Two more things: first up, I finished the first draft of my next horror novel, THE STAIRCASE IN THE WOODS, and it rolled up at just over 100,000 words. Which for me is pretty slim! I don’t think I’ve written an adult novel that short since… maybe Invasive? Even Zer0es was like, 125k.
I expect it’ll come out in the first half of 2025 — April, I think, is the current plan, but that can change depending on a whole unholy host of factors. So don’t quote me on it. So! Its off to the editor, Tricia at Del Rey, and she’s the bee’s knees and will know how to kick it into its ideal nightmare form.
Also, I’ve had my pitch approved for my next middle grade, tentatively titled DO NOT OPEN THAT DOOR. (It’s weird how my books tend to carry little things over from their previous narrative entrants — and I guess here the parity is in architecture. Staircases! Doors! Don’t go up them! Don’t open them! Ahhhhh!) I don’t want to say more about it yet, except it’s not really explicitly horror, but is meant to evoke the eerie fantasy of stuff like Labyrinth, or Miyazaki’s work, or Neverending Story. That otherworld kind of eerie, you know? Now I guess I have to write it? Are we sure there isn’t just a way to reach into my brain and squish it onto paper? Well, dangit.
Also, third thing is, the anthology I announced being a part of earlier, New Demons, I sadly am pulling out of at present. I’ll let you know if that changes. I’m still writing my story for The Stand anthology, and I think it’s pretty all right (set in Colorado!) so more as I know it.