Daily Journal 1/22/26

Mary and I were supposed to head to New Jersey tomorrow and celebrate her birthday with her family this weekend. I’d made reservations for the ten of us at her favorite restaurant for Saturday and her sister picked out an escape room game. But given the apocalyptic rumblings of meteorologists across the country as well as the financially-gutted National Weather Service (which DOGE reduced to three hamsters, a wheel, and a ball of used string), I sadly suspect we’ll have to curtail that.

The problem isn’t the snow and ice. The problem is the cats. Given these projected storm totals, we’d be gone from Friday until at least Tuesday night (because although the precipitation ends on Monday, you have to allow for roads between Pennsylvania and New Jersey to be cleared of snow, ice, and stupid people). Wednesday is more likely. If the cats are left on their own for six days, not only will they run out of food and water, but they will also most likely sell my valuable comic book collection to finance a party for the local ferals, and also maybe accidentally discover cold fusion. And I can’t have somebody come check on them, because everybody else will be snowed in, too.

Even if there was a way to take care of the cats, the other problem is that I finally have the opportunity to get caught up and ahead on writing again, and six days spent at Mary’s parent’s house will eradicate the progress I’ve made, because it is very difficult to write there. That’s because her family are all loving, wonderful people, and all of Italian-Irish heritage, which means that every five minutes, somebody is checking to see if I need anything — coffee, tea, meatballs, pasta, cookies, bourbon, a random jar of pickles from the back of the fridge — whatever is available. I know this is done out of love, and I am touched and grateful, but… it’s hard to work that way. Plus, I always feel self conscious about working there regardless. It feels rude to be staring at a laptop and writing about some nonsense when we’re supposed to be visiting.

I know Mary will be bummed about this, so part of today will be spent pulling out all the stops to surprise her with other stuff this weekend.

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Speaking of work, good work day yesterday. Proofed the galleys for the signed, limited edition of THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT: NEW TALES OF STEPHEN KING’S THE STAND (details under wraps but coming soon), and chiseled away at one of these short stories I have due to various anthologies, negotiated with a new Italian publisher for the rights to me and John Urbancik’s NEMESAI, and conferred with Laurel about our novel-in-progress. If you’re curious about my writing and editing as I go process, I posted a hands-on example on Patreon yesterday. I also confirmed details for a signing in Massachusetts in April (I’ll post details here on the website in a bit). Which reminds me, I’ve got a few dates for signings and appearances listed already. Find out where to find me here.

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My pal Gemma Amor has a new folk horror novel called Itch! out in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook. You can get it here. It’s a phenomenal book — one of her best yet. Paperback comes out in September, but my advice is snag the hardcover because this is one you’ll want to reread again.

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And that does it for this morning. Have a great day. See you on Patreon this afternoon.