April is the cruelest month, breeding
Germs in your flu-ridden house, mixing
Fatigue with fever, stirring
Sneezes with freezing rain.

I love The Waste Land. It lends itself so beautifully to parody. But there’s another reason I’ve been thinking of this poem lately. I am doing a re-read of The Dark Tower by Stephen King, and my favorite book in this series is the third, titled, like the poem it draws inspiration from, The Waste Lands. These are the books that first hooked me on the SFF genre and I love them very much. The overall series is inspired by yet another poem, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came by Robert Browning. Highly recommended!

I am not only doing re-reads, of course. I’ve read some pretty fantastic books so far in 2019: Ombria in Shadow by Patricia McKillip, Hogfather by Terry Pratchett, and, among more recent publications, Circe by Madeline Miller, The City of Lost Fortunes by Bryan Camp, Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee, and The Wicked King by Holly Black.

I have also been writing. I may have mentioned earlier that I was working on a new urban fantasy novel set in Toronto about a middle-aged witch and her cat. This is now on submission, and I have commenced work on a sequel. I say ‘work’ but the start of any new project is delightful, all fun and no pressure. I got to research fairy tales from all over the world for the first book, and I get to research really obscure Indian mythology for the second. I love my job. 🙂 Until I hit the 70k mark, when it begins to feel like pulling teeth. Honestly, that happens to me with every book; I’ve grown to expect it.

Apparently, I had a new story come out in December 2018, that I only just found out was published. Surprise, surprise. Editors, please inform your writers when stories are published. It only takes an email, makes a writer happy, and they can then promote your issue on social media, instead of finding out 4 months later when it is too late to crow about it, and certainly too late to put the story on any award eligibility lists.

I may be working on a special seekrit project I can’t talk about right now, but will hopefully be able to share if it all pans out, heehee.

And on that note of annoying secrecy, I leave you. Have a lovely April. Stay healthy. Drink tea.