Two days ago, I met online with horror author and poet Andrew K. Clark to talk writing, Christian fundamentalism, and a bit about his home Asheville, North Carolina — his body of work takes place in his backyard, Appalachia.
Like the previous interview with horror author Lana Casiello, the conversation went long and covered a lot of ground. Clark and I both were raised in Christian fundamentalism, though different flavors as he came up in a Baptist church and I came up in a Church of Christ. Much of his horror writing does delve into religious horror, a direct response to his own experiences.
And of course, it’s hard if not impossible to not draw comparisons between our current Christian nationalism state when discussing Christian fundamentalism. They are all intertwined.
For example, during the last presidential election, I opened up the Heritage Foundation plans for a second Trump presidency and as I read through it, it was clear to me that they were taking many of those fundamentalist beliefs and codifying them into politics. Which, if you’re unfamiliar with fundamentalist ideologies, you might have missed some of it or may not realize how far they plan to go.
All that to say, I think you may find my interview with Clark intriguing. I’ll be working on editing it down into episodes over the next month or two. In the meantime, you can pre-order his upcoming horror novel Hollow Folk which is set to release September 29th.
In the second Confabulation episode with horror author Lana Casiello, we talk some more about Hawaiian colonialism and the plantations in Hawaii. We also delve into Casiello’s stories and writing.
Be sure to subscribe to my blog to follow along and get the latest updates on Confabulation episodes. Each episode is also uploaded to my Instagram and Facebook accounts, if you want to follow along there as well.
Here is the first of three episodes where I interviewed horror author Lana Casiello. Originally uploaded in full to YouTube, I’ve decided to bring my writing world interview series, Confabulation, to other places. I’ve also decided I’ll be breaking these interviews into episodes moving forward.
In this first episode, Lana and I discuss colonialism in Hawaii and her Hawaiian heritage. More to come in the next episodes, so stay tuned. Follow the blog if you like this Confabulation series. I interview authors, publishers, and other writerly types.
Soon I will be headed to go record the vocals to this original rock ‘n’ roll song for my Nancy Drew horror mystery story. I’m gonna have a blast and I hope this song is something y’all enjoy hearing alongside the novella itself when it drops. Gonna try and make a point to get some pics or videos to share from the recording session.
I have to harmonize with myself at least twice during the recording session — the chorus will have a lot of my voice. 😂
May 26th is my fictional character Mercedes Masterson’s birthday. The existence of the character also turns 21 years old, I first wrote her in 2005. I’m trying to think of some fun things to do to celebrate.
It will also be the one year anniversary of the release of Jonah of Olympic, the third story in the series.
Should I do a book giveaway of Jonah of Olympic, ya think? Make a silly dance video? Free desktop and phone wallpapers? A signed paperback bundle giveaway? Other ideas?
As a reader, what would you like? Lemme know in the comments.
I always enjoy learning about what tools others use in their writing process. And I always enjoy learning new ones for myself, if it helps me get better at my own process. Today I’m going to share some tools I use in my writing and ask that you jump into the comments and share the apps and tools you use to write your fiction, newsletters, or blog posts.
1. Apple Notes for taking notes
I’ve been using Apple Notes for over a year to take writing notes, especially for fiction. I find it’s more than capable and a delight to use because it’s so minimal in design.
Ways I use Notes in fiction:
character sketches
cast lists
plot notes
research notes
jotting down dialogue
publishing notes
Price: 100% free, but for Apple devices only.
2. Apple Pages for drafting
For the same amount of time I’ve been using Apple Notes, I’ve also been using Apple Pages. I had been getting tired of Microsoft Word’s AI bloat and wanting to try something that could maybe replace it. And yes, I’ve tried many other ones, including most of the open source ones. I find Pages is nice to draft fiction and newsletters in. It has a mostly minimal design, like Notes, which makes the drafting period enjoyable. I have yet to fully commit to it as a formatting replacement when it comes to ebooks and paperbacks, and still jump to Word for that. I may start playing with that again soon, and see if I can’t get it to replace Word for that as well.
What I use Pages for:
draft my email newsletters
draft short stories and novellas, but haven’t written a novel in it yet
Price: Free, but like Notes, it’s tied to Apple devices for the most part. There is a Cloud version on the web that is similar to Google Docs, though.
3. TickTick for story tracking
TickTick is a productivity app. You can make task lists and kanban boards, use a pomodoro timer, make countdowns and more. I like using a kanband board to track the progress of a story, especially when said story is a longer piece like a novella or novel. I’m a very visual person, so having a visual element to track progress helps me visualize where things are and how much more work needs to be done. Below is a screenshot of my sketchy kanban board for the story The Book of Jude as an example, because it’s hard to describe it in text. What you can’t see, because it wouldn’t fit in the screenshot and there were spoilers, is there is one more column to the left of Draft 1 called Tasks. That is just a generic list for miscellaneous tasks. This is all drag-and-drop and you just move the chapters around the board between columns as you progress. Grace is my editor, fyi.
Screenshot of my kanban board for The Book of Jude in the TickTick app.
You may be wondering why I don’t just use Apple Reminders, because it too can handle kanban boards and is completely free. I did try it, but I’m persnickety when it comes to how a card/task is handled. If I can’t open a task in a new window and set it side-by-side with my writing space on my computer, I get frustrated. Apple Reminders tasks just open in a pop-up on desktop and if you click off of it, they go away. It’s not very helpful to how I write and there is no ability to add comments to tasks, which can be useful. If you don’t mind these missing features, then Reminders may be enough for you. I do use a Reminders kanban board as a weekly planner, though.
What I use TickTick for:
track draft progress
track chapter edits, revisions, continuity, and more
random task management for the writing process
Price: Free with limitations, or $3.99/month to unlock more.
4. A good old fashioned whiteboard
I can’t recall who it was but a fellow author online mentioned having a whiteboard a while back, and that blew my mind. I loved the idea of using a whiteboard in the writing process. I have a two-sided, very large, and on wheels whiteboard in my writing space. When I was still in college, I was using one side for school work and the other for fiction and newsletter stuff. Here’s how it looks:
There are multiple benefits to using a whiteboard. It creates a visual, which I like, and it forces me to get off my butt and move around. Writing is a very seated work. This forces me to get up and walk over to the whiteboard from time to time. A lot of the tasks I have on the board are also on my TickTick kanban board, but not all of them are. I also put magnets, photos, and other things on the board to help bring inspiration to my writing space.
What I use my whiteboard for:
task management for fiction, newsletters, publishing, blog posts, and more
I draw doodles sometimes to get me off my butt
sticking magnets, old actor candid or publicity photos (Veronica Lake and Lauren Bacall), and a movie poster of X-Files: Fight the Future on it for inspiration
Price: Depends on what whiteboard you want to get. Just shop around and consider your options, how you want to use it, and how much space you have to work with. I work in a basement with a lot of floor space, so I was able to go big and did not go home.
Conclusion
What about you? What tools do you use to write your fiction, newsletters, or blog posts with? Please sound off in the comments. Did any of these tools sound good to you? Are you going to try one? It’s worth noting kanban is a productivity method that can be used in many different apps or even on a whiteboard, you don’t have to use TickTick to do it.
I use other tools as well, but I wanted to keep this relatively short. I’ll post about those other tools in a future blog post.
I think for me it’s just that I can be like, “Hey, I think I’ll do this thing,” and then just do it.
At the start of this year, I discovered Nancy Drew entered the public domain, had ideas for stories and put the stories I was writing on hold to work on a Nancy Drew story. And that’s fine! — and no one is telling me I can’t. And I’m having the time of my life with it.
What about you? What do you love most about being an indie author? Sound off in the comments.
This past Thanksgiving, I published a short story called Blood Frequency. It’s an LGBTQ YA horror scifi story that deals with family dynamics. I’ll include a blurb below, and then follow it up with an excerpt from the story.
Be sure to let me know what you think in the comments, and share this excerpt with someone you think might like it. If you like want to keep reading, you can pick up the ebook in several places (including libaries) — I’ll include links below the excerpt.
About Blood Frequency
Horror and humor collide as high schooler Mindy meets her father for the first time amidst an otherworldly encounter in rural Missouri. It’s blood ties, failures in communication, and the dangers of growing up gay in the 90s.
It’s 1997, and in the rural town of Rolla, Missouri, blood ties will be explored amidst the backdrop of an alien encounter. Mindy is a teenager who is just meeting her father, Leonard, for the first time. Meanwhile, her relationship with her mother is strained as she remains closeted about her homosexuality around her, but will meeting Leonard help bring family cohesion? Will Mindy be able to forgive Leonard for abandoning her before a creature from another world comes knocking on the back door?
Rated PG-13: This story contains some violence, some curse words, and homophobia.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted by Artificial Intelligence (AI) or used in the training of AI, for either commercial or non-commercial purposes. For permission requests, write to Nat Weaver, with subject “Blood Frequency” at the following email address: nat@weaver.wtf.
Blood Frequency (excerpt)
dedication
For Bobby.
one
Rolla, Missouri, Summer of 1997.
The police radio cracked and hissed as Phelps County Sheriff Bob Grey turned left off Highway 72 and onto State Route F at half past ten at night. He picked up his radio and pressed down the Push-To-Talk button and spoke into the receiver, “Dispatch, did you say something?”
“Negative.” A female voice said back.
“I’m heading out F to check on disturbance,” Bob said back, “I’ll radio in when I get there. Keep my coffee warm, Beth.”
Bob had been serving in uniform for the Phelps County Sheriff’s Office since he’d returned home from the Korean War. He was just a few years away from retirement and all the fishing he could manage at the Lake of the Ozarks with his wife, Mary. He scratched his white beard, shook his hair, and dandruff fell from his hair which had been receding since before it lost its color. A drizzle of rain started to tap on his windshield as he drove the rolling hills and curves of State Route F, located just outside of Rolla. He turned on his windshield wipers, and they made a dragging sound as there wasn’t enough rain to wet the windshield. He turned them off.
They had received a call from Mark Wheaten, a dairy farmer, reporting lights and something spherical hovering over his fields. He had said something about a large crashing sound, and then the lights were gone.
The radio screeched loud and long.
“Jeez Louise!” Bob yelled. He picked up the radio receiver and called back to Beth. “That you, Beth?” Crackling. “Beth?” More crackling came through the radio speaker along with strange tapping sounds that were rhythmic. “Beth, are you hearing these sounds?” The tapping sounds got louder and more pronounced and were joined by scratching sounds that caused Bob’s ears to vibrate and ring. It sounded as if Beth took her fingernails across the radio receiver.
He turned on his hazard lights and pulled off onto a side road in the dark. The rain picked up and was cascading over his windshield. All he could see was a blurry patch of road and ditch lit by his headlights.
“Can anyone read me on this darn thing?” Bob asked into the receiver.
The tapping sound slowly increased in volume and intensity, his ears ringing from the sounds bouncing around in his patrol car like tennis balls. In a moment of irritation from the painful noise, he slammed the receiver against the radio and a loud screech of feedback ripped through the blackness. He covered his ears and thrust his head back against the headrest.
That’s when he saw the blurry figure standing in the glow of the headlights.
two
The Next Morning.
Fucking Pamela.
Mindy’s mom could never know that was how she and her friends referred to her at school and online in their ICQ chats. Mindy had stopped calling her Mom when she was eleven. It was a small sign of rebellion she could show without fighting with her. She had never meant to keep it up, but she had been calling her Pamela to her face for three years. Pamela to her daughter and Fucking Pamela to her daughter’s friends. She could never know.
“This is the dumbest thing you’ve ever done, Pamela.” Mindy said as she fiddled with her headphones cord in the passenger seat of her mom’s Ford Escort. “And you’ve done some pretty dumb things.”
Pamela was driving with her hands tightly gripped at ten and two on the steering wheel. This was her way after a near accident when Mindy was just a toddler. Mindy couldn’t even remember the near death experience her mom claimed it was.
“It’s high time you met your father,” Pamela said. “Don’t you want to meet your father?”
“No.” Mindy said. “And let’s not pretend this is about me meeting my dad, it’s about you going to Vegas with your new husband, Dick.”
Pamela groaned. “Stop calling him Dick.”
“He said he prefers being called Dick.”
“I know that, Mindy,” Pamela took one hand off the wheel to point a finger in her face. “But I also know that you only call him that to be rude.” She remembered the steering wheel, her eyes popped open wide, and she grabbed two o’clock again. “This isn’t just about our honeymoon. You deserve to meet your father. I’m doing you a favor and this is how you thank me? You’re so ungrateful. And after all I’ve had to sacrifice for you. I was only eighteen—”
“Alright, alright!” Mindy cut her familiar tale of woe off. She turned her cassette tape over in her Walkman and hit play on it. She pulled the headphones over her ears and looked out the window at the trees whizzing by in a blur. She heard Pamela talking over her headphones, so she turned the volume up until the sounds of Everclear drowned out Fucking Pamela.
As they drove past County Road 4010, Mindy spotted Sheriff Grey’s patrol car parked on the side of the road next to an old two-story white house that she used to go to for piano lessons. Grey’s windshield was bashed in and there were numerous officers standing around the vehicle looking inside it. She thought it must have been an accident, but she didn’t see a second car.
I love movies. Not gonna lie. Most people these days seem to prefer tv shows or long movie franchises. Not me. I tend to still prefer a one and done approach. Movies are like books (those without a series) in that they have a beginning, middle, and end.
When done right movies, like a good book, get your character arcs neatly woven and plots neatly arched into a satisfying package. The big difference being that a movie can typically be watched in a single sitting.
I watched quite a few 2025 horror flicks this year. I’ve been watching a lot of horror films since 2002 and I have to say, that I really feel like we have been living during a horror renaissance these past few years. So many amazing horror films have come out in recent times. Just incredible stuff. Some are big budgets with big stars, some indie stuff, a lot of foreign folk horror is off the charts good. Just a lot of good horror films that are well made coming out on the regular.
And that’s not to say that before this time the horror movies were bad. Just that there were highs and lows. If you like the horror genre, you inevitably know that it never gets the respect it deserves. If it did, there would be a Best Horror Film category at the Oscars. As such, it seems like we have periods where studios and distributors recognize there’s money in horror and we get a lot of good stuff for a while. Then, they stop distributing or cut back on productions that are horror for a while. It’s a cycle almost.
In the early 2000s, there were a lot of good horror films that were just fun, good times stuff. We also had a lot of Japanese horror at that time that was incredible. A great time to be alive as a horror fan. And today, we’re having another renaissance of horror and I’m here for it.
Now, I didn’t actually track my movie watching habits last year, so I may have missed one or two from this list. Feel free to toss out some titles in the comments if there were some you watched that aren’t on the list, as I may have just forgot about them. I am tracking my movie watching this year, so next year I should have a more thorough list.
My favorite horror films of 2025
(In no particular order and using a 5-star rating system).
Sinners ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Weapons ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Companion ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
28 Years Later ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Black Phone 2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Gorge ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Megan 2.0 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Conjuring: Last Rites ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Woman in the Yard ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Final Destination: Bloodlines ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
BONUS! My non-horror favorite movies of 2025
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
