My husband got me these lovely flowers in celebration of… well, okay, he buys me flowers like every week. But anyway, this bouquet is particularly lovely. I hope you all have a wonderful spring!
Schoonover & Out: Leaving the Job for the Last Time
Hello all!
This past Tuesday, I got laid off. Strangely, although I’m sad to lose my job of twenty-five years, I know there are tons of opportunities for me. This is what I’ve been waiting for: the universe to tell me IT’S TIME. In the meantime, if anyone needs editing work, I’m open. And I’m looking right now to change my entire life. So hit me up if you have any ideas.
Here’s me yesterday, leaving my office for the very last time.
CANDLEWOOD movie available to stream, DD interviews director, behind-the-scenes and my hometown location notes (spoiler and review free)
The horror movie Candlewood—which was filmed in my hometown of New Milford, Connecticut, and in which I was an extra a while back—is now available to rent or view on many streaming platforms, including Prime and Apple TV!
Produced by Bandstand Pictures, directed by Myke Furhman, and written by Victoria Flores-Argue and Joseph Patrick Conroy, Candlewood, from the official description, “follows a blended family that moves from New York City to a small, isolated town in Connecticut. Once there, a local urban legend wreaks havoc, fracturing their family dynamic and causing them to go insane.” The film runs an hour and half.
To watch the trailer, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ze6srALIQ8
To visit the Candlewood website, click here: https://www.candlewoodfilm.com/
To check out Candlewood branded gear, visit here: https://www.candlewoodgear.com/candlewood-they-were-here-first
I appeared in the supermarket scene. What was really the most fun Read the rest of this entry
HAPPY RELEASE DAY! 34 ORCHARD ISSUE 11 HAS ARRIVED!
Thrilled to announce that 34 Orchard Issue 11 is now available!
In Issue 11, a frustrated Frito-Lay worker indulges the alternate reality he’s spent years avoiding, and an Alaskan detective’s fresh beginning in the City of Angels might have more to do with endings than he’d expected. A retiring Christmas elf forced to break tradition discovers that no sacrifice he makes will avoid disaster. A crooked prospector refuses an honest life out of fear, a paramedic must accept that she cannot change people’s fates, and a soon-to-be park ranger in a South American forest finds her employment aspirations require giving up more than she may be willing. Read the rest of this entry
Announcing 34 ORCHARD’s Spring 2025 ToC!
The ToC for 34 Orchard Issue #11, Spring 2025, has arrived! The issue will be released on Friday, April 25, 2025.
In Issue 11, twenty-two artists tackle the challenges of “turning over a new leaf.” While the phrase may refer to flipping to a book’s blank page, it makes the work of taking a new direction sound too easy. It’s much more like the leaves of trees in an approaching storm: you’re going to get jostled around, twisted, and beaten up. In this issue, we not only have work from the US, Canada, and the UK, but from Read the rest of this entry
My last project of 2024…
I only wrote one short story this year, and it went for its final polish (usually the third) on December 30. Here’s a photo of the drafts and notes I kept during the process… works out to about two inches thick. If you’re a writer, what/how do you keep your notes, if any? What do you do with them all afterward?
Here’s hoping 2025 brings all of us lots of piles of drafts and notes!
WICKED SICK receives six Best-of-’23-Horror mentions
THRILLED to discover that not one, not two, but SIX of the stories that co-editor Scott Goudsward and I selected for the New England Horror Writers’ Wicked Sick anthology are on the recommended reading list for Ellen Datlow’s 2023 Best Horror of the Year, Volume Sixteen! It’s the highest number of stories selected in a single volume in the Wicked series (and also the only one I edited).
Stephen Mark Rainey—who appeared in 34 Orchard’s Spring 2020 issue with the moving piece “Night Crier”—wrote a generous introduction for Wicked Sick, writing that “these authors reach into your Read the rest of this entry
34 ORCHARD ISSUE 10 IS HERE!
This issue plunges into the cavern of feeling forlorn, lost, and left behind; sasquatches, mermaids, street dwellers, siblings and jobseekers watch as the world chugs on without them. But although abandonment may feel like a death knell, we shouldn’t underestimate its positive power: a woman seeks justice, a grieving spouse turns grateful, and a mother finds strength.
If you’re feeling forgotten as the grayer days of autumn darken into winter, 34 Orchard’s Autumn 2024 issue may offer the camaraderie and light you seek. Get your copy at https://34orchard.com/issues/issue-10/ today!
Once again, the ToC:
Cover Art: Between Worlds – Sonali Roy
Attn Attn – Nichole Lightner
Connection – Yash Seyedbagheri
Things We Did on the Internet – Beth Boylan
Dolphin – T.L. Antoff
Medium Fries – Jilian Elisabeth
When I Scramble Eggs – Jacqueline Jules
Our Parents’ Children – Mia Scattergood
Shantytown – Gordon Linzner
The Day After – Claire Francis Collier
A Stranger in Winter – Rob Francis
The Dark Reflection – Melina Ekic
No Sanctuary – David H. West
Meeting Mary Bloody Thighs in a Convenience Store in Arkansas – Josie Levin
Let Him Roll – Sarah Bradley
When Nature Calls – Craig Thornton
Gardens – Kevin J. Fellows
Mother, Father, Us – Miel MacRae
The Museum – Gregory L. Norris
For Only an Hour – Susan Brush Jonas
Selling the House – Rasha Abdulhadi
Footprint – Kyle E. Miller
Recommended Novel: THE PALEONTOLOGIST
When Simon becomes curator of paleontology at his hometown’s decrepit natural history museum, he’s forced to confront his sister’s disappearance when they were children—an open wound that has infected every corner of his adult life. To make matters worse, he’s haunted by the ghosts of those who’d vanished millions of years before on that very spot. Luke Dumas’ The Paleontologist’s language is lovely, the characters well developed, the single effect perfect and the mystery well meted-out; bonus if you love dinosaurs—journal entries with sketches will feed your mania. I loved this novel, and recommend it to my readers (especially if you like my work or what you read in 34 Orchard) because it’s an elegant, heart-wrenching portrait of what can happen if we spend too much time in the past to escape our present.
Recommended books and films are at my own discretion. They’re not solicited, nor are they paid endorsements.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Our front stoop!
For the past several years, Halloween—the day itself—for me has been about working on any writing project I choose, dressing up in costume, and playing my favorite “Kitty” game on Google Doodle. Last night, Nathan and I went up to our favorite cemetery to watch the sunset and listen to Christopher Lee read Poe’s “The Raven.”
The beginning of sunset at the cemetery.
I love the rose light on the stones.
Nathan took this. It was absolutely gorgeous–like the sky was on fire. Sorry for the low quality; I was in a hurry so I just grabbed it from Facebook.
Today I’m dressing up as Ellie from Jurassic Park. Tonight, we’ll roast pumpkin seeds and watch Vincent Price in Corman’s The Masque of the Red Death.
YES IT’S THE OFFICIAL COSTUME! I’m still battling that crazy illness and still can’t eat, really, so this year, I decided to treat myself. Plus I’m thin enough now to pull it off. Silver linings!
Here are the kitty game links (officially, it’s called Magic Cat Academy) in case you wanna play, too!
See links below!
2016: https://g.co/kgs/1FLM8by
(I wrote the short story, “We’ve Always Been Here.”)
2020: https://g.co/kgs/J84Tsmv
(I was working on Tidings).
2024: https://doodles.google/doodle/halloween-2024/
(I will be working on an untitled short piece and probably the Lake Rites screenplay polish).
Happy Halloween!
My spider pumpkin. Nathan had to finish it for me. He used to do TONS of pumpkins.
Nathan’s pumpkin! I thought this scarecrow was very cute.
