Hi. I’m Kit Power - author, blogger, podcaster, reviewer, and all-around genre hound. You're receiving this email because you signed up to my newsletter. Thank you for that.
The plan is simple; a monthly one-stop shop where you can find out what I’ve been up to in the past month, what my plans are for the month ahead, and, most importantly, pictures of my frankly adorable pets. Really glad to have you here. Let’s get to it.
Ziggy, actually just a hound
August
Full disclosure: I’m on holiday and away from the internet from 27th July - 7th August, so this was completed and scheduled in advance of that. I’m hoping to get some more work done while I’m away, but you’ll have to wait until September to hear about it.
Written:
July is the busiest month for my day job, and that’s made finding time to write very challenging. That said, I’ve completed two My Life In Horror essays, the first covering Insane Clown Possee’s The Great Milenko album, and the second on Wes Craven’s 97 masterpiece Scream. I also got the next essay in the Brian Keene series completed, discussing his weird western novella An Occurrence In Crazy Bear Valley. It feels good to have found time to write despite some pretty serious demands on my time, and I’m especially happy to have My Life In Horror two essays closer to completion. All three essays are available on Patreon. I also completed a re-watch of The Wild One, and I’m really excited to write about this; not sure anyone’s made the case for this 1953 classic as a horror story. Well, here I am. :)
I also spent some time going through the first round of critical reader feedback from the novel I’ve co-authored with James Slater-Murphy. We’ve identified two additional scenes to write which should address a lot of the feedback. We’ve got one each, so I’m hoping to get to mine while on holiday.
Recorded:
For Writeopolis, my fortnightly Discord show with RJ Barker and Scott K Andrews, we recorded a show with indie horror author, YouTuber, and dear friend George Daniel Lea, and another with indie fantasy sensation AK Falkner. Both episodes are now available via the Writeopolis Patreon (backers got 7-day early access). We also recorded a show with Canadian author Jackson Ford. **That episode should be with Patreon backers by the 29th July, with public release a week afterwards.**
I’ve also recorded two new episodes of The Backer Street Irregulars, my Patreon exclusive story-by-story Sherlock Holmes podcast, with brilliant co-hosts Jack Graham and Daniel Harper. The episodes cover The Beryl Coronet and The Copper Beeches, and we’ve now finished our revisit of The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes collection. Our next recording is likely to be a conversation about the collection as a whole, picking out our personal high and low points, before moving on to the second collection, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. We’re all busy, but we’d really like to try and get to a more regular recording schedule for this series, as we’re really enjoying the conversations, and listener feedback has been very positive. A reminder that just $1 a month to Jack, Daniel or I via Patreon will give you instant access to all back episodes.
Finally, George Daniel Lea and I caught up over a spoiler-filled discussion of the Netflix series Stranger Things, with an emphasis on season 4. As is often the case with George and I, the conversation ran deep, and I’m really happy with where we got to with our analysis. You can hear that on George’s YouTube channel.
Published:
Over at Gingernuts of Horror, they published my RJ Darker interview; it was great to catch up with this mysterious crime writer about his Mal and Jackie series. I also had the latest in my Brain Keene series go live, covering Urban Gothic. I found this book perhaps the most challenging to date, both in terms of extreme content and some of the themes and ideas, and I’m really happy with how the essay came out (Keene on Twitter said this was his favourite in the series so far, which was cool). Finally, the latest My Life In Horror went live, on the topic of Natural Born Killers. Similar to Urban Gothic, in some ways, a movie about which I have basically All The Thoughts.
Meanwhile in podcast land, What The Hell Is Wrong With Us? Episode 4, covering Valve’s transformative First Person Shooter Half Life, is live today on my podcast feed.
Patreon backers got early access to all the above.
Announced:
Absolutely thrilled to announce that I’ve been invited to run a writing workshop as part of Alex Davis ‘Shadow Seasons: Autumn horror writing school’ online event, alongside some fantastically gifted writers; Dan Coxon (Writing the Uncanny, Only the Broken Remain), Peter Laws (The Frighteners, The Matt Hunter series) Laura Mauro (Sing Your Sadness Deep, On the Shoulders of Otava), Francine Toon (Pine), and Ally Wilkes (All the White Spaces). Places are filling up fast, so if you’re interested, click through and book up soon. The topic of my session has yet to be officially announced, but I can tell you it’s a subject close to my heart, and one I’m really looking forward to helping other writers develop.
Rocky, helping with the podcast recordings
Reading:
For reasons I’ll get into later, actually finishing books is patchy for me. I tend to read multiple titles at once, and that leads to months like last month, where I finish several titles, and months like this one, where I don’t finish anything. So, currently reading:
Jack Of Thorns by AK Benedict. I picked this up in prep for AK appearing on Writeopolis, and was completely hooked. A combination of queer romance and urban fantasy that’s outside my normal reading wheelhouse, but I am really enjoying it, and it has a superb pager-turner quality that’s enjoyable and admirable.
Dalek by Rob Shearman - reading this one out loud to Kiddo for bedtime reading. It’s a joy to read out loud; Rob’s one of my favourite authors, and most of his work is wildly unsuitable for children, so it’s nice to have a title I can share with my kid in this way. No idea how much longer bedtime reading’s going to be a thing, and I’m glad this title got in under the wire.
This Isn’t Anywhere You Know by Gary McMahon - So far, an absolutely incredible short story collection, with enough emotional weight that I have to dip in and out.
Books Of Blood Vol 1 - 3 by Clive Barker - got this for my birthday. Shamefully, I’d never read it. Four stories in, and it seems likely that I’ll end up doing a podcast series on this astonishing collection.
And lastly, 2 ARCs that I can’t talk about at all at this stage.
Baby Cat, upon her throne of snuggle
Watching:
Finished Miss Marvel. Not much to add to last month; loved every minute of it, but not as much as Kiddo did, it really did feel made for her (at least until they do a Squirrel Girl show/movie). The missus and I watched Stranger Things 4 and, as you may have heard earlier, I absolutely loved it. Even more exciting, we’ve started watching the show with Kiddo. She’s twelve, and this is her first horror TV series. We’ll see how it goes, but so far, so good, and she’s absolutely loving it.
The missus and I also watched Defending Jacob on Apple TV, Starring Chris Evans. It was okay but oddly felt less than the sum of its parts. We also bailed on Mayor of Kingstown after three episodes, just wasn’t clicking with it, and it felt like it wasn’t doing anything Sons of Anarchy didn’t do better. I’ve had more luck with movies, and last weekend I got to spend some quality time with my dad, watching The Wild One. White Heat, and Parents. He’d never seen any of them before, which was a particular treat, and the rewatch convinced me to add The Wild One to the My Life In Horror series.
Lola hanging out.
In personal news, the recent UK heatwave was tough for me, psychologically. I’ve been increasingly anxious about the climate crisis, and frustrated by the lack of concerted action, and seeing forty degrees Celcius while I picked my kid up from school… yeah. I know for many people reading this it won’t seem that hot, but trust me, for the UK it was unprecedented. I doubt I’ll ever forget the sensation of cycling through the heat, with the breeze feeling like someone was blowing a hairdryer into my face. 0/10, do not recommend.
In happier news, I managed to score Springsteen tickets for next summer. Springsteen is a touchstone artist for me, and I’ve seen him many, many times. He’s also a favourite of my dad, and my daughter. And as much as I’d like for him to be immortal, like the rest of us, Springsteen and the E-Street Band aren’t getting any younger. It’s going to be an honour to see him along with my dad and my kid (at her first Big Rock Show) next year - three generations of fans united by one of the best to ever do it. Also, given some of how I’ve been feeling, buying the tickets felt like an act of faith. Corny, but it’s where I’m at right now.
Also in Good News, I was recently assessed for and given an ADHD diagnosis. This makes sense of my aforementioned reading habits, as well as many, many other things. On one hand, it changes nothing; I’m still the person I always was. In another way, though, it changes everything, not least in terms of how I view myself. There’s been some anger, immediately following the diagnosis; questions about how different my school career might have been if it had been known back then. At the same time, it’s given me huge confidence in the here and now, in terms of understanding that many of the behaviours that I and those around me find frustrating were never entirely under my control; and, more importantly, that there are strategies I can employ going forward to mitigate.
I’ve also spent a bit of time with my PS4 this month, shooting nazis in Sniper Elite 4. I’d forgotten the cathartic power of video game violence, and I’m still not entirely over the endorphin rush I experienced playing the Operation: Führer mission when I actually got to assassinate Hitler. Just the best of times, highly recommended.
And finnally (get it?) Kiddo’s fish arrived. She’s very, very happy with Amit and Triton.
Rocky also loves the fish. So we’re keeping the door shut when Kiddo’s not in there.
Book of the month: A Song For The End
A Song For The End was published in October 2020 by Horrific Tales Publishing. Partly an apocalyptic story riffing on the notion of viral media, and partly a blood-soaked meditation on truth and lies, A Song For The End was a British Fantasy Award finalist in the Best Novella category in 2021. The reviews have been very favourable, and I’m very, very proud of it; it’s both a high-octane pulp horror good time and a story that’ll keep you thinking long after the final page is turned. You can grab it in ebook, paperback, and gorgeous hardback here.
August Plans:
More My Life In Horror: with just four essays left, the end is well and truly in sight. If I can somehow get there by the end of August, it puts me in a position to start working on the October crowdfunder for the Volume 2 print edition. Given how hard this month has been it’s good to still feel on track for that.
Writing Workshop planning: this will involve picking the brains of my father, who’s run online workshops for 15 years at this point. I’m excited about doing it, but it’s also a responsibility I take very seriously, so I’ll need to carve out some time to get it in shape.
The Novel: Having agreed on what the new material needs to be, I need to write it. This is my first priority while on holiday.
Next Keene essay: I’ll need to read Clickers III first (which I am also taking on holiday with me) so this is likely to happen the second half of the month. I’m anxious to get to it, because it’ll be taking on the author’s preferred text of Terminal, which is absolutely one of my favourite novels in the Keene canon.
More Holmes and Bond: We have the next Bond recording booked for the week I get back from holiday, and I’m also hopeful that we’ll be able to schedule another Holmescast in August. I love talking about those stories so much, especially with the quality of my co-hosts.
Future My Life In Horror subject
Song of the month:
In celebration of going to E-Street next summer, here’s Kiddo’s favourite Springsteen cut, a live version of an album cut classic from 1980’s The River, Sherry Darling. It’s the sound of summer. Play It Loud! See you in September.