Books Read in March

 

 

March was a VERY busy month, both on a personal and professional level.

 

For Twisted Dreams Press: We are in the final stretch of wrapping up the Week of Terrors anthology series. The books filled up fast as we got closer to reaching the end! Now only the Saturday book is left, with just four spots left! And speaking of anthologies, I got an idea for another one, which I hope to put out a call for after we finish reading stories for Slasher Saturday. Since my business partner has been in the hospital since December and we are NOT discussing anything related to the press while she is there, I have yet to receive a response to the email I sent to her about this new anthology idea. (She is not reading emails sent to her press email address until she returns to work.) So I can’t really say too much about it until I hear from her.

 

I received the usual round of rejections on poems and short stories submitted this month, but I also had quite a bit of acceptances of them as well, so it balanced out. One of those acceptances that I received was for a short story I submitted over a year ago.

 

Going back to an old gig got off to a bumpy start this month, and things are a little different with it now. It’s not the same reliable source of weekly income that it once was, which is unfortunate. Still, I’m happy when I can have work for this particular gig.

 

I also started two new books this month. Yay! One of them was suggested by a friend, and I liked this idea so much that I decided to just go for it! Another one is a type of book I have never written before (but totally can write, since it’s a poetry collection). The idea for this one came about when I was doing research for an article, and when a friend pondered writing such a book, I thought, Hey, maybe I should write one too! No title for this one yet, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

 

The bad news on the writing front, though, is that I was not able to meet certain deadlines for anthology calls. With one anthology, I hated the story I wrote, and decided it wasn’t worth the time to revise. But I didn’t write a different story, and that deadline passed. With the other anthology, it took THREE attempts to find a story that was just right, but unfortunately, it’s taking a long time for me to revise it. It’s not looking good and I won’t be surprised if they end up booting me from the project.

 

I also ran into some problems with articles I wanted to write for an online publication. With the first article, there just wasn’t enough information out there for it to work, and with the second one, someone else beat me to it while I was busy writing it! Ack! So much for that. Hopefully, I can come up with another article to submit to this website.

 

And, finally, I will be returning to self-publishing books soon, but probably not until May. So I have been working on making arrangements for this, as well.

 

As to the personal stuff, I’m excited that we were able to fund my eye surgery, which is scheduled for tomorrow. HOORAY! Thank you to everyone who contributed to the GoFundMe, as well as purchasing my books. Every little bit helps!

 

I am looking forward to being able to see out of both of my eyes again!

 

My son, Jax, graduated from his GED program this month. Now he’s working on vocational training. He also had surgery this month, and he is currently recovering. It is going well so far.

 

My other son, Centauri, is doing well with his teaching job. He is also working on a book of his own. That’s so awesome!

 

Amid all of the things going on this month, I was able to get some reading done. I read every morning and every night. I often read several books at once, and that was especially true this month. Which is how I was able to read as many books as I did.

 

However, the number of books I read this month is not accurately reflected with this particular list of books. A few of them are ARCs (Advance Review Copy) I read last month. Still, they count for my overall list because it is meant to reflect books read this year, so therefore the number is accurate.

 

This month, I read 14 books and finished reading one. The book titles in bold are the ARCs I read last month and these books were published this month, so they went on this list.

 

Some of the books I read this month were for review purposes as well as for article research. One of them is a book I read for Read-an-Ebook-Week (although it took me two weeks to read it, not one), and others were just books I selected to read for pleasure. It's a nice mix of poetry books, horror novels and novellas, as well as short story collections. No nonfiction books this month, alas!

 

Here are the books:

 

23. The Land of the Living: Poems by Meredith Brown

24. Poems and Thoughts of Robert Jay Wheaton

25. The Golem's Holocaust by Scott Eveloff

26. Rock My Stars (Starstruck Universe) by Ellie Potts

27. Chorus of Crows by Sharon Wagner

28. The Beauty in the Wreckage by Andrew Buckner

29. The Boy Who Growled at Thunder by Edd Tury

30. Moondust by Kahlani Steele

31. Living Your Nightmares by James Kaine

32. What Lies Unseen by S.E. Howard

33. The Horror of Shadow Valley by Jerry Blaze

34. FINISHED READING: How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

35. All That Slithers: 13 Stories to Squeeze Your Brain by Fionna Cosgrove

36. Werewolf Haiku by Brian Mecum

37. Deeper Into Darkness: Thirteen Tales of Horror and Suspense by Russell James

38. Peculiar Paranormal Poems by Rebecca June Williford

39. Reductio Ad Absurdum by Jon Wesick

40. War of Dictates by John Baltisberger