Healing with Horror

Y’all — I was interviewed on a flipping PODCAST!

I was nervous before it started, because I’d never been interviewed on a podcast before, but as soon as it got going, I thought — I’ve spent practically my entire life reading horror books, and watching horror movies, and writing horror stories, so all I have to do is try not to talk too fast when I answer Avik’s questions. 

I can’t begin to tell you how good it felt to be introduced to Avik’s podcast audience as a writer. There’s so much rejection inherent in this line of work, so much doubt, so many difficult mornings of slogging through the daily writing quota. I texted a good friend and was like, “He was talking to me like I was a real writer!” and she was like, “You ARE a real writer.”

I also was on another podcast (!!!) talking about impostor syndrome, and I’ll put that one up soon!

Book updates:

While I wait for my editor to get back to me with her edits for Firebug, I’ve been putting down 1,000 words a day on the next book, Loop, Nevada. Now that I’m not traveling quite so much, I’ve really hit my stride with moving that story forward, and I’m at the point where I know all the major beats I want to hit before the end, which is an exciting place to be.

I’m working with an artist named Leeahd I met in Austin, TX to create the art for the book cover, and y’all, he sent me a colorized mockup and a few line drawings, and I am SO STOKED about working with this guy. The colorized mockup alone looked incredible, so I can’t wait to see how the final cover art is going to look. 

I’ve also done a lot of research regarding POD (print on demand) publishing on both Amazon (KDP) and bookstores/libraries (IngramSpark), including ordering samples to decide on which paper stock I’m going to use, and chatting with an IngramSpark rep about how the process works. I’m probably at the spike part of the Dunning-Kruger chart with my sense of understanding about this, but I figure I will teach myself the rest of it along the way.

For the last week or so, I’ve also been reading The Miracle Morning, starting my day with meditation, affirmations, visualization, exercise (usually just a stroll around my neighborhood), reading for a bit, and journaling my thoughts for the morning. It’s felt good to start the day off on a mindful foot (full transparency, I did give myself one day off). 

I’ve got about two weeks until my editor gets Firebug back to me with her notes. Once I’ve addressed her edits to the best of my ability and I’ve sent the final draft to my proofreader (aka my English Teacher Mom) for one last typo/grammar check, I’m going to set a date to finally get Firebug published. 

We’re in the home stretch. Thanks for reading . :)