Rounding out the weekend. 🧙🏼‍♂️

Books, poems, film, etc. may require retraining a brain to slow down. And it's important bc while scrolling social media pushes the happy button, it rarely provides actual happiness. It's like food with no nutrients; your brain ate a lot but it's still starving for things that scrolling can't give.

Headed into the woods today. It was quiet. Reflective. A lot of what I needed as lately I’ve felt quite lost. Here’s to the return of the light. ☀️

182 years later, this part still hits as hard as it ever has, if not more.

What’s cool about coming to a job site super early to write: Being in the dark, alone surrounded by woods is fantastic atmosphere for writing horror. Drawback: Needing to use the frozen porta-potty in that same, isolated darkness. It is truly the stuff of nightmares.

Happy Solstice! May we all keep our flames stoked through the long nights ahead.🔥🎄✨

Amber said I am this squirrel. I don’t think I can argue. 😅

Missing those predawn walks around Portsmouth when the living still slept. When the spirits were the loudest.

I’m not a fan of these kinds of mornings. I show up early and try to get some writing in before work starts, but my brain is about as creative as a brick. It happens, I know. It just sucks. Just wish I got the memo so I could have slept some more… 😴

Dark times. Gonna play some guitar tonight. Gonna turn it up to 11.

That magical moment when you hear a new song and it pulls a whole story idea together… This morning it was Black Rainbow by Spiritbox.

Was visited by the sleep paralysis demon last night. First time in 14 years. A wild experience I plan to put into my possession novel, Sleepstalker. (Once Thornwillow is done, of course.)😈

I just handed off one of the creepiest holiday-themed short stories I’ve ever written to get edited for an upcoming Dark Concepts episode. I kind of forgot about this one, picked it up, and was pleasantly freaked out by it so I’m gonna share it.

Happy Krampusnacht! I wrote and narrated a short story for Dark Concepts many snows ago called The Curse of Krampus. It’s available wherever podcasts live. There’s also bunch of true ghost stories scattered throughout the episodes too. Tis the season…🎄😈👻

These revisions for Thornwillow are doing a number on my brain. The story is finally starting to come together, and I’m very happy with it but holy shit. 😵‍💫🤯🫠

Me: turning my brain off and playing a cherished game from my childhood. Also me: oh no…

A win: Today I overcame a significant amount of anxiety and submitted a short story after months of not doing so. I hope it does well. 🥹

Just had a conversation at work about how writing for me isn’t just about doing my best to tell a good story, but conveying an experience so well that the person reading doesn’t realize their doing so, achieving as close to telepathy as possible. And, you know… just having fun.

I didn’t know I needed to write a cosmic horror story from a cat’s perspective, but here we are.

Being autumny and stuff, trying to keep Yuletide at bay just a little while longer… 🍂🪾💀

Y’all, my brain just hit a fucking WALL. It’s frustrating because my novel soooo damn close to being where I want it to be.

It’s just nice to wake up with enough time to light some candles and write spooky shit.

“But sometimes, light seems to find its way into the nooks and crannies of the darkest of places. And when light manages that, things can grow.”

Seventeen years ago, I took this cool lady out to breakfast the morning after a gig and we’ve been together ever since. ❤️

Home today because my current affliction don’t mix well with a dusty job site. (Hell, it’s probably partially caused from it…) Time to edit the hell out of this novel. 👊🏼

Outlining on my break. This book has my brain tied in knots. LOTS of moving parts. 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 Besides being completely borked, I’m really happy with how it’s turning out.

In Thornwillow, my main character ends up finding out by accident that he can slip into the realm of the dead. The artwork of Polish artist, Zdzisław Beksiński, inspired a good deal of the how that realm looks and feels. Also, a good deal of his work just creeps me tf out. 😅

Did an adventure today. Some much needed naturing before the grind starts anew. 🍄‍🟫🍂🪾

Today I started the revisions of Thornwillow, the novel I finished writing a few weeks ago. The premise is a hidden society of mages navigating as best they can the eminent collapse of civilization and possibly the end of consciousness as we know it.

Happy Halloween! Night on the town. 👻🎃🕯️

Halloween memory: probably five years old watching Night on Bald Mountain on a Disney Halloween special after trick or treating. Simultaneously terrified and enchanted. Those ghosts still get me. 👻🎃

It can’t rain all the time.

I was surprised to see some of the Northern Weird Project novellas at The Twisted Spine when I went, so I had to get a couple. 👻

Writing in my car on my work break and watched a squirrel climb down out of a tree with a whole ass bagel. I have so many questions.

This past Friday was fucking great. I didn’t take many photos, but I did get a few shots of the cookies... Thanks to Neil and Cassandra for hanging out, and everyone I got a chance to meet for all the encouraging words after finishing my first book.

One good thing about lit candles at my writing space: while summoning entities I can warm my hands too. It’s a win-win. 🕯️😈

Back home from Brooklyn and soooo tired. More detailed posts incoming, (with a bunch of books) but I just wanted to say how grateful I am for the folks in the horror community. Y’all helped make my usual fight with social anxiety much less of one. 🖤

There is no Brian, only caffeine. 👻☕️

I did it. I finished my first novel. Thornwillow, a story about mages hidden among society trying to prevent the end of the world, took me ten years, and that sounds like a long time, but given what’s happened in the last ten years and the subject matter, it makes sense.

1. The books I got this past week. Sooo many more I wanted and so many more awesome folks I wanted to speak to/hang out with at the Merrimack Halloween Book Festival yesterday. I had a very limited bandwidth and did my best!

3 AM writing vibes. 🕯️🔮☕️

Watching Woman in Black. Upon seeing this, I would just turn and walk tf away. And then probably throw up.

Burning a fall-scented candle and writing out one of my freakiest true paranormal experiences as though it were a fictional short story. 👻☕️

Oh look, it’s me in a cemetery. What a surprise. I never go in those. Like ever. Especially around this time of year. 👻🎃🍂

Literally just finished Good Boy (and am currently drying my eyes.) What a great fucking story. Small and oh so mighty, just like Riot. Fuck yeah, Neil. Happy birthday, dude!

I have to say, this one tore my heart out. American Rapture has been my favorite read of the year so far. Brilliant. Horrifying, and brilliant. 🤘🏼

Slammed out my word count goal before running in the Dover, NH Apple Harvest Day 5k. I hit a personal record then proceeded to have a super chill rest of the day. 🤘🏼

I’m back on this social media thing and ready for October. Thornwillow, my WIP, still isn’t finished 🙃, but I will say it is soooo damn close and is now a much darker story. So many bookish events to check out this month too including Merrimack Valley and one I’m checking out in Brooklyn! 👻

I’m going on a social media hiatus for the rest of September. It’s usually a bad month for me and this one is proving to be a bear. I also feel the need to just write. I just want to finish writing just one of many horror novels I have on the burners.

Am I alone in having a moderately concerning tbr stack beside my bed? Like topple-over-in-the-night-and-crush-me-like-a-bug level of concern? 😅