It has been MONTHS since I updated – my bad!! I started a new job literally the day after my last post haha.
School went well, I got all A’s in all of my classes both semesters. And I applied for a low-residency MFA and got in! I had to defer the start date to next summer for health reasons, but I am looking forward to it!
I’ve been writing – not as much as I wish I was, but an amount! I’m still looking to self-publish a second collection of short stories this coming fall, we’ll see how it goes. I also have a couple of novel WIPs I’m working on, I haven’t decided yet if I want to try to get those published traditionally at all or if I just want to keep self-publishing my work.
I’ve also been working on some cool art-related projects, I’m excited to see some of them come to fruition. One of my projects is a series of patterns for POD clothing, bags, and accessories, I’m just trying to figure out what’s the best option to host and produce this stuff now that I’ve done the fun part.
I started a “The Dark Tower” themed walking challenge this month! I’m calling it the “Walk To The Dark Tower” challenge, I’m hoping other Tower Junkies start picking it up too just for funsies. I spent several months plotting out a route to take Roland Deschain from the last moments of his childhood in Gilead to the Dark Tower at the center of the multiverse, and depending on how you want the story to go it’s either around 15,000 total miles or up to 23,000+ miles long. It’ll take several years to complete, especially for people with jobs or other things they do, but hey, it took Roland literally thousands of years to do it so we can be smug about it, hehe.
I last drank: strawberry kiwi gatorade zero…
I last ate: pistachios… I’ve become a pistachio enjoyer
I haven’t read any books lately… I need to change that…
This year’s project is: two to five short stories, maybe more, for the upcoming short story collection! I already have those other four stories finished up and two that are “started but not finished because the vibes were off,” but as previously mentioned there’s a total of 21 stories I want to write for this one.
Well, we got pretty lucky with this hurricane! Minor roof damage, power only gone for about 4 days, some extra yard cleanup but nothing major. I did NOT get all my goal writing done for September but to be totally fair, I did have other things to fret about. I am hoping to get a nice big chunk of writing and art done this week, though! We’ll see if I can manage it around doing two weeks’ worth of school stuff in the next few days. I did manage to finish draft 1 of the Bermuda Triangle/Golden Age of Pirates story, which just needs a little bit of research before I can call it finished, and got a big chunk of some other stories worked on. And I’ve started a little mini art challenge for myself on my socials, and if I get it through all 31 days I’ll post the results here, heh.
Hurricanes are so weird to me because on the one hand, yeah, growing up smack dab in the middle of Central Florida means that every single major hurricane I’ve personally experienced was relatively pleasant, and on the other hand every time a storm hits it just absolutely devastates people on the coasts. The smell of the wind-driven rain is so much greener and cleaner than the smell of rain that’s been soaking up all the poisonous shit that gathers over the cities and interstates, and it cools everything down in a way that feels more like fall to me than any other time of year. I grew up in a house without air conditioning, so hurricanes were one of the few times it was like… tolerable to be awake in the daytime. And a huge chunk of my best memories take place during the wide stretch of time that goes from “the bands are just starting to hit us” and “it’s already mostly gone.” I used to be terrified of hurricanes in a body horror way – I was a bit young to have done the reading I did about hurricanes that sent hay through oak trees and sandblasted the living flesh off human bones – but mostly I feel like they’re just this sort of… crotchety older aunt who comes here sometimes. Makes a mess when she visits but generally lovable. I can’t imagine how terrifying it would be to have to face a hurricane on the water, or on the coast itself.
Well, that’s enough waxing poetic or whatever… things are pretty much normal in my neck of the woods now, and school is starting back up tomorrow. I have two exams, a paper, and five assignments due this week – the exams are both set for Thursday – so I’d better tuck myself into my little bed.
I last drank: mug of swiss miss. tis the season!
I last ate: some of those Mother’s Frosted Animal Crackers with the wee rainbow sprinkles
Well!! Hurricane Ian is supposedly on his way over here. I will be working on the camping story, the not-pirates story, and hopefully the swamp aliens story, which has Hurricane Andrew in it. I am thinking about drawing up my cenobitesona this week, too. Classes were cancelled Wednesday and Thursday and there’s not REALLY a whole huge hell of a lot for me to do in the meantime. Sigh.
Well, hopefully I will get all of my Goal Writing done before the 1st. I might be starting a new part time job soon, though I don’t believe it will slow my writing TOO much. I might extend my timeframe for finishing the Grimweaver Mythos collection by a month if it does, I suppose. It’s too early to tell, I suppose!
Speaking of writing projects, I have a bunch of like……… research materials and notes and whatnot and I keep thinking I’d like to make a brief podcast about Florida’s haunted ass history, mostly to explain the actual literal historical connections to the places and events I reference in some of these stories. I don’t have THE most soothing, radio-ready voice though, lol. We will see.
Not much to report on besides the usual homework + family stuff+ housework ensemble, I guess. I mostly just hope I don’t lose power. I’m not where the worst of the storm will be hitting, though, and I’m inland enough that even when storms hit pretty directly they USUALLY get settled down to a Cat1 or TS by the time they get me. (Well… except 2004… but that year was a doozy.)
I think I need to do something about making my mailing list bigger/more attractive and I definitely need to make some updates to my art website. I guess we will see if I end up having the time/energy to do that though.
I last drank: a can of coke zero
I last ate: some steak and fettucine alfredo. it’s the rao’s sauce, i like it, my first time trying this one.
This was a wild week! My dog’s surgery took about three hours longer than it was supposed to (she’s completely fine, very frisky lovey puppy) and then I came down with something ghastly and chesty (but not COVID, thank goodness!) I’ve been staying home from school and feeling miserable all week, but I’m finally upright enough to write and post today.
Unnnnnnnfortunately there’s… not VERY much to report. I did finish both Blue Whale Story and Devil Hog Story over the last week or so! That’s just under 5000 words for the next collection, heh heh heh. I’m very fond of these two stories. I’m still working on Glamping Cabin In The Woods, and I’m debating starting either the Hurricane Andrew story, the Fort Myers Internet Harassment story, or maybe the Pirates story >:3c
I’m trying to catch up with TV, and am hoping to feel better soon. I’m doing well in my classes – all A’s – but I have an economic case study research paper due this week on top of my normal assignments, so I’m not really getting much drawing or writing done until I get all that done. I would like to get a little more into the spooky mood though, maybe with some shows? I’ve watched all the _boisvert videos recently with son worm, and I’m thinking about maybe looking into hellier or possibly some older found footage movies? I will take suggestions in the comments!
I last drank: Twinings ultra spice chai with hazelnut creamer
I am eating: a Korean chicken stew that has daikon and carrots in it…
Actually a pretty busy day/week. I did a bunch of homework, spent a couple of nights at a hotel to recharge and visit HHN with son worm, finished with my list of new stories/story synopses for the Grim Related collection (21 new stories! Plus probably the 3 from Born Under A Bad Sign!), and went on to do yet more homework, which I will be doing… even more homework… momentarily.
I’m looking into a couple of jobs that hopefully will work out, but we’ll see. (This is as good a time as any to remind that yes, I would still like as many people as possible to buy the book that’s already out!) I’m feeling pretty energized to write this next batch of stories, though! I do need to figure something out regarding art sales – for the most part I need to restructure my artist portfolio website and look into instituting a sales method or possibly a print shop, though I could also see about doing a POD shop, too. I’ve been too busy/hectic to do much art the past couple of months and I think I’m probably not prepared to try to get into any shows or apply for an MFA program this year, but of course that leads me back to “Do I even WANT to be in an MFA program, for the things I want to do with my life?” I generally lean towards yes, but if I want to apply for next fall I would have to put the application in this semester and I don’t really know if I could swing it, and rejection from one of my programs of choice would be psychologically devastating, haha.
But also – I don’t really know if I DO need an MFA. My first several career goals are more entrepreneurial in nature – self publishing, a gallery/communal studio, hotels, haunts – and at this point it feels like it might be me doing my usual “anxious about failing so procrastinating to the point of not starting” bit. Whhhhiiiich I suppose answers the question, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to/shouldn’t do it…. sigh. That’s a decision for Future Sharo.
I’ve got lots of writing to get back to, so I guess that’s it for right now.
Like I do pretty much every year* since 2002, I went to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando Resort. Some mild spoilers for what I saw of the event throughout the review!
Definitely just some normal scarecrows.
For a couple of reference points: I used to work for Universal Orlando back in the day, so I became extremely accustomed to attending this event multiple times each season for low or no cost. In the last few years since I left that job, I’ve really only been able to attend once a year (or, in 2019-2020, none times per year.) and for the last couple of years I’ve decided to bite the bullet and get myself the HHN Express pass. Cost wise, most years it seems the best days to do that are Wednesdays and Thursdays. Those tend to be emptier, quieter days as well, and historically I’ve always gone on a Wednesday, Thursday, or Sunday. I did attend a Saturday during opening weekend once, but the crowds are just too overwhelming. I definitely recommend a Wednesday or a Thursday whether you get the Express or not, but if you can do both: I was able to blast through seven houses and two rides in a little under three hours with the Express on a Thursday, and I was back in my hotel bed with a heating pad and a ginger ale by 10pm.
ME AND WHO????
I did not watch either the seated show or the lagoon show, and due to a combination of inclement weather and crowding I didn’t catch any of the scarezone scripted events. I’d been particularly looking forward to seeing what would happen in the scarezones, so that bummed me out a little. I did see a couple of scareactors in the Spooky Farm zone – including the Corntastic guy, that was a really cool costume – but the cemetery and the pumpkin lord zone were pretty much empty. I really would have liked to see the Pumpkin Lord at all, especially since his house was far and away my favorite from last year. Whatever zone was in San Francisco was so hellishly overcrowded that even when I spotted the scareactors they were being crushed in by guests – I’m at the point where I honestly think they need to find a way to split the crowd into traffic lanes there, because that area ended up being boring and annoying more than anything else. The Candy Parade From Hell zone was really good, though! The parade floats, set pieces, and seeming legion of aggressor/victim characters wandering around were really immersive and fun. I would have liked a better sound design there, and I didn’t catch that some of the food stalls I was looking for were in the area. I think that area would have really been a perfect in the daylight and with a transformation sequence from normal parade to hell parade.
Really fun parade float matching the cemetery scarezone/past cemetery houses!Another parade float, maybe a Spirits of the Coven reference?
Speaking of scarezones… I think Hellblock Horror, which ended up being my last house of the night, should have been a scarezone, probably in San Francisco, which little separated walkthrough elements. I really didn’t get that the house was supposed to be some kind of jail for radiation monsters until like, a little bit into it, but a lot of the elements they used in the house were super cool. I just think for it to be effective they should have had a kaiju or two, and the kind of space/sound design they’d want for that has already been used in previous scarezones. As a zone or as a house, it also could have tied in really well with Bugs: Eaten Alive, what with the nuclear terror/50s monster vibes… if they’d been anywhere near one another. A little bit of planning could have linked a fair number of the houses and scarezones into a single cohesive narrative this year, but like… the Candy Parade+Pumpkin Lord+Cemetery+Farm+Legends+Chupacabra+Coven+Halloween as one single Classic/Vintage narrative, and Bugs+Hellblock+Descent+Winter’s Wake forming their own kind of Fallout-ey narrative.
I wanted to like the Weeknd and there WAS a lot to like about it, but the combination of constant intense strobe lights + problems I was having with my glasses getting fogged up from the rain meant I barely could see anything but what I did see gave me a headache. Weeknd seems like a house that would have really benefited from some kind of buildup in the line, like – idk, clips of an interview before and after whatever caused the … undead Weeknd situation? It was really hard to tell what I was seeing in there. Legends was cool in the way the line to get on the Mummy ride is cool, but it was… kinda goofy. When I went the Wolfman was the winner, holding Dracula’s decapitated head, and I spend so much time around various nieces and nephews that I told him he did a Good Job. It wasn’t very scary and I didn’t really get a good idea of WHY they were fighting, though at least I had the feeling that the Wolfman was a good ?? guy?? And I have no idea what happened to the Mummy.
I’d been REALLY looking forward to three houses: Bugs, Winter’s Wake, and Chupacabra. I would have liked just a teensy bit more time in the first room in Bugs, possibly with a clearer voiceover explaining that the AC unit has a Pesticide Option, a visual cue that the Ominous Fog was the pesticide, and maybe something to indicate why the display lady started Blood Curdling Screams instead of trying to easily escape. That being said, the rest of the house was pretty coherent and VERY upsetting if you’re at all uncomfortable with bugs, holes, parasites, etc. I legitimately felt itchy and twitchy for a while afterwards, it’s probably the best house experience I had that night. Not as good as last year’s pumpkin house, but still pretty good. I did appreciate the uh. Man Pregnant With Spiders. :3
Looking forward to more from BZZZCON INDUSTRIES!!
I… okay, so, I got in line for Chupacabra before Winter’s Wake, because the line was shorter by about 20 minutes before Express. At 25 minutes, I ended up in the door to a house at the expected 8 minute mark. That’s fine. The person checking our Express passes did so for the Chupacabra house. That’s also fine. The lines merged at some point? And so we stepped into the soundstage and… it was very obviously Winter’s Wake, but we didn’t feel comfortable going back through the people behind us? So I didn’t get to do Chupacabra due to having forgotten to take my anxiety meds before the event started, lmao.
Winter’s Wake was good though. Beautiful set. The crashed fishing boat situation was cool as fuck. I really liked that it engaged guests with things to look at outside of their natural field of vision, rewarding you if you look up and around. I have no idea why that pretty girl was violining? I’m not sure how those fishermen became fishmen? I appreciated the one Sweater Wearing Man flying at us but the timing was a little weird and the lighting/costume meant that it was like, oh, he’s. he’s on the little swingy harness. The whole thing gave big Far Harbor Fallout 4 vibes, though, and a big nuclear disaster could explain the crashed boat and the monster fishermen situation. The house just wasn’t… scary, but I would love to do an unmasking the horror in it if I ever have the money.
I really wanted to like Spirits of the Coven. With the timing of the 1920s Prohibition stuff, I thought maybe we’d see some ties to past houses/zones set in that timeframe, or even a nod to the Legendary Truth storylines. I didn’t really feel like I… understood the house very well. Some of the scares ended up being like “Oh! The Monster Is … Normally Dressed Man In A Porkpie Hat!” and I felt like it wasn’t super clear what the witches were doing or why it was… bad or dangerous to us? But the glowing images in the one part really FELT like they should be connected to Legendary Truth. Oh well.
Descent was a good house… to an extent… I liked the set designs and character designs, again. The fungus bit was the coolest part. It felt like a missed opportunity or two in there, though. It didn’t make a huge amount of sense to me how it ended, and, as usual, the Rather Pleasant Cannibal Cookout Odors were more of a distraction than an enhancement. I love Fun Smells as much as the next person, but we gotta retire the Cannibal Flesh Cooking smell, it’s like, identical to the smell in the Sonnys/4River/Dustin’s parking lot. I also just really didn’t catch why we were down in the subway or how all this happened? This is another one that really would have done well with some kind of buildup to explain the setting.
I did not attempt to enter Halloween or Blumhouse, both of which had hourlong lines when I was nearby, because I just! Did not! Want to wait! 20 minutes! In a line! I’ve done the Halloween house a dozen times over, and I didn’t end up seeing either Freaky or The Black Phone, and while I’m sure those two houses are both highly anticipated and appreciated by some, I just couldn’t make myself endure another hour in the rain and crowds. That’s not necessarily a dig, because if I’d gone for a Frequent Fear pass I would have hit the houses I didn’t get to the next night. I just was, at that point, at my limit physically. (The joys of being relatively newly disabled… it’s my second HHN using a cane but I hadn’t taken the weather affecting my joints into account.)
The usual HHN complaints stand, I guess – houses falling into some predictable patterns even for HHN newbies, scares relying overmuch on Loud/Sudden Noise+Sudden Movement, exquisite amounts of lush detail that don’t get enough time to be appreciated and therefore don’t add to a sense of dread, horror, or terror. (This, I think, was the reason why last year’s Puppet Show house wasn’t super scary – it had everything it needed to be scary but TIME.) I would love love love to experience the true anticipation and dread that primes one to be not just startled but truly scared! There have been past years where this felt more possible. Nowadays, I think there would need to be more on social media – no complaints about the Twitter SMM, but I feel like lore drops, small-stakes contests and giveaways, and team building/faction choosing/alliance type activities starting at least 30 days before opening night would be a huge bonus. The fact that I didn’t realize there was a small anthology of official (?) HHN short stories this year because it was apparently on Spotify, a thing I don’t use, until 4 days after I went to the event makes me wonder where exactly the parks advertised this information.
That being said, I had a great time, the lines with express were short enough to get through what would have taken me 8 or 9 hours in past years in a mere 3 hours. If I’d been a little less waterlogged I would have headed over to Cabana Bay for the spooky photo gallery thing, but alas! I made it home to Endless Summer Dockside and spent the rest of the night eating Auntie Annies nuggets and alternating between Zak Bagans and Guy Fieri with my teenager. I do wish there could have been some fun HHN promo/activity stuff at my hotel as well, but hey, at least I had a great suite with a pretty neat view.
NGL the view of Fun Spot made me want to go to Fun Spot.
Compared to the other 16 years that I’ve gone to this event, I give HHN31 a 7.5/10.
Another busy week and busy weekend! You’d think that I’d get a day off sometime, but no, heheh.
A few fun notes: I’ve now got 13 new story ideas written down and notated, some with research already begun. My personal goals for the next short story collection are:
At least 15 completely new stories, perhaps as many as 20 new stories… (!!)
Written, edited, and formatted as the next ebook before December 15th…
That all flesh out and contribute to the shared mythos/universe they all take place in…
…and that I have fun with every one of them.
So far I’m on the right track, I think! I’m excited about the new stories (ghosts! evil houses! monster hogs! pirates! zombies!) and now that I know how to do what I want to do with self publishing, it should be faster and easier to do it! I want to get as many story ideas written down before I head to Halloween Horror Nights this weekend, though, and I’m still blustering my way through three college classes this semester, too. (Currently: All A’s, and I want to KEEP IT THAT WAY…)
One thing that’s a bit of a bummer, it looks like my dog’s surgery has to be rescheduled, since it… was scheduled for today, and even though I checked with them over the phone 3 times that they were indeed open for Labor Day and got a confirmation text as recently as this past Saturday that it would be happening today… guess who was closed for Labor Day? Which… okay, lmao. I’m just saying, if I could sell a couple thousand copies of this book I could afford the fancy expensive vet down the street who wouldn’t run me around re: my appointments. Sigh. She’s okay, though, it’s not like urgent-urgent. She’s a very good dog.
Today was an email day, so just as a reminder, my email list is usually twice a month + the rare announcement that might happen once every 3-6 weeks, so I won’t be clogging up people’s inboxes. I think in perhaps 3-5 months I will create an archive of my emails for newer visitors, possibly if I end up adding a bunch more subscribers in a short amount of time. We’ll see!
I am drinking: mug of twinings chai ultra spice… after 11pm…
Oh well.
SHARO CREATES 