I’m currently collaborating on a project I’m rather excited about. I think it would be imprudent to give specific details as it may still turn out that my work isn’t a good fit, but I’ll let you know about it when the time comes if everything moves forward. Probably for the next few days, I’ll still be concentrating on that before I can get to other things.
Category: Update
Spaghetti Night
I have a funny story. My wife is a nurse, and she works nights. The other day, when I was off work, I promised her that, before she left for the night shift, I would make her a spaghetti dinner.
I had ambitious plans including a complex, flavorful sauce, meatballs, and garlic bread. I briefly considered homemade noodles but ultimately decided not to be quite that ambitious.
The funny part is that I fell asleep in the middle of the day and woke up when it was time for my wife to go to work. I quickly roused her out of bed (she was running late) and had to send her off with a makeshift dinner.
Fortunately, she has a sense of humor, so this resulted in no particular problems to speak of. In the end, it was probably a good thing, because I finally made her the promised dinner on her first day off after a four-day run, and it took me considerably longer than I anticipated: I started about six, and with her help, got dinner made, eaten, and cleaned up at almost ten o’clock, when I’m writing this post.
Part of the reason I wanted to do this is because we got a food processor as a wedding gift, and I’ve been having fun with it. I made meatballs in which I hid oats, almonds, chia seeds, flaxseed, and the superfood blend I put in my morning protein shakes. In the sauce itself, I pureed almost the entire refrigerator’s worth of vegetables. I followed a recipe as a sort of suggestion rather than a rule as I ground up vine-ripened tomatoes, bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, and three bulbs [sic] of garlic, and mixed them with white wine, olive oil, and whatever spices I felt like. The result was quite flavorful and really good.
We ended up with a ton of this, which is great, because now we’re set for spaghetti for the next week or so.
Working Away
I’ve been out of communication partly because our internet has been wonky, but everything seems to be working again, at least for the time being.
I am admittedly having trouble with Son of Hel, my novel about Krampus and Santa Claus, so for the time being I’m working on the third volume of Jake and the Dynamo, which is under the working title of The Shadow of His Shadow.
I still have manuscripts out but haven’t heard back from publishers. I’m also working on an essay I’m going to submit to an upcoming collection; I’ll tell you more about that when the time comes.
Negative
The magical girl got the results of her test for the Chinese coronavirus back. The results were negative. So there is one case in our town, but so far zero confirmed cases in our house.
Currently working on Son of Hel, and I want to keep plugging away, so I’m not sure I’ll get a post up today. At the moment, I’m working on a sequence in which St. Nicholas entertains Queen Titania of Fairyland, so I’m researching full-course meals to make sure everything is proper and dignified. It’s making me hungry.
Happy Easter
I’m not posting as much as I should because I’m still kind of in honeymoon mode. But it’s been a productive day for me, and I have to admit, in spite of this whole business, I’ve kind of enjoyed being quarantined with my new wife. Originally, before everything went down, we were supposed to have our marriage and honeymoon this next week, so we still have a block of time off coming up, which we’ll now have as a staycation (both of us, fortunately, are still able to work during all of this). Today, I made her brunch while we streamed an Easter Mass from her home country—the Philippines—over her phone.
I also finished a writing project I’ve been working on and a book I’ve been reading, and yesterday I finished something else I want to talk about—so I should have some posts of substance in the next couple of days.
Unfortunately, I still don’t have a publisher at the moment. I have manuscripts out, but what with everything going on, I don’t respect quick responses right now, so I’ll wait a few months before I begin shopping the manuscripts to other places. Anyone reading this blog will of course be first to know if something breaks. I’m contemplating self-publishing Jake and the Dynamo and its sequels.
For now, though, I think it’s time to get to the writing project I intended to start after the one I just finished.
Also, I’ve been really dissatisfied with my physical state since they closed the gym I go to, but my magical girl just introduced me to a great app for home workouts. I did a good one today that left me panting and will continue tomorrow, so I think I can get back in shape. I’m all around in a good mood right now.
I realize not everyone is doing so well, but I hope for good things for all my readers. Stay safe, and happy Easter. He is risen.
So I’m Married
I have to apologize again for failing to post regularly, but at least I have an excuse this time: I’ve been on my honeymoon, sort of.
Since the global zombie apocalypse or equivalent is currently underway, things have been kind of weird for the magical girl and me. Naturally, our wedding plans fell apart—but that didn’t stop us. We originally planned to marry after Easter, but for reasons having to do with the current global situation, we got permission from our archdiocese to have a private wedding during Lent.
We were married in a small ceremony with exactly nine people, including us and the priest. We took “social distancing” wedding photos, which are charming in a way, but which I won’t display here as I don’t intend to slap photos of real people up on the internet without permission.
We had a self-isolation honeymoon, which also wasn’t what we planned, but was nice in its own way. Both of us had to work, though. The magical girl is a nurse, and she couldn’t get much time off. Most of my work I’m currently doing from home.
Update to Armageddon
As some of you are no doubt aware, I’m planning to get married, and the universe, realizing that my successfully wooing an attractive woman is as impossible and unacceptable as, say, Arthur Dent or Jon Arbuckle doing the same, has taken drastic steps to correct.
So yeah, this whole global pandemic thing is my fault. Sorry about that.
Anyway, the magical girl and I intend to defy the laws of the universe and get married anyway, and we’re now scratching our heads to figure out where, and when, and how.
In the meanwhile, since I caused this disaster in the first place, I think I can present a few ideas of what to do while you’re in quarantine. Stay tuned.
With My Real-Life Waifu
I really must apologize for my lack of posting and for my lack of meaningful content. Quite a lot of real life is coming at me right now.
My fiancée has finished her work in Memphis, so she has moved up here and will be starting her new job next week. I spent the weekend helping her move, and there’s a funny story about that … for another time.
Anyway, she’s here, and our wedding is now two months away. It’s kind of bizarre to think that I’m actually getting married soon, but so it is.
I’m afraid I have no other updates at the moment. Too much is going on, but I am getting to my writing when I can.
The Latest on the State of the Books
Featured image: “Art Challenge” by Sonya Fung
So, as I earlier reported, my publisher has gone out of business. I disappeared after that for a few different reasons, mostly because I immediately dived into the next steps for my books.
I have, just today, sent both Jake and the Dynamo and Rag & Muffin out the door. I sent Jake and the Dynamo to another indie publisher that is interested in the orphans of Superversive Press, but after consulting with my editor, I’ve decided to shop Rag & Muffin with larger publishing houses.
It would be imprudent to name names. All I can say is, the books are out of the house, and I’m working on my rejection slip collection.
This means a couple of things for my current projects: First, Dead to Rites, the sequel to Jake and the Dynamo, is in limbo until further notice. It will get picked up when (if) Jake and the Dynamo does.
Second, I have no idea of release dates anymore because my submissions could get rejected. Rag & Muffin probably will be, since I’m aiming higher with it.
Third, I’m right back where I started a few weeks ago, working on Son of Hel, which I will submit somewhere when I’m done with it.
Fourth, I’m getting married in April, so I disappeared partly because I was working on arrangements for that. In a couple of weeks, I’ll travel back to Memphis to help the magical girl move, as she’s starting a new job soon in my current town of residence. Then we’ll get married a couple of months after that, and then I’ll have to move again because I’ll be moving in with her.
So that’s what’s up. I’m afraid I’m way behind on watching, reading, and reviewing stuff because my own projects and personal life have taken precedence.
Superversive Press Shutting Its Doors
I have been sitting on this information for a while, but I have seen it posted publicly in another space, so I think I can say this: Superversive Press, which published Jake and the Dynamo and was planning to publish Dead to Rites and Rag & Muffin, is shutting its doors.
I am not party to the reasons, though I assume they are financial (small-press publishing is always a risky business), and I am highly allergic to office politics and the like—so if any of that is involved, I am ignorant of it. I can only tip my hat to Jason Rennie, the publisher, and L. Jagi Lamplighter, my editor, and thank them both for taking a chance on my enthusiastically written but extremely niche work.
I am starting over from here. The future of my books is uncertain, but the novels I have completed will be published, somehow or some way. I believe Jake and the Dynamo deserves a complete arc, mostly because I know how it ends and it’s kick-awesome.
As for Rag & Muffin, it is probably foolish to say this in public, but I have long sensed that a higher power wanted it written and would grind me into powder if it wasn’t, so I think it will somehow be published too.
I will keep you posted.