Hail and Well Met, Newsletter Friends!

Chapter three of Short Steps, Hail the Great Beast, Devourer of My Meeting Notes, has been published.

It’s an all-hands-on-deck meeting, which isn’t all that unusual because Beelzebub likes an audience. What is unusual is the two people standing next to each other at the front of the conference room. Crowley recognizes them as the two strangers from Heaven’s Gate, although thankfully they don’t seem to return the favor.

“Everyone,” says Beelzebub as people finish taking their seats, “meet Carmine Zuigiber and Raven Sable. They’re consultants with Four Horsemen Resources. California sent them out here as part of the new restructuring efforts, to help us—” she checks her phone “—reorient ourselves towards a new company mission and elevated community consciousness.”

This chapter is, full disclosure, very near and dear to my heart. It contains several of my favorite jokes, introduces two delightful characters, and lead me down some great research rabbit holes. It’s also the chapter which made me realize that I wanted all my chapter titles to be riffs on actual Good Omens lines. I’ve always felt good about it, for lack of a better term—whenever I feel uncertain about what I’ve written this is the chapter I reread to remind myself why I’m doing this.

Anyway, I hope it lives up to the hype.

Dolly Parton’s birthday was this week (January 19th to be exact), which means it’s probably pertinent to mention that 9 to 5 is basically the theme song to Short Steps (I almost picked “It’s Enough to Make You Crazy if You Let It” as the title). If Good Omens took place in the US I’m pretty sure the Bentley would play Dolly Parton. Or maybe Aretha Franklin—Crowley tearing through a burning highway to the sound of Think would be divine.

On the WIP docket: the next thing published is probably once again going to be a new chapter of Short Steps. I’ve continued picking at various drafts against my better judgement, and now have a major backlog of required reading because of my neglect. Ugh. If I do publish something different, it’ll probably skew dark, since Short Steps can be something of a comic overdose at times.

We’ll see how the next couple weeks go.

(Either way, the art mentioned in the end notes of chapter three will be included in the next edition of the newsletter.)

-unsmilingchuck