July '21 Madhouse Recap

Hello friends and fiends—

I think I cursed myself by saying that June was a slow month because July was anything but! In addition to being noticeably pregnant now (and obsessively cleaning and preparing my house for the little one this winter), I’ve been juggling a lot of projects, writing deadlines, and getting ready for my upcoming courses this fall—not to mention I’m currently teaching a graduate course and taking a psychology course at Point Park.

On the writing/editing front, there’s a lot of exciting things happening:

• I’m moving forward with getting the 8th volume of the HWA Poetry Showcase organized and edited now. I’ll be making a TOC announcement this month, so please be sure to keep an eye out for that. In the meantime, if you want to check out the earlier versions of the anthology, you can do so here.
• My poem “The Returned” was published in Nightmare Magazine. You can read it here.
• Jezzy Wolfe’s poetry collection Monstrum Poetica is available for preorder with Raw Dog Screaming Press, and Lucy Snyder’s forthcoming poetry collection Exposed Nerves just had its cover reveal, which you can view here. Keep a close eye out for a preorder announcement soon.
• Point Park interviewed me about my Elgin award nomination for The Apocalyptic Mannequin and wrote up a lovely article for their website. You can read it here.

The end of my first trimester and the beginning of my second zapped my energy so I watched a lot of movies and tv shows:

• I loved the Fear Street Trilogy. What an absolute blast! I was fortunate to win advance screenings of the films, so I was pretty much on cloud 13 (that’s the cloud the horror fans hang out on). This has a lot of rewatch potential in my eyes and I’m sure I’ll be hanging out in Shadyside again this fall.
• Stoker – a great psychological flick.
• Son – this was dark and intense, and I really enjoyed it
• Two horror shorts: White Girl and Separation—If you’re a fan of Cronenberg, give Separation a go!
• American Horror Stories—so far, I liked episodes 1 and 2, but 3 and 4 fell flat for me.
• Mare of Easttown – truly amazing. I wish I would have watched this sooner with everyone else.
• Black Widow—Loved this, too. The commentary on human trafficking coupled with the pro-choice undertones and female awakening/uprising was really inspiring. I was happy to see Marvel go there.  
• Loki—Now, I love Loki and I enjoyed the series, but I’m jaded about this. Oh well.

I’m currently on an audiobook kick, so I haven’t been listening to as many podcasts lately, but I managed to squeeze in a few episodes this month that I really enjoyed:

• Faculty of horror, Fack Flash: Fear Street 1994
• Books in the Freezer Podcast: Serial Killer Horror
• Lore Episode57: Quarantine
• LoreEpisode 60: If Walls Could Talk

When it comes to what I’ve been reading:

• Bath Haus by P.J. Vernon
• Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca
• Dark Tales by Shirley Jackson
• Diving into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich
• Shirley: A Novel by Susan Scarf Merrell
• The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
• Here, the World Entire by Anwen Kya Hayward

I also managed to sneak in a couple short stories by Amparo Davila and I’m very much enjoying her work! If you haven’t checked out her collection The Houseguest and Other Stories, be sure to add it to your TBR list.

August is going to be intense as I head back to school, ease into a new routine, and type “The End” on a few lingering projects. With that said, I was happy that I got to go see a movie in theatres last month (I didn’t realize quite how much I really missed doing that), and Dennis and I went to a fantastic horror-themed drag show that was truly amazing and something I won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

Until next time, I’m hoping that everyone stays safe and healthy and sane, and I really hope we can all see each other soon, so please take care of yourselves and your families and know that Halloween is only 91 days away!

Stay spooky,

Stephanie