In On Writing, his much-lauded book about wording goodly, Stephen King wrote “Life isn’t a support system for art. It’s the other way around.”

That quote has stuck with me over the many years since I read the book, yet it’s the lesson I tend to forget most easily, likely because I’m so given to cycles of hyper-focus and burn-out.

In my last update, I talked about how that burn-out was stifling my progress and also starting to suck a lot of the joy out of my life during what is usually my favorite time of year. I said I was going to slow down, give myself a break, and enjoy the wonder and weirdness of Spooky Times, and I did just that.

All of which is to say that there isn’t much to report in this update book-wise. I did continue baby-stepping my way through the chapters I was struggling with and completed one of them over the course of the month. That likely doesn’t sound very impressive, but the chapter I was primarily focused on was a whopping 19,000+ words, which I sheered down to 17,000 words. Which is… still way, way too many words, so I’m going to need another pass as it. That’s okay. Sometimes chapters need multiple passes during revision. The main point is that I haven’t lost the daily writing habit and have been ramping back up over the past few weeks. The places I was tripping over hardest are much easier to navigate now that I’ve had a bit of rest.

Instead of being book-focused, this update is a short recap of all the non-writing things I enjoyed over the month of October, including a heap of pictures. You won’t hurt my feelings if you sit this one out because that’s not what you came here for. I promise we’ll be back to regular updates for November.

At the start of the month, my husband and I, along with my husband’s niece (my niece-in-law?) made our way to Orlando for Halloween Horror Nights. This was my eleventh year going (consecutively, with the exception of the year Covid ate) and my husband Lucas’s fourteenth, so we’re pretty much veterans at this point. It never stops being a good time, though. We did two nights of the event and the behind-the-scenes tour.

Because my writing schedule is usually pretty heavy, I don’t read quite as many books as quickly as I would otherwise, but I did spend October (and part of September) with some spooky reads.

I’m actually still working on The Dead Take the A Train, but I’m really enjoying it so far. All of these books were pretty good, in fact, even if some of them were less scary/spooky than others. Some day I’ll have to make a list of recommended Halloween reads. The copy of Dracula in the picture above is actually a gift from my friend Tiffany to replace my original copy, which was eaten by Hurricane Michael.

Otherwise, we spent a great deal of time this past month readying the house and finishing up our costumes for our annual Halloween celebration. This year’s theme was Loki, and if you’ve watched the Disney+ series, you know that there are infinite variations of Loki across timelines, which gave us a lot of creative license to play with. Lucas’s costume was based on Old Man Loki from Season 1. Mine is a concept I’ve been generously calling “Glam!Viking Loki.” It’s hard to see my makeup in the picture, but I’m still cleaning specks of green and gold glitter off my face.

Our costumes are not entirely handmade, but Lucas did make his helmet and my armor out of foam. Foam crafting is a new hobby I’m looking to learn too as I wind down with the book. We’ve got big plans for next year’s costumes already!

We were fortunate enough to have some of our friends join in on the theme with excellently executed versions of Loki all their own, but out of respect for their privacy, I won’t share their photos here. I will encourage you to throw a Loki party with your own friends if you’re into the MCU at all, because it’s loads of fun and doesn’t have to be high effort.

And that’s pretty much it. I wasn’t very productive this past month in terms of writing, but I got out in the world and celebrated my favorite season, and it was so very worth it. Writing can really take me away from the world sometimes, and while that can be nice and even needed, I also need to reconnect occasionally. Be present in the moment, stop and smell the pumpkin spice and all that therapeutic jazz. I’m ready to tackle the back half of this book with renewed vigor now.

If you’ve made it this far, here’s a bonus of my goofy ass posing for a Friday-the-13th-themed flex photo competition hosted by a fitness group I belong to on Facebook. I didn’t win anything, but I think my theming was pretty on-point. And if you tilt your head and squint, you can see the little bit of muscle I’ve been carefully cultivating the past year plus.

Now, bring on the writing and the season of peppermint-flavored everything!