April 2024 in Review

Hello Funny People,

When T.S. Eliot opened his masterpiece, The Waste Land, with the line "April is the cruelest month," he knew exactly what he was talking about.

Two Cents Logo by Devora Johnson 

A Brief Recapitulation

For the first time since 2022, I caught a cold. And like many people who don't get sick often, I hated every minute of it.

Over Easter weekend, I woke up that Saturday with a dry scratchy throat which, I assumed, was just mild dehydration. And I had reason to think so, as once I downed my daily morning glug of water, it went away. Boy, was I wrong. Easter morning, it came back with a vengeance, followed closely by the sniffles and the beginnings of a cough.

Where it really got bad was the next day, when the sneezing fit hit. I probably went through two boxes of kleenex in a day. Making things worse, I had no choice but to work at my dayjob too. Thankfully, between masking, a hit of cold medicine that morning, Germ-X, and basically avoiding interacting with people (at which i could win gold at the Olympics), I managed. Though, when I came home that night, I was so damn tired, I went to bed at nine. Ask anyone in my family, and they'll tell you that never happens.

That played in my favor, however, as the sneezing had ceased by morning, tagging out in favor of chest congestion—a much tamer beast to deal with, imo.

As I recovered from the cold, I couldn't do any writing. This too, however, may have been exactly what I needed. After a week away, not only had the urge to get back to writing returned, but new ideas of where to go with my current novel-in-progress had finally bubbled up.

Report from the Query Trenches

I recently did a review of the agent name database I complied back in January. Here are the present numbers:

Total Query Submissions: 66

Total Rejections: 30

Total Active Queries: 36

I made my decided ten (10) more queries just over the last weekend of April. The process is definitely getting to me though. One day, I caught myself thinking, as I walked back home from the dayjob, about a potential business plan for a personal publishing imprint just so I could stop doing this. However, I don't think I'm quite ready to throw the towel in on this particular novel yet—or on the querying process in general. If all else fails, I may end up going self-pub for this story, if only so it's out there, in which case, the scheme I devised for my little company might need to come into play.

I am not totally without hope though. The full-request I had back in February over Super Bowl weekend is still active. Though, I must admit, I'm not optimistic about a positive outcome. As I've said before, and will repeat until I die, when all you know is failure, that's all you come to expect.

But still...

#AmWriting: The Novel Arena

The week I (involuntary) stepped away from my current novel, as it turns out, did yield fruitful results.

Since returning to it, I've been averaging about 1000-1200 words a session on the portal fantasy (some days more, some days less). Part of that jump in productivity after a long stretch of meh progress was an insight I had into one of my characters for heightened conflict.

Of course, like all insights, it was plainly there from the start and it just took me forever to see it. As my mother is prone to say, "If it'd been a snake, it would've bit yah." (And she wonders where I get my smartass mouth from after all these years.) 

I realized, given that my male MC has lived his whole life hiding what he really was (a personal capable of using magic in a world that fears such people), when he finally gets the chance to learn "real magic," he'd be conflicted to do it. He'd not only be afraid of being outed, but he'd be afraid doing it by accident. All those old habits that he used to survive suddenly would be working against him when he didn't need them anymore.

I'm hoping to keep up this progress on the book in the hopes of finishing the first draft by the end of the year. Fingers crossed 🤞 

#AmWriting: The Short Fiction Front

Further good news. My little flash story that could, "The Dragon Guide's Diary," is finally live on the Androids and Dragons (A&D) substack. More so, accompanying it is an excellent piece of art I personally commissioned from my regular collaborator, Devora Johnson.

Sir Kevin & The Guide by Devora Johnson

As usual, Devora did a bang up job on this piece. If you like it or my blog's logo, consider reaching out to her to commission some artwork. Many thanks to Jenna Hana Moore for letting me take the art direction of my story in hand. Maybe if I ever do a book of short stories, I'll reproduce it in the book to accompany the story.

To top that, now that the Kickstarter has begun with a bang, I think I can announce that I'm hoping to be one of the author returning as part of Air and Nothingness Press' (AANP) 2025 anthology, Inter Librarian Loan.

Of course, whether or not I end up being part of it is still up for debate. The crowd-funding campaign has already amassed its initally needed budget (i.e. the amount necessary so Kickstarter will be a success), to bring out one volume. Considering the project has only been up for a few weeks and still has the rest of the month before closing, this is absolutely impressive. Still, the project has a long way to go before it reaches the true stretch goal. Todd Sanders (AANP's EIC), says we'll need about 60% above that to bring out a second volume of stories so every author can participate. Forty-five (45) of the OG Librarian authors are slated to be part of this interesting remixing concept, but only if we can make it to that higher stretch goal.

If you enjoyed both The Librarian, The Librarian Reshelved, and The Librarian Card Catalogue, and would like to read what we authors have cooking up for you, then please consider contributing to the cause. I have a good idea in mind, and I'd like a chance to write it.

Miscellaneous

I've found myself favoring HBO (or Max as it's now called for some stupid reason), in my watching recently. Not only did I at last get to watch the entire second season of The Guilded Age (yes, I squeed when Marian and Larry kissed, at last. I hope the writers are kind to them in future), but I also completed my semi-annual rewatch of John Adams starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney.

For me this show is the benchmark for all historical drama. The scripts, the visuals, the cast, the performances—this show has the best of everything. It does for the Revolutionary War and early American History what Wolf Hall did for the story of King Henry VIII. It takes a story we all think we know and revisits it from the viewpoint of an often overshadowed (and in this case, much more cantankerous), figure from that time. Wish we could have more drama like this now.

Reading wise, I've been as eclectic as ever, bouncing between nonfiction and fiction, with many new and "new to me" titles in this past month's line-up.

The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Means of Ascent by Robert A. Caro

Continuing the life story of the 36th POTUS, Means showcases LBJ, through Caro's artful recounting, at his most bastardly. From using his elected office to enrich himself via the burgeoning LBJ TV and Radio conglomerate through FCC gladhanding to stealing an election (by 87 fraudulently cast votes), from the impressive Coke R. Stephenson, we see just how far Johnson was willing to go to amass power.

The Bezzle by Cory Doctorow 

The Travis McGee of spreadsheets, Martin Hench, returns in the follow of Cory Doctorow's financial thriller series. Where Red Team Blues explored the world of crypto, the dark web, and money laundering, Doctorow explores in this one the favorite tactic of Bernie Madoff: the ponzi scheme. But it doesn't just stop there. It goes so far as to also explore the nasty world of turning over public services (in this case, prisons), to the private sector, and how awful decisions regarding the running of such institutions can lead to truly hideous forms of capitalism. For the sake of "saving money," there is truly no low to which amoral capitalists won't stoop, and where we allow such practices, man's inhumanity to man thrives like toxic black mold.

CW: reading this book may instill a desire in the reader to eat the rich and a belief that all cops are indeed motherfuckers. Not bastards. Motherfuckers.

Empire of Self: A Life of Gore Vidal by Jay Parini

Part biography, part career overview, part personal memoir of a complicated friendship, Empire is one Bowell's attempt to paint a picture of one of the 20th century's most multi-faceted figures: Gore Vidal. A man with more sides than the average natural occurring crystal, Vidal presented a face of cool wit to the world. Yet, while he strove to make most people think he knew who he was, what he wanted to say, and didn't give a damn what anyone thought, Parini gives us an insight into the man behind that tight-fitting mask. Unlike the facade of barbed epigramatic ambivalence Vidal presented in his own autobiographical writings, Parini shows us a moody, brooding, conflicted figure, sensitive to even the smallest criticism, a vulnerable man who tried hard to hide the gaps in his patrician quippy armor. And he did it by never missing a chance to have appear on TV or have sex, while wielding his pen with a deft elegance most writers can only envy as an essayist, novelist, playwright, and screenwriter.

Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell

Another recently released title, Wiswell's debut is everything everyone loved about his short fiction applied to the long-form of the novel. Tender, funny, laden with empathy for the other, Someone intersects the growing subgenres of Cozy Fantasy, Romantasy, and Sapphic Love Story. Yet while it exemplifies much of what made Travis Baldree's trend-setting titles great, John injects higher stakes and a darker tone into this story, making it something more reminiscent of the dark fairy tales of the Brothers Grim. Whatever he does next, I'm here for it.

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie

"To turn life to words is to make life yours to do with what you please, instead of the other way around. Words translate and transmute raw life, make bearable the unbearable." — Gore Vidal, 1876

In his brief but harrowing memoir of the near-fatal 2022 Stabbing in Chautauqua, New York, Salman Rushide weaves that raw life into a beautiful contemplative book about rebounding from the brink of death thanks to the power of love (romantic, friendship, and familial), and art. The very transmuting of his trauma into this book speaks to the recuperative power of art. Writing about his own experience brought him back to writing and helped him heal (creatively and emotionally), as his body healed under the care of a team of fast-acting physicians. It's a miracle he's still with us, and we should appreciate that as much as Ruahdie does. Yet, despite the trauma, he's lost none of his wit, humor, or critical cast of mind. Frankly, I wouldn't have him any other way 

Completing the triumvirate of comedy shows attended, my best bud and I got to see Jimmy Carr perform his first ever show here in the St. Louis area at the Pageant Theater in University City. More so, give that his latest special went live on Netflix the Tuesday preceeding this show, he was performing all-new material. Judging by the laughs he got, I think he did well.

I've been a fan of Carr's dark comedy long before he started breaking the US several years ago, thanks to his move from doing UK-based Stand-Up DVDs to doing Netflix Comedy Specials. Thanks Pre-Google YouTube👍. His skill at one-liners, practically a lost art in American Stand-Up since Phyllis Diller and Rodney Dangerfield's passings, is something I appreciate too. Needless to say, Carr killed that night. And why wouldn't he? Have you not been paying attention to the world the last few years? If you can't laugh in the face of impending dystopia, you're either a fan of the changes or you've absolutely lost all hope for better things.

I'll close with a moment of remeberance.

Near the end of April, I found out through social media that a colleague of mine, short story whiz Ray Daley, passed away.

I never met Ray in person, but I did consider him a congenial compatriot in the world of wordsmithing. He was among the most prolific writers I knew of working today, averaging upwards of twenty (20) or more acceptances a year (a trait for which I shamelessly envied him). Ray epitomized the grit it took to succeed in this gig of fiction writing. He was never afraid of failing or of rejection, and his work was excellent. He had what Ray Bradbury had, that ability to take the smallest thing and make a story out of it.

His last published story, as far as I know, was a piece for A&D published only last month, as he and I were among the batch of writers who received acceptances from the publication late last year.

I'm the 17 Day acceptance just under Ray's.

It was the first and only time we shared a TOC, and while there won't be anymore after this, I'm glad it happened at least once. It made me feel like I was truly a colleague and not just some rookie playing at this game anymore.

Ray wasn't just grit though. He was also kind and encouraging to his fellow writers. He knew how hard this gig was, and he empathized with anyone who dared undertake it. He was also a bit curmudgeonly and no-nonsense, two traits I appreciate in people because it's a sign that they're grounded and realistic. While he could certainly be critical, especially of zines that practiced opaque publishing tactics and failed to communicate properly, it didn't ever overshadow his kindness. 

I'll miss his wishings of "Merry Vaguemas" on all the vague publishing posts. 

Rest well, Ray. ✌️

— IMC 🙃