Well, take to the inflatable pool, anyway. This is central Pennsylvania, after all, and much as we might want to, we’re not going anywhere.
Christina and I planned a late-summer staycation so that we could try to get some kind of non-work downtime prior to the start of whatever the fall semester turns out to be. I won’t be in a classroom this fall, but she will be (assuming there isn’t another complete lockdown), and of course the stress around that fact has educators across the country feeling anxious. At the same time, the looming threat of economic precariousness has prompted me to once again look for a more secure day job. I’m focusing my efforts on becoming a faceless bureaucrat, particularly if the position is telework eligible.
While Christina had a whole pallet of projects that she wanted to complete before this weekend, I had only one: the first draft of a new novel called Above and Beyond. This is a novel I’ve been wanting to do for a few years. Its origin is a feature-length script I wrote for the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival screenwriting competition in 2013. That script had lots of cool things, but also some pretty serious flaws. After that competition, I hit upon a way to transform the story into something that would work much, much better than the story I had already told. Just like with The Hermit, I set myself a goal of three chapters a week, stuck to it, and completed the initial draft in about six and a half weeks.
I don’t want to give away too much about it, but I will say that it’s a weird noir set during World War II. I think of it as Val Lewton doing cosmic horror for the Office of War Information.
I’m very excited to read through the manuscript and plan out the revision, but I am also eager for the rest and relaxation. The book will be waiting for me when our staycation is over. Waiting, and watching.
Our plan for staycation involves a great deal of pleasure reading and the completion of a 1000-piece puzzle (I bought it especially for Christina; I can’t wait for her to see it!).
We’ll maintain our weekly socializing, including a Science and Sorcery reading group (we’re reading through Cassilda’s Song two stories at a time) and a new Roll20 campaign of Scum and Villainy. But other than that, there will be no work.* We’ll continue to run and to make cool food, and—checks notes—we’ll be instituting vacation rules with regard to beverages.
There are some cool things coming up in the next couple of months. The Outer Dark Symposium on the Greater Weird will be virtual this year, and I will be moderating two different events. And then in September I’m probably going to be a guest on a fabulous podcast in September at the same time that cool new things will be happening for Memento Mori: The Fathomless Shadows. Stay tuned!
I hope you’re all doing as well as you can be during all of this. Stay strong, take care of yourselves, and look after your crew.
* There may be a little work, but it’s the kind we have written actual signed contracts to ourselves about so that it doesn’t cascade into betrayals of the staycation credo.