Blog – Kit Campbell Books

Christmas Movies Now and Then

December books: 6/4 (A Wonderful Christmas Crime and Writing While the World Burns)

The other night we watched the Christmas Chronicles, which, while not a new movie (it came out in 2018), was a new movie to us. This is something we go through each Christmas season, where we look for new Christmas movies we’ve never seen, and I try, mostly unsuccessfully, to sneak my favorites in.

It’s a difference in media consumption in general. Nowadays you can stream basically ever movie ever made somehow or another. Why settle for the familiar when you can try something new? There’s so much out there to see!

I tried to explain this to my kids last week, how we used to re-watch the same things over and over, because that’s all we had. Your movie options included the videos you yourself owned and whatever the local video rental store had in stock. I was rather poor growing up, so trips to the video store were limited, and we definitely didn’t have HBO or another service where you could watch newer movies.

In fact, for most of my formative years, we lived in a small mountain town (it’s still quite small to this day, despite massive growth in many mountain towns), where our video rental options were the Safeway three towns over (cheaper, and we were there fairly regularly because it was also the closest grocery store) or a store in town which I remember renting from maybe twice, so I can only assume it was wildly more expensive.

Christmas feels like a time for tradition, and one of our traditions growing up was our Christmas movie marathon, which my sister and I did each Christmas Eve after dinner to whenever we fell asleep for as long as I can remember. I can’t remember the exact rotation of shows, but it was Rudolph and Frosty, the Grinch, and my personal favorite, A Muppet Family Christmas, which includes not just the Muppets but the Sesame Street characters and the Fraggles.

(They never released A Muppet Family Christmas on video. Our copy was taped off a broadcast. I have found it on YouTube in its entirety, complete with 80s commercials, if one is so inclined.)

So, each Christmas, I find myself trying to watch my favorites in direct competition with everyone else’s urge to watch new movies. But it’s something I run into in general, as well. I want to show my kids the movies that I enjoyed as a kid, and generally I can get away with that, but rewatching something we’ve already seen? Oh, no, we can’t have that.

Sometimes you just want a comfort movie, you know?

Which camp do you fall into, squiders? Are you a rewatcher of favorites, or an only new movies person?

If you celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a merry one, and I’ll see you guys next week.

Okay, Maybe We’ve Overdone the Mysteries

December Books: 4/4 (Edited Out and It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Mischief)

Howdy, squiders. We’re a week out from Christmas, so that’s a thing. I could probably use a few more stocking stuffers, but we’ve reached a point where anything shipped won’t get here in time, and I hate braving real retail spaces in December in general, so it may be what it is.

I’m most of the way through my fifth mystery of the month, and I’m flagging a bit. To be fair, this book is annoying me content-wise (It’s A Wonderful Christmas Crime, and the author has taken things in a direction, character-wise, that I do not like and if she doesn’t change things by the end of the book, I may be done with the series. Alas, and after I talked it up last week too). But in theory we’re also going to get Five Golden Wings (now I’m #13 in line on 8 copies, so that’s not moving quickly) AND I bought myself The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries which was perhaps a little ambitious, and maybe we’ll just keep that for next year.

My eyes, they are bigger than my stomach.

I don’t tend to read the same genre in a bunch, so I suspect I’d get sick of anything eventually. Genres have genre conventions, and they tend to get repetitive after a while, so that makes sense.

Anyway. It’s been a LOT of mysteries and maybe I should have paced myself, especially since two of them weren’t even Christmas themed.

I have a horror novel ready for pick-up, and the manga series I started is science fiction/horror-adjacent, so mixing those in may help. Or not, because mystery can be horror-adjacent as well. Maybe I need to read some romance or cozy fantasy.

On the writing front, we’re making some baby steps. I’ve written 1000 words on a short story that came down from on high. Been a while since we’ve had a fully form story fall out of our brain ready to go, and I’m choosing to see that as a promising sign. I’ve also started to outline some of the horror shorts we talked about. And I’ve been poking a couple of writing books I’ve been in the middle of for months.

At some point here, I need to sit down and do some soul searching and put together a long-term plan for January and onward. That, I think, is something for that weird liminal week between Christmas and New Year’s, when time has no meaning.

How’s your December going, squider? I hope that whatever holidays you celebrate are going well! We may get back here before Christmas, but I make no guarantees.

It’s Christmas Mystery Time

Hey ho, squiders, how are you doing? Wait, hold on.

December books: Still 2/4 (in the middle of two, read a volume of manga)

We’ve talked the past few weeks how December is traditionally a hard time for me to get any writing done. We may get there yet–I’m making good progress on Christmas (almost all the cards have gone out, most of the presents are bought) so I may get some brain power back there soon. But otherwise I’m just kind of chilling and watching scary videos on YouTube.

(A crutch of mine, alas.)

It’s also Christmas Mystery time! Every year I try to read a few Christmas mysteries. I like mysteries in general–they’re almost always in my top three genres read for the year (with fantasy and science fiction). A well-crafted mystery? A joy, every time. A mystery with an interesting premise? Sign me up.

(The 7 1/2 Lives of Evelyn Hardcastle is wonderful, if you’ve not read it.)

Of course, not all mysteries are the same, and Christmas mysteries do tend to run to mediocrity. Or maybe that’s mystery series in general. So some years I just stick to my tried and true series without trying to branch out. (Also I think I may have read most of the Christmas mysteries the library has.)

My very favorite mystery series is the Meg Langslow series by Donna Andrews. I’ve read all 30+ books in the series (except for the new one, which I am currently #16 on the hold list, out of 8 copies), and she generally puts out one or two new books a year, with more of the more recent ones being Christmas themed. The first book is Murder with Peacocks and past the first two books, all the titles are bird puns (this latest book is Five Golden Wings).

I appreciate the series because the main characters do go through some change over time. Since the beginning of the series, Meg has gotten married, had twins, bought a house, gotten new jobs, etc. And Meg’s got a large family that has, at this point in the series, mostly stabilized, but they go through their own life changes as well, so the world feels a little more dynamic than in some mystery series. At this point it’s kind of like reading about old friends and what they’re up to.

Anyway, I definitely recommend the series if you’re into such things.

The other Christmas mystery series that’s one of my mainstays is by Jacqueline Frost (which, if not a nom de plume, is the perfect name for someone who writes Christmas books) and starts with The Twelve Slays of Christmas. These books follow Holly White, who lives on a Christmas tree farm in Maine and only include Christmas mysteries.

(I think I missed a book or two, though–I got the most recent one and started reading it, but Holly had gotten married and I definitely missed that, and the Internet says there’s six books in the series but I’ve only read 3 or 4, so now I’m having to go back through and figure out which ones I missed, and whether it’s worth it to go back and catch up.)

(Okay, good news, I’ve only missed one, and now I’ve checked it out on my Kindle to catch up. It looks like she’s moved to a new book a year time frame, when before she was doing a book every few years, so that might be why I missed the last one.)

Sometimes I do Christmas romances as well, but it depends on my mood. I do like a good romance, but at least with the Christmas romances, sometimes it feels like they’re just getting put out to capitalize on the concept. Romance in general tends to be a little hit or miss for me, because I have picked up a fair amount that just feel…lazy. Nothing against the genre, it is the most read one and so I understand why some people put them out just to make money, but in general I’ve got to do some vetting.

Not feeling Christmas romance-y this year, at least not bookwise. Might watch a couple. Let me know if you have favorites (Not Love Actually, I’ve never been able to get through it).

I don’t know if I’ll branch out past my normal series this year. I’ve had to do catch up on the Meg Langslow books (I missed last year’s Christmas one, and one earlier this year, so I’ve already read those this month) and now it turns out I’ve got to do catch up on the Holly White series as well, so I may just not have time.

Do you have genres you read around the holidays, squiders? What are they, and why? Any recommendations on Christmas mysteries? (I don’t mind if they’re in the middle of a series or not.) Any recommendations on Christmas romance movies?

And Then We Promptly Gave Up on Everything

December books: 2/4 (Rockin’ Around the Chickadee and For Duck’s Sake)

By which I mean I got sick and have thus not done any more writing, and, frankly, am unlikely to do anymore between now and tomorrow.

(Maybe I will find some motivation, but mostly I’m just coughing my lungs out.)

(If anyone knows any surefire ways to get rid of a cough, send them my way. I’m about ready to leave half an onion out on my nightstand.)

Yesterday my boss sent me home early (because of said cough) and Tuesdays are my best days for doing stuff for myself (the oldest kid, who gets out of school first, has an afterschool club, which gives me 3+ hours after work to myself), so I could have, in theory, written a ton!

Instead I watched a four-hour documentary on Disney animatronics and read 80 pages in a book.

Today I have made it all the way through the work day (with some side-eye from my boss) and have run some errands, so I am doing better in general, but still not sure I’m up for anything creative. Mostly I’m thinking I’m going to play some computer games.

I tried out two of the three I bought on Black Friday over the weekend. The first, Plate Up, sounded fun but is horribly frustrating in practice. Maybe it’s not really designed to work on a computer. Or I’m just out of practice with controlling a character with WASD keys. But I couldn’t even figure out how to place new objects down in my kitchen.

I’ll give it another go, but for first impressions, it was bad.

The second is called Oxygen Not Included and is a colony builder on a randomly generated asteroid. I set up a non-survival one to try it out (I played this after Plate Up and figured I was done with frustrations for the day) so I could get a sense of how the game is supposed to go. No tutorial, so you just have to figure it out as you go, so non-survival is definitely the way to go for now.

The third was DREDGE but that’s going to be a lengthy one, and I’m going to leave it alone for now.

So today I might go back to Oxygen Not Included, or I may start another game that I’ve had my eye on for a while. We’ll see.

Or we’ll take a nap. Jury’s out.

Anyway, happy December, squiders. I hope you’re doing well, and good luck for whatever holidays you subscribe to. Here’s hoping you get everything done in a non-stressful, controlled way.

See you!

Nano Writing: Essentially the End

November Books: 5/6 (Songs of Power, The Keeper of Magical Things, and The Night Guest)

(The Night Guest shared a lot of similarities with One of Those Faces from last month that I didn’t like at all. This one was less convoluted and actually made sense, but I didn’t really like it still, so I guess we’re off that genre for a bit.)

Let’s see, as of yesterday, I’m at…31.5K. So we’re good on my backup goal of 35K, but it’s unlikely that 50K is going to happen. Which is fine! I knew it was a long shot going into it.

I’m also not sure what to do with this story. Part of me wants to be like, eh, you know, it was good to get back into things, but it’s not actually very good and maybe we should just abandon it.

But arguably no book is good while you are writing it, and it’s hard to tell whether or not it’s actually bad, or you just feel weird about it because you’re the one creating it.

And, if you recall, I chose something hard! I’ve got two different, at first seemingly unrelated, viewpoints. I’ve got an in-book important text (which is probably my favorite bit, not going to lie. It’s called Minnie Hopkins and the Well of Memories). I’ve got to balance the beats of both viewpoints and also not give away how they’re interconnected too early.

So it’s possible that it feels like pulling teeth just because it’s a lot, and not because it’s inherently bad.

I might see if I can get a writing friend to read what exists when November is done here and see what they think about the story.

But, also, traditionally, I don’t keep going on the same story come December. There have been several years where I’ve tried, but December is historically a very busy month with holidays and activities and all that jazz, and the amount of time I have to write is much less. Plus there’s always some burnout post-Nano (which is always interesting to me, because I often do write 20-35K in other months without issues) so the motivation to keep going on a story I’ve beat my head against for past thirty days is very low.

What normally happens is: I do Nano in November. I attempt to continue in December. This goes very poorly and I get mad at myself either for not getting anywhere or for trying when I know this always go bad. I put the story away until January or February or March, when I work through to the end of the draft.

I suspect why I attempt to keep going so often is because once you hit 50K (IF you hit 50K) you get a endorphin kick. I’ve done it! I’ve won! Plus I almost always write fantasy and 50K is about halfway, so the hard part of the story is done. (Alternately, with some genres, like the year I wrote the cozy mystery, 50K is about the whole draft and why not just finish it then.)

But this year we won’t be at 50K, so I’m not feeling the urge to keep going even though I know it’s a bad idea.

So, yeah, definitely not continuing into December. Though I might go through Dec 4, which is thirty days after I started (on Nov 4) and is the deadline I set for myself in TrackBear.

So, December. If we’re not continuing the draft, what are we doing?

Well, I might take the month off. It is very busy and I do tend to get very stressed. I could use my free time to play Steam games (I might have bought 3 more on Black Friday sales) or work on my travel sketchbook (still about a year behind–currently working on the cruise we took over LAST Thanksgiving break).

Alternately, I might work on one of those short story projects I was considering for November. Maybe the horror ones, because there was a section in my Nano novel I wrote last week that veered very close to horror, and I was reminded that I am very good at atmospheric creepy and that my fantasy novels are probably not the place to do it. But maybe the interconnected fantasy ones! But probably the horror ones.

Anyway, that’s how things are sitting, squiders. How are you feeling? If you’re American, I hope your Thanksgiving went well!

See you next week!

Nano Writing: Week 2.5

November Books: 2/6 (Cold and Hottie)

Howdy, howdy, squiders, hope your November is going well. Sorry about missing last week. I wish I could say that it won’t happen again, but experience tells me that we’re going to be real spotty come December.

So, we’re almost three weeks into November. If we’re going at Nano pace for a goal of 50K, we should be at 31,673 at the end of today.

I’ve not written today, so as of yesterday, I’m sitting at 21K and some change.

Now, in theory, being 10K words behind should be tragic.

But I feel great.

First of all, even though the book is not good, I’m enjoying writing the story. And all the problems the book has can be fixed in revision, if I so choose. And maybe I won’t choose! Maybe we’ll write this and just use it as a starting point to get back into everything else. Just writing is amazing.

(There are parts of the book I really like. The book within the book is super fun to write. And I have a side character who is my absolute favorite. And now we’re far enough in that we can really get into the meat of the story.)

Second of all, while completing 50K this month would be amazing and is the goal in an ideal world, my real goal is 35K, and we’re fine for that. Plus I gave myself four extra days because I started four days late.

Just writing has been energizing in other ways as well. Like, I feel like myself again. I participated in #questpit over on Blue Sky. I wrote (probably terrible) submission materials for World’s Edge and submitted it to a couple of mentor programs. I’ve sent out 10 queries, when I haven’t sent out any since August.

This was the right choice. Not only am I excited about all the author stuff again, but it’s allowing me to be creative as we head into the holiday season, which is never a good time to try and do anything serious.

Maybe we’ll do a writing-only break until, like, February. Really recharge all the batteries.

Anyway, I feel amazing, and I hope you do too.

See you next week!

NaNo Writing: Week One

November Books: 1/6 (The Story of the Treasure Seekers)

Hey ho, squiders, hope your November is going well!

Here we are, a week into the month. I expressed my intent last week to do a Nano-esque challenge this month, and laid out a couple of options about what I could potentially do.

Those broke down into novel/novella vs. interconnected short stories, and then something fun vs. something hard.

I made a list of potential projects and then started whittling them down. I pretty quickly decided on a novel/novella vs. the short stories, because a number of short stories seemed like it might quickly escalate to the decision paralysis I am trying to escape from.

And then mostly I went on vibes for the rest of the elimination process, so we ended up with a something hard novel, in the end.

I decided to try my hand at the interlocking lives idea I’d expressed an interest in trying, though it morphed in the outlining process so it’s not really quite the same thing I was picturing, but still an interesting adventure.

I spent Nov 1-4 outlining and worldbuilding and designing characters, and then I’ve written 2K a day for the last 3 days, so I’m currently sitting at just over 6K (I have yet to write today).

Is it going well? Well, it feels like some of the worst crap I’ve ever written, honestly. Like I started in the wrong spot, and my characters are boring, and I have questions about how confusing it will be to the reader to switch back and forth between the two interconnected characters.

That being said, I still feel great. This is more than I’ve written since my writing retreat earlier this year, and that was rewriting, not drafting. And I suspect I got a little spoiled by Hallowed Hill, which was the last novel I wrote from scratch and which was essentially a perfect first draft. I basically only had to go back in and clarify some internal arc points when I revised.

But I am reminded that even with that, I started in first person and then switched halfway through the first chapter to third because the first person was just not working for me.

So, yeah, the writing is terrible. But it is writing and basically anything is fixable in revision, and I am out of practice and so it should get better as we continue on. And if I get to the end and the draft is unsalvageable?

Well, that’s okay too. Not everything needs to be published, and practice is practice. Writing is writing.

Fingers crossed that everything continues to go well.

See you next week, squiders!

Freedom!

October books: Still 5/6 (I have 3 pages left in the sixth, so tomorrow, I guess, or later today if I have time)

I feel sooooo much better having thrown all my baggage for the year out the window. Now the sky is the limit, and I can do whatever I want without worrying about deadlines or quality or what have you.

And the timing works great as well. Saturday November starts, and though Nano is dead there are plenty of other groups willing to step into the void, and writing is always a good way to take a break from holiday related stresses.

The other thing about doing a Nano-esque “challenge” is that it will force me to focus on a single project and not do the insane thing I occasionally try where I’m attempting two or three or sometimes even four projects at a time.

(The issue is, of course, sometimes I can work on several projects at a time and everything is great. And so then I think I can do it all the time, and never take non-writing projects into account when planning things out.)

Like any time where I am free to do what I will, there are a number of options, which I have narrowed down from even more options. But the breakdown essentially is in a couple of categories:

Novel/novella vs. Short Stories

I can pick a novel/novella project and focus exclusively on that, OR I could do a short story project. The novels vary in genre and ideas, but the short stories are either: 1) horror shorts, or 2) related shorts set in the world as the high fantasy trilogy I’m currently querying. If I do the related shorts, I have a SkillShare class idea to go along with it.

A novel would better help me focus, but a short story project might scratch the itch of doing many ideas at once, which does tend to build up when nothing has been done in a while.

Something Fun vs. Something Hard

I know I talked on Monday about working on something silly to get my groove back, but if I’m going to be writing just to write and without the pressure of doing something well, maybe now is the time to work on a project that is complicated or will require me to try out new skills. In Nanos past I have often integrated something new into the project–writing from a non-protagonist point of view, or trying a new genre, or a new story structure–so this could continue that tradition. Since the point of Nano was always Quantity over Quality, this could be the perfect time.

A few years back I did a summer series about stories I would like to write some day, and two of my entries were about dual timelines and interlocking lives. Maybe now is the time.

Alternately, I have a couple of novel ideas that have been floating around for a looooong time, and maybe we should do one of them. Both of them will be related but new genres (steampunk, straight science fiction without the horror I normally do) so they could still work.

So, over the next few days, I’ll need to narrow things down. Novel or short stories, complicated vs fun. I’ll let you know what I chose next week, when we will hopefully be a few days into the writing and things will be going well.

See you next week, squiders!

I Think I Need a Clean Slate

October Books: 5/6 (One of Those Faces, do not recommend, and House of Shadows)

Been doing a bit of soul searching, squiders, because I was supposed to come back from Disney/Universal and get going on organizing all the writing I have Not Done over the past few months, and have I done that?

No.

But also I’m realizing that I’ve kind of dug myself a giant hole that I am potentially never going to get out of.

In terms of writing, this year has been Bad. I mean, I always misjudge how much I can get done, so I am always behind my schedule, but usually things are getting done, albeit slower than expected. But we’re not even getting less than expected done. We’re getting nothing done.

Normally at the end of the year I look back and I’m like, oh, yeah, I sold two shorts, and I wrote 30K on this draft, and I polished this draft and published this book. But this year? I’ve failed two different revision projects (and I’ve only just remembered that I was supposed to go back to the World’s Edge revision after the critique marathon), have written one short story and had none accepted anywhere, and have only really managed to get my submission materials ready for Book 1, even though querying has been even more draining than I remember it being. (We’re like 40 queries in with only rejections.) The morning pages died in September.

Now, when I first started writing seriously in my mid-20s, I didn’t write all the time. I’d normally do, say, NaNo in November, and then come back to it in January and write through May or so until the draft was done. And then just messing around in between. But now that I’m in my 40s, there’s also a feeling of running out of time.

So that’s fun.

Obviously things aren’t working. It’s probably a combination of life responsibilities, the state of the world, the projects themselves, the way querying makes you wonder if you can actually write at all, and a number of other things.

Adding on to all this madness is that I signed up for a challenge called Novel90 in, like, April, that has now started. The idea is you outline in October, write in November, and revise in December. Earlier in the year, when things were bright and new, this seemed like a great plan. But now it just feels like something else that I’m behind on.

So I think I’ve got to just knock everything off my plate. Clear the ol’ project list. Find something to do for fun, something that’s not going to make me feel guilty or behind, until I can get my feet back underneath me.

Now to figure out what that something is.

See you later, squiders.

Rollercoasters and Mindset

October Books: 3/6 (Death on the Nile and Rest in Pink)

Howdy, squiders! Hope you’re doing well. Me, I’ve picked up a cold or allergies or who knows, but definitely involves sneezing and coughing and all that jazz.

Last week we talked about peanut butter, and this week we’re on rollercoasters, and maybe next week we’ll return to our regularly scheduled shenanigans.

Last week we spent eight days in a row at different theme parks, five at Walt Disney World (Typhoon Lagoon, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom) and three at Universal Orlando (Epic Universe, Universal Studios Florida, Islands of Adventure). It was A Lot. We averaged 16000 steps per day, and we basically rode everything at least once.

(Except at Epic Universe because the lines were so long that it wasn’t doable to do everything. Or even most things. The only thing we got to do in Super Mario World was the MarioKart thing, and the only reason we got to do that was because we got a single use express pass because we waited for an hour for a show in Harry Potter land that ended up getting cancelled.)

(That said, the MarioKart thing was awesome and I enjoyed it very much.)

(We got to do nothing in the Harry Potter land.)

(The theming is very pretty.)

(ANYway.)

At Disney we rode all the rides together as a family, but once we got to Universal there were a couple of rollercoasters I noped out of. I am afraid of heights, and I have ridden enough rollercoasters in my life to know that there is a threshold where something is no longer fun for me, and on rollercoasters it is typically the large, near vertical hills where you kind of hover at the top before plummeting down.

None of Disney’s rollercoasters have this. I don’t mind fast, or backwards, or upside down (though the Rock’n’rollercoaster in Hollywood Studios does make me nauseous), but those big hills are a no go. And I did go on the Tower of Terror even though I absolutely hate hate hate being dropped so I felt like I had made my sacrifices.

When we made the switch to Universal, I explained to the kids that there were three rollercoasters I would not be going on, and that was just going to be what it was. (For those who care, it was the Stardust Racers (which is the one that guy died on last month), the Velocicoaster, and the Hulk coaster.) I explained my reasoning, and that I had ridden other rollercoasters in the past like them, and that I was speaking from my own personal experience, and that the rest of the family was welcome to go on them if they so chose.

And they were like, yeah, of course, Mom, we understand.

Until they went on them. And then it changed to omg, it’s so fun, you have to go, it’s great.

And I said that it was great that they had enjoyed them, but still no.

(Also I went off and got iced coffee while they did them, which was great. It was quite hot.)

But it got me thinking how difficult it seems to be for people to accept that others may feel different than them in whatever situation. I don’t like rollercoasters with big, steep hills. They do. But even if I give in and ride the rollercoaster, it’s not going to change my opinion. It’s just going to make me feel bad.

But you see this all the time. With people goading friends who don’t drink, or don’t want to watch a particular show or movie, or don’t want to hang out with certain people or in certain places. With some of it, I think people take it as a judgement against them, like with the drinking thing, like the other person has made a moral decision against them and their actions instead of just stating a personal preference or need.

Some of it does probably come from wanting to share something that they enjoy with people they love.

And in some cases, yes, you give in to the peer pressure and, oh, hey, you do like it, and your friends were right.

It’s an interesting thing to consider. It’s certainly one thing to not bother to try something, but it doesn’t seem to matter whether you have experience with that and have made an informed decision for yourself or not.

Humans are weird.

How do you feel about rollercoasters, squiders?

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