Phew! It’s been a short bit since my last update, but that’s because it’s been CRAZY. Several snow days and some gnarly colds meant bad nights of sleep and also no office time, so I only got into the office once in the past two weeks on Wednesday. But I forgot to bring my computer charger. O__O Did I give up, though? NO! I tried dictating, which was super weird, but incredibly fast. I ended up with close to 1.2k for the day, which given I didn’t have my computer available, was pretty sick.
Then, Thursday, it was off to Christopher Golden’s House of Last Resort convention! The idea came from Brian Keene as a one-time convention to celebrate Christopher Golden’s 30 year career to this point, and also to launch his new book (HoLR).
It was so much fun! Not only did I get to hang out with beloved friends I don’t get to see often, as well as my bestie, I also had lots of great conversations. I met some folks I’d only ever encountered by name on the bookshelves of B&N, and they were so kind and funny and enjoyable to hang out with. Plus, I got a STUPID amount of work done, because my pal Maurice invited me to his AM writing sessions. In the past four days, I have generated 10,000 words, and am within sight of the novel’s ending. Oh, and I got a request to read my work from an author I deeply admire and had a great extended conversation with, too!
It was like one of those daydream cons you wish would happen but never really manifests in reality: hanging with these amazing folks, chatting, deep-dive writing discussions, laughing, asking for signatures super casually, sharing appetizers, feeling like you’re just chilling as part of the gang… It was an epic weekend. The writing that got done is just delicious icing on the cake. (But, like, top-notch Is it Cake level buttercream frosting.)
So I’m coming down off that experience this week. For those who know me, that means I’m incredibly socialed-out and need to veg and recuperate. Also, I picked up either some con-crud cold (not Covid, thankfully!), or the garbage cold Thing 1 had last week finally caught up with me. It’s not terrible, but it’s drippy and sinus-y and annoying. Even so, I nailed my work yesterday, so I’ve only got maybe 4-5k left on the novel. Of course, that 4-5k are all super intense, emotionally demanding scenes that need a lot of focus to write them, sooooooo—yeah! But I’m excited to do them if only because once they’re done, I’m done!
In other news, I’m prepping some short interviews with my fellow Best of Metaphorosis 2023 writers and cover artist, so keep your eye out for those starting soon!
Also, if you like horror, I highly recommend checking out Christopher Golden’s House of Last Resort, which he read the opening of at the convention. The premise is based initially on those houses in Europe selling for 1 Euro in the hopes of drawing new people to towns that are dying out, encouraging renovation and bringing economic life back to those areas. And then, of course, hidden catacombs. Because who doesn’t love hidden catacombs? But the opening is so incredibly gripping, I cannot wait to dive into this book, so if that sounds like something you’d enjoy, definitely check it out!