cornerofmadness

I was interviewed by Kandisha Press who features women horror authors. It was fun.

I was left in Costco barely supervised. Dear credit card, we're sorry.

I've been meaning to do this, Pride month recs. Check out duckprintspress. They have SO much good stuff (including a reading challenge on storygraph.

It was 60 degrees yesterday. 90 today. I am not amused.


And for fannish 50, I'm continuing with the ladies of fandom. Hazbin Hotel has a lot of ladies (maybe even more than the men, actually no I think it is more). However, a lot of them aren't that well developed (yet), Sera, Emily, Lute, Lilith, Rosie, Velvette, Cherri and Carmilla would be the major secondary characters, most only appearing in an episode or two. Rosie is one of my favorites but she is pretty much a blank slate.

That leaves me with the main three, Charlie, Vaggie and Niffty. While Niffty is good comic relief but again there isn't much to her. Vaggie and Charlie are the best developed of the ladies and I am going with Charlie for this.





Charlie is a great character really. She is the eternal optimist but she's also painfully naive and pretty damn clueless. She means well but doesn't have the tools to necessarily do well. She is about the only person who believes that hell is meant to help rehabilitate the sinners and send them to heaven. Finally after being out of touch with her mother for several years, and having zero support from Lucifer, Charlie opens up one of his rundown properties, the Happy hotel, to start trying to redeem sinners.

When she finally gets two sinners to try and redeem, it's obvious Charlie is in over her head. She doesn't understand people. She concocts a lesson plan that villainizes everything that makes Angel Dust Angel, praises Pentious for embracing the role play while totally missing the pain on Angel's face.

But she can learn. She realizes the mistake she made in trying to help Angel with Valentino only we do wish she had corrected that mistake more violently (but then we'd not have Valentino down the road and we couldn't have that). She is forgiving (of her father, of Vaggie) and she is capable of violence when necessary (while apologizing for it). She fights for those she loves and she fights hard and that's what I love best about her (I wish she were easier to write for me)

He's 82. He spent it arranging for my uncle to come home. Part of why he was so debilitated was he wasn't eating. He's a bit stronger now. Honestly he doesn't need to be home but he doesn't need total nursing care which is where he is now. He needs assisted living but you get this stupid ass assessment, oh you're too bad for this care but not bad enough for this other care. OMFG. I hope this works but I'm leery. If his wife was better at things ...

I had a good write off in my monthly writers' zoom meeting. I started the new novel. I'm going to share a bit but BEFORE I do let me ask you this. one of you had mentioned a week or so ago about being inspired by my posts to share part of YOUR story but I was super busy and didn't get to read it and now I've forgotten WHO it was. If it was you, drop me the link please (also a couple of you had your stories podficced in the holiday exchanges, I wanna hear those too.)

This was the cozy fantasy-mystery thing, see what you think of this snippet. It's raw fresh from my tired brain. ( here's a taste )

Also I have lost the links I was using in my wedding horror and I'm SO annoyed because that's twice now I had the perfect monstrous bit but have lost the inspiration but it was in Italian witchcraft. Sigh. Maybe I can find it again. I want her to use magic from Italian folklore.


Community rec. This one is for a good cause. fandomtrumpshate it raises money (You can see their charities at the site, they have plenty of documentation) I've done this since the beginning practically. This year I'm changing it up, offering only one fandom. In the past I've done Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Prodigal Son and The Owl House but right now Hazbin Hotel owns me. So it's new to me (I wasn't even in the fandom last time around) so if you're a hazbin fan and like my writing, you can bet on me soon. (Do not forget to sign up like last year and have to beg to be let in, Dana) I encourage you all to join in as bidders and/or creators. Together we can put some good into the world.

and I had no nice fire. So I walk out the door (without the clothes I wanted to donate to the veterans) and get hopeful. There's no rain but it's grey. I'm about 20 miles out of town when a blinding ice storm hits. It is so bad even 18 wheelers are doing 45 mph.

That keeps up for about ten miles before it goes to snow, not nearly as bad but the road is slushy but the closer to Chillicothe I get the less that is and then you have some fools trying to go 70 mph (which is the road speed and it's like dudes, if the truckers aren't going for it, you shouldn't either. Have I mentioned I need 4 new tires because mine are getting baldish.

The nerve block is a procedure that has to be done under flouroscope (basically an x-ray) so you go in, they scrub down your back and you have to lay on your belly face in a hole (like a massage table). They have to get the anaesthetic between your vertebrae with the needle to numb up the nerves (guided by the x-ray and contrast dye) Imagine if you will the size of the needle needed to penetrate skin, fat AND Muscle to get between the bones. Now do this four times per side. Whee.

Off I went to the mall (since I was there) because I wanted to test to see if it worked. The left side feels like someone punched me in the kidneys, however I can bend and squat without pain so this seems to be very hopeful.

I also hit the Mexican restaurant and the coffee shop which was hosting a Billy Graham prayer help con (thankfully in a locked off room) which I only mention because in walks this guy who made me double take. he looked like the villain from Poltergeist 2 if you put about 120 more pounds on him. No lie he even had the damn hat!!

Other than that today was dedicated to writing. I will bbl with maybe a tidbit and a word count. I've made it to the pentultimate chapter of the novel. yay.

38527 / 50000 words. 77% done!

Tidbit : Al watched him walk out before letting out a huge breath. “I never thought I’d be so grateful Robbie is a creep.”

“We always thought he stalked girls. Now we know for sure.” Grace wrinkled her nose. “It feels wrong to benefit from it but we can’t ignore it.”

“No we can’t,” Dan said, spatulating up a slice of pizza onto his plate. “We need a plan. It’s just as well only two of you are going but even then you’ll need to keep out of sight. If whoever is at this house, if we’re right, they will know all of our faces by now.”

“If she’s good, she might even be able to recognize magical signatures,” Howell added, snaring a piece of pizza with his bare fingers.

How the hell is it the Summer Solstice? I have no idea. Since it was hotter than the face of the sun, I spent the day in creation. I wrote over 4200 words. I edited the first chapter of my unconventionalcourtship story which I finished late last night. I know the whole thing is supposed to be put up at once but eh, they probably won't get on me for that. I had two stories I needed out of my head which seemed like a better use of my time than editing.

Especially since one is my mafia horror story that still needs a beta. In lieu of that, what do you think? Do I include the name of the Paiute legend that inspired the monster or just leave it at little cannibal-spirit thing? I'd like to give the Paiute name but SO many times I've been seeing people getting a lot of push back for using Indigenous myths (mostly the wendigo and in the cutesy-fication of this monster I can see that and if I mention Indigenous cannibal myth people will think it is a wendigo which it is not) Either way it comes down to how little pay I'll see for this vs cost for sensitivity reader for something that's under 6K in a small anthology. Sigh. (for the record it's a nimerigar I'm using)

Speaking of writing I was at my zoom writers group (love this) and they're talking about editing old things. Well I FINALLY started doing that and this has been thru a writers group twice. I haven't edited it though in a couple years. 1) I can see how much I've grown 2) this is SO much rougher than it should be 3)I'm a little disheartened by this 4)I know I can salvage it 5) I'm sorry I was talked into updating this story 6) it's going back to the later 90s for a setting 6) why is writing so hard sometimes? 7) why is finding beta readers so hard 8) maybe I should cave in and go to getyourwordsout's discord to find betas

And adulted the hell out of this morning. They called at 9 AM to schedule the nerve conduction test before I could call them. It was later in July and I whined but took it and she then goes oh wait you already HAVE an appt (in the week I wanted) I'm like so they called me and I couldn't talk then and instead of calling me back they just scheduled it, didn't tell me and was all work it out.

So I scheduled my MRI for that day BUT they still don't have the preapproval and I know Med mutual sent a letter (because USPS is sending me screenshots of my held mail) so I need to call them to see if they denied it.

They can't move my endocrinology appointment that they messed up so I told them fine, hold it to sept (the first available) and explain to the doc why I haven't seen them in 9 months. They're going to try an squeeze me in.

The storm hit last night so I did get in pool time even if it was grey. It started to sprinkle so I came in and as soon as I recovered the pool the sun came out and I glared at it for a while. Now it's clouded again so no Northern Lights for me.

Since Thursdays were for community recs so here we go wipbigbang is having a reverse big bang too if you are interested

I also found out the GabaGhoul open call runs til July (yay) and while it caps pay at 5K the stories can be longer double yay because a) they emailed me back within the hour of me asking so they're interactive b) my story is already 3500 words and there is no way to get it scarier in 1500 words. I was wondering if anyone had thoughts but the story has had one death. Do we think two more or three more deaths before the finale?

I talked about how much I love Dead Boy Detectives on Twitter and Lou Diamond Philips chimed in to say how much he loves it too.

On the bad side between conference bills and medical bills I sat in my brother's easy chair and paid out 4 grand. Yikes.

after a computer lock up cost me time and having to restart everything on a document due out tonight and after all that agita the deadline is JUNE first not May. WHY do I fuck this up all the time? I flipped it with another date so I totally missed the comic book out of your short story thing. I am disappointed in that.

Sooo does anyone have time to look at a 7K dark fantasy story? How about a Dracula inspired short? that deadline is coming up.

Now on to writing that Steampunk pirate thing and the Mafia horror one. OMG I really am turning into a short story writer.

And hey I DID get my contract for my SF thriller today. I am excited as all get out for this one.

I'll do my fan stuff later this week I think. However check out this comm lyricaltitles that I picked up from autisticwriter Back in Buffy the Vampire Slayer's hey day there were a ton of lyric challenges and I was part of a lot of them. I missed that. I'm planning to do this (and use it to fill a lot of my filed comment_fic prompts) and I plan to use a goth album from Valentine Wolfe. Like I needed another challenge but how can I resist?

Angeldust reminds me of a character of mine, Nine. I haven't thought about him in a while. I went looking for him and found a few pieces of his story...from TWELVE years ago. OMFG. HOW??? Now I'm just said. Why do I finish almost nothing???

I only have about 20 pages of this. I'm sure there was more. somehow a lot of stuff from 2010-2020 has gone missing. How much of this was only on flashdrives/laptops? I feel hurt by this but it's my fault so what else can I do?

Tonight was the author's zoom thing and it went so well. I'm this much closer to finishing my 80s Monster Slayer thing. It will need a really good beta reading once I'm done. I have hopes for this.

Speaking of hope Alpha Merc has my story in the yes/maybe pile (hopefully I'll know next week) and they keep in constant touch about the process. How much do I love this?!? I mean so many won't even tell you if you've been rejected. These guys are telling me every step of the way. I'm keeping an eye on them just in case they have another open call. Can't rec them enough.

Abney Park had another streaming concert tonight with a pirate theme. It was a lot of fun as usual. They have a lot of pirate themed stuff.

It snowed all morning but it has been so hot that it didn't stick to the roads, only dusted the grass. I did, however, skip going to Logan. I've been feeling blah because of my sugar and I did have to get that new pill. The tech at CVS said Dana you'll like the price of this pill much better! Yeah it was only 350$...

My friend was selling at Logan's Full Moon Market. It would have been nice to see her but alas.

I got the SF horror edited and titled (Path of Transformation because I suck at title) and then found out I'd read the damn Jethro Tull open call wrong. It was 8K not 10K. My story was 9500K....I got it down to 7988 but bye bye evil King, see ya description, sucks to be you witty banter... I did keep the longer version because you know how this goes, the snowball's chance and all that. I still think down the road it'll end up a novella.

I also finished a chapter of the 80s era monster thing at the coffee shop today (which was still almost standing room only in spite of the snow). I need to bring it home as it's getting close to 90K. I'm already thinking about the sequel (because they want it) and I think this time instead of too many monsters, it'll just be one but it'll need to be a good one.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, I get so much out of writing sprints. I fell into a group of thriller writers who get together once a month. I knocked out 2200 words in an hour. I don't know why I do so much better this way (well I sort of do, I turn off everything but the classical music and I concentrate because I don't want to say nope sorry got distracted doomscrolling.

So to that end, I will have the dracula story done soon and hopefully the Jethro Tull one too within a week or so, if anyone wants to look at some shorts.



I've been meaning to do this for more than a week, check out what Quillpunk has done for rounding up tons of fandom exchanges. Thursdays were for community recs in the past so check this out, so much good there.

Thursday is also for thankful and I'm thankful I made it through the night because that wasn't a given yesterday. (and I'm seeing my psychiatrist next week so yeah, I've resources, I'll be okay)


So today my editor asked why are there scars on my MC's face on the cover and I'm like I have no idea. I thought maybe it was part of a watermark and was going to go away. The main editor asked too (I did mention the tattoos were in the wrong spot but I could live with that) I have no idea what is going to happen now. My fault I should have asked about that. That's the whole 'don't make waves' thing that I have mostly shed but it still crops up from time to time.

But before I launch into it, I have a question for you all at the end of this! I knew I was going to Chillicothe today because a) I had to return something to TJ Maxx and b) (and more important) my friend and her daughter were doing tarot readings at the Hidden Gem a new to me gem store. I thought I'd pop in briefly and go to the earthen works of the Adena people in Chillicothe (so yeah I live close to the Mounds)
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It rained. And Rained. and rained. So I went to Rost to write and have coffee and paid so much for lunch I'm kicking my own ass. I mean for like 2 dollars more I could have had a real meal at the old canal smokehouse vs lukewarm overpriced biscuits and gravy. Eye roll (the coffee is still good).

I met with MK at the store. The owner might have me do a book signing there. Is also interested in my student's granny witch research so I'll b ring that by next semester. I have learned I COULD NOT own a small store. I would be an anxious mess. I haven't seen MK since her open heart surgery (basically last time we saw each other was Rathacon last april) We sat and chatted for 2 hours and only three people came in, no one wanted a reading and no one bought anything. Nope, if that's all the business I get in a weekend I would be a nervous wreck. It's a small gem/pagan shop.

I walked out with a couple aura stones and a 3-d printed Mayan death whistle that I proceeded to blow at every red light. I said I wasn't sure I wanted a reading. MK pulled the hierophant out for me. We both decided it was better not to unpack that one!

I guess because it was a Saturday Red Lobster (finally found my gift card from last Christmas) was seating at the bar only because it was so crowded at 4 pm. I wanted to try the new tequila shrimp for the endless shrimp. It was yummy.

I had thought to go buy a brown hat at Spirit Halloween that I could repurpose for my aether witch steampunk cosplay. Almost bought it...until I saw the line. Pass. I'll buy one off amazon.

As I left the restaurant, I developed a weird pain under my left breast. It's starting to let up now about 7 hours later. It was so painful, I thought I might have to stop at urgent care. Pleurisy? a pulled muscle? I have NO idea. Only thing over there is the spleen. I do think it was some muscle since it is letting up. No clue what it's about.

Tonight was also the Halloween online concert for Abney Park doing Goth band covers. WOO HOO. I really enjoyed it. I paid extra for the downloads for this. Depeche Mode, Sisters of Mercy, Oingo Boingo, Dead Can Dance, Baus Haus, really loved it.





So that question, I was thinking about some of my upcoming Nano. I was going to set it in a fantasy setting (well I still am) the debate is a) should it be gas lamp fantasy or more modern and b) what type of magic should I do. I was going to have the main character be a ghost talker and the rest more of your standard dark academia magic systems.

However I've DONE that. If I ever get off my ass, I have another former nano that is like 75K or something (also Dana why is your original fiction file folder ONLY on the 11 year old desk top? Not this laptop nor this flash drive?) I could easily finish that one. I need to reread it and start outlining it a bit to find out where I went wrong (I think in one way it wanted to be two different stories in one) It's one I should print out and send to a beta reader or two because honestly I think that would be the best way to catch things.

My question is then WHAT kind of magic would you like to see? I know who the killer is. I know why they're killing. (She had killed her nephew and has brought him back using some forbidden magic and I'm not sure if she just kills at the change of seasons out of a belief she needs to refresh the magic or if she's repeatedly killing his ass and bringing him back). I'm curious what others would like to see and will probably continue this thought tomorrow for the writerly ways but I do seriously want to know what others might like to see (or not see as the case may be. For example, I'm rather tired of gendered magic)