Welcome back to The Epistle, all ye faithful. Anoint yourself with some holy water, whisper your petitions into the wild night, and slip through the door into our inner sanctum.
News
It’s that crisp, spooky time of year, and you know what that means! It’s time to reveal the gorgeous A DOWRY OF BLOOD cover magicked up by the phenomenal Marlowe Lune. My breath was stolen by the beauty of this cover the first time I saw it, and I’m still reeling! Lune captured Constanta perfectly, and incorporated so many little homages to the story into the cover.
What I’m Loving Lately
I’m not usually a television person, but with all the pandemic time on my hands I’ve been learning to be patient with episodic content. Last month we talked about my Hannibal rewatch, and now I’ve got to go on about about my new favorite show:
Gotham
I’m a big fan of the Batman universe, and I’ve recently fallen down the rabbit hole of this soapy, punchy television drama that reimagines the origin stories of Gotham’s heroes and villians. The sets and costumes look great and the incorporation of comic mythos into the story is handled quite cleverly. It has the usual problems in shows like this: glorification of violence, some filler female characters the show obviously has no idea what to do with, and biphobia, but there are also some standout performances. In particular, Robin Lord Taylor as The Penguin and Jada Pinkett Smith as Fish Money absolutely sell season one, which is worth a watch even if you don’t continue on.
At a time like this, it’s strangely comforting to watch a show riddled with corrupt elected officials and dirty police officers. The city of Gotham has always been a funhouse mirror of the worst of humanity. Despite its camp, the show doesn’t shy away from the grit, either. We’re all just struggling to get by and live with our mistakes, and I enjoy watching the characters of Gotham do the same.
Kushiel’s Dart
I’ve never been a fan of doorstopper second-world fantasy books. As a matter of fact, I’m pretty intimidated by them, and I’ve always clung to the comforting skirts of contemporary fantasy. But this iconic book grabbed me as soon as I cracked it open, and the reading experience has been so pleasurable and immersive. I love the elaborate social and religious worldbuilding, political intrigue, and way eroticism is so interwoven into the fabric of the story. I’m determined to finish the whole thing even though my trade paperback clocks in at a whopping 912 pages.
My New Alphasmart
If you aren’t very plugged in to Book Twitter, you might have missed last month’s obsession with this lo-fi writing tool. It’s effectively a digital typewriter that only allows you to see four lines of text at a time, and it’s become my drafting secret weapon. You can pick these early aughts relics up for under fifty bucks on eBay, and then upload you writing directly into a word doc or Scrivener via USB transfer. I love to banish my phone and my laptop with their decadent social media temptations, cozy up in bed with the Alphasmart, and go into a writing fugue state. I can painlessly bang out a thousand words in forty five minutes with this little guy.
NanoWrimo
Speaking of writing, who out there is going to plunge into the NanoWrimo trenches with me? I thrive in the challenge of fast drafting, especially since I don’t have the patience to pick away at large projects for years at a time. Check out the moodboard for my occult Los Angeles conwoman story.
It's got triple crosses, haunted dolls, heist planning in Vegas, criminal astrologers, grey market auctions, and the smartest, sexiest, most memorable villain I've ever written in it. I’m 25k in and I’ve got to say I’m pretty hype to bang this one out. After spending two months revising two different books, drafting is beckoning with her Devil-may-care siren song.
That’s all I’ve got for you this month, but it is, as always, my pleasure to draw you into my dark corner of the internet and whisper into your ear. Be safe and be well until we two meet again. And, most importantly, have a very happy, very haunted, very socially distant Halloween!
-Saint