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.
My plans for this are fairly 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.
Rocky’s ‘get on with it’ face.
June
Written:
The latest in the My Life In Horror article series covers the infamous 90’s Oliver Stone classic Natural Born Killers (published on Patreon 13/6/22). This series has five essays remaining. The next will cover the Insane Clown Posse’s Great Milenko album. Patreon backers should get it in the next week or so. The entire My Life In Horror series can be read for free here.
I was fortunate enough to secure another long-form interview with Stephen Volk, to talk about his recent short story collection Lies Of Tenderness (reviewed here). Stephen is an extraordinary writer, and it’s one of the great privileges of working for a site like Gingernuts that I get to have these kinds of conversations with creators I admire. You can read that full interview here.
Also on Patreon, I reviewed Simon Bestwick’s And Cannot Come Again collection, and took a journey through Rob Shearman’s singular short story collection We All Hear Stories In The Dark. Both of these will be appearing on Gingernuts at some point, but Patreon backers get early access ($3 backers got to watch me write this last Saturday afternoon). Because they/you are awesome.
I also reworked a short story I’d written months ago called Making Do. I was very happy with the voice and tone of the piece, but it was very much in want of an ending. Following a very helpful chat with the brilliant RJ Barker, I think I’ve cracked it. We shall see.
Finally, I wrote an essay on the passing of my Step Mum. I wanted to capture, as faithfully and unvarnished as I could, what those last few days had been like. It’s the kind of thing that may very well never see the light of day, but I’ve learned that writing is a form of therapy for me; a way to process, and to try and make sense of the apparently senseless. So, anyway. I feel better for having written it.
Recorded:
For Writeopolis, my fortnightly Discord show with RJ Barker and Scott K Andrews, we recorded our first live commentary track, watching and chatting over Wes Craven’s 97 classic, Scream. That episode is now live as a Patreon exclusive for Writeopolis backers.
We also recorded a regular episode with Neil Snowdon of Electric Dreamhouse Press, which went live to backers on 27th June, and will be available to the general public a week after, and we spoke with George Daniel Lea live on 26/6, and that episode is being edited now - backers can expect it in a week or so. A reminder that all Writeopolis episodes are free to download from the Patreon, with backers getting 7 days early access.
Published:
In addition to the above, Episode 10 of Human Bondage (a podcast where Christine Kelley, James Slater-Murphy and I talk about the James Bond movies) went live to the public - you can listen to that here. In this episode, we talk Moonraker, with Jack Graham making a brief guest appearance. The full show archive can be found here.
The Writeopolis episode we recorded with indie publishing sensation Jon Cronshaw went live to the general public. You can download that for free here.
What The Hell Is Wrong With Us? Episode 3, covering The Dark Knight Returns and Arkham Asylum, went out on my podcast feed (Patreon backers got early access).
Ah, Baby Cat
Reading:
In addition to We all Hear Stories In The Dark, I finished reading Joe Hills Strange Weather, Gabino Iglesias Coyote Songs, and from Brian Keene, the author’s preferred text of Terminal - that last as part of my ongoing project to read all of Keene’s fiction work in order of publication, as part of a Gingernuts essay series. I read one book ahead of the essays, meaning I will now be able to start work on my piece about An Occurrence In Crazy Bear Valley.
The first page of Terminal also hit me with a grin I’ve not been able to shake since - check it out :)
Oh, yeah, just me and Steve, hanging out on the same page :)
Watching:
Finished watching Obi-Wan and am continuing to watch Ms Marvel with Kiddo. We also ran through the Jurassic Park franchise in prep for a possible cinema trip for the final part. I found myself thinking a lot about the politics of the more recent movies, and how they almost feel like a commentary on the franchise itself, if not the industry as a whole. Maybe there’s an essay in that, if I can somehow find the time. Meanwhile, The Missus and I watched Pistol, Slow Horses, bailed on Midwitch Cookoos after two episodes, rewatched the original Candyman, and just finished blasting through We Own This City.
Rocky and Ziggy didn’t watch. They stared at me and judged.
In personal news, an odd month. As I noted earlier, my stepmum passed away in May, and I caught Covid. Thankfully I appear to have ducked long Covid, but it does mean I’ve spent much of the month getting caught up on various projects that slipped as a result of me losing the best part of three weeks.
One of the quests for this month has been to get my daughter a couple of goldfish, following an extended campaign from her (including, I kid you not, a PowerPoint presentation on why she should be allowed to have some). Turns out a lot has changed since my day, when you just rocked up and bought the fish home in a bag. Now, you have to make sure the water has the right kind of bacteria, which can take several weeks of running the pumps. So what we thought would be a quick purchase has become something of an epic quest. On the plus side, it turns out, properly cared for, goldfish can live 10 to 15 years - so there’s a good chance Kiddo will be taking hers to university with her, if we take the right steps now, and that’s worthwhile, I think.
Book of the month: My Life In Horror Volume One
My Life In Horror Volume One celebrated its first birthday in June. This collection of over thirty essays works as both a journey through the horror movies, novels, music and more that influenced me as a child and young adult, and as an autobiography via the medium of pop culture artefacts. Subjects covered include Stephen King’s IT, Carpenter's movie The Thing, the first two Guns N Roses albums, and a very controversial essay covering 90’s ‘classic’ The Lost Boys. All the essays were revised and expanded for the published edition, and I’m really proud of how it turned out. Volume Two is fast approaching (and you’ll get first notice of the crowdfunder for that project via this newsletter); in the meantime, if you want to pick up the book about which Ray Cluley said “You’ll find a diverse range of topics here but at the heart of it all is horror, and there’s a lot of heart. Kit Power shows you his on every intimate page. I loved it.” you can do so here:
July Plans:
As previously discussed, get the final My Life In Horror essays written, or at least make significant advances towards that goal; I’d like to run the crowdfunder in late summer, if possible, so the pressure is really on there. Beyond that, I’d like to review some of the books I’ve recently finished reading, and I have a novel that I co-authored with a friend that’s had some initial beta reader feedback, and I really need to start getting to grips with that. Additionally, there should be more Bonadage recording and, hopefully, another block of my Patreon exclusive Sherlock Holmes podcast, where Jack Graham, Daniel Harper and I take on the Holmes canon in order. Our last episode covered The Engineers Thumb. All back episodes are available immediately to Patreon backers at any level, whether you support Jack, Daniel, or I. Finally, I’m starting preparation for running an online writing workshop in September/October, which is a new departure for me, and something I’m both excited and nervous as hell about. More on that next month :)
Song of the month:
To play us out this month, I’ve been listening to a lot of Queens Of The Stoneage lately, so I’m going to pick a song from their debut album. If you aren’t familiar with QOTSA, they’re an incredible stoner rock band, with 20 years of albums to dive into at this point.
Thanks for reading. Be well, and I’ll see you in August :)