Maggie Slater

Love Me to the Bone
Draft 1

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Words Added: 1,505

What Happened in the Story: Madeline reacts to seeing her boss find–and not care–about her notes or even particularly seem to miss her. Irene comforts her and reminds her she still has time to do something for herself in this little slice of remaining life, and invites her to her salon later that evening. Madeline picks herself up out of her depression and decides to figure out what she’s going to do with her time.

Additional Notes: November is apparently No-School-Ber, because the boys yet again have no school tomorrow, so I don’t know how much writing I’ll get done then. But I’m so glad I sat down and got some work done today! I think I’ve learned my lesson: as much as it’s nice to stay home and take my schedule a little more slowly, I really do work best when I get into the office. It’s a work-centric space, and there’s nothing else to do there BUT work, and it’s quiet and nothing distracts me.

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Thanks for following along, and I hope you enjoy the ride! I’ll try and make these daily updates (on writing days), but I’ll probably miss a few now and then. Sorry about that in advance, but I’ll do my best to be consistent. If you’re craving some personal stakes in this process, feel free to toss me a “You Can Do It!” donation at my Ko-fi shop! I’m going to need a lot of coffee for this…

Love Me to the Bone
Draft 1

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Words Added: 1,404

What Happened in the Story: Madeline waits in line to use the more popular kinetoscope, thinking perhaps the more popular one gives better memories. She feels certain that today is the day she’ll see what she needs to see, and she will! Just not in the way she’d been hoping…

Additional Notes: WE HIT THE END OF ACT 1!!! EVERYTHING IS HITTING THE FAN FOR REAL NOW! *ahem* Anyway, very excited, as you can see, to get to the end of the first act. It took some serious effort to get there, and while I didn’t get there in October, I did at least get there fairly early in November! Hopefully, too, things will get more exciting from here and produce a little faster word-count tallying, but we’ll see.

Also, if you like my work and would like to keep up with what I’m doing on a fun, monthly basis, I just launched my physical newsletter, which will be mailed out at the end of each month. It’ll include an exclusive flash fiction story, info about what I’ve got coming out, what I’m working on, a comic of some kind, and recommendations, among other things. If you’re interested in receiving one (physical or digital), just reach out to me on my Contact form and let me know.

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Thanks for following along, and I hope you enjoy the ride! I’ll try and make these daily updates (on writing days), but I’ll probably miss a few now and then. Sorry about that in advance, but I’ll do my best to be consistent. If you’re craving some personal stakes in this process, feel free to toss me a “You Can Do It!” donation at my Ko-fi shop! I’m going to need a lot of coffee for this…

Love Me to the Bone
Draft 1

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Words Added: 2,390

What Happened in the Story: Two scenes here, actually–one’s in sequence, so we’ll start with that: Madeline goes with Irene and her friends (Marjorie, Jesse, and Annie) to the Electro-graph, which turns out to be short for Electrophantasmograph, a device that allows the recently dead to communicate with the living, via medium or Ouija board. Madeline tries to pass on a specific message, but the limitations of the device are intensely frustrating, and she has a little mini-meltdown and leaves. / Scene 2 is from later in Act 2, in which she once again hears the broken hearted man on the other side of her wall and wonders if she ought to tell him she can hear him.

Additional Notes: Little behind on updating today–I actually wrote half of this yesterday and half today while retyping (have I mentioned how bizarre it is that I’m handwriting this stuff?), but it turns out today’s a NO SCHOOL day, so I haven’t been particularly productive because of it. That said, it was really nice to sleep in, so I can’t complain too much. Regular routine starts up again tomorrow.

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Thanks for following along, and I hope you enjoy the ride! I’ll try and make these daily updates (on writing days), but I’ll probably miss a few now and then. Sorry about that in advance, but I’ll do my best to be consistent. If you’re craving some personal stakes in this process, feel free to toss me a “You Can Do It!” donation at my Ko-fi shop! I’m going to need a lot of coffee for this…

Love Me to the Bone
Draft 1

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Words Added: 387

What Happened in the Story: Madeline bumps into Irene in the hall after a minor falling out, and gets herself invited along to check out the Electro-gram, whatever that is. According to Irene, it’s “a hoot.”

Additional Notes: I always think I’ll get so much done at the end of October, but it’s always such a visual-art heavy period, I so rarely have the energy to do both writing and crafting. So I’m trying something I’m calling “Low Gear” writing, when I know a time-frame is going to be particularly challenging or distracting, I’m going to try to keep touching the project daily, but expecting on the tiniest effort to move it forward. In this case: 100 new words. It’s easy, it takes about 5 minutes at MOST, and I could do that even if I was sick in bed. But I think keeping that touch-point will help maintain forward momentum, even if very slow (just like low gear on a bike can get you up a hill without too much pain). I think that may help keep my opinion of the project in a good place, too, because my goals won’t be screaming like a car stuck in high gear when it really needs to be at a low one! And there may be times when the writing is coming fast and easy–the classic highway or straight-away–in which I can kick into “High Gear” and punch out 2k or more to make faster progress. We’re going to try it anyway!

I also have a story I need to edit for tomorrow, so I’ll probably do that then, rather than this, so maaaaaybe I’ll have an update tomorrow? Otherwise, I’ll see you in November!

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Thanks for following along, and I hope you enjoy the ride! I’ll try and make these daily updates (on writing days), but I’ll probably miss a few now and then. Sorry about that in advance, but I’ll do my best to be consistent. If you’re craving some personal stakes in this process, feel free to toss me a “You Can Do It!” donation at my Ko-fi shop! I’m going to need a lot of coffee for this…

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Love Me to the Bone
Draft 1

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Words Added: 2,137

What Happened in the Story: Madeline continues to check out the kinetoscope and sees a slew of people–some familiar, some not–thinking about her posthumously, but not the people she *wants* to see. Irene’s being elusive, and not coping with Nikolai’s passing well. Madeline finds a hole in the wall behind her wallpaper. Weird. Also, in the kinetoscope, there’s this cute guy who keeps thinking and thinking and thinking about her, almost all the time, but she can’t for the life of her (ha!) remember who he is. It’s a meet-cute mystery!

Additional Notes: I’m not dead yet! At least, not totally. Boy oh boy, that 20% wall hit me HARD this week. To be fair, although the writing has been slooooooooow (sooooo sloooooow) and difficult, I’m at least conscious that this always happens at this point in any long manuscript. It’s not even just me! I’ve talked to a bunch of fellow authors who ALSO slam into a motivation-wall right at the 20-25% mark. You’d think I’d know to expect it–and I kind of did?–but its intensity has still surprised me this week.

Probably also didn’t help that I was a bit under the weather Sunday and Monday, and the past half of the month has been SO BUSY–good, but busy–that I’m just energetically BURNT. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been working on something (even if not on the novel, which *tsk tsk* I know. But I also know sometimes I need a little break to rebuild energy for a project)! It’s been a very draw-y/visual week.

I went to the Boston BookFest this past Saturday, and got to meet the fabulous folks behind Redivider! I was talking to one of the editors about how I write odd stuff, like sentient bread, and she was like, “Oh, we love that kind of thing! We once published a story about a guy who melts down a shower drain!” and I was like O-M-G THAT WAS MEEEEE!!!!! #cantmakethisstuffup It was such a lovely time, and I got to sign a copy of my story for a fellow reader while there. (see my sketch-notes page below!)

Also, it’s HALLOWEEN WEEK, which means I’m in full-out costume-making mode. I should always expect the last week of October to be a bit wild and crafty, rather than thoughtful and wordy. I’m having entirely too much fun making things with my hands. Thing 1 is going as Baby Saja from KPop Demon Hunters, and Thing 2 is going as Derpy (also from KPop Demon Hunters). #iykyk

(Photo) My mom found an article from the old Telegraph newspaper about my 8th grade essay that placed 2nd in State for MLK Jr Day! Awww, I was so liiiiiittle!

This week, I’ve been leaning hard into the re-launch of The Placebo Emporium, my ridiculous, absurd little Etsy shop that I opened TEN YEARS AGO, and closed because it turned out running even a small shop with a one-year-old and no help was much too challenging for me at that point in time. But I’ve got time now, and I’m hoping to reopen the shop in November with at least a few things. I’ll do a proper post about what’s coming from good old Dr. Eponymous in the next few weeks, but for now, I’m designing labels, ordering inventory, figuring out business mechanics, and making sure I get off on the right foot from the start. But my brain’s been hitched to the visual-design train for the past few days in a feverish rush to redesign everything. It’s fun and exciting, but it’s meant my words-brain hasn’t wanted to do anything longer than silly ad copy. But we’ll get back to it! November’s a great writing month, and if I can manage to hammer out the last tiny bit of Act One, I’ll be set for all of Act 2 in November.

NOTE: I did not realize you can scroll these photos from side to side! I’ve got a bunch of shots from the week!

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Thanks for following along, and I hope you enjoy the ride! I’ll try and make these daily updates (on writing days), but I’ll probably miss a few now and then. Sorry about that in advance, but I’ll do my best to be consistent. If you’re craving some personal stakes in this process, feel free to toss me a “You Can Do It!” donation at my Ko-fi shop! I’m going to need a lot of coffee for this…

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Love Me to the Bone
Draft 1

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Words Added: 1,217

What Happened in the Story: Madeline tries the Kinetoscope for the first time, and is irritated to find all it shows are silent movies of living people having memories of her. She sees her mother, her sister, her father, the woman from the front desk of the office she visited the day she died, her neighbors, and a man she doesn’t recognize, but not her boss, which is who she was hoping to see, to confirm her package arrived okay. Frustrated, she decides to go back and talk to Irene to see if there’s a way to see exactly what you want to see, not just what it serves.

Additional Notes: Took a while to get started today, but not because I was lazy! I was getting my back-end business stuff set up, registering with the IRS, all that FUN junk one needs to do, but it’s done! I even opened a business bank account! Isn’t that exciting? Not really, but kinda? Anyway–got all that stuff done, and then got to writing work. It was a bit clunky today, and I may need to cut that scene back a bit, since it *feels* long, but we’ll see when we come back to it.

Oh! But I’ve got pictures from the party!

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Thanks for following along, and I hope you enjoy the ride! I’ll try and make these daily updates (on writing days), but I’ll probably miss a few now and then. Sorry about that in advance, but I’ll do my best to be consistent. If you’re craving some personal stakes in this process, feel free to toss me a “You Can Do It!” donation at my Ko-fi shop! I’m going to need a lot of coffee for this…

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Love Me to the Bone
Draft 1

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Words Added: 1,115

What Happened in the Story: Madeline, having successfully mailed her MOST IMPORTANT NOTES to work at the Dead Letter Office, finds herself in that usual post-success slump. She decides to walk the city a bit, to get to know it better so she doesn’t feel so lost, and winds up cutting through the Requiem Gardens, a pretty city garden. After this, she wanders to the outskirts of town, and finds a little-used Kinetoscope and decides to give it a try.

Additional Notes: Phew! I was worried about today, because it’s been a minute since I was in the draft, and heaven knows how hard it is to get back on the horse after such a long break. BUT, in my defense, I had a killer 40th birthday party on Sunday (not my actual birthday, that was earlier this month) where we went to our local roller skating rink and rocked out to 90s music and ate cheap (but surprisingly good) pizza and had ice cream cake and played laser tag. It was AWESOME. We all had so much fun, and I only fell ONCE, and didn’t hurt myself, for which I was grateful.

Then Monday, Thing 2 had extensive dental work (7 fillings EEK!) under sedation, so I spent the day keeping him company and snuggling and watching Gabby’s Dollhouse and getting him soft foods to eat. He’s doing great now, but WHOOOO was he mad when he came out of the anesthesia. I do believe the phrase, “THIS IS THE WORST DAY OF MY LIFE” was used at least once. By 4PM, though, the rest of the anesthesia had worn off, and he was jumping and running and chipper as anything, and you’d never have guessed he had three hours of dental work done. He’s quite the trooper. Needless to say, I was emotionally and physically exhausted.

I did manage to get a good chunk of business planning/etc. done yesterday, during our recovery day (which, honestly, I don’t think he really needed, since he spent the whole day running around, crashing into things as usual, shrieking with delight, and complaining about being bored). I also brought him along when I went to sign off on my LLC paperwork, so I can now officially announce that ODDSCOPE PRESS LLC is a thing! This is the business I’ll run my Etsy shop off (The Placebo Emporium is coming back!), and sell zines and other things through. It’s not up yet, as I’m still establishing a few backend things and figuring out best next steps, but I’ll let you know when it goes live.

In the meantime, I’m just glad to be getting back on the writing horse. PHEW. So glad there were words to find in my head today…

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Thanks for following along, and I hope you enjoy the ride! I’ll try and make these daily updates (on writing days), but I’ll probably miss a few now and then. Sorry about that in advance, but I’ll do my best to be consistent. If you’re craving some personal stakes in this process, feel free to toss me a “You Can Do It!” donation at my Ko-fi shop! I’m going to need a lot of coffee for this…

I don’t know if it’s the weather changes or the fact that this week has been so busy and we went to Boston yesterday (Atsuko Okatsuka FTW!!! Woooo!), or if it’s because I wrote yesterday when I typically take an art day, or that I’ve been hyper-focusing doodling and on Etsy shop stuff lately and going down the LLC/craft-business/small biz bookkeeping rabbit hole, or the fact that NEXT week will be even BUSIER, but my brain is FRIED. KAPUT. TOTAL STATIC.

I hit 14k yesterday, which is INSANE given I just started writing the novel on October 1st. I’m about 1k away from the word count goal post for the end of Act 1, and I’ve still got a bit to go, so it’ll probably wrap up a little closer to 16-17k, if I had to guess. It feels like there’s 3k left to go. OH! But I forgot that I wrote 2k on future scenes, so ACTUALLY, I’m at 12k aiming for 15k, so I’m SPOT ON schedule! I knew it felt like 3k to go.

Well, that feels nice to realize.

I’ve also got to remember to pick up the kiddos at a certain time, because Thing 1 is getting his hair trimmed, and I missed the window for a decent pickup time at Hannaford’s, so we’ll have to swing by a grocery store on the way home (OR NOT), and apparently my folks are having guests visit which I 100% forgot about, AND **AND** the guys are coming to install the library ladder, which is 100% a sentence I never thought I’d get to say, but I’m JAZZED. Will definitely post photos after they’re done.

Also I need to get cushions for the window seats in the wee library…

*bzzt* *bzzt* **ERROR 404: Brain Not Found**

So to be kind to myself, I’m giving myself the day off from writing. I know my brain’s not functioning where I’d need it to be to stay on topic, so I’ll focus on some other, chill stuff that I need to get through. I’m probably also stuck in that wait-mode where I know I have something coming up (ladder guys/pick up kiddos) that I don’t want to forget or be late to, so it’s all my brain’s focusing on. Also, I haven’t eaten great today, so that may not be helping. Also, too much coffeeeeeeeee….not helping enough…

But-! I did get some real life, oh-my-gosh-it’s-on-paper mail: Extra Soft Animals’ paper newsletter, which is so freaking charming! Check them out at https://www.extrasoftanimal.com !

Ah! And it’s official, I’ve got a story coming out in Phantom Worlds: The Cellar Door Issue #6 :

When an old flame walks back into Zach’s life and gifts him the key to the tattooed door on her stomach, Zach takes the opportunity to slip into the alternate world inside her that smells like sugar and spice. But all is not beautiful inside his heartbroken ex. Something stalks her psychological halls, and given the chance, it’ll make sure Zach never breaks her heart again. “My Love Will Consume You” is a story about settling for less than you deserve, dangerous candy (this is becoming a theme, isn’t it?¹), the sugar and spice girls are apparently made of, and the old adage–“when people tell you who they are, believe them.”

Pre-order Phantom Worlds here!

¹ To read another candy-related horror short story I’ve written, check out “Candyland” in Apex Magazine #125.

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Love Me to the Bone
Draft 1

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Words Added: 1,145

What Happened in the Story: Continuing on consecutive scenes, on the way back to her apartment, Madeline hears the chime that marks the passing of a day. Her train ticket now says 2, and a new chapter is begun: Day 2. I doubt I’ll put in every single day, but I like the idea of marking chapters by the count to 365, the total number of days she has in Requiem. She finds her requested supplies, thank goodness!, and gets cracking, which is way easier when you don’t get hungry and don’t get tired. She bangs out her magnum opus, a file of 43 pages of notes for her colleagues, and indexes it and tabs it, and it’s freaking beautiful. Then she takes this back to the Dead Letter Office, begs it to deliver the document quickly to her company, and lets it drop down the chute and out of her hands. The chime rings again, and we break for the next chapter: Day 3.

Additional Notes: Didn’t think I’d get a chance to write much today. My brain just wasn’t turning on this morning, and I couldn’t quite lock down what I wanted to get into words, which is always a sign I need to think a bit more. Rarely does jumping into a scene without a clear idea of what the heck it’s supposed to be about helped me, and usually leads to scenes that get cut later because I hadn’t even thought about why they were there.

So what to do? I listened to music for a bit, not my usual playlist, because none of those songs quite fit the mood I was looking for. I sifted through other music I had on my computer, some very old, some less so, trying to get a feel for what I needed. In the end, I needed GirlBoss music, Florence & the Machine, St. Vincent, and Shiny Toy Guns, something with some drive and intensity to mirror her own emotional state. She’s got SHIT to do! It’s got to be done now! She needs to pump herself up!

I also found some songs I think will be great to suit Devon when he appears, and I suspect they’ll spend some time sharing music together, because his vibe is very much more Family Band, Empathy Test, Broken Bells, Anberlin, and The Midnight. I’d love to include some specific album names in the book, because I’m really, really loving it when I come across media or films referenced in books and stories that I can follow up on if I so choose–kind of an anti-algorithm recommendation system.

Also finished watching Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express, and now I’m describing this book as if Wong Kar-wai made a movie about skeleton lovers in the afterlife. Its vibe is SPOT ON–atmospheric, romantic, listless, longing–and Wong can be a bit weird in his own work. Gosh, what I wouldn’t do to see Madeline in a cute dress slow-mo walking through the skeleton city in Wong’s characteristic style! It’d be so freaking gorgeous, I’d break down in tears. Faye Wong would absolutely kill as a Madeline casting, too, and now I have to work not to see Tony Leung as the soul-crushed Devon.

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Thanks for following along, and I hope you enjoy the ride! I’ll try and make these daily updates (on writing days), but I’ll probably miss a few now and then. Sorry about that in advance, but I’ll do my best to be consistent. If you’re craving some personal stakes in this process, feel free to toss me a “You Can Do It!” donation at my Ko-fi shop! I’m going to need a lot of coffee for this…

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Love Me to the Bone
Draft 1

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Words Added: 1,715

What Happened in the Story: (Whoops! Forgot to add this…) Let’s see, it was a two scene day, so in the late Act-2 pinch-point scene, Madeline rushes to say goodbye to Irene, whose time to leave has come. They have a sweet, heartbreaking goodbye on the train platform, and Madeline is then on her own. In the chronological scene, Irene takes Madeline to the Dead Letter Office, where Madeline meets–briefly–Alex, the FIRE/retire early guy who mails $5s, $10s, and $20s to random places like statues in public parks, hiking trails, and gutters for people to find. Then Irene heads off to soak in a hot spring (bones get cold), and Madeline returns to her apartment to finish her urgent work project.

Additional Notes: Phew! A low-energy day that still ended up turning into quite a few words more than I thought I’d get. When I came into the office, I was so deeply unmotivated, but I did my usual routine of listening to some of my soundtrack to get in the mood, and then decided to write a later pinch-point scene. That one ended up being about 800 words, and I like to hit at least 1k/day just to make sure we’re moving forward at a good clip, so I listened to the soundtrack again after that scene got typed up, and decided I could, actually, tackle a little bit of the next chronological scene. I figured, well, 200 words won’t take that long. Ended up with 915 to wrap that scene. So two scenes written today, even though both are on the shorter end, still added up to a lot of progress! Woohoo!

Now I need a nap.

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Thanks for following along, and I hope you enjoy the ride! I’ll try and make these daily updates (on writing days), but I’ll probably miss a few now and then. Sorry about that in advance, but I’ll do my best to be consistent. If you’re craving some personal stakes in this process, feel free to toss me a “You Can Do It!” donation at my Ko-fi shop! I’m going to need a lot of coffee for this…