In other news, I'm roughly halfway through Voices in the Briars and will need to get going on the brainstorming front for The Perfect Rochester. And even though I'm always sorely tempted to look far, far into the future with possible story ideas, I'm fighting the urge and will keep to what I have currently set up all the way to The Bells of St. Mark's Eve.
At this rate, I'll probably find myself getting way ahead on the writing front until I'll be more than 6 months out for my WiP's publishing calendar. But yeah -- I know I tend to go back on my resolution whenever the wave of energy and motivation hits me, so I'll have to remember (or remind myself) that three books released per year are my maximum. And so far that's what's set for this year and next. The Bells of St. Mark's Eve will kick off 2026, and it's a blank after that for the time being.
Well, at the very least, I'd like to keep writing through the end of 2028, which will mark 20 years of me writing and publishing. I'm not going to jinx myself, though. I'll keep writing until I run out of things to say, and then I'll bow out gracefully. I don't see that happening anytime soon, but I'm growing more and more aware of my limitations as I get older.
You know how it is. In this instance, reducing my output will be to my benefit, and with any luck, I won't be turning back on that again once I decide on it. But, hell, who knows?
Wow, I lasted almost two weeks not posting anything here. Real life / day job crumminess got in the way, as it always does, and my way of coping was to fling myself onto the bed and pass out. I did finish my rewatch of Dead Boy Detectives, though, and fell in dorky love all over again plus I'm done with the final touch ups for The Dubious Commode, and I'm looking to submitting the final version to Draft2Digital this weekend.
And a few more words about this book...
It's easily the least dramatic of the entire series with the angst levels dialed down. I wanted it to be an unapologetically upbeat farewell to Prue and the gang, and any conflict comes from a distant source. The book blurb will give you an idea exactly where, and because of that distance, the humor isn't as tempered by sadder stuff such as what the previous books have explored in their own way.
Alas for me, it's proving to be a challenge putting together a gallery page for the book. I've already gone over a pretty succinct (at least I hope so) account of how I picture some of the main characters, and now I've decided I'll be diving even deeper and going over the roots of my love of epistolary fiction. More on that once the gallery page is up and running, of course.
Oh, and Happy Pride Month to my LGBTQ+ friends out there! Enjoy this amazing moment of Catholic insanity courtesy of Claire (yep, she came out as lesbian in the series, and the moment is posted here [word of advice: wait for a short but awesome comment from Da Gerry at the end]) and the gang.
I'm itching to rewatch this series as well. Stumbling across random snippets on Youtube is really stoking the embers of my love for Derry Girls.
Right. I'm off work today, and that means finishing up what's left of edits for The Dubious Commode, which is then followed by the manuscript's upload to Draft2Digital for store listing. Woot! I've also started on the print file and am on the last step, but I'll be holding off on that in case I spot random errors I missed and will need to re-upload the manuscript. If I jump right in and publish the print book, I'll need to pay to update it if I don't want to wait 90 days for that free change feature to kick in.
Anyhoo, here's the blurb:
Another wave of suspicious calm follows Freddy and Jonathan's successful solving of the singing skull mystery, which means Fate isn't quite done with the lot of them. Prue carries on with her beloved priory upgrades, stocks up on Felicity's products (arcane and otherwise), and endures the trials of being still of the living world. Freddy and Jonathan are madly in love with each other as ever, their bond growing stronger by the day.
Things appear to go swimmingly for a time, indeed, with Jonathan's workaholic publisher paying Hoary Plimpton a visit for health reasons and Mr. Headley entering the picture with a dragon's hoard of romantic smut for aunt and nephew alike.
But Brody's artistic gift comes under unexpected scrutiny, threatening a horrible shakeup in the priory and a permanent upending of everyone's lives. Then Mr. Headley decides he'd dearly love to be haunted and acquires a few oddities with ghosts attached to them.
Family isn't immune from drama, naturally, as Linford's increasingly panicked letters suggest. Lucinda's trapped in her spiritualist retreat where ladies' pocketbooks are gradually draining their contents, and Antigonous involves his committee in the mystery of the haunted antique commode. It's a haunting that baffles everyone, forcing them to resort to a few foolish and drastic measures to get to the bottom of things—even reconsider old prejudices against the very people who hold the key to ghostly mysteries.
Prue and Freddy's madcap ghostly adventures conclude in this final installment of the Ghosts and Tea series.
As always, the digital book is priced at 99 cents, and the print book at $9.00. I come cheap, what can I say? Once the online bookstore links are live, I'll be posting them here. In the meantime, I need to get going on the gallery page for the book.
In other writing news, I'm roughly 1/3 done with Voices in the Briars, and more story ideas are coming hard at fast at me with regard to future books I already have in the pipeline. One of them was worked into the plot of The Twilight Lover, which changes its setting a little but certainly for the better since the original idea was a bit tired and overdone (at least in terms of what I've already written). Time for an upgrade, and I'm sure this'll work much better.
Of course, that might also mean a possible change in cover art, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Otherwise, my publishing calendar remains steady, and no shuffling around is in the future as far as I can see.
And just when I thought the coast was clear, someone decides to slap me hard with a fan made video splicing together scenes from Dead Boy Detectives with Vincent Lima's "Orpheus". Because OF COURSE THEY WOULD, AND THEY DID. And for those who've seen the entire first season of the series, you'll know exactly what I mean when I shake my fist at the cosmos and wail, "Motherfucker, that's a low blow!" Goes straight for the jugular, I'm telling you.
Because it's Saturday, it's a gorgeous day to kick back and relax, but since the Orpheus reference is a valuable detail in the show, I'm now drenched in tears and snot instead.
All joking melodrama aside, it's a spectacular edit though it only uses about 3/4 of the song (you can tell it cuts off too soon), but that said, the point isn't just made, it's hammered home with a rusty spike and a mallet into my heart. I absolutely love it. This is a very short blog post that's just here for fans of the series, of which I count myself one (out and proud about it, I am). BTW, I've also started my re-watch, and the fun hasn't abated.
Okay, okay, okay. Since I'm on a DBD kick and hit you all with a tearjerker of a video, I figure I might as well balance things out with a crack one. Really, I'm pretty impressed with how fans edit videos to come up with some amazing results. I've seen a few crack videos in the past, and the results are understandably hit or miss. That said, this one for DBD really had me howling, and that was unexpected but definitely appreciated.
This is what happens when I've got way too much extra time after breakfast and before I leave for the bus stop for another week of day job drudgery.
I finished the show the day before and am planning to rewind and rewatch. Hell, it was fun. Absurd, icky, and flashes its campy creds like a badge of honor -- I love how it manages not take itself too seriously and yet delve into some pretty awful character trauma from start to finish. As far as that goes, we get them in piecemeal, i.e., there's usually a hint about the character's past (especially Edwin's and Charles's), which is either brushed off or angrily avoided but snowballs gradually until a flashback shows us what happened.
There's also the trauma that's just hinted at and left there for the viewers to piece together themselves (see: Jenny).
The episodic approach with the "monster of the week" theme adds to the fun, but each episode still manages to tie together a pretty complicated arc where Edwin, Charles, and Crystal either find themselves almost literally (Crystal), actively suppress the past and fight hard not to be a product of a horrible cycle (Charles), or learn a significant aspect of their identity and then determine how best to move forward with that revelation (Edwin). And then tie all that up with a colorful, messy, and stunning ribbon of found family, friendship, and a bond that straddles platonic and romantic yet goes far beyond either.
I really can't say more without spoiling anything (though a touch of spoilers still finds its way into this post, so be warned), but that paragraph above pretty much skims the surface of what I love the most about the storytelling. There's so much more beyond that, of course, and that's the reason why I want to rewatch everything. Even the penultimate moment involving Charles and Edwin fleeing Hell can be parsed in so many ways (all good, btw) so that a handful of minutes in that one scene reveals way, way more about each character than what's obviously on the surface.
The cast (main and secondary) chew up the scenery, and you can tell they were having so much fun filming the series. Even the main antagonists (save for David) are hard to hate without enjoying their moments on-screen (see: Esther). Minor antagonists? Even more so (see: the dandelion sprites).
The characters are aged up, though, and it's extremely difficult thinking of any of them as teenagers, less so sixteen-year-olds. And I think this should've been tweaked somewhat in some of the dialogue, especially with the Night Nurse, who keeps referring to Edwin and Charles as children. It's jarring, mentally, to hear her say that -- no, they're not children, and at the minimum, I'd see them as eighteen-year-olds. Early twenties? Yes. Definitely. Sixteen-year-olds? Children? Nope.
The series ends in a way that can be picked up easily should a second season happen, and while some fans are tearing their hair out over the possibility of cancellation, I've run across references outside social media about the showrunners being in talks for a second season. I hope it happens. There's a major loose thread by way of Niko's arc, and there's also a fresh start for Edwin and Charles (with Crystal and Jenny plus the Night Nurse) that promises future adventures.
As for a final spoiler, here goes...
Edwin tells the Cat King what they both have in common is loneliness. I felt for him at that moment, and I honestly hope he finds someone if Charles doesn't come into his own self-discovery. But that said, I do appreciate the bond both of them have as a pair: unbreakable / to (literal) Hell and back / no one else will do. What they have really does straddle platonic and romantic yet goes beyond, but I still can't help but feel that ache over Edwin feeling lonely. Now that he's come to terms with his identity as a gay man, I'd love to see him enjoy a connection with someone, Charles or otherwise, especially since he's a ghost, and he's borderline immortal (apparently ghosts can still be destroyed in this universe).
