"If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." - Toni Morrison
"Don't forget - no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell." - Charles de Lint

15 April, 2023

Random Is as Random Does

Every now and then I feel the urge to post a mishmash o' stuff rather than specific subjects, and this is one of those times. Yeah. Semi-bulleted list coming fast at you! 

- I'm considering making Ghosts and Tea an 8 - 10 book collection. I've discussed this before, but this is a contained train of books, so to speak, just like the Masks series. I'll end this collection with a satisfying conclusion but also with a hint of open-endedness in the sense that even after the last book, Prue and Freddy's adventures will carry on. 

So far I've got ideas for book number seven (Ada and the Singing Skull), and I'll need to start toying with stuff for book eight since I'm set to write book seven in the second half of May, which may overlap the writing of Charon's Crossing. Those two newer books will be done before I know it, and I have to be ready to dive into what comes after. 

- There are gothic horror retellings of folktales lurking in the back room for future Grotesqueries books. One of my favorite stories is "The Pied Piper of Hamelin", and I'd love to write a horror retelling of that story (already have a vague idea that I'll be writing notes for down the line, but there's no rush). There's also "Bluebeard", which is already a gothic horror story to begin with, but I'd like to give it a shot all the same. 

- Things are slowly shaping up at the dayjob, and I was told I'm going to be evicted from my workstation (ha!) and finally take up the role I was trained for (production coordinator), which means actual custom framing only as needed or whenever I don't have any more admin / coordinating left to do. Sigh. With any luck, though, that'll also mean less of a strain on myself as our current situation with us being sorely understaffed for too long got me not at all doing admin stuff but dividing my attention between problem-solving, framing, and preparation work with orders the stores couldn't do in-house. 

And what that means is that I won't be so physically and mentally drained to the point where I'm eating garbage (see: stress eating), which is such a terrible temptation when I'm in that state. My dayjob and what it takes out of me is the reason why I'm very much a weekend warrior when it comes to writing. It's also a good chunk of the reason why I've cut down on my output from novels to long novellas, but that's a much-needed and appreciated change. See: age. 

- My time over at Mastodon is also getting me inspired to take pictures of what I see around me, mostly plant life. I love nature photography, and while I'm only armed with an old iPhone, I can still take pictures as needed, and I'd love to share them here as well. I prefer to post stuff using my laptop to begin with, and I only use my phone to read articles, blogs, social media posts whenever I'm away from home. If I could completely avoid using the measly keypad on a phone, I'll do it. 

- And speaking of random, here's today's random music. Actually, not quite random as I'm a massive fan of Nox Arcana and own Theater of Illusions (in addition to other albums from them). This track's my favorite. 

And I guess that's it for now. I'm hoping to post more frequently and more regularly here once the dust settles at the dayjob.

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