Speeding on the highway to hell
The air smells of apple cider. Leaves crunch at your feet as you move along the sidewalk, clutching your jean jacket close because the chill of autumn has come faster than you expected. It’s nice though: the wind through your hair, the prickle of cold on the back of your neck, the red and gold trees lining the street. More houses are decorated than they were last week—spiderwebs wrapped around railings, tombstones and cauldrons dotting the lawns, skeletons lounging on porch swings. There’s even a tall, dark figure standing just out of view behind the maple on the corner.
Wait.
No.
Something is off about the figure. It isn’t like the others; it isn’t fake. Something about the way their eyes follow you from beneath the mask makes you feel like you’re being watched. Because you are being watched.
Suddenly the shhh shhh of the leaves are less welcoming, more warning. And they’re too loud. And the figure in a jumpsuit behind the tree, their head turns to keep following you. You stare at each other, hold each other in this long, uncomfortable moment. The street is otherwise empty too. No one around to hear you scream for help, to open the doors and usher you inside. And your heart pumps so loudly in your ears, you swear the stranger can hear it across the way.
Then, they reach down to the sign propped between their feet. You were so nervous, so on edge, that you didn’t even notice it was there. Just a cut of plain poster board, white, with a message scrawled messily in red. (Blood? You ask yourself, hoping you’re wrong but knowing somehow you aren’t.)
The sign reads: JAMISON’S BACK. THE HELL DISPATCH IS HERE.
Book Updates 📰
Talk about a kickass way to bring in the fall! And it is in full swing here in Hel, with crunchy yellow leaves, certifiable jacket weather, and… the sniffles for me. I write this with my nose glued to the humidifier.
I FEED HER TO THE BEAST AND THE BEAST IS ME (also known as “Ballerina book”) is officially on sub. What does “sub” mean? It means that I signed off, my agent signed off, and now it’s been yeeted to editors at publishing houses to read and hopefully love. There is no real standard on how long sub can take—sometimes a book sells in a month, sometimes it takes 5 years. It’s however much time you need to find (1) an editor who loves it and knows what to do with it, and (2) a publisher willing to pay for it.
All this to say: it’s in god(dess)’s hands now. Be free, my feral demon dancer.
PROJECT PICKLE (also known as “Ghost book”) is done! This may seem really fast and exciting but worry not, it’s a zero draft if you recall, meaning, I wrote it as fast as I could to just get it done. It’s not thorough. It’s not legible. It probably doesn’t even make sense. The character arcs are rough, dialogue is rough, setting is bare bones, don’t ask me about pacing. The goal was to lay down the foundation, the skeleton. And when I return to it, I will rewrite it to make it make sense and add in the juicy, juicy, tender meat. Maybe a soul or two, idk, depends how I’m feeling.
While PROJECT PICKLE is marinating, I returned to HELL HEIST (also known as “Hellish book”). The fake title is actually a misnomer, there isn’t a heist, per se and it’s not in hell. But more important, I started this in September last year, and I am going to finish it in September this year. If you recall, some unforeseen circumstances demanded I shelve it for a little bit (Pitch Wars, querying, getting agented, revising BEAST). I’m about 65% of the way through, and I love it all. The characters, the setting, the themes, the tension. Quite possibly my best work thus far.
I’ve been taking breaks in between drafts to recharge my brain cells, and this seems to be working thus far. I always tend to be more active in the later months of the year.
The Craft Corner 🎨
If you follow me on twitter, you may have seen me drafting HELL HEIST like a speed demon the past week or so. And maybe you’re wondering, “How?”
Well, I plan in great detail.
Last summer, I wrote a 15-page outline detailing every scene in the book, along with separate documents for the main characters’ personal histories, their arcs, and the vast setting (not just physical locations but societal markers, architectural styles, wars, etc.) I do all of this before I start drafting so that way, when it’s time to draft, I can take my brain out and paint by numbers.
So when I picked up HELL HEIST, I already knew what I had to do and how to do it. I don’t have to think about pacing the character arcs or what information in the great conspiracy to reveal at which moment because I already did the work. I’m on auto-pilot now. And as I’ve said again and again, it’s a first draft so quality can go suck eggs. You cannot revise what doesn’t exist. So I want to get it done now and later I’ll handle any quality issues, plot holes, character inconsistencies, gaps in logic, lack of vibes, etc.
That is Future Jamison’s problem as far as I’m concerned. Right now, I’m just cruising along, having fun drafting these silly little characters have a not-heist in not-hell. It doesn’t have to be serious. It doesn’t have to be great. They don’t have to be good. They just have to be mine.
And a little Digestif 🧉
There have been a lot of things keeping me going while I finished PROJECT PICKLE and resumed HELL HEIST, including socializing and Finnish lessons and preparation for going on sub (yes, unfortunately, you can’t just yeet things. There is actual preparation involved, how passé). So here are some delicious little gems:
LISTENING: “Hurrikan” by Electric Callboy — a very bizarre song that I can’t get out of my head, opening with 80s German pop and closing with a beauuuuutiful deathcore breakdown. It has possessed me.
READING: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, a reread, a classic. I just finished The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin and All Systems Red by Martha Wells, both of which were also excellent, so I’m on a roll. I also have a shiny new ARC (advanced reader copy) for the re-release of A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson, which, if you recall, was one of my top reads of 2021. It’s back!
PLAYING: Cult of the Lamb, a fun new game that can be aptly described as Animal Crossing but Demonic. You play a lamb that is recruited as the vessel of a shadowy figure called The One Who Waits, an imprisoned god-like creature, and you are tasked with growing a cult in its service and defeating all the heretics of the land. As you grow your cult, you must feed them and tend to them and make them happy or they will revolt.
And well, that’s it. Those are all the updates I can think to make while my head is so full of snot. Pardon or you’re welcome, depending on which way you sway.
À la votre! Happy weekend! Hyvää viikonloppua! ❤️