My five-month-old, Levi Athena Herndon, is doing spectacularly. She's smart, she's playful, she has a full head of hair, and she beams with absolute joy every morning I come home from work. To put it simply, she's changed my life for the better. Even though I'm still the same ol' Craig (immature, rambunctious, obnoxious to a fault), I feel that I've grown up quite a bit. Not to toot my own horn, but I might very well be the best father in the history of the world.
As far as my writing goes, I've drifted away from short stories for the time being. I thought for a while they were my bread and butter, but I've recently found myself feeding my hankering for long, novel-length fiction.
I recently edited and rewrote a bit of my novella, SECRETS TO THE GRAVE, and though I (don't really) hate to brag, I think it's pretty A-Okay. That is currently with my trusted, fantastic editor, Stacey Turner, and I suspect she'll make it into something that I won't be able to believe is mine. Yes, she is that good. When I get that back, I'll be subbing it to whoever the hell still takes novellas.
I'm in the process of editing a novel, SEEK ASYLUM. It surprised me as it poured out of my brain, simply because it's not so much horror as it is a literary work centered around a crumbled family, an alcoholic father struggling to put it all back together, a distant mother living through a midlife crisis, and their twin daughters who can only stand and watch as their parents turn from a loving couple into two people they can barely stand to be around any more. That's not to say it's not still horror; it's just not the centerpiece of this book, and I feel like it's a great turnaround. If I can make someone scared and make them cry all in the same book, I'll consider it a win.
I've got another novel in the works, still in the outline stage, with the working title SURROUNDED BY WOLVES. It's inspired by Kanye West's song, "Wolves." I've got a great feeling about it, and I hope it goes over as well as I think it will.
As many of you know, the novel I finished last year, SPEAK OF THE DEVIL, was set to be the first book in what was to be a trilogy. The second book, HEAVY LIES THE CROWN, is also finished, though it sits unedited somewhere in Google Docs. Luckily I haven't written the third book, because I've found myself wanting to trim so much of the fat that SPEAK OF THE DEVIL will now be a standalone novel (after an extensive rewrite, obviously). The thing is, even though I always thought it would be a trilogy, a lot of the subplots I had planned just didn't make sense to the theme of the story, and it would have made the books a lot less cohesive than they should have been. Besides, I've always had an affinity for standalones because, like most people, I hate writing sequels. For the most part, unless they're mastered beautifully, I don't even like reading/watching sequels.
That's about it on the writing front. I've been extremely busy. In other news;
One of my favorite writers and a man I've come to call my friend, Mark Allan Gunnells, said that he loved a story of mine I sent him, THE (UN)LUCKY, CHOSEN FEW. Needless to say, that made me feel pretty warm inside.
I finally read a John Green book. PAPER TOWNS, to be exact. Holy shit, I wasn't expecting that. In all honesty, I was expecting his work to be a knockoff, watered down version of Nicholas Sparks. But Sparks doesn't hold a candle to Green, and I look forward to reading more of his stuff.
I watched The Babysitter on Netflix, and that was probably the best movie I've seen this year.
I can't think of anything else to put here, so instead of brainstorming what news you may or may not care about, I guess I'll go write some more. Merry Christmas, everyone.
