The Writer Shawn White's Place of Things

And just like that, we are into the warm days and chilly nights that come with Fall. The leaves are changing; some are already crunching on the ground. Our mayor officially declared, or decreed or whatever, that our town will be Halloween Town for October. I think there’s a dance planned or something like that.  September started with a trip to Montreal to see Iron Maiden at the Parc Jean-Drapeau. It’s on an island in the middle of the river. There were over 33,000 people who bought tickets. 33,000 is just under the number of people that live in my city, so I got to see what my city would look like if everyone showed up at the same place, were mostly male and wore heavy metal band T-shirts. Openers were Anthrax (Only caught the last song due to extremely long lines getting in) and Megadeth. It was noted that this was Megadeth's last tour, so if you missed them, that's it. I have seen both of those bands a few times over the years. For writing this month, there was a zine of co...

August is almost over, and for most folks, that means summer is over. In Maine, it also means we can start wearing pants again. For my UK friends, pants are trousers, and not that we don’t wear underwear in Maine in the summer, but I’d be willing to bet some people don't. September is basically warm Fall. We get cool nights and occasionally cool days. I remember school shopping thinking I could wear a sweatshirt to school because it was cool outside. And I remember putting on a sweatshirt without a T-shirt, 100% sure it would stay cool all day. And I would spend 10am and the rest of the day miserable, sweating, and smelling because the sun came out.  Weird news for August, because I did not get any writing in. There are mushrooms (similar mushrooms in a mix of different countries) that do not have psychedelic chemicals in them but have made folks who eat these mushrooms see actual tiny people. So they are clearly magic and not like the magic mushrooms that have a reputation for hel...

 In the E.B. White classic One Man’s Meat, written from a shed on the coast of Maine, he ruminates on writing, his process, the world, and the mundane day-to-day bits about the weather, and how many eggs his chickens laid. They were published monthly by Harper’s because he did not have a blog at the time. He just had the coast, a shed with a typewriter, and his thoughts.  While not full essays, these posts let me capture a bit of what I’m doing, watching, reading, and most importantly for me, what I am writing or when I’m not writing. The books and movies are just an excuse to get me started, and the monthly post format guarantees that I get something written every month. It’s a few minutes to pause and think, “Yup, that month just happened.”  So again, it’s July, and yup, that month has happened. It’s been at times stupid hot and kind of amazing. That is the way with summer in Maine. I’ve jumped in the ocean, gone on hikes, and occasionally stayed cooped up inside next t...

  June was one of those months where it was easy to get things done. It's rare, but I love it when it happens. I edited, drew, and designed a cover, and published my short story 'The Photographer' in Zine format. If you are interested, you can pick up a copy at Ellard Studios or the Haunted Key Press online store.  I also started and finished a new story. The working title is 'A Hole' because I thought it would look funny as a cover. It's the first story I have written in the new studio space downtown that I am sharing with Jen. There is going to be a ton of writing and art that comes out of there.  I sold a copy of A Good Meal in Australia to some random stranger, and I love that it was an interesting enough premise that someone so far away would want to read it. Along with that, I received another rating on Goodreads for 'A Good Meal'. It wasn't a 5-star review for sure, and everyone wants more editing, but they ended it with "wouldn’t be op...

It’s the end of May, and like previous months for the past year and a half, there is way too much going on in the world to not feel overwhelmed and unable to stay on top of the chaos and worried about the state of things. But it’s another month and another post.  This month involved an overseas vacation. After limited trips since Covid, we opted to take a family trip to Paris and hit up the amazing Hilma Af Klimt exhibit at the Grand Palais. That was the catalyst of the trip, and it was followed by hitting up a bunch of other museums, Versailles, the Catacombs, Pierre Lachaise Cemetery, and all the vegan bakeries and vegan restaurants we could find.  As a result of the lead-up, the trip, and the recouping from the trip has limited the amount of writing I was able to get done, but I have a nice backlog of ideas to work through when I have a minute to focus for more than an hour or two. I did edit a short story I’ll be releasing as a small zine/chapbook about a photographer...

This month, I wrote April’s zine about ghosts and what to do if you find yourself in a haunted house scenario. How to live with or get rid of them. It was fun, but what’s funnier is that I will get to keep a copy and leave it somewhere the people who eventually buy my house will find. Maybe I’ll bring copies to real estate open houses and hide them around so folks can bump into them and be a little freaked out. I think I’ll need to figure out how to age it a bit. Add to the realism.  I wanted to write more, but nothing in my brain is really ready for the long-term commitment of a novel. It’s funny, I watched a BBC archive video where they interviewed two writers who churned out pulp novels made to directly line the shelves at the local libraries. Books written and published with the intent that no one would ever buy them, but because they are at the library, folks would read them. They wrote basically the same romance novels and westerns, all published under different author names....

 February was short and so cold. Even a short trip to Florida for work did not provide much of a break because it was cold and windy there as well. Definitely time for hibernation, and there was some of that happening with me. A few weeks where I felt I was fighting off a cold, and a few weeks of things to keep me busy.  Jen and I worked on a few new zines, and in the process, as a fun distraction, I built a zine-building web app. It’s definitely an early version of something that could be cool, but it works, and I used it to create a physical copy of The Last Automator and an instruction zine about how to use it. You can try it here, but be warned, you will find bugs and quirks, nothing is safe, and it works best on a computer or an iPad.  zinebuilder.hauntedkeypress.com   As you can tell by the name of the zine builders .com address, Jen and I started a small press so that we have something we can publish these zines under. Again, just for fun, but as I type t...

  January has been cold and wonderfully unproductive in my writing world. As we burned through oil and wood to stay warm, I hunkered down and did the minimum to still feel like I was a writer. I mostly worked on but did not complete a zine, and pulled out the novel Disappearing to maybe try shopping that around and maybe get it published rather than do it myself. I’ve got a plan that will take a few months to get through, but maybe it’ll help me to build out a good process for reaching out to publishers and agents. I finished reading The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones, wrapping up the trilogy. It was brutal, and while each book was different, they were similar. I would not have continued going back to that town if I were any of those characters.  I also read King Sorrow by Joe Hill - A little weird at times, but an entertaining story overall. It's a big book, and like some of Joe Hill's other books, when you think it must be done, there's still like two books...

  It's December, and I'm going to put this post out on the solstice so I don't have to have it on the back of my mind over the holidays. I plan on spending time doing other things, thinking, and writing other things.  For writing this month, I tried something new and basically narrated a folk tale about the origin of milk and cookies at Christmas time. It was a little tough because it's not how I usually write, but fun overall. Jen worked on some illustrations and carved the block print for the cover. We added a page at the front and made this month's zine our Christmas Cards this year.  Jen also reached out to other folks on her friends list. For people looking for some weird Christmas cheer, we sent those who responded one of the zines/holiday cards as well.  So this monthly zine thing may likely be a consistent thing for a little bit becasue its fun to work on these with Jen. Currently, the only way to get one is to reach out to us or pick one up from Ellard ...

It's the last day of November, and I am wrapping up a long weekend following a wonderful Thanksgiving. The weather has decided to get a little colder, and I have added the space heater back to my office, strategically placed under my desk, so I am toasty all day. I debate adding a blanket after seeing a Japanese kotatsu. Basically, a table with a space heater and a blanket. I won’t, but it will be debated. We’ve also had the fire running consistently, trying to keep the rest of the house toasty. The basic theme of November is 'keep warm', and we are trying. As for writing this month (Note for folks who have read these posts in the past - I’m moving writing to the front of the things I’m doing.) Following the writing and printing of the short story zine 'The Summoning' in all of its hot pink colored cover glory, Jen and I started the next project. A zine with recipes that we have made for a Thanksgiving meal. Again, this was for Honora because who doesn’t want a reci...

 October, while still a week from being over has been full of a number of things. I wrote a short story for my daughter in college, worked with Jen to get it illustrated, and the printed out a bunch of copies zine-style. And that was not the only story I worked on.  I also read O Hole’y Night at Quiet City Books. It was my third time reading at this spooky story time for grownups and while I was still quiet and barely audible I still managed to get a few laughs in. A little weird to read a Christmas story in October but it was spooky, so it counted. I also met some new writers, and heard some other great stories.  Some things I have read. I read Witches, The History of Witches by Nigel Cawthorne. The name of the author sounds like he may have witch hunter ancestors. It was not a fun easy read. The history of actual witches is brutal and horrific and directly attributed to power, wealth accumulation, and primarily impacted women. In the States, we had the Salem Witch Tria...

 It’s September, and officially fall. Things are darker, and our morning and evening walks involve very little, if any, sun. No worries, though, we’ll have snow to brighten things up soon enough. But first, the leaves have to turn pretty colors and fall to the ground. I still have a pumpkin to carve, and I may still try to get a cold dip in the pond before it gets too cold. I’ll hold out for a warm day in October. Some things I’ve watched. I have not made it to see the new Toxic Avenger movie, but I should. I watched 28 Years Later, and it was a great follow-up to the original. I don’t remember a lot about 28 Weeks Later, but they had done ok with that as well. I think this latest one is the first of a trilogy, and I’m down to see how that goes.  I also watched JugFace after seeing the cover for the movie for years and listening to it spoiled on the Ruined Podcast . (An amazing podcast if you need an entertaining podcast to pass some time.) The podcast was better than the movi...

 August has been fun. A little vacation, my 25th wedding anniversary, my daughter off to her first year of college, and meeting up with old and new friends.  I met a bouncer and we shared a mutual appreciation of the Patrick Swayze classic Road House. He said that the climate has changed from what it was when he started bouncing, and their job is to protect the business from lawsuits, so it's better to talk folks down instead of knocking them around. Basically, to be nice until it's time not to be nice. So, it's a training film. Some movies I watched:  Final Destination - Bloodlines. The latest chapter in the Final Destination movies. Just as ridiculous as the others, and an interesting attempt to tie them all together. Y2K. This movie was not great. Partially due to my expectations, but also just not great. With the trailer, I expected a slightly more entertaining Maximum Overdrive set on New Year's Eve 1999. Having lived through that, it was fun to see all the refe...

It’s the end of July, and I started it on an island off the coast of Maine frequented by artists, the wealthy, fisher people, and lobster people. The ferry ride out to the island on my birthday was met with giant waves and my eventual sickness at the back of the boat. My only company, a seagull flying slowly behind us, watching me getting rid of my recently consumed tea and a vegan croissant we had picked up at Salt and Pepper Social in Newcastle. It was a good week, and the ferry ride back was much less eventful. On Sunday, the 20th, we went to the State and saw The Decemberists. It was a great performance and a sold-out crowd. Turns out it was the first time they had played in Maine.  Some movies I watched I watched the Pavement documentary/biopic/musical. Not horrific, but fun, and the soundtrack was great. Also watched The Substance. It was worth the hype, horrific, and there was so much fake blood during the chaotic finale. 36,000 gallons. Still half of the Evil Dead remake of...

 It's the last day of May, and I almost missed the monthly update, which lately seems to be the only place I have been getting any writing in. Still counts as writing, though. It's been a busy month with lots of things going on. When you have a kid in school, a lot happens at the end of the school year. Especially when that kid is awesome.  So here's the rundown. Movies (basically my Letterboxd): Oddity: a couple of jump scares and an interesting premise. I was thinking it was going to be a bit more like Friday the 13th - the series or Warehouse 13. Where a team of antique collectors hunt down cursed items. So a little let down. Still liked it though.  Friday the 13th: The Series - Season 1: I hunted this down after Oddity turned out to be different from what I was hoping for from the premise. I figured I would go to the source. I could only find it on YouTube, and the quality is terrible, but it was a show from the 80s. The bad quality of the upload matched my memory of ...

  It's the end of March, and I managed to spend a little time editing a story to an ok point, so I'm adding a story along with a monthly update.  The story is called The Last Automator. I was thinking about how difficult it must be for science fiction and futurist writers who try to envision new technologies and incorporate them into their stories. Then, depending on how far into the future their story is set, you have to get it published quickly. That technology could show up, or a newer technology could show up that's better than what you envisioned, making the story a little weird.  The story is one of those. I wrote it in 2022 when robot process automation was all over the news. Then I sat on it for a year, and all the large language models started coming out, and that was it. My first sci-fi/futurist story is a little late to the game. I still like the story, and it's still worth a read, but I have massive respect for the dedicated science fiction writers racing to...