What I’m up to
We traditionally kick off the New Year by listening to Blues music (post-holiday blues) while we take down our Christmas tree and decorations. I found the perfect song for it this year, too: Going Down by Freddie King.
As always, we competed to find the Christmas Pickle*.
*Legend has it that the Christmas Pickle tradition comes from Germany. A pickle was hung in the Christmas tree and the observant child that found it received an extra gift from Santa and a year of good fortune. Apparently that’s bogus, but that doesn’t stop my wife and I from our yearly contest.
I am ‘The Observant Child’ of 2021!
I also combined my two holiday loves, Eggnog Lattes and Boozy Eggnog, for a homemade boozy eggnog latte. It was magnificent, and I am desperately searching for more eggnog as all the stores flip their stocks over to…I dunno, 4th of July stuff?
What I’m watching
I really enjoyed ‘Sweet Home’ and ‘Alice in Borderland’ on Netflix, but felt that they both went off the rails towards the end. They’re based on manga, which probably explains the difficulty in adaptation.
We’ve also started watching ‘Search Party’, and we’re hooked.
What I’m playing
I ran a holiday themed one-shot for my virtual roleplaying group and wrapped up the first story arc for our game. Tonight I’m kicking off the next leg of the journey, and as always I’ve included some riddles and puzzles.
Here’s one of each for you (answers are at the end of the post):
RIDDLE:
Where can you find roads without cars, forests without trees and cities without houses?
PUZZLE:
Which Letter Do You Miss?
BCDGPTV
What I’m working on
Speaking of superhero stuff, I’ve begun outlining a new novel. The ‘high concept’ central to the story prevents it from coinciding with the story universe established in ‘From the Barrel of a Gun’ and ‘Criterion’, but it promises to be just as dark. Fans of my horror work should enjoy it.
I’m in talks with a publisher about a game project that I can’t wait to dive into, and I am nearly done writing for a VR Horror project that should wrap up soon.
The next collection that I have planned will gather my stories set in the Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft.
I am looking forward to being a guest on some of my favorite podcasts soon – I’ll post links when those are up.
The State of the Books
I am pleasantly surprised that people are still digging into my holiday book, WE BLEED RED & GREEN: 12 Chilling Tales for Christmas.
Not only that, but WE BLEED ORANGE & BLACK: 31 Fun-sized Tales for Halloween is going strong. It just hit 50 reviews on Amazon, which is a huge milestone for me.
I’m also happy to announce that the audiobook versions for each are now available. The audiobook for my first collection, BETWEEN THE TEETH, should be available soon.
That’s all for now. I hope to share more exciting news and fun giveaways with you next time.
The answer to the riddle: ‘On a map’
The answer to the puzzle: ‘E’, all these letters have a long E sounds.
Author Jeff C. Carter 