I was planning on posting a little something about playlists, music, and fiction writing this month, but it's gone by so fast I ran out of time. Perhaps next month. So, the briefest of updates.
I've spent most of this month plugging away on the ongoing dark fantasy project, with breaks to work on a nonfiction piece and a couple of short stories. (Do you like dysfunctional murder lesbians? I hope you like dysfunctional murder lesbians.)
"The Last Good Day" got a very nice review in the August issue of
-- Charles Payseur called it a "beautiful story" which "shows that assuming that the good days are over can become a self-fulfilling prophecy". The story is still available on a pay-what-you-can basis in
.
A while ago I wrote a short story called "Small Passengers", about a magical tattooist and a moment of connection in a dispiriting world. It's now found a home and will be coming out in Issue 18 of
next spring.
What I've been reading
First published in 1998, José Luis Zárate's
is a dreamlike, queer take on the voyage of the
Demeter
-- the ship that brings Dracula to England. It won't be for everyone (the narrator has some pretty weird sex dreams, and the prose style is likely to be Marmite), but I found it mesmerising. If you like your horror strange, haunting, and unabashedly horny, give it a look.
What I've been watching
Not much that's new other than the second season of
Good Omens
. Not quite as good at the first, but still immensely charming.
What I've been listening to
A break from the usual music recommendations this month, because I've become totally addicted to
a podcast that plumbs the weird, lurid depths of pulp fiction with lots of affectionate humour. Warning: your TBR shelf will not thank you.
And that's about it from me for August. 'Til next time.
JL