Happy August, Bookworms!

I hope you’ve had a wonderful summer season and are ready for the upcoming fall season. Fall and Winter are my favorite seasons, so I’m super excited to get festive. I’m cutting this update a little close given that my grad school semester starts on Monday, so wish me luck!

As usual, this update will cover some personal tidbits, writing progress, and some sublime summer reads. Sound good? Alright, on with the update!

Personal

Not only do I start a semester of grad school on Monday, but the following Saturday I move in with my partner. Talk about hectic!

My partner and I have been planning this for 3 months, so while we are happy it’s finally time to move in together, we’ve been ready for quite some time. I’m super excited that my kitty Ajax will get to have the house to run around in versus the short-term Airbnb he’s been stuck in. I’m also super happy about the fact that I’ll finally have my own office! I’m so blessed to have my partner in my life, and the future is very bright.

Writing

I currently have two writing projects that I’m working on, an LGBT/Horror/Fantasy novel called The Ruins and an LGBT/Horror/Scifi novella called The Maguey.

Digging Back Into The Ruins

My bigger writing project The Ruins is set in South America and centers on the adventure of a gay travel vlogger and his boyfriend. They unwittingly uncover a great evil that goes back centuries.

This project is currently weighing in at just under 200 pages.

For a while, I’ve been working on exploring whether this project will be a standalone novel or not. The short answer is that there is enough material to do more, but I’m still wrapping my head around everything.

I’ve recently gotten back to editing and will continue writing until its completion. There’s not a timetable on this one just yet, but I’m hoping to release sometime in 2024 if at all possible.

The Maguey – A Story Inspired by … Tequila?

Well, yes and no. The short of it is that during a buddy read, my author friend Iseult Murphy inspired a random comment from me about mutated tequila worms (also known as maguey worms).

I thought nothing of it at the time, but weeks later she came back to me and said, you know I think there’s something here. So together we embarked on creating a horrific story.

A few short months later, we have a stellar lineup of fun, unique characters and most of the plot chiseled out.

This story centers on a mezcal distillery that is thrust into a desperate situation when a chemical compound affects a small set of maguey worms, giving them unnatural size and a hunger for flesh. If you love creature features, this one’s gonna be for you!

I’m extremely excited about this one, and after writing a partial draft about 35 pages long, I’m hopeful that this story will be long enough to have a print version. Iseult and I are hoping to work together to complete this in record time. After all, two heads are better than one!

In the meantime, feel free to get to know Iseult’s works here or check out some of my classics here. The wait will most definitely be worth it!

Reading

I have absolutely LOVED having a long summer break from grad school, so naturally I’ve been reading up a storm.

Starting with Pride Month, this summer has been really awesome for exploring new authors and artists. Below are my 7 favorites of the summer.

The emphasis has been more on middle grade (MG), young adult (YA), and graphic novels, but I’m about to start getting into the spooky season, so I’ll have some more fresh recommendations for you soon!

To check out my favorite reads, click on the images below for my full book review.

I hope you enjoy!

That’s a Wrap!

Well, that’s it for this post. Thanks for tuning in, and feel free to comment. I’d love to start a dialogue! Take good care of yourself, and have a great rest of your summer!

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