We had a great time at the Crooked Nook Backyard Bookfest (see below). We met a lot of nice people, the weather was perfect for an outdoor event, even the drive was easy. The only downside to the day was that unlike some outdoor events, we were not able to drive right up to our spot (which made perfect sense as the venue has a beautiful lawn area that they use for other events). This meant we had to shlep our tent, shelves, books, and what not across the uneven ground. It was a little tiring during set-up. By breakdown time I was knackered. It took way longer than usual to get the car packed up. In fact, I think I was the last person to leave the lot. Still, a great day was had by all.

That was the last outdoor event of the year. The canopy weights we use at the shows will now officially transition to a new role as large animatronic weights over the next few weeks. Not only was this our last outdoor show of 2026, it’s our last show for a couple of weekends. It will be weird not spending Saturday greeting people and trying to sell them books. It will be weirder still to wear pants (instead of the kilt I usually wear at shows). I wonder what I will do on Friday instead of packing up the car.

Interesting side note: In what I can only assume is cross platform connectivity, I discussed this extreme exercise (which I didn’t even get credit for because I forgot to put on my smartwatch) via text. The next day Facebook showed me an advert for a hydraulic lift that turns into a cart. I’m not going to lie, it was tempting. The problems were that it was 100 pounds and I would still have to lift that into the car plus it wouldn’t help at all for the overland.

Don’t worry, I had the rugged hand truck on Saturday.

Just because I don’t have any shows for two weeks, don’t think that means I can put my back seats up and not fill my car to the point that I have to use my back up cameras instead of my rear view mirror. October starts tomorrow so I will be making plenty of trips out to the storage unit to pick up the outdoor display items.

I am looking forward to seeing how the dogs react to them. Finnigan spends part of his afternoon on the window seat barking at the squirrels, deer, and turkeys. I can’t wait to see his reaction to a dragon and a 12 foot skeleton.

We have also started the process of prepping the house for winter. For me this means draining, washing, and refilling the hot tub and (eventually) closing the pool. Meanwhile, The Mrs has clear cut an area by the fence to construct a new firewood storage area.

Listening To: One of the benefits of long drives and housework is that one has plenty of time for ones audiobooks. Rachel Harrison’s new novel Kiss, Slay, Replay accompanied me on the treks to and from Kalamazoo this weekend. It’s her usual blend of horror and humor—grown ups at a wedding at an old campground who must deal with horrendous threats with a dose of Groundhog Day.

Currently Reading: I know that is is autumn, but I always spend October reading nothing but horror related material so I started The Summer Fun Massacre by Craig DiLouie. It’s a slasher film in book form and the paperback looks like a VHS tape.

Current Obsession: We just started the new season of Halloween Wars.

Wednesday is trash pick up day. When The Mrs leaves for work, I roll the garbage and recycling cans to the front of the garage. Then she pops open her hatchback and I ride in the back, dragging both cans along behind me. Today she decided that it would be fun to take the puppies for this short (length of the driveway) ride. Unfortunately, this was nowhere near enough for Finnigan, who spent the remainder of the morning sitting in front of the door, staring at his leash, and whining. I finally relented at lunchtime and took them up to see The Mrs, then to the dry cleaners. Apparently this was enough of a trip because he’s crashed out now.

In other news, the pups have two bursts of extreme energy per day. This is usually accompanied by what is colloquially referred to as “the zoomies.” These usually start in the living room or the sun room where one dog will pounce on the other. They then chase each other the length of the house to the bedroom where they jump on the bed, turn, and fire their little rocket bodies back down the hall. This continues until they run out of energy or until someone opens the refrigerator. I don’t know exactly what the rules are. This may be a form of tag as they take turns chasing each other. Any human in proximity becomes the safe spot (glue or ghoul depending upon where you grew up).

As noted above, we have a bye week this Saturday. Our next show will be the Spootastick Haunted Book Fair at the Creative Cafe in Flint, MI. This is a smaller, author-centric show, so we will not be bringing the full catalog with us.

Meanwhile, we are working on filling up our 2027 dance card. Next year we plan on returning to Wicked Bizarre and the Crooked Nook Backyard Bookfest. You can tell when we have had a good time at a show when we book it right away. For those keeping count, that’s four shows for next year already booked.

It pains me to admit this, but I have really gotten out of the habit of writing lately. If you look at my word count tracker (and I haven’t even been good about keeping that up), you will see that the vast majority of what I have written this year has been stuff for this newsletter. The second category would be book reviews (and I am way behind on those too). Far in the distance would be actual fiction writing.

Part of this is because I have fallen so far behind with everything else as well. I’ve got so much editing work to do that I feel like taking time to work on my own material is unfair to those authors whose work I should be moving towards publication.

It has been a rough year all around and I have had a lot of trouble focusing on things. You can tell this from a glance at my Goodreads page (or you could if I kept it up to date). I’ve listened to more audiobooks than I have read physical books. I spend way too much time reading the news and getting pissed off about the state of the world.

All of these may be valid, but they are no excuse. In the past, November was always the month where I could sign up for NaNoWriMo and really buckle down. Unfortunately, their pro-AI policy meant that I could no longer participate.

This also lead to the downfall of the program, but I won’t get into all of that right now.

Autocrit, a website which I have taken classes from, has a similar program which starts the first of October. This is absolutely the worst time for me to be starting anything, as it is one of my busiest months. Still, I am going to try and start setting aside time for my own writing every day. I have had a story idea banging around in my head for three years now (initially inspired by our move to The New House™️). After years of jotting down notes, I think it is time to dust off the keyboard and give it a go.

Normally I don’t discuss my own work, or failure to work as the case may be. I’m hoping that putting this out in the world will make me more likely to actually do something.

Wish me luck.

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