Checking in 41: 10.06.21

Hi guys! How’s everybody doing?

New Steps

I submitted The Professor’s Apprentice to the Writers of the Future contest ahead of schedule. Shocked? Me too.

Still plugging away on the novel. I went a little crazy and ripped out about 40 pages worth of story and an entire character. I think it was an extra complication that will better serve the story farther down the line. Meaning in subsequent books. The other changes I am making to tie the story together will be a great thing I think… assuming I can pull it off.

In other news… I am thinking of doing my own riff on NaNoWriMo. For those who don't know, November is National Novel Writing Month a.k.a. NaNoWriMo. The challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. The only rules are you can't write any of the prose before the month starts. You can brainstorm and plot and character create and world build all you want to prepare. But, because I am already neck deep in a novel, and I have so many other ideas, I thought I would do my own unofficial thing.

Rather than write a novel, I am toying with just meet the word count. I have chosen three short stories that are still in the infant stages and I am going to attempt to finish them. If I need more words to fill out the 50K, I can jump into another story… I have plenty of ideas to choose from.

I have also decided that I would like to start self-publishing some of my short stories. I need to do a little more research on exactly how to go about that. I also need to find beta readers, look into hiring an editor, and actually finish the damn stories. My tentative deadline is my 40th birthday, which is this February.

The Breakdown

As I discussed in my last check in, I have created my TBR for the month. I decided to go with a spooky, creepy vibe as it is the month of Halloween. I have already started reading the biographical pick.

The Demonologist by Gerald Brittle

This book focuses on the career of Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Warrens were considered to be the premiere experts in demons, ghost hunting, etc. in the 1970s. They had been studying and giving public lectures about the paranormal since the 1940s, but it was in the 70s that they became widely known due to their association with the Amityville House and the Annabeth doll. There are several big budget movies, including the Conjuring series based on cases they have worked over the years. Ed died in 2006 and Lorraine died in 2019. During their careers, they investigated over 3000 cases and were often dispatched by the Catholic Church to assess the validity of claims of possession. At the height of their careers, there were only 5 demonologists recognized by the Catholic Church in the United States. Four were ordained priests, and Ed was the fifth. He is also (according to the book, at the time of its writing) the only person to perform a Church sanctioned exorcism who was not a priest. Even today, it seems like everyone in those circles knows who they are.

I am only about a third of the way through the book, and I’m already struggling. Let me premise this by saying I am a skeptic. I think it is extremely important to look for rational explanations for unusual phenomena, and that most things can be explained. BUT! I have personally experienced some odd things I could not debunk or explain, which is why I have an interest in this kind of stuff. I believe there is stuff out there we cannot explain. Having said that…

This book is supposed to be a no frills, honest account of some of their cases. And the only evidence or accounts talked about are “verified by reliable witnesses”, which include clergy, law enforcement officers, etc. To that I say… erhmmmm, really??? Based on many of the other books I’ve read, other ghost hunting shows, and those I’ve talked to who are in the know this, stuff tends to be a LOT more subtle. HUGE evidence is usually something like a ball being moved a couple inches or an electronic voice phenomena (EVP) that kind of sounds like a woman saying hello if someone plants the idea of it in your head. But the stories given in this book are of the throwing people across the room, destroying property, killing dogs variety. And if anyone has seen The Conjuring, to read this book, the dramatization may not have been far off what supposedly actually happened.

I hate to disparage anyone, and everyone I’ve heard talk about the Warrens say they were good, honest people, but the skeptic in me calls bullshit. It just seems too crazy and big to be real. But, maybe it is just my mind trying to protect me from all the possible big bad that is out there in this crazy world of ours.

Living Life

Promising, promising interest from a company. I may have a job soon. This is fantastic news. Nothing else has changed.

That’s it for the week. Hopefully, I will get another one of these out next week. One of these months I might even get all four weeks out.

As always, thanks for checking out the site and I hope everyone is doing well. If you feel so inclined, check out my social media .