Things have slipped down the rabbit hole since my last post, with more freelance work (including some more spooky fun pre-Halloween content and a mammoth article on world-famous paintings that should be dropping this week.) I've also put the finishing touches on and created all my promo bits for SPILL, which, though tardier than I like, will be out tomorrow. The last few days have a been a whirl in the best way. We went out to McHenry for a drive-in visit (the movies, the latest Deadpool and Twisters, kinda meh, but watching them fun) and then stayed a couple days at the Waterfront, visited friends for dinner and a round of D&D, and then spent last night at karaoke for J's birthday celebration, in which I met some of his friends, many for the first time since we officially decided to get hitched. I still feel socially awkward like I crawled out from under a rock since covid (which is unfair, I've always been awkward, just its more acute now.) But it was still fun and lasted late into the night, after which we secured all-night Mexican and crawled into bed at dawn. So it's been a slow afternoon filling orders and making poetry stuff on the one day I do not have any writing obligations afoot before diving back into the breach tomorrow.
And somehow, its August, which still, even after a couple years out of the academic cycle I was part of my whole life, feels odd to not be preparing and gearing up, either as a student or librarian, for the fall semester. You would think I would have been used to it by now, but no. I certainly don't miss those rises and swelling in workloads and routines, but they are embedded bodily somehow. August also feels so much like the end of summer, even with plenty more summer days, although having run around in the heat more this past week, I am longing for September this time of year, when everything feels sort of straggly and overgrown.
This month brings some throwback movies I'm excited to see on the big screen, musical version of Back to the Future, and a tattoo appointment for some more butterflies at the end of the month. I am hoping to finish the carnival poems if possible and get a working version of RUINPORN printed out to begin book prep for November, when it will be making its way into the world most likely if all goes well. I have a lot of fun things planned zine-wise for fall, though, as well of the spooky and horror-ish nature, including zine releases for both morning in the witch house and ghost box.
