July, and the Heat Dome’s Passed (for now)

Dear Readers,

I am on a major deadline (next week?) (EEP!) for the third book in my trilogy, and I really shouldn’t be doing anything like seeing theatre, going to game nights (playing Brindlewood Bay for the first time this Saturday!), dragging friends to brunches, attending magic shows, recording audiobooks, or WRITING NEWSLETTERS, but I’m doing all that as well as finishing my novel revisions, and that’s just life.

What’s also life: mourning yesterday’s passing of a family friend whom I’ve known since before I was born (one of the honorary uncles), visiting another friend in the hospital after they had a bad fall, keeping up with an in-law who just had heart surgery, learning that another friend from my past has cancer, and commiserating with a friend over publishing woes. (These come in many flavors, just like publishing WOAHS, which are far more fun.)

As I write this, I feel like I sound pretty glib, possibly because I haven’t sat down with my journal and my pen and processed any of it, or written letters of condolences, or cards of comfort, or done anything of use, really.

I haven’t even gotten to talk to my mom, dad, or stepmom on the phone about our friend’s death, just back-and-forth texts, and I know their hearts are hurting. I want to listen to his music and cry for a long time. He sings so many of my dad’s songs—like “Wings of Dawn: Psalm 139,” on the album Safety Harbor, a song that my dad wrote in his early twenties. The melody (and Gary’s voice) has been running through my head all day. (Genre: liturgical music. My father, Gary, and my stepmom, like so many of their friends and peers and extended community, are liturgical musicians.)

In fact, excuse me, since I found the aforementioned song just now, I’m just going to sit here and listen to it, though it derails me.

A thunderstorm of feelings. Lightning striking every which way.

For happier facets of today’s dark gem:

I’ve been recording a cozy mystery audiobook all week, the latest of T.C. LoTempio’s Purr N’ Bark Pet Shop Mystery Series.

I love Rohan Studios where I record. It’s an easy commute from my house, either an hour’s walk or just 3 stops on the subway plus walking. I’ve made friends with the married engineers, Pete and Judy, since getting to know them during Covid Times. They have an adorable little dog Rosie, who wags her tail every time I pop my head out of the booth, and follows me to the bathroom, and is just so. dang. sweet. We like to howl together. For we are PACK.

More happiness:

Carlos and I try to take a walk every night after dinner, which has resulted in such generative, tender, and hilarious conversations.

…tentative happiness?

My book revisions for Saint Death’s Doorway are very pleasing so far, and I’m having so much fun; I’ve laughed out loud a lot, which I think is a good sign. I just wish (always) I were faster.

…because if the SECOND draft is this good (so far anyway), what would happen if I had 12 MORE DRAFTS and AS MANY YEARS to write them… like with the first book?!? GLORY! (But not, like, any way to operate a career.)

All that, and we’re planning a month-long tour when we take Negocios Infernales on the road! We’ll be running games at game shops throughout the Midwest, and running salons at any library who’ll have us, and we even have an event booked at the Twenty-Sided Store in Brooklyn in September. We’ve got a deal more planning to do before taking off, but I’m sure that will get done. In between revisions.

I leave you with two beautiful things: I got to chat about audiobook narration with TWO OTHER AUDIOBOOK NARRATORS/AUTHORS, Tren Sparks and Andrew Hiller, with host Dr. Gregory Wilson: a professor, DM, streamer, and writer on twitch.tv/arvaneleron.

I loved talking narration with other narrators. It made me so happy. Like, actor happy. It’s a particular feeling, and one I don’t get very often, since these days I’m usually writer happy. I wanted to share it with you, to keep you company when you’re doing dishes or something.

After you do dishes and listen to us nerd out about audiobooks, you can do some laundry and listen to the VOD for our “Poets for Amnesty International” event, where a group of poets read our poetry online, and tried to raise awareness and funds for Amnesty.

I hope we did some good then, and I hope our poems in the air keep doing good in small waves and ripples. We’ll have another sort of poetry fundraiser come the fall. “There must be something to set against all this,” as Charlotte Gray says.

“Poets for Amnesty International” featured Lisa M. Bradley, Allisa Cherry, McKenna Deen, Gerald L. Coleman, Carlos Hernandez, Anne Hills, Julia Rios, Liz Pino Sparks, Adam Stutz, Hanna Tawater, Ali Trotta, and myself. Please enjoy!

Yours truly,

C. S. E. Cooney

P. S. And if you haven’t yet, you really SHOULD OUGHT to read Carlos’s story “Focus” in the latest Clarkesworld Magazine! And subscribe!

P. P. S. If you’re curious about our game, Negocios Infernales, you can buy a copy here at Outland Entertainment! There will also probably be copies at Studio 2’s booth at GenCon this year!

Also, If you have a game store you love, or a library you’re connected to, and you’re within a day’s drive of NYC, let us know! We’d love to come and run a game for you, or talk about game-making!