Three acceptances and three rejections this month. At least I'm running one for one?

One acceptance being the werewolf romance novella and the other two being a couple stories that have been sitting in my hard drive since 2017. Finally found the right pair of eyes to get them in front ot.

of*

Finishing edits on the story for the combination horror anthology and cookbook that an editor friend of mine pitched and which I encouraged heartily.

Also, I'm kind of powering down on active projects, aside from a few "tinker projects", since The Busy Months are coming.

ie. November and December. I will not have the spoons to really work on anything serious/things with deadlines till After Christmas/New Years Day.

Also... trying to find ways to file serial numbers off ideas for WH40K fics that keep presenting themselves to me. /shakes head/

It might be a bad idea, but I've pretty much set fanfic writing aside entirely, since I probably should lean more toward stuff I can actually sell.

Orrrr, if I can, File The Serial Numbers Off.

Lo and behold... one of the upcoming books is available for pre-order: https://www.amazon.com/....

/bumps!~

Congratulations on your three acceptances! As for the rejections...who knows, perhaps they just need to keep journeying on, until the right pair of eyes can discern their worth. ( I just realized that makes it sound like the stories have taken flight by themselves...)

I just added that book to my list! Strangely enough...Michelle Trachtenberg was one of the few child celebrities who DIDN"T annoy me when I was a kid myself, and I liked her character in "Buffy" as well, ACTUAL teen girl playing a teen character! I can't say I was a huge fan, unfamiliar with most of her work. But I was saddened to hear of her passing.

I forgot if I mentioned this, but I went from writing mostly original fiction, to writing nearly 100% fanfiction because I was inspired and back again. I think you ought to write the story that comes more easily, and you can always return to fanfiction in the future if lightning strikes.

I truly hope that the rest of your October is a good one, as I know it's your favorite time of the year, and that your November and December will be enjoyable, and not too overwhelming.

ladynefertankh: I'd only watched the 1st season of BtVS, which i really need to get back to watching. I hadn't had the chance to encounter Michelle Trachtenberg's character, unfortunately. But I knew about her through cultural osmosis.

Plus, the themes for the open call were broad enough that it accommodated a lot of ideas and plot seeds. I had a story sitting in the hard drive that those themes, so I polished it up and sent it off.

Oh gosh I believe her character appeared in...the beginning of Season 4? It's been a while, watched it on Netflix ages ago, I've seen some fans fight over the later writing choices and characters, but I guess I was never quite that invested? I'd say the later seasons of Buffy are worth watching at least ONCE?

It fits into the category of not being with some might derisively term "mindless" TV, but light enough I think you can watch it even when tired/distracted, there's some sexuality/violence but it's relatively PG-13. It seems to be on Hulu and maybe Amazon Prime right now? If you do see it, lemme know what you think! Always love to hear your thoughts!

The last few years, it seems to have become trendy for some people to say "Oh Buffy was never actually that good..." after news of Joss Whedon's sexual harassments began circulating. But I think you can disagree and condemn strongly someone's actions, and still (grudgingly) admit they have talent!

I'm in the HPL fandom, so there is a lot of separating the art from the artist that goes on there (and a lot of HPL's current big name fans are the kind of people he'd be shocked to associate with, though there is strong evidence that he'd started to outgrow the worst of his phobias toward anyone who wasn't a WASP New Englander).

So, I've more or less done that with Joss Whedon's works: he really is a clever writer, it's just too bad he's a repulsive individual who needs to be on a leash held by someone the size of a Space Marine.

now I am TRYING not to laugh at the space marine comment but yeah...I have seen people say the same thing for everyone from Neil Gaiman to Orson Scott Card over the last few years "Oh it was never that good to begin with!" and I am a bit tired of it.

Like I think you're free to decide if you never want to read/watch anything they're connected to, if you find their deeds or views despicable! Especially in the case of living writers getting royalties. (for me it depends on context and other factors) But you can't act like a bad deed "retroactively" means no talent was involved.

Like many have lamented over the centuries, talent and morality DO NOT always go hand in hand. I came across an article discussing the rather...troubled to say the least, lives of some early renaissance sculptors and painters. Many could easily have given any of today's "problematic" celebrities a run for their money!

Mmm, case in point, Benvenuto Cellini: wonderful artist, but stab-happy, to put it mildly.

And, yeah. when the dire news about Neil Gaiman broke, I had to mute a couple of guys on Facebook who started the whole "eh, he was overrated anyway" noise. Like, sour grapes, much??

Oh gosh, trying not to roll my eyes. I think a friend put it best, when he learned some disappointing personal news about a public figure he USED to respect. That it was disappointing, because this was a person who had the potential (given their audience/talents/position etc to do so much GOOD, but chose to go down the BAD path, tainting their legacy.

P.S. I tried to toss a coin in your "tip jar" over on Ko-Fi and Patreon, but had issues with "your payment processing", so I can't subscribe to you there (Not sure what's causing it, but just wanted to let you know it's not from lack of enthusiasm!)

Payments have been weird lately: I tried donating to a friend's GoFundMe and it timed out.

I may be trying the Substack thing that's popular, though I'll need to ennable texting on my dumbphone (I feel like the only person on the Eastern Seacoast, besides the Amish in Maine and western Mass. who doesn't have a smartphone) in order to verify the account.

I may also be getting a Venmo and/or a CashApp soon, since a lot of people are switching to those.

I legit have lost sales at in-person events due to someone having neither cash nor PayPal and I've decided I'd better just knuckle down and get more payment options (long story, but I don't do credit cards, either).

ugh, mood.
(I also lack a smartphone and feel safer that way.)

I wonder if some of the issues might be connected to the recent AWS outage? Though supposedly most have been resolved. I own a smartphone, but have never used any of the "extra" apps, and I think it's a bit ridiculous how nearly "everyone" is expected to have one, and "ideally" a newer model from a major company ($$$) to use a lot of popular apps.

I will only get a smartphone if the current dumbphone dies. And I'v wondered if the payment problems have anything to do with the AWS outages. I had trouble logging into Dead by Daylight the other night due to said outages.

And in time for Halloween, a collection of three vampire tales, involving a pair of feral vampires who stalk the night, hunting for the vulnerable and unsuspecting:

Available now at your favorite digital store!

Yay! This looks really interesting! Question though, is it going to be available on Amazon Kindle books? If not, due to whatever reason, that's fine, because I have some apple gift card credit and can still purchase it, but I just wondered!

Pretty sure it's on Amazon?? Hold on...

https://www.amazon.com/....

No idea why the Amazon link isn't showing up on the B2R page.

It took a long time to clear for publication on Amazon ( /growls about AI slop 'novels'/).

And, a free treat to read: includes my "Light the October Night", a poem celebrating jack o' lanterns lighting up the darkening nights:

Issue 131 – Pumpkin Night – View From Atlantis