I’ve finished two chapters in Unbroken and I am still trying to get through Tribal. I had a decent birthday – new Hawaiian shirt and comfy, comfy clippers. I didn’t write at all that day and that was the hardest part of the day. Good thing I had my wife to keep me occupied with dinner and dessert. I it just me or are the prices at Cheesecake Factory really high now? Our bill – for two people, mind you – was dangerously close to one hundred dollars when all was said and done. I think next year, I’m just going to walk to the pizzeria down the street. It’s a lot cheaper.

I still want to write a haunted house story, but I really feel like I am treading well-worn ground. I’m aware that this is a carry-over from last week. I know that the haunted house can be a metaphor for whatever, and it’s not like it’s something I can cobble together. I guess what I am looking for is the right metaphor to hang on all of this. Right now – I’ve got MAGA werewolves, vampire junkies and ghostly murders. What could a haunted house be a metaphor for? To make matters even more complicated, I’m trying to angle this into the Southern Gothic genre. Maybe I’ll get a good idea someday.

I did see Weapons during my vacation. It was good, gory and a little disturbing, but I’m not going to put it in the category of ‘best horror film of the year’. I think that title belongs solidly to Bring Her Back. I think there was too much hype between Sinners and Weapons for the amount of scares it brought to the table. I think horror in general is getting more and more hype-dependent. When Abigail came out – I was looking forward to it, but the hype didn’t really live up to my expectations. That and the ad campaign gave away what would have been a great reveal halfway through. I think horror might be petering out as a film genre unless we can get some better scares. My YouTube feed is littered with “what the ending of Weapons means” – mostly because I watched a breakdown of the movie after I watched it. Maybe it’s me being a crotchety old man (a title I have earned, thank you very much), but if you have to watch something to explain the ending, then the film didn’t really do it’s job, did it? But that’s just me.

Well – I did all my writing I needed to do today – time to get a shower and get some milk for tonight. Take care, have a slice of cake for me and support your local horror writers.