2023 In Review

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Happy New Year, everybody!

2023 was a fun year with a lot of firsts. I spent many hours exploring art galleries, travelled to Nova Scotia for the first time, visited friends and family in Toronto (where I caught the TIFF Midnight Madness screening of When Evil Lurks), and did some touristy stuff in Ottawa as well. I also started playing D&D, binge-watched Dark Side of the Ring, and got obsessed with martial arts movies.

Writing Update

I focused on longer works in 2023 (with mixed success). Over the past year I “finished” a novel, a novella, and a novelette. The novel and novella have both been in various stages of completion since 2022, and if I’m being honest I’ll probably be putting some finishing touches on both in January, but let me count them as a 2023 accomplishment. The novelette was pure 2023 and that one’s totally done, I promise.

I did write a few short pieces in 2023, including an epistolary pro-wrestling ghost story, a remixed urban legend, a post-apocalyptic boys-on-bikes yarn, a Christmas creature feature, a high fashion bizarro tale, a surrealist beekeeping nightmare, and my first zombie story in many years (see below).

My big news of the year: my seaside cosmic horror novelette Beach Vibes was picked up by Anuci Press, to be released in 2024. I love this one and I’m so excited to share it with everyone!

2023 Publications By Me (collect them all!)

I published nine short stories this year, some brand new, some oldies, and a three reprints; content-wise, they include twisted fairytales, spooky Halloween horror, surreal Christmas horror, bizarro, Nicolas Cage fanfic, cosmic horror, and an anti-death penalty lament set during the zombie apocalypse:

  1. Warriors of the Wild Sky (His Soul’s Still Dancing: A Nicolas Cage Inspired Fiction Anthology, Ex-Parrot Press)
  2. Fun (Final Girl Bulletin Board, The Daily Drunk)
  3. I Am the Vanity Mirror Shaped Like a Skull (The First Five Minutes of the Apocalypse, Hungry Shadow Press)
  4. Status Symbol (MID LVL MAG: Supply Chain Issue)
  5. Status Symbol (Everybody Press Review Issue 3: Unrequited Commodities, Everybody Press)
  6. The Cursed Wood, The Godmother (Haunted Words Press Issue 5: Wicked Woodlands, Haunted Words Press)
  7. How the Gods Kill (Punk Noir Magazine – The Mixtape Side A)
  8. Arts and Crafts (Shallow Waters: Horror Flash Fiction Anthology, Crystal Lake Publishing)
  9. A Very Weird Christmas (Shallow Waters: Horror Flash Fiction Anthology, Crystal Lake Publishing)
  10. Right Where She Belongs (Tales of Sley House 2023, Sley House)
  11. Round the Maypole They Go (EXCUSE ME Mag No 8: Unwinnable Games!)

I was also delighted to write the introduction for Castaigne Publishing’s second printing of Justin Lutz’s Gemini Rising, which was one of my favourite novellas of last year. You can buy the copy with my intro here.

And then, I had the pleasure of contributing a new introduction to Sam Richard’s Sabbath of the Fox Devils, which I rank highly among the best horror novellas of all time. Get it from Weirdpunk or wherever books are sold.

Now that that’s all out of the way, here are my best-of lists:

Favourite Books of 2023:

  1. Don’t Fear the Reaper (Stephen Graham Jones)
  2. Little Miss Apocalypse (Danger Slater)
  3. Never Whistle At Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology (ed. Shane Hawk & Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.)
  4. Silver Nitrate (Silvia Moreno Garcia)
  5. Green Fuse Burning (Tiffany Morris)
  6. Bound in Flesh: An Anthology of Trans Body Horror (ed. Lor Gislason)
  7. The Devil Thinks I’m Pretty (Charlene Elsby)
  8. Shipwreck of the Cerberus (Joe Koch)
  9. Hairs (Ira Rat)
  10. Bad Cree (Jessica Johns)
  11. Chaindevils (Matthew Mitchell)
  12. The Last Haunt (Max Booth III)
  13. Candy Cain Kills (Brian McAuley)

Honourable Mentions (i.e. stuff I didn’t know where to fit in the “books” list): Stephen Graham Jones’ ongoing comic series Earthdivers (probably my favourite work of the year, actually); Justin Lutz’s chapbooks ACAB Includes Animal Control and Hold My Hand and Hope for Heaven; Cliff Cardinal’s play The Land Acknowledgement, or As You Like It.

I’m also partway through artist Kent Monkman’s fabulous The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle and The Cure co-founder Lol Tolhurst’s Goth: A History.

Favourite Movies of 2023:

  1. Infinity Pool (dir. Brandon Cronenberg)
  2. The Holdovers (dir. Alexander Payne)
  3. The Boy and the Heron (dir. Hayao Miyazaki)
  4. Killers of the Flower Moon (dir. Martin Scorsese)
  5. John Wick 4 (dir. Chad Stahelski)
  6. When Evil Lurks (dir. Demián Rugna)
  7. Dream Scenario (dir. Kristoffer Borgli)
  8. The Last Voyage of the Demeter (dir. André Øvredal)
  9. Oppenheimer (dir. Christopher Nolan)
  10. Priscilla (dir. Sophia Coppola)
  11. Tanya Tagaq: Ever Deadly (dir. Chelsea McMullan & Tanya Tagaq)
  12. Beau is Afraid (dir. Ari Aster)
  13. Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (dir. John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein)

Favourite Albums of 2023

  1. Blame My Ex (The Beaches)
  2. Healing Power (Terra Lightfoot)
  3. This Is Why (Paramore)
  4. Free Rein to Passions (Dirty Nil)
  5. Guts (Olivia Rodrigo)
  6. Remember Never Before (July Talk)
  7. Stand in the Joy (William Prince)
  8. Sun O Moon (Bruce Cockburn)
  9. Phantomime (Ghost)
  10. RökFlöte (Jethro Tull)
  11. The Other One (Babymetal)
  12. Gag Order (Kesha)
  13. Age of Pleasure (Janelle Monae)

2024 Resolutions:

Writing Goals:

Full Length Works:
  • Novel: First & Last & Always (Vampire YA)
  • Novella: Pups (Vampire Noir)
  • Novella: The Bard (Sword & Sorcery)
WIPs to Complete:
  • The Memory Machine
  • ComeFromAway
  • The Pumpkin Bus
  • Beartooth
  • Demon Church Plays Fiddler’s Green
  • Little Flower poem
  • Vampire Sonnet
Genres to Write in:
  • Cyberpunk
  • Sword & Sorcery
  • Antiquarian Ghost Story
  • Haiku
Other Creative Projects
  • Drawings and sketches (improve technique)
  • Origami
  • Dream Journal

Tell me in the comments: what were your favourite things of 2023?

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