I must say, this week was a bumper week, despite an incessant cough that just won’t go away and hits primarily at night riiiiiight as I’m winding down to bed. Illness has been the name of the game for the past couple weeks, and it’s taken a major toll on my energy level and motivation level. THAT SAID, I’ve kept up with my coursework for FRIGHT CLUB Group 12, and I even hit my first goalpost of 2025: submit one story/month to an anthology/theme call. Except, Gentle Reader, I didn’t just get ONE story out: I GOT THREE. That’s…insane. Unusual, certainly. It just so happened that I’d written a number of flash stories to try out the microfiction assignment for FC, and a couple of those felt like they had enough legs to run on without a huge amount of overhauling. The one I was aiming to get out, I also got out, a humorous look at the insanity of food and health culture in this country at the moment, kind of a banshee scream into the void, but with sentient bread.
YOU HEARD ME.
However, just because I got three out in January, does not mean I’m off the hook for February, since part of that goal is to WRITE a story for a call and submit it. So that’s what I’ll be starting to think about this coming week (and identifying a call that sounds fun with a reasonable deadline).
Inspiration wise—Ah. I finally died in my Long Dark survival world (on Voyageur, thank you, no Stalker, me). I made it 149 days (149!!!!) but a bug in the system trapped me in the Wild Muskeg for weeks, and although I had fondly named myself Elizabeth Wolfeater, for my penchant for wolf meat and my aptitude at taking down rogue canines, it was—indeed—a wolf that took me out in the end. Honestly, that felt just. So I wasn’t too heartbroken. Thing 1 and I are still avidly and somewhat manically awaiting the Nintendo update to the game which will allow for…*drumroll please*…SAFEHOUSE CUSTOMIZATION. *screams in delight* Okay, enough geeking out, but it will be SO. FREAKING. COOL. Provided it doesn’t make the game constantly crash. *fingers crossed*
Since then, I’ve been taking an easier route, restarting me, Thing 2, and Thing 1’s Animal Crossing game, since Thing 2 had started it on his account, named the island something like afsj;aklkajsdfkkfnd and can’t read any of the prompts for opening up other businesses/tasks as the Resident Representative. So we’ve rebooted with me as the RR, and we’re making fine progress now. Sometimes you just want to walk around picking up sticks and weeds and chatting with neighbors, you know?
Oh! Andy and I watched Relic last weekend, and it was AH-MAZ-ING. If you are or have ever been in a caregiving role for aging parents, it’s a punch in the chest, but it’s so, so good. It also really resonated with me having just finished reading House of Leaves, and filmmaker Natalie Erika James mentions that book in some of the inspirations for the movie. It’s LOVELY in that deeply eerie, creepy way, with a *tiny* touch of body horror at the end. But delightfully fun. Gave us Oddity and The Night House vibes. Solid A.
I’ve also been digging back into art and drawing on a regular basis (okay, semi-regular), and had a lot of fun last night sketching people from the documentary Fly, about squirrel-suit base jumpers. One, it’s a great doc if you like extreme sports documentaries as much as I do, and some of the footage—MY GOSH. If you have a desperate fear of heights, probably not the film for you, but if you enjoy watching OTHER people do CRAZY STUFF, then this’ll be right up your alley. It doesn’t pull its punches, though: there are injuries, and they are a bit disturbing, so you’ve been warned.
Otherwise, we’ve gotten a bit of snow this week—even had a surprise delayed opening, and everything right now looks so beautiful and snow-laden and bright under the clear blue sky. Truly a beautiful day. Thing 1 went sledding with a neighborhood friend; Thing 2 clambered up and down the plow piles along the side of our driveway. We had monkeybread for breakfast, thanks to my dad, and mom and I chatted about art. Andy’s seemingly picked up whatever grunge I had the last two weeks, so that’s the only damper on our day so far, poor guy. It may not be Covid, but it’s dumb, whatever it is, and it just. does. not. go. away.
Current stats:
9 Submissions Out for 6 Works
0 New Stories Submitted for the Month (Feb)
0 Rejections for 2025
0 Acceptances for 2025
1 Sub on Hold