Thanks to everyone who made Snow Angels a successful launch. It's a fun little slice of old school horror, and I'm glad to see people taking to it. While books are often written in isolation, actually making a book happen takes the efforts of many—yes, even if your book is self-published. Snow Angels was not self-published. It was released by D&T Publishing, run by Dawn and Tim Shea. It was edited by Jamie La Chance and has a cover by Ash Ericmore. Before it debuted on Amazon, it was platformed by Godless, a digital bookstore run by Drew Stepek. My partner Jean gave me time and space to work on it. She and the kids give me a reason to keep going. Chats with too many friends to list here kept me inspired and encouraged me. John Carpenter and Debra Hill made The Fog back in 1980, and that film informed the structure of Snow Angels from the beginning.

What I'm trying to say is having a community matters. It has to be the community you choose, though. Just because people throw around that term doesn't make them community-minded. The problem with good ideas is that people pay lip service to them and think that lets them off the hook from doing the actual work. So, if you're feeling stuck, ask yourself: am I surrounded by the right people? It may be worth exploring.

Anyway, I couldn't have written Snow Angels without any of you, so thank you. I appreciate you being here.

While battling that illness last week, I didn't drink coffee for a couple days, so I decided to try going without it altogether. Today is day 8, and I feel pretty good! I’ve always enjoyed the taste of coffee, but over the past few years, caffeine has begun to affect me negatively. Lots of irritability with little benefit, so I'm better off without it.

I hope this doesn’t mean I have to turn in my Writer card. 😉

I'm currently reading the collection Always Listen to Her Hurt by Kenzie Jennings. Kenzie is low-key one of the most interesting writers working today. She came on the scene with the gory novel Reception and followed it up with the Splatter Western Red Station. Always Listen to Her Hurt shows her flexing her short story abilities, and like lots of horror authors, I think the short form is where her work really shines. If you haven't checked out Kenzie’s stuff yet, this collection is a great place to start.

I've also been craving manga lately, so I grabbed the first trades of Berserk and Blood on the Tracks, and the first two of Chainsaw Man. Chainsaw Man is a scream so far. I read the first couple of chapters Saturday night and had to reread them the next morning to see if they were as crazy as I remembered. They were! And I finished the first trade this morning. It's splattery, silly, and very inappropriate. So, of course, I love it. Check out that cover!

It’s going to be another short one this week. I’m still staring down a tight deadline, and I want to save my energy for finishing the story. This one’s been stumping me for some reason, but I’m sure I’ll crack it eventually. Or I won’t, and I’ll live with the consequences.

Time will tell…

Due to Jeff traveling and me being sick, we didn’t get to record, so we went ahead and made a previous bonus episode available for free. In it, we discuss war movies and A24 with special guest Kevin L. Donihe. You can check that out right here.

As always, thank you for reading. If you like this newsletter, be sure to complete the Like-Share-Subscribe ritual to ensure I become an ascended being.

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