5/13/26
The latest theory in quantum physics is that alternate universe versions of you are actually determining your fate. I know this because my readers like keeping me informed. When CERN turned on their hadron collider years ago, many of you forwarded me concerned articles and said “Look! It’s THE RISING!” When the occasional feature article pops up about the giant earthworms of Africa and Australia, many of you forward me the links and say, “Look! It’s EARTHWORM GODS!”. When they caught that world record python a few years back, many of you tagged me on socials and said, “Look! It’s SCRATCH!”. When Musk, Zuckerberg, and Bezos did any dozen of the dozen of fucked up things they’ve done over the last decade, many of you on Patreon said, “Maybe you should stop writing INVISIBLE MONSTERS because every fucked up thing you have the oligarch do with each revised draft then seems to happen in real life…”
Anyway, yesterday i got a lot of, “Look! THE LABYRINTH actually exists!” Because of this article. A brief exverpt:
…quantum physics doesn’t say humans magically create reality just by looking at things. Instead, reality is constantly changing us through every interaction we have with the world. You are changing because you have become part of one possible outcome rather than another.
Vedral then takes the idea even further, suggesting that all these alternate versions of reality still technically exist and may even influence one another under very specific conditions. In simple terms, there may be countless slightly different versions of you constantly being created by every tiny interaction you have with the world, most of which you’ll never notice.
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My pal C. Robert Cargill linked to this piece in Wired yesterday, written by a TV writer and showrunner who’s had to resort to working in A.I. to make ends meet. It is a frustrating, harrowing, and infuriating read… and a very clear look at things to come — not just for those in the creative industry, but for ALL workers, regardless of education or skill set. Highly recommended reading.
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Women In Horror Year: Day 34
Tradwife by T C Parker
Family. Community. Tradition.
Annihilation.
Everyone remembers the Heart of Solomon murders: three young married couples slaughtered around the dinner table, their bodies desecrated, in the UK's first and only purpose-built Tradwife community.
And no suspect ever charged.
Writer Gina Lewis wants to know. Her plan: talk to the people who knew the three dead couples best, and try to understand what brought them to the Heart of Solomon. Puzzle out why they died - and how the "traditional marriage" Arcadia they were promised turned so dangerous, so quickly.
And she'll keep going until she finds the truth. No matter what it costs her.
There are two horror novels, both written by women, called Tradwife. One of them is by my pal Sarah Langan, and the title is stylized as Trad Wife: A Novel, and it comes out in September. The other one is by T C Parker, and the title is stylized as Tradwife, and that’s the one I want to talk about today.
Tradwife by TC Parker was one of my favorite books of 2025. It was also one of our bestselling titles for the year at Vortex when we still had the physical store. An absolutely brilliant read. I saw a reviewer sum it up as “In Cold Blood meets The Stepford Wives” and honestly, that’s a really apt summary. T.C. Parker’s a confident writer, with a sure command of her voice. Stylistically, the book will appeal to fans of Mehitobel Wilson, Charlee Jacob, or Geoff Cooper.
I try not to use the “So and so is a writer to watch” blurb, because it is as overdone and overused as “So and so is the next Stephen King” but in the case of T C Parker, it’s apt, because she is absolutely a writer to watch — slowly building that audience with each new release, and when she inevitably makes it (because it’s clear she eventually will) those of us who were reading her early on can smile smugly and say, “Yeah, I’ve been reading her for years.”
Earlier this year, Amazon decided to stifle sales of the book (despite having sold it for a year on their platform) unless the cover, which featured a severed human heart, was changed to a plastic heart. So there are now two different paperback editions of this novel. The plastic heart edition is available in paperback and eBook, and Vortex has copies of the human heart edition in paperback, if you are so inclined.
