If you’ve been waiting to take a chance on my work, June is a genuinely amazing month to do it.

June is my birthday month. I’ve celebrated it for 40-something years and I’ve never once published a novel on it, but there’s a first time for everything.

I’ll be launching my first full sized novel ON my birthday. June 22 is going to bring you Borrowed Bones:

A haunting meditation on grief, obsession, and the things we build from our broken hearts.

After the death of his wife, Russ Simmons is barely surviving. He walks in the woods behind his house every night, whispering his love into the darkness. He never expected the darkness to whisper back.

Something emerges from the woods behind his home. It talks to him in her voice, and with each passing night, it becomes more of what he’s lost.

As the creature learns, Hachette begins to suffer. A body is found in the woods, a farmer’s livestock is butchered and sorted like specimens, and a young child goes missing.

At the center of an ever-tightening circle of violence sits a small house where a grieving widower has stopped asking why his wife had to die, and started asking what he’s willing to sacrifice to get her back.

Borrowed Bones explores the terrible weight of love that refuses to let go, and the monstrous lengths we’ll go to when we can’t accept goodbye.

But that’s not all!



I’ve also been accepted into NEED: Horror Stories You Can’t Live Without.

I’m amazingly excited about that one, because I’m in there with some pretty big names in indie horror. Just look at this line up!

We all hunger. We all desire. We all hope. But more than anything, we all NEED. Need can slice our hearts into pieces like a razor blade. When our need isn’t met, our souls shrivel into a singular agony. It’s all we can think about; pursuing that need is the only thing we can do. In the end, if we need hard enough for long enough, we are extinguished.



This is a book of need. A mother whose children are thirsty, but she has no water, only the blood in her veins. A young man dying for the attention of strangers, for clicks that may never come. A son who will do anything to keep his elderly father alive, even as his flesh decays around him. An addict whose need is killing him over and over, every morning, every day, every night.



You don’t want this book. You need it.

NEED drops on June 10th.

I was in 2 anthologies that dropped in May.

Sinister Sins: An Anthology of the 7 Most Deadly came out on May 9th. My story in that one combines the sins of Lust and Gluttony.

In this chilling anthology, the boundaries of human depravity are pushed to their breaking point. Within these pages, the ancient vices of man take on terrifying new forms, proving that the oldest monsters aren’t hiding under the bed—they are festering inside us. Behind every corked bottle and labeled vial lies a concentrated essence of our own undoing. We treat our vices like remedies—a drop of Lust to cure the cold, a dram of Pride to bolster the spirit, a tincture of Wrath to numb the pain. But every “medicine” has its side effects, and these seven are lethal.

The Corrosives: Witness the slow, acid-like dissolution of the soul through Envy and Greed, where the more you possess, the less of “you” remains.

The Sedatives: Fall into the suffocating embrace of Sloth and Gluttony, where the comfort of the fix becomes the weight of the casket.

The Volatiles: Brace for the explosive reactions of Wrath and the blinding, dizzying heights of Pride—elevations that only make the inevitable crash more violent.

Sinister Sins is more than a collection of tales; it is a catalog of the human condition in its most concentrated form. These stories strip away the clinical labels of morality to reveal the raw, pulsing toxins beneath. Whether sipped slowly or swallowed whole, these sins offer a transformation from which there is no recovery.

So…anybody out there hungry?

Prime Cuts: A Savory Cannibalistic Horror Anthology came out on May 4th. In this The Butchered Writers presentation I have not one but TWO cozy horror stories.

Yes, I made cannibalism cozy. No, I’m not going to explain that. Just trust me.

What goes on in the minds of those who have a desire to consume flesh? What becomes of the victims of those strange desires? Is there a line a person shouldn’t cross in order to survive or feast? This anthology explores what may be taboo for some but just another meal for others. If you’re hungry come feast on what lies within the pages of Prime Cuts.

ALSO

I have plans to be more active with posts.


I’m still working on a posting schedule, and we’ll work the kinks out together, but I’m planning on more fiction, some articles/personal essays, and more book reviews in June.

As always, comments are my love language. Let me know what you think!

Am I writing my Week End Review on the first day of the new week instead of the last day of the old one? Why yes… yes I am.

Should I probably think of something else to call this little thing because we all know my procrastination won’t let me be regular? Probably.

This past week The Butchered Writers wrapped up their 31 Days of Free Horror Stories for October. They are all still up to read for free for now, and I do recommend going to read them. Some are halloween themed, but most are just your average everyday horror story. We don’t really have anything planned for November, but do have something up our sleeves for December, so stay turned for that.

I did finally finish reading 2 books this past week. I’ve been hopping from book to book and not actually finishing anything, so that’s a nice change of pace. Two book reviews will be coming up soon.

I’ve set a tentative release date of January 21st for Bushy-Tailed Demons, my squirrel themed horror anthology. That just so happens to be National Squirrel day, which I thought was just a fun day to release it.

I’m working on a novella using this years Inktober prompts to guide my chapters. I was going to do it during the month of October, but other obligations were in my way for that one.

Issue 2 of Zine of Uncertain Contents will be released early in December, so I’ll be working on that throughout the month as well.

Mostly my plans for the remaining November revolve around finding a rhythm that lets me do all the things that I want to do. That includes building up a portfolio of unused written fiction that I can draw on, getting a publication routine set up for Feral Coziness (blog) and Wild Verbs (substack) and Ko-fi, continuing to work on Z.U.C. getting some crafting time in while also continuing to work full time and somehow finding time to interact with my own family.

Not too much…right?

Once upon a time (longer now than it seems) I used to keep a blog on Xanga that was really more like a ‘zine. I called it Randomized.

Struck by a wave of nostalgia, I looked it up on the internet archive tonight. I ended up writing over 80 of these weekly entries, under the persona of “Zippy Bubblebuns”. It was a collection of bad jokes, random images, meme’s, links to games and other interesting websites I stumbled upon. I absolutely loved it!

I’m not sure why or how I came up with idea originally, but I’m pretty sure that I stole it from someone. But looking back at it now, I can see how it appealed to my mind so strongly. See, way back then I didn’t realize I was ADHD with a touch of the ’tis (as the kids say these days). My brain was always all over the place, and everything about blogging back then (and even now) pretty much insists that you niche down. Niche yourself right into a stuffy little corner and never leave.

We all know that’s not me.

Meanwhile, I also remember loving “3-2-1 Contact” magazine as a kid. And “Highlights for Children” too. Magazines with articles that also gave you activities to do. I loved activities! Crosswords and mazes and word searches and coloring pages and little experiments or crafts you could try at home. I still do love all these activities and even print them off from time to time to put on the break room table at work where it turns out the majority of teens and adults do not love the activities like I do.

Me, being the person with too many hobbies that I am, wants to start another blog like that. But remember that nobody reads blogs anymore (except for you. hI!)

Then, because I’m nothing is not consistent, I thought I could start a newsletter and put things in there instead. Like, all the silly jokes, and random pictures and memes. The consistency part comes from the fact that nobody reads (physical) newsletters anymore either.

I thought I could do it as an e-mail newsletter, whatever those are called this day. In fact there is one about the 90s that I get, and one called Afternoon Delight and another called Early Chirp. So the more I think of it, if there are at least 3 similar ones that I am subscribed to, then there MUST be a market out there for silly little content.

Then I also think I can do a physical version in ‘zine form and sell it on Etsy.

I don’t know. If I did a silly little newsletter full of the most random stuff out there, would you subscribe and read it? Or should I do it in blog form? If I do start an e-newsletter should I call it “Randomized” again, or come up with some other weird name?

LINKS
The Internet Archive is pretty cool. In writing this I found out that you can read old back issues of some magazines there too. I thought I’d never see 321 Contact again! Also, the e-newsletters I mentioned.

• 321 Contact
• Highlights for Children
• The 92 (newsletter sign up – I’m not an affiliate)
• Afternoon Delight (newsletter sign up – I’m not an affiliate)
• Early Chirp