Well, that escalated quickly.<\/p>\n
Quick update for those not intimately involved with my life: Yes, my region was hit by hurricane Ian. Yes, it’s kind of a mess down here. No, my own home was not severely damaged. Yes, my family is ok.<\/p>\n
Yes, it will take time and work for everything to return to normal. Storms are like that.<\/p>\n
So. Anyway.<\/p>\n
I’ve recently been blessed to join up with a local chapter of the Horror Writers Association (we meet only a few minutes away from the library where I work), and it’s been very fun and encouraging to find myself in a room of smart, friendly, welcoming folks who, like me, have fun writing strange, dark, thrilling stuff. It’s a safe place for freaky nerds to be freaky and nerdy, and I’ve really enjoyed talking shop with other professional spooks and geeking out over stuff we enjoy. It’s a common ground I don’t get to share with others very often; most of my friends aren’t really into horror, which is totally fine– it’s certainly not a genre for everybody. I’m just delighted to have found some people who I can share that side of myself with, without either sounding pretentious or like a total weirdo.<\/p>\n
The timing of my joining the HWA is very close to Hurricane Ian hitting. These two topics are linked thusly:<\/p>\n
One of my new writing friends is Matt Masucci. Together, he and I are working to throw together an anthology of weather-themed horror fiction in order to raise some money for local hurricaine relief. All profits earned will go to a local food bank that directly serves our community. It’s a good cause, it’s an excuse to collaborate creatively with others, and it’s going to be a pretty-dang-cool book. It’s kind of amazing how quickly others wanted to get involved– a handful of fairly big-name authors in the horror community, a cover artist, and a publisher all immediately jumped on board, and the end result is going to come from a true group effort.<\/p>\n