Status: Saturday, 2 October, 2021

LOCATION: Windsor, Brisbane, Australia.

THE QUICK-AND-DIRTY NEWS

• Printers have shipped out first print run of Joanne Anderton’s Inanimates, which should arrive around mid-week.
• First COVID vaccination jab yesterday, which means I’m aching like hell today.
• I’m searching for a new day job, which has thrown life into chaos.
• Our cat had an emergency vet visit, which means…
• I’m open for freelance cover design gigs, and have a few pre-made covers for sale at a discount.

CURRENT INBOX: 65 (Officially in drop everything and fix it phase, because anything over 30 usually means I’m ignoring important stuff that will come back to bite me later)

WORKING ON

• Layouts and cover designs for a Corella Press project
• Writing so many selection criteria
• Edits and cover design for January and February releases from Brain Jar (currently behind because of cat drama)
• A very secret project I’ll talk more about in November.
• Writing a zombie-infested D&D fantasy novella which may or may not be terrible.
• Contracts, as always, and edits, as always

THINKING ABOUT

• I’m ratcheted way down to the bottom of Masłow’s hierarchy of needs right now, so there’s not a lot of deep thought going on beyond prioritizing urgent jobs.

READING

• Luanne G Smith’s The Vine Witch, still, because it hasn’t been a good book for my stressed brain.
• Stephen Graham Jones The Only Good Indians, a phenomenal book that blends a melange of influences into a gloriously cohesive whole.

LISTENING TO

• I seem to be starting most mornings with The Hive’s Hate To Say I Told You So, or Pulp’s This Is Hardcore.

WATCHING

• Reservation Dogs: incredible TV that breaks all sorts of storytelling rules in all sorts of interesting ways. Just…watch it.
• Doom Patrol: Just when I thought they’d burned me out on DCs superhero television shows, along comes Doom Patrol which has the right amount of bat shit crazy, deeply weird superhero lore, meta-text, and career-resurgence-of-Brendan-Fraser to utterly capture my attention.
• We’re also revisiting the first season of Jodie Whittaker’s run as the Doctor, with the aim of getting to the seasons we haven’t seen yet.

STATUS OF THE ADMIRAL