Spring has come again!

Happy Belated Spring Equinox! After an unseasonably cool winter at times, things are warming up again in Central Floridastan. Days are growing longer and the extra sunlight is a good reminder to get outdoors and get some sunshine (in moderation and with sunscreen of course)!

Looking back on a year of The Digital Dispatch, the road traveled thus far, and the miles ahead

In place of the usual progress update, which I’m going to include here, I wanted to take a moment of celebrating the first year of my newsletter! For those who have been here since the beginning: THANK YOU! I’m truly grateful for your support. Before starting my Digital Dispatch, I had been somewhat uncertain what I could share that would be valuable in my still nascent writing career. A year in, and I’ve come to enjoy the opportunity to share with readers the highs and lows of my personal writing journey. It’s my hope that over the years to come, I’m able to continue to share reflections that people find meaningful and helpful in their own endeavors, creative or otherwise.

I’ve been actively pursuing a writing career since February of 2020, so I’m just over five years into that journey. There are times where I feel like I’m stuck, or not making progress as fast as I’d like. Those moments are important times for me to take stock of how far I’ve come in those five years, and at the risk of tooting my own horn, I’ve made some great strides in that time.

From selling my first story 2022, to my first pro-rate sale this past December. I’ve won NaNoWriMo a couple of times (back when that was a thing), I’ve gotten a degree in Publishing that has also led to be starting a career as an editor, I’m working on my MFA in Genre Fiction, and most importantly of all, I’ve built relationships with dozens and dozens of writers and discovered some amazing friendships along the way. Not bad for five years!

I have so much yet to learn, to say, and to do to help other writers build the tools they need to succeed. And even when progress feels slow, the only way to progress is to keep going. I intend to be telling and selling stories for the rest of my life, however long I’m blessed to have.

On the grad school front, I’m halfway through the last semester of my first year of the Genre Fiction program, and we’re getting into the early stages of planning our thesis projects. I have a pretty clear vision of what I want to do, and I’m looking forward to being paired with a mentor that can help me bring that vision to life. I’ll have more to say about that in the coming months. In the meantime, I’m continuing to work on The Gentleman Necromancer’s Guide to Gardening and the odd short story here and there, both as life allows.  

What I’m reading, watching, and playing

Pet Sematary by Stephen King

Throwing it back a bit for this month’s reading pick to the classic Pet Sematary by Stephen King. Like many, King was a formative writer for me not just for his horror work but just as much for his fantasy work like Eyes of the Dragon, Fairy Tale, and of course, The Dark Tower. The longer I toil in the writing mines, the more I see how influential he’s been on my own work. We’ve been studying Pet Sematary in our Horror unit this semester and it was very interesting to come back and read this work from an analytical point of view. In terms of emotional resonance and impact, this remains one of the very best of King’s works and is a provocative exploration of grief.

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man directed by Tom Harper and written by Steven Knight

I’ve been a fan of the Peaky Blinders series since it hit Netfilx almost a decade ago. The final season always felt a bit incomplete for me, and while reviews both among critics and fans have been mixed, I found this movie to be an appropriate coda to the whole of Tommy Shelby’s tragically bloody story. In particular I felt the first third of the film to be particularly strong, while the last third felt a little uneven to me. Even so, I enjoyed it. Cillian Murphy delivered yet another strong performance, over the years he’s become an actor that will get my attention any time he’s attached to a project.

Pokopia by Nintendo

Sometimes I need a cozy, easy game to let my brain rest and to take my mind away from the dumpster fire that the wider world can sometimes be. Pokopia scratches that itch unlike any game since Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which just about everyone was playing in 2020 during lockdown. It’s also a game I can play side by side with my wife in those quiet moments in the day, and that’s probably my favorite feature of it :)

The Signal Boost: Kevin J. Anderson’s latest Dan Shamble Kickstarter

My mentor and friend Kevin J. Anderson is just over mid-way in the Kickstarter for another entry in his hilarious Dan Shamble Zombie P.I. series, Sleep With The Fishes: A Dan Shamble Zombie P.I. Adventure. Kevin’s written just about everything in his long career, and for my money these are the funniest books he’s ever written. Head on over to Kickstarter, back this campaign, and get your hands on some lighthearted books that will get you giggling!

Exit Music

Leaving you this month with a track from the Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man soundtrack, “A Hero’s Death” by Fontaines D.C.

Til next time!