5/2/26

Well, we survived the hollow and had a wonderful time. More on that in tomorrow’s newsletter.

We did, however, get devoured by ticks, including one who managed to attach to my leg. I found it this morning and got it out, but the tiny little pinprick monster left behind a nasty-looking welt that I’m sure will lead to me being infected with some terrible zombie virus later down the road.

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Of great interest to me and possibly to you, as well:

Since scientists believe energy cannot be created or destroyed, a person's body is still full of energy, mostly from the food they took in over the years, even after the heart and brain stop functioning. That leaves two options people have for releasing this energy. One is cremation, which sees a person's remaining energy converted to heat after the body is burned, which then travels out into space.

The other choice is a traditional burial, which lets the body decompose naturally, allowing the Earth's microscopic organisms to absorb all of your remaining energy in the endless cycle of renewal between humans and nature.

The heat produced by cremating a body does not stay on Earth. Instead, that radiation is capable of reaching other planets within our galaxy. 'The energy content of those molecules, it doesn't go away. It gets transferred to heat that then radiates infrared energy that was once the energy content of the molecules of your body, radiates it out into space, moving at the speed of light,'

From the moment someone is cremated, their loved ones could actually keep a timeline of where their radiant energy had traveled to in the Milky Way. 'If they were cremated four years ago, they would have reached the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri. So that in a way you're still a part of the universe just in a different form.'

Full article here. And very worth the read if, like me, you are trying to figure out the space where science and metaphysics meet when it comes to death.

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Women In Horror Year: Day 28

Maeve Fly by CJ Leede

Hardcover - Paperback - eBook - Audiobook

By day, Maeve Fly works at the happiest place in the world as every child’s favorite ice princess.

By the neon night glow of the Sunset Strip, Maeve haunts the dive bars with a drink in one hand and a book in the other, imitating her misanthropic literary heroes.

But when Gideon Green - her best friend’s brother - moves to town, he awakens something dangerous within her, and the world she knows suddenly shifts beneath her feet.

Untethered, Maeve ditches her discontented act and tries on a new persona. A bolder, bloodier one, inspired by the pages of American Psycho. Step aside Patrick Bateman, it’s Maeve’s turn with the knife.

I mean… look. This novel was a USA Today bestseller. It won the Splatterpunk Award and the Golden Poppy Octavia E. Butler Award. It was a Bram Stoker Award nominee, one of Esquire's Best Horror Books of the Year, and an Indie Next Pick. It earned profuse praise from myself, Stephen Graham Jones, Bryan Smith, Grady Hendrix, Wrath James White, Daniel Kraus, and Tori Amos.

Yes. That Tori Amos.

Maeve Fly is, quite simply and inarguably, the most successful Extreme Horror novel since American Psycho, and deservedly fucking so. A powerhouse of a story, it’s the most universally exciting debut release of the last decade. If you haven’t read it, then you need to unfuck that. It’s gory, ruthless, and darkly comic. A modern classic, and one that — fifteen years from now when the next generation of horror writers comes along — they’ll be pointing to as an inspiration on them. Maeve Fly is available in hardcover, paperback, eBook, and audiobook from Tor.