Yup, that's it. Coffee, and cookies, and my butt in a chair. That last one is the hardest part. Especially since these dogs want to distract me so, so bad... I'm babysitting my brother's dog Otis. (Follow him on Instagram here.)
He's adorable, but don't let it fool you, since we've got him he's eaten 3 dish towels, a $600 dollar cheque, a blanket, 2 chew toys, 2 footballs, and more. We can't keep him out of anything, and he has a bad habit of jumping onto the kitchen counters and grabbing anything out there. He's a cuddlebug, though, even when he's biting at you. I'm determined to finish the new edition of Shadows within the next few hours, though, so I can publish it already! I'm hoping I can head up to the she-cave today and record some music in there, since I have no privacy in the house while everyone else is on vacation. I really want to put out a new EP today. Too ambitious? We'll see, lol. Listen to my latest song here: Maybe You Were Right
I'm hopping back into writing and being productive. I'm putting out the new edition of SOSAS in a few days so I'm trying to finish it tonight so I can write a short story before morning. Today I'm recording a couple new tracks or even an entire EP. I'm slowly getting the hang of cutting and enhancing vocals, so that's nice, and I'd like to apply it and put out something that feels more professional than my last few EPS. The other day I went wild and bought like 15 or 16 new stock images and made a bunch of new book covers and I'm in love with them, so I have to do something with them. 2018 has not been half as productive as I hoped it would, so, I have to do something about that... Hopefully I can update later today and say the new edition of SOSAS is publishing!
Can we talk about how iconic Iggy Azalea's new EP is?
It's a bop. I've also been listening to a lot of Sky Ferreira's cover of Voices Carry;
Truly iconic! She needs to put out a new album pronto. I do appreciate that the photo she used for this track is totally taken from Huji Cam, because, damn, do I relate. That app saved my life. (And aesthetic. Which is arguably more important.) Honestly I've been putting off writing for days to work on music. I'm working on a novella about gargoyles right now, but God knows when that will be out. I still fully intend to publish the new edition of Souls of Salt and Seawater this month, and update the current edition of Shadows with a clean, firmer round of edits. However I probably won't be able to put out the special edition of Shadows until next month. It's pesky to wait, I know, but I'm juggling a lot and I don't want it to feel rushed or sloppy. These characters deserve better. I have so much cool shit I wanna put out, but it's hard to keep up a constant work rhythm. Or maybe I'm just making excuses for myself >.> I wanted to put out the second Shadows novel before 2019, but it will probably come out in like mid-2019, I'm not going to lie. Which is disappointing, but again, these books deserve better than me rushing and being sloppy. I rushed out Storm of Masks early because I felt a big pressure to be more prolific and now I'm stuck in the boat of rewriting it entirely. And it will be a better book because of it, but it's embarrassing that the old version saw the light of day. Lesson learned. In the next couple of months after revitalizing some old titles, my focus will be on hammering out a bunch of novellas and short stories. Like dozens of each. And I'm going to sit on every last one of them for at least a month and a half before putting them out. So that's what's happening work-wise. On the other side of things I've been doing my usual; vegging out, obsessing over the internet, drinking too much coffee, worrying about how it will affect my health, ignoring said worries to make even more coffee. You know. The works. Honestly the other night I almost died, because I stumbled across a video of Michelle Buteau on YouTube and was almost shook enough to perish.
I hate standup comedy. It's just not my brand of humor and it doesn't help that most of my exposure to it had been watching really old white men just say straight up offensive things and then act like they made a joke. Which is stupid. And I'm into dark and/or racy humor, I like when people poke the bear and pull stunts, it's just those other comedians try to do it and it falls flat. Then they cry about the PC police when really...it's just not that funny. Joke about race/sexuality/gender if you want, but make it entertaining or do something unique with it, you know? Michelle does that. Her set was so good. When she called herself Raven Raven-Symoné I deadass had to pause the video because I was cackling too hard. Her Dutch in-laws sound hilarious and her set was endearing and cute enough that the risks she took with more edgelord material didn't come across as hollow or trying too hard. It balanced out well and it just works. Plus she has a great personality and presence so she owns whatever she's doing--including when a joke bombs. Which, really NONE of the jokes should have bombed, but the audience was clearly shocked and didn't know what they were getting into with her, which makes it even funnier, because she gives zero fucks and makes it clear. Obviously I immediately went and followed her on Instagram. Which, again, is weird for me, because I HATE standup comedy, and that's most of what she does for a living. I just finished reading a short gay romance novella I downloaded the other day, and now I'm reading an m/m fantasy novel, and it's freaking wild. It's called Slave by Kate Aaron, and it's exactly what it sounds like; a slave in a fantasy world who is the only surviving member of his nomadic clan rescues another slave (a captured soldier from another country) from an auction by buying him to keep him out of the hands of more cruel, sadistic masters who want to rape and/or torture him to death. So the main character is jealous of this new slave because he wants to continue being their masters favorite, and the new slave wants no part of any of it, except he kind of does because he comes from a homophobic country where men aren't even supposed to touch outside of fighting, and he may or may not be falling for the main character. It's m/m/m between the two of them and their master and I'm honestly not sure how I feel about it? Like, slavery is BIG BAD. And the author kind of acknowledges that? But in a way that's like "Yeah slavery is bad, but our personal experience as slaves is cool because we kind of got lucky, so let's ignore all the iffy moral asides and focus on the romance, kay?" I don't love that approach. And I'd like the world itself to be expanded on more. HOWEVER. It seems like the sequels will get a little more political and ramp up the fantasy elements over the gay sex elements? And also develop their master further, which is good, since he's the only character of the three I don't love or understand so far, so him winning me over in any way would make his literal legal owning of these two other humans a lot more palatable? Because as it is I don't trust him? I mean I don't think he's /evil/ or would hurt them, but he's kind of ignorant of their situation and experiences? Either way, the prose is quick and concise and the character dynamics are interesting. It's mostly a character study with fantasy window dressing. Which I'm cool with, I guess. Anyway I'm going to wrap this up because I have way too much to do to keep blogging, but I may post again later today with some special stuff! Thanks for reading! Check out my books here.
Remember when Grimes put out the best album ever? Remember how we've been waiting for new material ever since and it hasn't happened? Remember a couple months ago when she posted shady Tweets about her label and gave us some tea? The only new music she's put out since then is a snippet of a new bop in an Apple commercial:
It sounds like a bop for sure, but we need it now, not later. I'd love to hear the full version. I'm glad more artists are going independent. Even if it means lower budgets at least it minimizes situations like this with shitty labels. It happens in publishing too, people get fucked over by their labels and publishers and management all the time. There are shady business practices and betrayals and drama. It makes my head spin.
I was watching an Emma Blackery video (I'm waiting for her new album too!) earlier where she talked about a chain bookstore basically blacklisting her and refusing to list her book or promote it because she got mad at them on Twitter for violating a release embargo on the book. Since when is that okay?
It's wild to me that people's entire careers are subject to random whims like this on the part of people higher up in the chain. Or to bandwagon hate, because that happens and ruins careers too. It's also weird how so many artists in the past just couldn't put things out on their own, at least not if they wanted decent exposure.
Now we have the Internet and everyone is kind of enabled to build a brand and name for themselves off of nothing.
I recently put out a new EP on my SoundCloud called Plucked From Orbit:
I don't really make music with the expectation of being known for it or it gaining a lot of attraction. I just like tooling around with synths and different sequencers, and I like making glitchy sounds and album arts. For me it's more about enjoyment and the concepts than making /actual/ bops.
Although I do want to learn to make more mainstream sounding pop bops eventually. Right now I'm basically creating ASMR sounds :P
I'm supposed to be working on a new edition of Shadows to put out next month. But I'm a serial procrastinator, so instead of writing the new novella Lovecursed or updating my notes, I'm planning a new edition of Souls of Salt & Seawater. And listening to lots of Billie Eilish. Not gonna lie.
I've also just been stewing over how many good movies are coming out.
Aquaman, The Nun, Godzilla, that new Bella Thorne movie with the ghosts (it looks cheesy as hell, but that's half the fun) and stuff like Darkest Minds, Glass, Mary Queen of Scotts. I'm really excited for Riverdale season 3. Cults and supernatural elements? Sign me up. I didn't expect them to go full supernatural until season 4, but I'm all here for it.
A couple weeks ago I spent an entire royalty check on vodka, 'cause that's the kind of irresponsible human I am, and got smashed. My parents were having a huge party with dozens of people milling around and bonfires and camping and stuff, so that was a mess, and I didn't want to be sober throughout it, and I'm guessing neither did Kuma. We also babysat my brother's wild dog during the whole ordeal, and the thing is vicious. Also, my selfie stick finally came! Here's some snaps from the weekend:
(Otis is cute but don't let it fool you! He bites! He still thinks he's a lap dog, too...)
(Me & Kuma!)
(Testing the selfie stick, lol)
Now the vodka is all gone and I'm left with an empty wallet. Next time I get paid I'm buying charcoal toothpaste to remove the coffee stains from my teeth, and some charcoal face masks to go with it. I need to do something about this breakout. Ugh.
I've gotta go take the dog for a walk and then come back and hammer away at this new edition of Shadows so I can finally share the cover with you. I only made it yesterday so I can't act like I've been sitting on it long, but it feels like it. It's very Pirates of the Caribbean... And I really have to go finish it, so I'll leave you with this here:
I designed this cover for Wattpad, because I wanted to see if I could attract some new reads by changing up the face of the book. I love it so much, though, I might end up putting out a paperback edition of it at some point.
I'm working on buying stock for book two so I can have a cover in this style for that as well, with Hunter on it. I've already made one but I don't know if I love the model for Hunter, so I'm gonna re-do it once I buy the new pictures.
Anyway, I'm back to working on Dru Frost book 2! Which also has an amazing cover. I can't share that with you until I have a draft though, so...
Hey y'all! A while back an interview I did went live at Book Reader Magazine and I don't think I ever posted it! You can read it here! I know in my last post I promised an update soon, and I will write one, but tonight I'd rather be working on a story I can publish soon. No offense or anything. :P I'll try to post info about my next project soon! I have a lot of things planned.
So. New Blog theme. Again. The old one wasn't really fitting for an author blog; this one has a simpler layout and I feel like it will make it easier for people to browse old posts, so for ease of access (and aesthetic needs) here it is. I have a lot to do tonight, including writing two new short stories and a bit of fanfic, so I'm just going to keep it short and say I have new content coming soon. I'll post a new blog later today or tonight about what I've been up to--I've been playing a cute new game I found and binge-watching The 100 so it's nothing too exciting, but it's something. Later, y'all!
