random linkage-Miserere, The Garden, Winston-Salem

I'm 55,000 words into The Garden and rolling toward the climax at this point. I posted a real short excerpt from The Garden on Saturday. My villains need a bit more work, but I'm going to finish the first draft, then roll back to their scenes to tighten the manuscript.

On Sunday, I woke up to find a 5-star Goodreads rating for Miserere from someone in Bulgaria. He has a lovely web site too.

I also found an interview with one of my heroes, Maurice Sendak, at the Guardian yesterday. He talks about his fiction and a host of other things and people. He made my scary childhood easier with his books, because I saw I was not alone. My favorite quote from the interview is: "I refuse to lie to children," says Sendak. "I refuse to cater to the bullshit of innocence." And for that, I am eternally grateful.

Meanwhile, back in Grown-up Land:

The Winston-Salem Writers serial horror novel Rady had some updates, so head over and give them a read. Chapters seven and eight are now online.

I'll be speaking at the Forsyth County Library this coming Wednesday (details here), so if you're in the Piedmont Triad area and want to pop in and hear me talk about "Writing to Horrify," please come. I will be talking about the Winston-Salem Writers horror serial novel Rady, reading from Miserere and also from my current novel, The Garden.

I'd love to meet you.