Mark your calendars: Sept 6th 2025! šļø
Instagram post by @dark_forest_oddities_
Just minutes away from downtown Salem MA, the DFO expo is the perfect place to start spooky season, offering a selection of: Oddities, books, horror merch, Halloween collectibles, jewelry, crystals, comics, Funko, alt clothing, dark art, tarot readings, film premieres, and adult toys! There will be 60 amazing local vendors and live performances and also a cosplay competition with a first prize of $250.00!
My table will be right alongside Eclipse Costumes ā which means Lauren and I will be getting up to shenanigans yet again, and also means that you can come, hang out with us, and walk away with books AND a new corset! And I have it on good authority that Lauren will be whippinā up some PIRATE CORSETS to sell in conjunction with That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story, so thereās your Halloween costume sorted out! (Or, well, at least mine š )
So save the date and get ready for some treats š¬
Blood Depths Update š
I’ve finished the first third of Blood Depths, and am digging in to a complex transitional chapter…
After a loss of about 20,000 words back when I was first writing my first novel (Blood Ex Libris) , I now save to
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the local computer drive
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a ruggedized external hard drive
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cloud storage
Because you never know what will fail you, and I’m damned if I will ever lose a word again! (Deciding that what you have written down is shit and needs rewriting, and deleting that so you can start fresh is a different matter. You have choice and control over that, which is all the difference in the worldā¦)
When I am drafting, the frequency of saving the file is almost OCD, because I am terrified that the computer will shut down and I will lose the story I’ve just gotten to flow out of my brain into words that exist outside my brain š
So, just to prove that writing a book is really not a romantic process, here is what I click on myriad times per writing session šš
The first third is now off to a new sensitivity editor. Iām trying a new thing, where I get sensitivity edits at three points along the way, so that none of my mistakes get baked in, and I can get any problems sorted before they require massive rewrites (or just not having to go through a 100,000 word document looking for those issues and rewriting around them and hoping I donāt miss anything!)
As we head into the next chapter (Chapter Eight, for those playing along at home) I find that I was overly ambitious in telling you that Noosh would shortly be in Lagos, Nigeria.
It turns out that not only is Africa a big-ass continentāI did already know this, but knowing Africa is huge is one thing and actually looking at the distances in numeric form is a whole other!ābut also Noosh needs to get some more information and meet some people before she gets to Lagos (because of evolving plot reasons) and so I decided to scrap the idea of flying from Tangier to Lagos (which was going to be complicated in and of itselfāeven flying a private plane across Africa is a complex affair) or going around by ship. So weāre gonna drive!
There are two potential routes by car. So we are going down the Atlantic coast, which means we go through Western Sahara, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin, and finally get to Nigeria. Plenty of time in which to meet the people we need to meet, and an excuse to bring back a feature from Blood Ex Libris that hasnāt been explored since thenā¦
We shall have some fun! And I already have a resource for editing that section, phew! š®āšØ
So I must amend the āWhere in the World is Noosh?ā graphicā¦
Desert on one side, ocean on the other! And how will the amār cope with all that sunshine?!
Anyway, Iām sure you all have world maps up on your walls and are moving the pushpin every time I send out one of these, so move that pin back! But next newsletter, I promise there will be forward momentum! šš£ļø
So many, many vampire pirates! š¦
I started Book IV, Blood Depths so damn long ago that actually not many of you newsletter readers will either remember or will have ever heard that the whole point of the novel is vampire pirates. (And thanks again to the wonderful supporter of the series who suggested it to me in a late night phone call, all those years ago! š„°)
I was still signed with the Terrible Former Publisher back then, and so while I had started the document for Book IV and written the first sentences, I had to take time away from writing it to get the rights for my first three books reverted, and then figure out how to to indie publish them. It took, oh, you know, a few years. I was posting pictures of me doing the original research for the book back in 2021ā¦
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So this story has been bobbing around in my head all this time, and thatās why itās crashing forth out of my brain with such intensity š¤Æ
It also explains so many of the recently-published stories: Boysie Singh and his minions from āInterview with the Vagabond King,ā and Sadie the Goat and Gallus Mag from That Lesbian Vampire Pirate StoryĀ are all characters who I found doing research and who I intended to put in Blood Depths as side charactersā¦only their stories are too good to gloss over, so they ended up starring in their own stories as hors d’oeuvresāand once you get to the main course, youāll recognize these colorful characters from having learned those stories already š
So starting down the vampire pirate journey has changed my life, and the stories I write, and I am so happy about that. We are in a time of needing escapist stories to get us through the day, so that we can recharge and keep up the fight. What could possibly be more escapist than vampire pirates? (Well, yes, dinosaurs on a spaceship, but that was already taken! š )
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An interview with me about LVP is up at the charmingly named website I ā¤ļøSapphFic
Thereās some great questions in there, including what the perfume for the book would smell like, and āWhat song does your character put on to start your book launch party?ā Go read it!
OK, this newsletter is long enough. Iāll ramble on more in the next one. I hope you enjoyed this one, and that you are staying cool and managing to find some moments of enjoyment in your summer.
There will be some big news coming along pretty soon about the next audiobook, and in light of that, I wanted to check in with the newer subscribers on their feelings about listening to booksā¦ š§
To everyone who made it this far, youāre fucking amazing and I adore you! Until next time, be good or be good at it! š
š I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: drop me a note šØ
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