Playing Catch Up

 

image from Don't Eat the Paste

Okeedokee, I filled out my ballot and sent it out. I'm also down to the last twenty postcards to sign and send out to a swing state, and then I'm done! At least I'll be done with anything to do with this year's elections. 

I recently started talking about my comfort series, The Great British Baking Show, and my predictions were based on only two episodes of this year's series. Welp... I've got to update them now after Bread Week, which saw one of the stronger bakers leave for, sadly, good reason. He fumbled the ball in the signature round, and the stress got to him. I could tell from the way he commented on his performance and his hopes for the showstopper round that he was getting agitated and anxious though I really don't blame him for it. My viewing of previous seasons has convinced me that those bakers who kept their heads and stayed calm and focused had a better chance of making it all the way through.

And that also makes me side-eye Andy, who also tends to panic when things blow up in his face. I pegged him as one to watch, but I've got a sinking feeling his nerves will get the better of him. I hope not, but this scenario's painfully familiar.

That said, I'm so happy to see my top three still competitive with Dylan coming out shining in the end, and with that I'm adjusting my predictions to add Nelly into the mix with Georgie a close second. I love that Nelly brings flavors from diverse sources (Eastern Europe and Asia). But seeing as how it's only the third episode so far, it's too early to tell, and the situation can still throw a curve ball. I do have to agree with Paul Hollywood's observation, though: this group of bakers are so far some of the most talented I've seen in the competition. Everyone seems to have style and substance pretty well-balanced -- more consistently than what I've seen in previous series, anyway, because any goof-ups tend to be small.

And in other news, the early November projected completion date for The Perfect Rochester is very much real as I'm looking at two chapters being added to the usual total of 26. But no problem there. Compline continues to reshape itself as new ideas and possibilities cross my mind, and I might just throw out any and all elements that have been inspired by Belouis Some's Some People (which I discussed a while ago). The epistolary narrative is the same, but the main plot as it reflects my take on "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" is morphing and taking paths I've never even considered but are very, very promising. 

I'll be talking more about it soon. In the meantime, it's a case of "steady as she goes" in writing.

Gallery Page for 'Voices in the Briars' is Now Up

Yay, me. I'm off today (another one of those unexpected days off given by the company because, well, my team's too good at what we do, and now we're too far ahead of schedule on our workload), so I took the time to put together the gallery page for Voices in the Briars as well as finalize the print book for release on Nov. 1.

So to check out the page, go here for some this, that, and the other. The book will be out on November 1 in both print and e-book formats.  

I'll try to haul as much ass as I can with the postcards to swing states today since I don't have any writing planned to do. A couple of light chores around the house, and I'm free for the rest of the day. Mind you, I'll be poorer in my next paycheck since I'm not applying any PTOs to today. Gotta take the bitter with the sweet, I guess. 

Oh, and since I spent much of my time earlier scouring the 'net for images to use in my moodboard, I stumbled across this amazing art showing the protagonists of Dracula. It's by Deimus-Remus over at DeviantArt, and I love its classic illustration look. The artist has a website as well, and his real name is Nathan J. Anderson, and you can check out his other work here.

click the image for a closer look

I'm so in love with this art style, and knowing it was the artist's attempt at interpreting vaguely described characters in the book makes this even more special. Love, love, love.

I'm champing at the bit over The Great British Baking Show since it's being released on Nettflix to mirror the UK release, which follows the weekly episode format. We've been so spoiled by entire seasons being dropped all at once that we often forget that this is actually an abnormal method of entertainment. At least I see it that way, anyway, especially when the survival of a show depends on metrics that are stupid at best and don't account for nuances in viewers' habits. But this is the present and likely the future of home entertainment, alas. 

Anyway, I'm going to put myself out there with this. 

There are only two episodes so far of The Great British Baking Show, but I'm starting to play around with possibilities of who might be in the final, and I'm basing my choices largely on flavor combinations and how gutsy the bakers are in tackling the unusual and making it work. So in this instance, if these bakers not only stick to their guns but improve over time, they're the ones to beat.

Dylan, Christiaan, and Sumayah. They're still hit or miss in one way or another, but episode two gave us a nice peek into their strengths and what they're capable of, and that's why I'm marking them as the ones to watch. Coming not far behind are John, Mike, and Andy. Those three are the "Steady Eddie" types who aren't as experimental in their flavors, but they do produce something special in the end. The rest of the bakers can still pull a rabbit out of a hat along the way and surprise me, and that'll be great if they do. This is one group that's neck-and-neck with the previous batch of bakers from 2023 in vying for the top spot of my favorite, so losing any one of them will be a real drag. 

Now I'm really excited about Bread Week.

Regressing... I'm Regressing...

Yeah, September was a shitty month -- by far the shittiest of the year unless I'm just saying that because I've already actively blocked the other bad contenders for the top spot. At any rate, the month's finally over, but its residual slimy ooze carried over to the first week of October, so here we are. I'm hoping this week will be a vast improvement from last week, but one can never tell. It certainly doesn't help that the Bay Area's experiencing a heat wave -- not normal back in the day but more and more normal now while the south is getting hammered by their share of abnormal weather patterns. 

So firstly, no major updates on the writing end. It's just been a steady drumbeat of chapter after chapter being written weekend after weekend. That said, I suppose the only major update involves my projected completion date for The Perfect Rochester. Depending on how many more chapters I need to tie things up, the expected end-of-October target might very well end up getting pushed to the first weekend of November, which is still way ahead of schedule for me even if I do tweak my 2025 calendar to move everything forward to my original schedule of February - June - October releases. There'll be a month less spent on polishing this book, which might end up being the deal-breaker, but as I'm still sitting on the fence over this, I'm not stressing over final decisions. 

As for the rest of my publishing calendar, nothing's budged from its spot yet, and I still have to add Camera Obscura to the list even though I've already posted about it, and the notes are growing in my writing notebook. It's too far in the future for me to settle on a plan, and as I've noted before, I can move things around and squeeze that book in the two-year calendar I currently have. It all depends on how things work out on my end (as it always does), particularly this current balancing act I'm doing with my writing and my day job. 

And so far no new story ideas are popping out, which is a godsend, even though it's really because I'm too weighed down by the recent stress-filled days of the day job. I'm happy with what I currently have listed, thank you, and I'd rather buckle down and focus on them, not be distracted by new stuff. 

One of the things I've been entertaining myself with lately is my constant digging up of stuff about ghosts and nostalgic childhood fun over on Youtube. It's really insane what you can find over there, particularly the more obscure series or films from days of yore (the 1970s in my case, which defined my childhood). Anyone of a certain age (Christ's ass, I'm feeling my age) will probably remember not only Scooby-Doo, but also Wacky Races, The Funky Phantom, and especially Mission: Magic! which was my favorite cartoon series. Granted, some of the series I mentioned aired in the late 1960s, but I grew up watching reruns less than a decade later. 

Now this episode stayed with me the most. I don't know why, but I loved it as a kid, and I still love it now after a re-watch. The episode's message ("the grass is never greener on the other side") struck something in me then, and it still does now, but the main villain, his sidekicks, and their main "weapon" are hilarious but also -- pretty damn clever when I really think about it. And for better or for worse, I do tend to think things over to unnecessary lengths, but that might be because there's something about a detail or two in the show that I find inspiring (or something about it is inspiring a new story idea in me). 

So I'm posting the full episode here for me to return to again and again. The entire series run is also on Youtube, and it lasted one season with sixteen episodes total. And after that, I'm going to dig around some more for other stuff from my childhood since that was the age when my imagination got drunk on so much creativity around me, and my parents (bless them) encouraged us kids to reach as far as we wanted.

Dear September: Go Away

Ayup. I had to call in at work following a really catastrophic attempt at walking to the bus stop after my shift yesterday afternoon. I tripped over an uneven section of the sidewalk half a block from the warehouse and landed on my face. 

Literally. 

It was difficult to save myself since I was also carrying my backpack, which made me very top-heavy and pretty much doomed to kiss concrete. So now I have a goose egg over my left eye, my left hand (which took the brunt of the impact, thus saving my skull) has three fingers bandaged, wounds on the palm (nicely healing, thanks), and a sprained thumb. 

Oh. Did I mention one of the lenses of my glasses popping out and vanishing forever? Yeah. That. Good thing I'm near sighted and only use my glasses for distance vision, and I rarely drive. When I go to the grocery store tomorrow, I'll wear my now-wonky glasses in order to have one functional lens to help me navigate. Jesus. 

September's been a massive wreck following a relatively neutral August, and I can't wait to see the back of this miserable month. At least none of the bad mojo throughout this year -- and there's been plenty to go around, thanks -- hasn't touched my writing. I still have that for my oasis from real life. 

I had to pick myself up from faceplanting on the sidewalk, turn around, and march right back to the warehouse so I could wash and bandage my wounds, and since we don't have an ice pack, I had to use a wrapped frozen burrito against the massive bump on my face. Now THAT was funny. 

So this butt-wipe of a week started with a nice mental health day off, a horrendous series of days at work (the less said about the stress levels, the better), and it's now bookended with an unplanned and unwanted sick day no thanks to a bruised face and a left hand that wants to file for divorce. 

I'll have to make the most of today. I'm not writing, but I do have more postcards to swing states I can work on. 

Oh! And I started my day watching the new season of The Great British Baking Show on Netflix. I love this new group of bakers. I love them. The first episode was also funnier than ever -- lots more spontaneous humor between bakers, hosts, and judges (Alison Hammond is the perfect addition to the group*) -- and the bakers are incredibly good. Really, each season seems to beat the previous one in terms of standards, like the skill levels and creativity are higher than ever. 

For the first time, too, the youngest of the bunch is already trouncing older and more experienced bakers (her show stopper was insane) when in the past, the youngest contestant took a little while to find their feet. So far one has since won the top prize (Peter Sawkins, who won at 20 yrs of age), and maybe this year will have another possible contender? 

Regardless, I have no favorites so far as I love them all equally, and I hope to see those who struggled in the first competition to come back and rally next time. I guess one thing I'll do to pass the time today is to go back and rewatch the episode. :D

* the show's been more spontaneous and fun compared to those where Matt Lucas co-hosted, and it's more energetic and unpredictable than when Sandi Toksvig helped usher in a new series with Prue and Noel (she brought that dry humor I also enjoyed)

Behold, Autumn!

And thank fuck for that. I think it's more reflective of my job that this year feels no different from last year and the year before, and so on. While the actual work varies (with a few monotonous days peppering my calendar here and there), it's the nature of the work and the repetitive commute that dull the senses -- or at least my brain. That said, I'm so, so, SO glad I'm no longer in customer service, and I ran across the ad for this position when I was at the end of my rope in my previous job. Give me the occasional monotony if it means not dealing with people's endless demands and attitudes. This month marks my anniversary, and I'm on to my fourth year and some extra perks. 

Today is also a spa day for me. I'm off for a mental health break and some well-deserved lazy time, but I'll be spending today working on those postcards for swing states. The new batch, anyway, since I already finished the previous set for my sister, and she sent me 100 cards to fill. 

I'm loving the moment right now -- still early morning (it's 4:20 am as I write this), foggy, and quiet. If I had woo-woo powers, I'd keep the entire day like this, but I'll settle for just a quiet day for myself. I'll likely dip a little into my WiP folder for a page or two of new writing, but that's low on my agenda list. 

Now that The Perfect Rochester is heading steadily toward the finish line, my notes for Compline are experiencing so many shifts, and I think the story will work more effectively as a classic haunted house tale but still following the plot of "The Pied Piper of Hamelin". I mentioned before that the story's going to take place in a boarding school. Well, scratch that idea. There is a boarding school, but it's in the past, and it does hold the key to the mystery of an old man's haunting. And as far as what I said about the book being an epistolary novella from the point of view of just one character -- that still stands since the details the character only hints about in his journal entries will add to the atmosphere and tension of the plot. I hope to manage that, anyway. 

By the way, I might be tweaking my 2025 calendar given how far ahead I am with my writing (at the moment). My initial plan was to follow this year's release schedule, which is March - July - November. I actually would like to go back to my preferred calendar cycle of February - June - October (October being my main target since it's Halloween month, and it works perfectly with the genre of stories I write). That's doable, at least, as opposed to me publishing four books and not three, however tempting it might be to do that. 

Oh, and since I'm on the subject of Halloween and haunted house fiction, here's a great video on someone's recommended list of haunted house movies. I haven't seen about a third of the films on the list, so at least I've got a starting point for my gothic entertainment. However, I'm so, so happy to see my favorites rank so high: The Uninvited, The Changeling, The Others, and The Orphanage. Those films are, to me, the best examples of how to work atmosphere, tension, and excellent writing into a complete and eerie package.

To someone who writes the kind of stuff I write, everyday is Halloween, so holding off for autumn really doesn't make any sense, but having autumn here, finally, does add something extra special to my days.