June 2024 in Review

Hello Funny People

As we passed the mid-year line and officially entered summer, things began at a hectic pace for me. Yet, as the dust from this month's beginning settled, a certain equilibrium returned.

Two Cents Logo by Devora Johnson 

A Brief Recapitulation

June began with my family all pitching in to help my brother, the recent medical school graduate, move apartments. 

As of July, he will officially begin his residency in OBGYN at the Cleveland Clinic Akron General Hospital in Akron, Ohio. Before he could, however, he had to get there, hence the move. Over the course of five days, we emptied his apartment in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, which had been his home-base for the last two years, transported all his crap to Akron over an 8-hour road trip, set up his new apartment, and made the 8-hour trip back.

The sole major hiccup, thankfully, happened on the way back as we passed through Indianapolis. The alternator in our return vehicle crapped out on us in the midst of midday highway traffic. It took us about three hours to get off there and find a decent garage mechanic who could replace the piece. Unfortunately, it also necessitated an extra day of travel and an overnight in Indianapolis. As charming as I'm sure proper Indianapolis is, my family and I did not get to see it, so we weren't the biggest biggest fans of the town by the time we left. 

The following Friday, I then did a day trip with my father up to Chicago to take care of some business at the Honduran Consolate. After we found the building, I hunkered down in a coffee shop called Ground Up about two blocks away to get a little writing done. Easily had the best mocha I've ever enjoyed in such an establishment there. If you're ever in the part of Chicago near the University of Illinois — Chicago Campus, please stop by.

Cup from Ground Up Coffee in Chicago

After a quick taco lunch afterwards, my father and I spent about two hours looking for someplace on the Southside of Chicago to buy pupusas for my sister (which she'd asked for before we'd left that morning). This was a stretch of the city I'd never been to before. Whenever I've stayed in Chicago for a visit, I've usually stayed near the downtown area, where all the tourist trap stuff is. Sears Tower, Michigan Avenue, the Field Museum, the Pier on Lake Michigan, that area. This part of the Southside, however, was a regular Pequeña América Latina. In fact, it reminded me a lot of the last few visits I've made back to Honduras, particularly in Tegucigalpa, complete with vendadores selling bottles of water, stuffed animals, and bouquets of flowers on the street corners. 

The real reason it took us two hours to find the restaurant is because it was a little hole in the wall place. The sort of place that, if you don't know it's there, you won't find it. But it was a perfect business location because it was adjacent to a walkable residential neighborhood, right behind a bus stop with a shelter, and there were nothing but Mexican and Honduran-owned businesses (mostly car shops and mechanics), up and down the street for four blocks. We got the pupusas and headed back shortly after, on the much quieter highway 57.

Most of the rest of the month was pretty peaceful and lovely. I heard from a friend I hadn't been able to get in touch with for almost three months, my parents celebrated their 34th Wedding Anniversary in the most unromantic way possible (on Father's Day this year), and the old leech of depression hasn't been in residence since a last month. So, things are looking up.

#AmQuerying: Report from the Query Trenches

As of this writing, I currently have 32 (two of which are to trad open calls, and one my still active full-request) active queries out there. I think I may give myself a respite for the month of July. Averaging 10 queries a month, every month since January is finally getting to me, and I think I need some time away from this grind stone. I don't think it'll be like last year where I called it quits three months in. I just have some things I need to focus on next month that will definitely draw away my attention.

Report from the Short Fiction Front

I'm still working on my piece for Air and Nothingness Press's Inter Librarian Loan Project. I selected a story from the Librarian Card Catalogue to use as my jumping off point.

Considering how brief this piece will have to be for the sake of publishing practicalities, it'll have to get off the ground running. In a way, having such a small word count (1500 words) brings back memories of working with Renée Gendron on Beneath the Twin Suns years ago. I know I can do it, so I might as well give it my best shot. 

Hopefully, what I have in mind will work for this story. And hopefully, it won't embarrass Todd. After all, it's not fun to disappoint the people who believe in you enough to give you such an opportunity.

#AmDrafting: The Novel Arena

The portal fantasy is still chuffing along like a well-fueled steam engine on a clear new track. I'm very nearly back to where I was before I realized I had to back up and rewrite most of the beginning.

The thing I realized was holding me back was that I was still desperately hanging on to my inital preconception of what this novel would be. Two viewpoints. Mainly a love story with an adventure mixed in. Once I gave myself permission to add more viewpoints and expand the adventure a little more, the book began to open itself up far more than it previously had, much to my relief.

I've also finally figured out the structure of this book: one POV per chapter à la A Game of Thrones, ten chapters per part, six parts in total, for a total of sixty chapters. Final word count goal: ~100,000 words. I just managed to complete parts one and two before the end of the month (chapters 1-20), and already, I have a bit over 31,000 words written. Right on target. After struggling to find and figure out this book for so long, there's no doubt in my mind that I will finish this project's first draft by (or before, it could happen), year's end.

Miscellaneous

After wanting to see it for months since it came out I finally got the chance to watch Godzilla Minus One.

Godzilla Minus One poster

It lived up to its hype. To my mind, it's up there with JAWS as being a near-perfect monster movie. And the reason it's so good is the same reason JAWS is so good: the screenwriter, director, and actors made us care about the human characters, while using Godzilla sparingly. The choice to give everyone's favorite Kaiju limited screen time in turn gave his appearances when they happened more gravitas. Just like the shark in JAWS, or even Darth Vader in Star Wars Episode VI: A New Hope, the less time he's on screen, the more memorable and frightening his appearances become. That said, monster movies, to my mind, are never about the mosters; the monsters are the main attraction, but the movies themselves are (or rather should be) really about how the people confront the monster. 

We get to know Shikishima and his ragtag found family. We see how the recently ended world War affected them, and we see how the war left a massive weight of guilt and shame of Shikishima's shoulders as a survivor. My war isn't over, he constantly says. As we bare witness to that, Godzilla himself eventually goes from just begin a big bad Kaiju to being a something more that can only happen in SF/Fantasy stories. He becomes a conceit, an extended metaphor, for all those feelings Shikishima carries, with his every appearance making him more meancing, threatening to destroy him from without and within.

I seldom cry when watching films (I can count on one hand the number that have drawn tears), and Godzilla Minus One is one of them. If a Kaiju movie can do that, then it's got to be something just that little bit more special.

By the time y'all are reading this, I'll have made it to Lawrence, Kansas to take part in the Ad Astra Institute's Repeat Offenders Short Fiction Writing Workshop. It's been nearly 5 years since I've been back in Lawrence to attend this workshop, and I was definitely unsure as to whether I'd be able to do it, given all the stuff happening with my brother. However, the scheduling worked out well, so I was in the end able to say I'd attend.

I'll be workshopping two stories, including the one I finished earlier this year. Hopefully, I'll gain some useful feedback that will help me to revise them enough to see them into print. It'll also give me a chance to get back in touch with the editorial side of my brain as well, given I haven't done much critiquing in a while. It's always good to keep a hand in on that side of things as well 

In between workshop sessions, I plan to spend most of my time working on my present novel or the Inter Librarian Loan story, when I'm either not chatting with my colleagues over a meal or spit-balling ideas with them for future stories. The first two weeks of July are going to be fun.

As far as my reading this last month, I've been bouncing back and forth between two recent favorites: Peter McLean and Jonathan Maberry.

Priest of Lies by Peter McLean 

The War for the Rose Throne continues as Tomas Piety's new wife helps him begin his formal rise in society. However, it doesn't take long for the Gangster/Priest to realize that, no matter how high you climb the social ladder, there's always an underbelly. We enter the outwardly content city of Dansberg, only to gradually learn that, just like Piety's home of Ellenburg, it too has its dark and sordid corners. The difference: they're kept more out of sight.

Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry 

I knew, after binging through the three latest Ledger books back in February that i was going to work my way back to the books where it all started. The book that kicks off Joe Ledger's story finds him as a Baltimore Cop soon to begin training at Quantico. But before he can, a certain vanilla wafer eating master manipulator takes interest, thinking Joe's skills are perfect to save the world from a Zombie Plague.

Priest of Gallows by Peter McLean 

One good working definition of depression is "rage turned inward," and that's the state in which we rejoin Tomas Piety. At this point, he's been completely removed from his life as a businessman and head of the Pious Men, not to mention he's lost the burgeoning family he'd thought he’d been building with his wife and fellow Queen's Man, Elsa upon her desertion. Now, he's a pawn in a much larger and higher stakes political game than he may have initially anticipated. The deeper he enters the world of The Queen's Men, the gangsters in all but name, the more he begins to chafe against this rigid system of working under someone else. Piety has been his own master and leader too long for him to remain under someone like Diter Vogal's, head of the Queen's Men, thumb for long. However, like any game master, Piety knows that, sometimes, the best way to gain a better position in battle is to wait for the right opportunity to present itself. But as Tomas awaits that opportunity, he must continue to play the role of "faithful soldier," which forces him to do even more dark and despicable things, comparable to what he did in war. 

The Dragon Factory by Jonathan Maberry 

Joe Ledger's adventures continue in a story of eugenics and bio-horror straight from the Island of Doctor Monroe. It also give him a chance to do something that, I think, most decent people would love a chance to do: punch literal f*cking nazis. Playing counterpoint to this is Joe's burgeoning romance with Grace Courtland, with whom he bonded during the events of Patient Zero. The question isn't "will it or won't it...?" for them though; it's will "The War" let them, or will it keep them from truly being together? (I know the answer, but I'd rather let y'all find out for yourselves).

On a final note, I'd like to say offer a hardy congratulations to all the winners of both the Stoker and Nebula Awards. Both conventions met early last month while I busily helped my brother move house. Sadly, some of my favorites didn't win, but that's no matter. The SFF Award season isn't quite over, and so long as they keep putting out good work, there will be more chances for them to win recognition.

That said, one of my major picks did indeed win.

To Ai Jiang, who won both awards this year for her Novella, Linghun, I wish a special congratulations. I was overjoyed to see her earn such recognition after all her hard work. If you have not yet picked up a copy of her award-winner book, I highly reccomend you do. You're in for a special treat.

Here's hoping the second half of the year is better than the first half.

— IMC 🙃