Okay, I totally failed in getting this posted yesterday, but I was working on a story all day, so I think that’s a reasonable excuse.

Anyway, happy new year (I hope)! I’m going into 2022 with very little expectations, but I really do hope this new year is a little less anxiety-inducing, globally.

Luckily, I did a Mid-Year Recap that covers January-June, so this post will focus on the latter months. I liked breaking the recap up this year, it’s definitely helped keep me organized. It was also nice to look back on because I kind of forgot what happened during those earlier months, but I did some cool things 🙂 Here’s a very brief recap for this quieter half of the year:

July:

*I very much enjoyed being on the Visited by Voices Author Roundtable alongside Sarah Read, Cullen Bunn, and Gary Braunbeck, and hosted by Lorne Dixon

*Equally enjoyed participating in Galactic Terrors hosted by Jim Chambers and Carol Gyzander!

August:

*Chromophobia submissions opened! Again, I want to say how much I enjoyed reading those submissions and how hard those decisions were to make. I am a very lucky editor, and I can’t wait to tell you more about this anthology VERY soon!

September:

*Southwest Review releases with my poem “Deliria Dreams of the Universe”
*Release of WereTales: A Shapeshifter Anthology, which has my poem “The Rattling Howl”
*Interview over on Entertainment Network Live
*I toured an abandoned prison! This was a really interesting adventure, and I had a lot of fun taking photos

October:
*My short story “With Radium on Her Lips” was released in Deadly Love. I drew loose inspiration from the heartbreaking real life tales of the Radium Girls, but made sure the girls got a little vengeance in this version…
*I found out Cradleland of Parasites was nominated for a Wonderland Book Award! This was completely unexpected and exceptionally cool to have happen — my congratulations to all of the nominees and winners!
*I did my first live reading event since…2019? Goodness. I had a blast with fellow HWA Pittsburgh Chapter members at a delightful and spooky gathering at Chatham University
*My short story “Hexenmeister” was released in the charity anthology Diabolica Americana. I also did a brief reading from the story on Brad Proctor’s wonderful 31 Days of Horror series
*I’m honored to have an interview on H.H. Holmes included in The Science of Serial Killers by Meg Hafdahl and Kelly Florence
*I went to the Finger Lakes and loved it with my whole heart; I’m not sure when I will travel again, definitely feeling iffy about it all right now, so I am glad I got this trip in

November:
*One of my favorite stories I wrote this year, “As Humans Burn Beneath Us” was released in Field Notes From A Nightmare
*Our HWA Pittsburgh Chapter was able to meet at the Archives & Special Collections, which hosts the George A. Romero Archival Collection. We were treated to some awesome, rare sights including a short film nearly no one has seen before, so that was beyond neat to be a part of.
*This month I had an incredibly cool chat with some people about *a thing* that I desperately hope I get to share in 2022 (winks furiously, especially if you’ve read the recap this far!)

December:
*I made the final decisions for Chromophobia, and we will be sharing that table of contents very soon!
*My poem “Anthropophagus” appeared in Vastarien, Vol 4. Issue 2. — which is a huge honor and will forever be one of my favorite poetry sales. The term anthropophagus is a bit of an archaic word often referring to cannibals in legends. I love a good archaic term, so it was really fun creating a piece inspired by those ideas.