The freefall continues. The blueprint grows. There Might Be Cupcakes Podcast returns to the House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski for the sixth time to discover its roots. If there is no Minotaur, is there no labyrinth? Is it a maze, or a spiral, everything coming around again, mimicking the beginning?
“Would it be enough if I could never give you peace?”—Taylor Swift
You‘ve been in the dark such a long while. It‘s time. Soon.
I am currently writing a novel with #horror author and friend Bob Ford. His brand-new novel The Dead Pennies, which I am obnoxiously proud of, isn't in Litsy yet, debuted on September 1, and today is the last day that you can grab it for .99 for Kindle. Go get some! It's both moving and terrifying. Please let me know what you think. https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Pennies-Robert-Ford-ebook/dp/B0CDYMFRXY/ A wonderful novel by a kind man. What's better?
I won NaNoWriMo Camp by increasing my WIP to over 55,000 (my first goal was 70,000, but I am chronically ill & disabled, have to be kind to myself). Want to read the synopsis, blurb, & some scenes? https://open.substack.com/pub/theremightbecupcakes/p/i-won-nanowrimo-camp-2023-d... I also started writing with my friend Bob Ford (see book above) and we are up to over 7500 and cranking, w/ an accompanying playlist, & having so much fun. #amwriting
Cozy and salty winter‘s day.
Here‘s the cover reveal for my anthology! My story is in volume 1, which I feel is an honor. The ordering is open tomorrow. Thank you so much for your support! I hope you like it. I am so excited.
aelpress.com/index.php/2022/11/15/monsters-vol-1-cover-reveal/
Check out the link for the list of authors in this volume and the link to order.
I‘m a published horror author, y‘all! #amwriting #horror
I‘m taking a weekly online class on Dracula to mark its 125 anniversary, and am decorating the inside cover of my class notebook (all black paper from Archer & Olive, so delicious) with my doodles. #draculaanniversary #doodles #art
I‘m taking a weekly online class on Dracula to mark its 125 anniversary, and am decorating the inside cover of my class notebook (all black paper from Archer & Olive, so delicious) with my doodles. #draculaanniversary #doodles #art
My first horror short story contract. “Holly Jolly Christmas”, a parody of Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies, where a perky, pretty woman inexplicably saves Christmas for a small town, will be in the upcoming two-volume short story anthology Monsters. I will keep you updated. I am so proud and excited! Cover and TOC reveal as soon as I have it. #amwriting #author #publication #horror
Reading The Bell Jar for my book club/class, and this smacked me in the face. #abortionishealthcare
There Might Be Cupcakes Podcast Episode 81: In the Spirit of the Staircase: In which Carla goes deeper into the Five and a Half Hallway and The Three Attic Whalestoe Letters of the House of Leaves novel (fifth episode in the series). https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/there-might-be-cupcakes-podcas-520320/episode... #podcast #horror
New episode of There Might Be Cupcakes: 80: Rooms Full of Indistinguishable Remains
The 4th in the series on House of Leaves.
In which Carla explores the echoes of Johnny's past and the house's present, the spiral of echoes, and the beginning of the exploration of the Five and a Half Minute Hallway. Letters from an asylum and always echoes hallways.
https://www.podchaser.com/lists/house-of-leaves-episodes-there-might-be-cupcakes...
This is me and Robert Ford, before his table at Scares That Care AuthorCon, saying “literature!” The firey book on the table is Burner. The tall, handsome black gentleman in the back is my friend and horror author Wrath James White; the dapper gent in the fedora over my shoulder is horror author and friend Thomas Monteleone. Yes, I am wearing Halloween pajamas. 🤗
I have set up a horror discussion and promotion forum at my podcast‘s domain: authors, publishers, movies, television, literature, conventions…it even has its own map! Please come play with me away from the annoyances and privacy concerns of social media apps. Come check it out and sign up and give me suggestions for additions. http://theremightbecupcakes.com/horror
Let‘s get this little engine that could off the ground and have some fun.
It is time to go deeper. Answer your mail from Mommy.
Working on my fourth episode in my podcast‘s series on House of Leaves. Now we enter the Five and a Half Minute Hallway with the explorers, and we are instructed by the Editor to pause and read Johnny‘s mother‘s letters from the asylum. This is the full collection, with 11 extra letters added by the asylum‘s Information Specialist. Mommy is needy. Mommy loves only Johnny. #podcast
Sound check for my friend Grady Hendrix at Scares That Care AuthorCon. I am here early because I am in my wheelchair, so I have been shouting “helpful” suggestions from the back of the audiotorium. Now listening to Led Zeppelin while waiting for #paperbacksfromhell to start. I‘ve seen a early version of the show in a small art gallery in Charlottesville; looking forward to this grand, new and improved version. RIP V. C. Andrews.
Beloved is slaying me in a different way as a woman than it did as a 17-year-old at Yale. Looking forward to discussing it with you on the #podcast.
This quote is from her introduction, where she discussed how the novel came to be and her intentions for it. I decorated this way because I discover plants move the story forward, generate “rememory “, hurt and heal, bring people together and tear flesh. The roses die along the route to the carnival.
Spending this dark, rainy, October evening with William Peter Blatty. He‘s reading his own work to me while I hide under the covers. Thank you, Audible, for such a #Halloween treat.
#audiobook
Anyone else joined The Story Graph? I love it. It‘s a cleaner, nicer Goodreads that operates on a book‘s qualities, & allows readers to tag books for content warnings. It suggests books based on what you‘ve read & your mood. Also allows you to set challenges based on no. of books & page numbers. And more! Add me at https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/theremightbecupcakes. The picture is my preferences. (The tagged book is my currently reading.)
New podcast episode: There Might Be Cupcakes Episode 72: What‘s Your Motivation, Heather?
“In which Carla explores the horror subgenre found footage, and its subgenre internet horror” —The book linked is one I recommend in the ep. #horror #podcast
https://www.spreaker.com/user/claradox/episode72
Staring Wes Craven: The Man and His Nightmares. Looking forward to it. 🎧 #horror #horrormovies
This is going to be fascinating: written and narrated by Leatherface himself. #horror #horrormovies #memoirs
Thank you, Goodreads! I love getting emails from publishers that my package is on its way—that means I won a Goodreads Giveaway—in these cases from Penguin Teen and William Morrow ♥️
I cannot wait to read these. Dark and Shallow Lies is a debut novel by Ginny Myers Sain, and I have been reading and enjoying Laura Lippman for a while now. Summer reading fun❣️(The 🌹 and ☠️ are courtesy of my Betsey Johnson sheets. I am enraptured with them.)
There Might Be Cupcakes Podcast: Episode 68: Bone-Chimes and Primitive Spiders: House of Leaves
The first in my HoL series: https://www.spreaker.com/user/claradox/68-Mu3293
#podcast
The House of Leaves universe: House of Leaves, The Whalestoe Letters: From House of Leaves https://bookshop.org/a/6560/9780375714412 + Poe‘s album “Haunted”: Apple https://apple.co/2MT62F4, Spotify https://spoti.fi/3c2RsDq
There Might Be Cupcakes Podcast Episode 70: Ergodic: House of Leaves: the second in my HoL series: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/44973302
Show notes: In which Carla explores the beginning of the Navidson Record, the structure of the novel, the history of ergodic literature, and the social phenomenon of the novel 21 years ago, as well as the psychological symptom that drives the stories in this novel. #podcast
Reading a deep dive into the Elisa Lam case and listening to this newish interpretation of the Goldberg Variations by this brilliant pianist, with my sleeping dachshund at my feet. Reading heaven. #elisalam #paranormal #truecrime #bach
pickJust finished listening to the audiobook. Superb.
There‘s an in-joke hovering throughout the novel You Love Me, by Caroline Kepnes, but never spoken. The Lemonheads‘ song (and album) “It‘s a Shame About Ray” (Quinn). 😆 That is just chef‘s kiss. Just finished reading, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, now off to listen to this album, which was a staple of my grad school years.
“It‘s a shame about Ray, some things need to go away”. 😁
It‘s Audible day, and I pounced on it. #you #youseries
Recording my first House of Leaves #podcast episode now. I was supposed to record yesterday on its 21st anniversary, but I had inexplicable and never-before technical difficulties; My computer simply could not hear my voice. (“Pick up please mom hello?”) Which seems appropriate for this novel of high strangeness. Here we go for the 1st ep, entitled “Bone-Chimes and Primitive Spiders”, available this evening, if no further high strangeness occurs.
I had misplaced my copy. I recently found it...fat with torn-up papers marking pages...So. Intermingled with episodes on other topics, for the rest of this year I am going to do a deep-dive on this book & its accompanying album, Haunted, by Mark's sister, Poe. There will be geeky analysis and reaction podcasting. I'll podcast as I go & do psychology/history/parapsychology/physics geek-dives 😉 like I did with Stephen King's Eclipse series (ep 19).
pickThank you, Demi Moore. Spending this time with you reading to me and sharing your story was a blessing...and it helped me with my story.
“What if everything that hadn‘t happened to me but had happened for me. What I learned is that how we hold our experiences is everything. Taking responsibility for your reactions is freedom.”
—Demi Moore
#autobiography #memoir #movies #psychology #cptsd #trauma
Reading journal/commonplacebook layout for my notes on Michael McDowell‘s horror novel The Elementals. Used the orange and peach pens for the colors of sand. New favorite novel! Listened to it narrated by actor R. C. Bray; fabulous experience.
Notebook is Tskui Moon Flower edition from Notebook Therapy.🌙
https://bookshop.org/a/6560/9781941147177
Listening to Taylor Swift‘s #evermore and reading Jung‘s Modern Man In Search of a Soul. Feels like this year is cracking, like when Father Christmas shows up in #Narnia. Or perhaps I am having an intellectual meltdown. A nerd stroke. Either way, it feels nice. Don‘t wake me. Taylor and Papa #Jung and I might have some cocoa later. Join us, won‘t you? Collective unconscious, then second star to the right.
From “Black Book in Rainy Weather”: this quote speaks so to #chronicillness, and so I illustrated it:
“With luck trekking stubborn through this season of fatigue, I shall patch together content sorts.
Miracles occur.
If you care to call these spasmodic tricks of radiance miracles.
The wait‘s begun again.
The long wait for the angel.
For that rare, random descent.”
https://bookshop.org/a/6560/9780061558894
Eating homemade wineberry 🥧 and reading Mary Oliver. “but berries are berries, they don‘t speak any language that I don‘t understand.” #poetry #summer #maryoliver
Arlo the staffie pit, Ellie‘s older brother.
I found out recently, after 10 years of having our dogs, Arlo Guthrie and Ellie Mae, the folk singer Woody Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie‘s father, wrote 1 novel, about a couple struggling during the Dust Bowl.
The female protagonist in the novel was named Ella May.
We didn‘t name our Ellie, who also goes by Ella. She came to us named.
#synchronicity is real.
https://bookshop.org/a/6560/9780062248404
There Might Be Cupcakes Podcast Episode 61: Childe Roland and The Dark Tower
In which I explore all the different incarnations of Childe Roland and his quest to the Dark Tower through literature and history, from the 8th century (or so) to Stephen King‘s Gunslinger. Episode available in your your preferred podcatcher or at https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/there-might-be-cupcakes-podcas-520320/episode...
Disability requires creativity. Deep into Alex‘s book, my eyesight started to blur & I started to experience a rare symptom for me of EDS. You know when you get an eyelid twitch? Imagine that, but in your neck. So I diverted to a movie, one that fit the theme of the book but fell just outside of its scope: Swimfan (2002).
So consider this another plug for this fine horror & history book & your educational moment in Ehlers-Danlos Awareness Month.
Mail call! When I start annoying you on social media or my podcast with a glut of Horror Movie Facts, blame Alex‘s incredible work.
I left my fluffy pj pants in for contrast. They are the calm before the storm, the “hey, let‘s all hang out in this abandoned house with no phone and have attractive people sex, nothing bad will happen”, chirpy music part of the cliched horror movie. Also, they‘re cute. #horrormovies
Taken for a hitrecord project about books (https://hitrecord.org/records/4383609). One of my favorite novels & rabbit holes. Poe plays hide and seek throughout if the reader is willing to play It.
If you‘d like to listen to me read from it & talk about banned books, please listen to ep 23 of There Might Be Cupcakes Podcast: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/there-might-be-cupcakes-podcas-520320/episode...
There Might Be Cupcakes Podcast | Episode 59: Commingled Gloom and Grandeur | In which I read one of Poe‘s lesser-known short stories, “The Oval Portrait” | https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/there-might-be-cupcakes-podcas-520320/episode... #podcast #horror
In my Canson XL Mix Media sketchbook, with Tombow dual brush markers and calligraphy pen. Quote from the delicious novel Circe, by Madeline Miller, based upon the Greek myth. More art to come inspired by this novel. Drawn while listening to the audiobook Member of the Family, Dianne Lake‘s story of living with the Manson Family. #art #drawing #circethewitch (cut off: the key around the bottom crow‘s neck: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-LKw4kj8sk
in progress based on the novel Circe, by Madeline Miller. In my Canson XL Mix Media sketchbook, inked with different mm of Tombow art pens. These are all of the plants that Circe the witch, daughter of the sun, used in the novel. Lettering and color to follow. The hastily-penciled quote from the novel (cut off at the top)—
“the tonic of ordinary things”
—plus Stevie Nicks lyrics are going to be properly lettered. #art #drawing #circethewitch
Opening pages to my new commonplacebook set up. Love the steampunk children I found on a free site online. The catalog site is authentic. The washi tape is actually silk ribbon, made by Martha Stewart.
I left my fingers in the shot because I realized I hyperextended them by simply placing them on the pages to hold them open. Created an interesting Ehlers-Danlos illustration without meaning to do so. #bucketlist #commonplacebook #journal
There Might Be Cupcakes 58: Terra Incognita | Amelia B. Edwards, Victorian horror author, polymath, explorer of the world & self-taught Egyptologist. She not only wrote horrifying stories, she rescued ancient Egypt‘s treasures from desecration. She is an 🏳️🌈 #LGBTQ icon, though that is sometimes hidden.
Story read: “The Phantom Coach”
https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/there-might-be-cupcakes-podcas-520320/episode...
My Christmas books. I bought Nine Stories with proceeds from my podcast, as well as the ‘Salem‘s Lot Blu-Ray (presents for myself!). I also received two lovely blank books. Fulfilling my goals of owning and reading all works by all three of these authors. Not shown: plethora of Kindle books also earned and gifted. 🥰 #flanneryoconnor #stephenking #jdsalinger #bucketlist #christmaspresents #bookhaul #shortstories
“In These Hellish Meetings”...buddy reading The Witches: Salem, 1692 with my best friend long-distance, wishing he were here and I could buy him a chai latte. #christmas #salem #buddyreads
70: Ergodic
73: Tangerines to Apples
80: Rooms Full of Indistinguishable Remains
81: In the Spirit of the Staircase 2mo