Tuesday, February 1, 2022

January ’22 Madhouse Recap

Hello friends and fiends, and Blessed Imbolc!

What a month it has been! Talk about a transformation.

Dennis and I welcomed our sweet girl Evelyn June Gallagher into the world on January 17th in the middle of a snowstorm and on the night of a full wolf moon (!) and she is just such a beautiful, bright spot in our lives and we’re so intensely grateful for every second with her. For the astrologists out there, our girl is a Capricorn Sun, a Cancer Moon, and a Taurus Rising (her and I share that last placement), and the wolf is definitely her guardian. I wore my wolf pendant at the hospital and kept it close to be throughout the entire ordeal and I like to think that Evie found comfort in it, too. But yes, it's been a wild two weeks of sleepless nights (and days), way too much coffee, and endless TV show binges and snuggles, but I don’t know that I’ve ever been so happy, frustrated, enchanted, empowered, in love, exhausted, and excited about any moment in my life so far. Welcoming Evie into my world and holding her in my arms for that first time was an experience unlike anything I can describe, and truth be told, I used to get so frustrated when people would say that to me, but I get it now. Holding your child is magic—pure and simple.

I’m just completely smitten.

Needless to say, it’s been a whirlwind of a month overall, and looking back on it, it all went by so fast yet dragged on in the slowest of ways. I went from being painfully pregnant where all time seemed to stand still, then transitioned into a rather intense labor/delivery where time had no meaning at all, but then came home in a blanket of snowflakes and winter magic to heal and bond with our little one. The nights have been long and have included countless word searches (which I’m oddly addicted to these days?) in a new-parent haze between bottle feeds and 4 a.m. snuggles, and I've been reading poetry more and more lately because it's always been the one thing that soothes me the most. I’ve also been keeping a journal throughout the entire experience so I can share this moment again with Evie later on in life, but outside of that, I’ve been taking loads of pictures, living in the moment, relaxing, and being gentle with myself as I find a new rhythm and routine with life.

Also! We finally brought the puppies home the other day and it went pretty much exactly as I thought it would. Maya basically vibrated off the walls in excitement, so we’re doing a slow introduction with her and Eve, but I will say that Maya is love-struck from a distance. She gets so excited when she sees her, and she kissed her head gently on their first pass with each other. Apollo on the other hand is like an experienced nanny, mentor, and guardian. I’m not saying he’s a better mother than me, but that dog is just next level. I even thought he was even going to change her diaper himself at one point the other night. He’s so attentive to her and forever concerned, and it’s the sweetest thing. Her cry doesn’t’ even bother him; he just wakes up, gets off the couch, and walks over to her bassinet to look over her and comfort her. Don't get me wrong, I selfishly hope I remain his favorite person, but I suppose I can make an exception to be runner-up if he falls madly in love with her (and truth be told, I can’t say I blame him!).



On the writing/teaching front:
  • I started the year off by wrapping up my third installment of Witch Lit via LitReactor. I so love teaching this course and I feel very lucky to be able to do so, especially because I’ve met such wonderful people (and stories/poems) through it. A big thank you to everyone who participated over the past two months. I’m looking forward to offering this course again in the future, but in the meantime, it will be fun to switch things up a bit in March with my course Writing the Vampire. I’m hopeful we’ll have a similar type of energy (and bite!) there as well.
  • This semester, I’m teaching two classes at WCSU.
    • Here’s what we’re reading/studying this term in my YA Science Fiction/Fantasy course: Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh; Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire; A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik; Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs; For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten; Ready Player One by Ernest Cline; Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke; Lord of the Flies by William Golding; and Paper Girls, Vol 1 by Brian K. Vaughn.
    • Here’s what we’re’ reading/studying this term in my Horror course: The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay; The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones; The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson; Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage; The Changeling by Victor LaValle; and Suffer the Children by Craig DiLouie.
  • My letter Dear Emily Dickinson was published via LitReactor. You can read it here.
  • My book deal with Raw Dog Screaming Press was announced this month (eek!). Writing Poetry in the Dark is a craft book for speculative poets, by speculative poets. Edited by myself, with a foreword by one of the genre’s most celebrated authors, Tim Waggoner, this book meditates on craft, genre, style, and form as acclaimed SF/F/H poets come together to talk about their process, outlook, and approach to writing and incorporating the speculative into their poems. You can read more about the project here.
  • I had a chat with The Ladies of Horror Fiction about my New Year’s reading/writing resolutions. You can check out my goals here.
  • I was thrilled to see Attack from the 80s edited by Eugene Johnson on the 2022 Bram Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot. My short story “Mother Knows Best” is included within. Congrats to all!
This month, I read:
  • Where The Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire
  • You Better Be Lightning by Andrea Gibson
  • An Exhalation of Dead Things by Savannah Slone
  • The Need by Helen Phillips


On the media front:
  • Don’t Look Up (2021), Dark Shadows (2012), The Rental (2020), Antlers (2021)
  • The Book of Boba Fett. Fully caught up, but wow--Episode 2 with the Tuskan Raiders, the spirit journey/ritual, AND the twin Hutts? My god. I was so happy watching the entire thing you would have thought it was Halloween morning. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the season and I *might* even like it more than The Mandalorian (which I also binged again—hey, watching TV was pretty much all I could do at the start of this month, ha—no judgment).
  • Chucky: I finally made it around to watching season 1 of Chucky and honestly, best decision ever, especially because I was massively pregnant when I got to this, and I needed something ridiculously and chaotic to make me laugh and give me some nostalgia. Too funny. Will I be watching the second season? You betcha!
  • Yellowjackets. Episode 9 totally took the wind of out me. Really frightening, intense stuff, and while I liked the season finale, I have to admit that I’m seriously itching for some more!
  • Dexter New Blood. Well, I finished the finale at the start of the month, and while I kind of figured this was the route it was going to go, I still found myself disappointed at the end. It wasn’t a bad series, and honestly, I’m happy it exists because I much prefer this ending to the “lost-in-the-hurricane-jk-I’m-a-lumberjack-now” original, but alas! However, I was super happy to see Batista back though! That was a marvelous treat.
  • The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window. I felt entertained-ish and I appreciated the level of satire that everyone was going for here in regard to psychological thrillers and how they've been currently marketed, but all in all, I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. It was, however, exactly what I wanted at that particular moment and exactly what I thought it would be, so I guess I can't really complain. Plus, I love Kristen Bell so I'll watch her in anything.
  • Some non-horror movies/shows I got into this month: Pivoting and Single Drunk Female (Hulu); I also finally got around to watching Encanto and Raya and the Last Dragon. Side note: I loved Encanto, but Raya fell a little flat for me. And I binged Maid (Netflix) over the past two days, and it was truly phenomenal. I cried, I empathized, I got angry—there were a lot of strong emotions felt in my living room. If you haven’t checked this one out yet, definitely do (TW: domestic abuse).
Some podcasts I listened to:

2 comments:

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