable. I enjoyed it as I have all of Gibson’s previous work, though I found the character work here was even stronger! Eileen has my heart entirely.
The year is still not quite over so who is to say I’ve read my favourite book of the year yet! But there are some very strong contenders.
I would be remiss not to mention perhaps my most anticipated film of the year, Frankenstein as adapted/re-imagined by Guillermo del Toro. He is my favourite director and this film reaffirmed it. Beautiful, tragic, as much a love letter to the source material as it is a meditation on Guillermo’s life, feelings, relationship to Frankenstein and Mary Shelley’s work. Adaptations are hit and miss for me because they are very much products of who made them and when they were made; but GDT’s has so much heart and love put into it. I enjoyed every moment of it and cannot wait to re-watch it forever. Visuals, score, costuming, set design and props. It all comes together to make something stunning. It is such a blessing to see art blossom even as we are told algorithms and AI slop are the future. Thank goodness there is proof that sentiment is utter bullshit.
In television, I’ve been chomping at the bit for the return of Interview with the Vampire so I’ve eagerly watched the first episode of Talamasca. I look forward to catching up as it has enough intrigue + connections to IWTV to keep my interest. Also Jason Schwartzman as a vampire? Yes. I also hope to start Welcome to Derry soon as I’ve been hearing good things about the scare-factor! Additionally, I managed to convince my mum to watch Glee with me. I’ve never finished it or rewatched it after I lost steam with it towards the middle of season 4. She’s never sat down and watched full episodes of it before and to my delight she is enjoying it (as much as one can a Ryan Murphy show, even the better seasons of them). I fear I am still as obsessed with Quinn Fabray as I was at the ages of 13-15.
As for music, I have been thoroughly enjoying The Last Dinner Party’s From The Pyre, Florence + The Machines’ Everybody Scream, and Hayley Williams’ Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party. They are all feeding my writing muse splendidly. I would also love to recommend the self-titled debut album of Worm Girlz! They are a local band I stumbled upon some months ago as they released Jackie, a song inspired by Yellowjackets.
Alas, thank you for joining me after all this time for a ramble. I do so love to yap when the mood strikes.
I am excited for the rest of this year and for the beginning of the next, if you couldn’t tell. Are you? What has been your favourite part of this year? Favourite book or film? I’d love to hear from you ❤️ Feel free to reply to this email, message me on my various socials, or project it into the sky via Batsignal.
Yours always,
Ren CS Platts 🦇