March Newsletter

Novella Update

I’m roughly at the halfway point—partway into Chapter 6 and a little over 15k words. If I can keep up this pace, I’ll theoretically be done with the second draft sometime in May. I have no idea how long it will take to rewrite and edit, though. I’ve honestly never gotten that far in the process with anything other than short stories.

The Archives

This month’s featured story is At First Sight. It was written as part of the Blackwater Files collaborative project but works as a standalone too.

What I’m Reading

The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde

Somehow I’d never actually read this classic book, but I really enjoyed it. I was familiar with the basic concept, but it still managed to surprise me.

When You Find My Body: The Disappearance of Geraldine Largay on the Appalachian Trail, by D. Dauphinee

A tragic true story, pieced together from interviews with friends, family, and search and rescue workers. Interesting but often heartbreaking.

House of Splinters, by Laura Purcell

While not as good as The Silent Companions, which is set in the same house almost a century later, this was a solid story with some genuinely terrifying moments.

The Holy Thief, by William Ryan

A solid mystery/thriller in an unusual setting: Soviet Russia during the height of the Stalinist purges of the 1930s. The paranoia of the era really heightens the tension.