4/7/26

Mary is in New Jersey, so I’m left to my own devices this weekend. Had a super productive workday yesterday, so I decided to take an extra long hike after work, before dinner. Went about two and a half miles into the woods, following the Mason-Dixon Trail before then branching off onto a game trail. On the way back home, I got the urge to jog — something I haven’t done in a very long time. When finished, I was surprised and pleased with the results. I was winded, yes, but not as much as I thought I’d be at my age. And my heart rate certainly increased, but not in any sort of danger zone. I guess all this exercise and eating right is having an effect after all. It’s hard for me to see that, on an average day (other than dropping one wa size last time I bought jeans).

~

The Artemis II crew saw squiggles created by cosmic winds, strange geometric shapes, and browns and greens where cameras picked up only shades of gray.

Best article I read today: “People are increasingly inclined to explain behavior in ways that soften it, contextualize it and make it easier to accept. We are no longer just trying to understand wrongdoing. We are rehearsing sympathy for it. Over time, that sympathy starts to crowd out judgment. Part of this shift is rooted in declining trust. When people lose faith in institutions, they don’t stop making moral judgments — they relocate them. If the system feels rigged, defiance starts to look less like misconduct and more like courage.”

~

Women In Horror Year: Day 6

A Manhattan Grimoire by Sandy DeLuca

Paperback - eBook - Audiobook

A crippling blizzard. Grisly discoveries in an old church in Harlem. A small apartment building cut off by the mounting storm, its tenants trapped with a vicious killer that may or may not be human. And an unholy manuscript stolen from a dead sorcerer that could very well hold the secrets to opening the gates of Hell.

Gina has seen strange visions since childhood. Her mother was considered insane for having the same affliction, and before her disappearance, Gina's sister Allie was obsessed with black magic and "saw" things too. It eventually led her to a depraved conjurer known as Mojo DeCanne, a man who possessed a book of demonic spells Allie stole and hid in Gina's apartment in the days before she vanished.

Now, as Manhattan braces for the worst snowstorm in decades, and Gina's visions become worse, blurring the lines between nightmare and reality, Mojo DeCanne has come looking for what is his. In order to solve the mystery of her sister's disappearance and the meaning behind her own shattered life, Gina must first survive the night and somehow stop an unimaginable evil from fulfilling its horrific destiny.

Darkness falls on Manhattan.

The blizzard grows worse.

And the lights go out.

Chris Golden and I are currently working on three Top Secret anthologies, and part of the job is looking at the timeline in the history of modern horror fiction. You have the original golden age, signified by folks like Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Anne Rice, and Richard Laymon. You have this new golden age, signified by folks like Grady Hendrix, CJ Leede, Gabino Iglesias, and Kristopher Triana. And then you have what Chris calls the lost generation and I call ‘Generation Hex’ — our era of horror writers, signified by folks like J.F. Gonzalez, Tom Piccirilli, Sarah Langan, and Tim Lebbon.

Novelist, artist, and poet Sandy DeLuca is one of the best women writers from Generation Hex. Period. Full stop. Like myself, she was a regular part of the Delirium Books stable back in the day. It has always frustrated me that she hasn’t gotten the audience I think she deserves. That’s not to say she doesn’t have readers — she does. But I always thought there should have been more mainstream interest in her stuff. There’s a direct line of influence from Charlee Jacob and Elizabeth Massie to Sandy’s stuff, and A Manhattan Grimoire is a perfect introductory work for someone wanting to check out her books. Currently available in paperback, eBook and audiobook from Crossroad Press.