Welcome to the100th issue of Vicious Shivers!
Well, itās the 100th issue since I started taking my e-newsletter a little more seriously and tried to keep it coming out on a regular basis. There have been plenty of changes along the way. The format is always in flux. (Iām not necessarily happy with the current look, but I am happy with the simplicity of putting it together.) Iāve tried sending it on different days. (Sundays still have the best open rates.) Iāve used different platforms. (I switched to Revue in order to save myself $50 a month.) And there will continue to be changes as we move forward. There have been a couple of lulls in the schedule, too, mostly due to my life getting upended more than once in the last year. Here we are, though! Iām still putting these newsletters out, and I appreciate you joining me as I try to figure it all out!
In future issues, Iām going to be pointing you in the direction of OTHER e-newsletters and blogs and such that I enjoy. Some of them have been around hundreds of issues. Others only have a few installments so far. Most of them will be writing or horror or comics focused, but there will be a surprise or two in the mix. Iāve started building a list and Iāll share a few at a time starting next newsletter!
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Itās been a bit of a weird week, writing-wise. (Arenāt they all?) I worked on some books I canāt tell you about. Lots of outlining and plot summaries and corrections and lettering passes. I scripted some pages of a bigger project, which feels a little anti-climactic since I havenāt yet reached the end! Projects I worked on (and here are some hints) featured Shadowman, the Eternal Warrior, Punk Mambo, crumbling haunted houses, cows with human heads, surgeries gone wrong, and packs of dire wolves.
At the urging of the wonderful Cindy Bunn, I ordered a new ReMarkable tablet before the tax year runs out. Iāve had my current ReMarkable for a few years. It took me a bit to really get the hang of it and to make the most of it, but I love it now. It saves a ton of paper. Itās easy to carry around. And, most importantly for me, it keeps me organized. I do a ton of outlining and planning in longhand, and before I started using the ReMarkable, I was always writing in different notebooks, then misplacing those notebooks, then scrambling to find them.
When the new tablet gets here, Iāll do a full review for ya!
And, as Iāve mentioned before, Iām still trying to figure out putting a new writersā group together. I was once a member of a regional horror writers group that met monthly or so, and I loved it. It was focused on prose, which is fine considering some of my goals in the next few years. My buddy Josh and I have been talking a lot about writing (specifically short stories) and itās really got me jonesing to do another real gathering of like minds.
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Speaking of next year, Iāve been developing a Goals List for 2022. Itās a pretty big list covering a wide range of topics, from Writing to Family to Finances to Fun. Iāve got some big dreams I want to make happen. Iāll share (most of) the list with you in my next issue!
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Ready for some cool stuff? Some news? A free comic? Interviews and event information? Well, youāre in luck! Keep scrolling!