So…. I usually do NanoWriMo Flash with Nancy Stohlman. I will be checking in there. I will also be joining my mentor-in-flashing, Meg Pokrass, with her 300 words or less stories.

But… as of not even five minutes ago, I signed up for the novel version. Because it’s about damn time.

So, real quick. I read The Whisper Man by Alex North at The W in Du Quoin, a place I am pre-disposed to like because it is a horse facility. No horses in sight (except for a chestnut mare in a disagreement with a dog, glimpsed briefly in a back pasture), but still, the place gots good vibes. I was fireside with a flight of fall cocktails. Pictured is a cider and brandy combo.

Truly chilling book. A serial killer with a little tinge of supernatural. And about how crime and trauma affects people in our society, calling to some in a gruesome way. Also, families and love and trust.

I tore through The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon. Characters in McMahon stories are so damn believeable, relateable, even—even when they do strange things. Like become obsessed with a cursed spring that grants wishes and cures ailments. This is a story about sisters, generational inheritance, curses, blessings, and the importance of being very, very careful what you wish for.

It was right before Halloween. Tim had a basement gig—but it was a cool basement, and only a little bit haunted. That’s a Skrewball Russian sitting between my book and the Tito’s. Cool backdrop, eh?

As always, read more, and read more horror. And now I need to get my NanoWriMo set up. See ya’ round!

#nerdinabarwithabook