It’s October! The Spookiest and most Orc-tastic month! Usually, it would also be my most comfortable month with the weather but uh, it’s supposed to get up to 90 again this week. Sucks! Here’s hoping Actual Fall rolls in soon.

Music

I honestly haven’t been listening to one artist or another in particular since the last time I shared something. While writing, it’s still been a lot of Bear McCreary because of the playlist I started building for Gruflek. And now that we’re deep into Fall, I’m rocking my spooky season radio on Pandora. There is, of course, also the Pizza Thrash playlist I made and was shouting about in August (that I can’t add anything else too because I accidentally made the total playtime 4 hours and 20 minutes). Buuuut, it is the Halloween season so let’s talk about a band I’ve been listening to for a long time now who’s been putting out Halloween tunes for nearly 20 years: Creature Feature.

Well, I say band, but as I go look in on them again, it seems that at some point around the third album, it seems the keyboardist and other half of the original duo, Erik X, left and now it’s just singer/guitarist/composer Curtis RX running things. Though I suspect it was mostly always his baby anyways. Back in 2006 they dropped their first album (just before reissuing it with some minor changes the next year), The Greatest Show Unearthed. I discovered them through a friend’s ex that year. They’re very synth-driven for a horror punk band. The guitars are far, far less aggressive for the more straightforward punk fare and sit somewhere like The Cure but edgier. They’ve got songs referencing everything spooky. The Twilight Zone, Edward Gorey, John Carpenter, everything you could think of. But, most importantly, they’re fun. They’re just plain fun and a welcome addition to your spooky season rotation.

News

What’s new for news? I guess the most important thing to bring up is that The Secrets of Bloodhenge is over the 32 thousand word make. The exact number is in the sidebar to the right. I’ve only managed roughly 6000 since early June, which I don’t like but given how the summer went, it is what it is. July rolled around and knocked the wind out of my sails with car problems. Ended up having the junk the van and then my partner and I had to figure out something new. This was extremely stressful, to say the least. Was also experimenting with stepping off one of my meds and it didn’t go well so July was basically a big nothing for anything but a new car and trying to get some of my health straightened out.

August was a lot better and I made a good chunk of progress there, while still figuring out more health stuff. It never stops, the health stuff. I am currently waiting to see if my insurance is going to cover a new med the doc wants me on. It’s been a few weeks since I saw her now so who knows that’s going to happen. Regardless, I started losing steam as September went on. I haven’t written much the past two weeks. I know why. It’s a familiar scenario and I’m talking about it in therapy. My creative fuel tank is running on fumes again. On top of my own health stuff, my partner has some of their own going on and it’s affecting me as well, especially with sleep. On top of that, since money has been extra tight thanks to the new car and the subsequent bump to the cost of car insurance (a pretty big one at that). There’s also been a lovely new covid wave rolling through the country, both conspiring to make sure I basically sit at home and rot. The first time I went out after the car situation got sorted out, someone there reported they’d tested positive for covid so I spent the next week waiting to see if I had caught it too, which just further pushed me into not going out.

So, basically, I’m heavily stagnated at the moment and not really getting what I need to create. I’m desperate to figure out some way to get back into reading as well as I’m still struggling to do that at all. I’ll figure it out. I have before. At least this time it’s not an overwhelming anxiety holding me back, it’s just purely an empty tank. I don’t think Hbomberguy can fix this one, though.

That’s all the news that’s worth sharing. I wish there was more and better. Ah well. Take care of yourselves, have a safe and happy Orctober and Halloween!