I've decided what my next writing project will be and it's going to be a western, with vampires.

I loved writing my Northern Horizons series so much that I'm drawn back to that environment, and I also want to write more paranormal, after my pirate series, so I'm setting a vampire novel in the Canadian west. There will be horses and dogs and travel and a very lonely vampire looking for redemption. There will also be a man with nothing to lose who fights for his own future, and complicates this vampire's life in many different ways. Similar themes to those in 760 Miles but complicated by a supernatural element and an exploration of what makes life meaningful, how to live with suffering, and how to manage guilt and live to the fullest, even if you have to do things others might not understand.

I'll be taking the summer off to read and relax, but I plan to start working on The Wild Endless in September and to have a first draft by Christmas.

Ah, Gabriella...

***SPOILERS***

My criticisms first:

I'm still a bit sad they didn't use Gabrielle's gender-bending in the show because that was a big part of her story for me and likely, for other gender fluid AFAB people who read these books in the 80s.

I also feel like they cheaped out on wigs this season. I don't mind Gabriella's silver bob, but her long-haired wig and the wigs for young Lestat and his brother's were...pretty bad. I also feel like Lestat's family was portrayed as caricatures rather than three dimensional people. However, 19 reminded me that this is all told from Lestat's POV which obviously influenced his perception of these people that he hated.

What I liked:

Loved that they didn't pussyfoot around Gabriella's and Lestat's physical relationship. It's quite clear in the book that after he turns his mother, all bets are off and they quickly form an intimate relationship. Personally, I agree with Lestat's perspective that becoming a vampire changes everything, and one is no longer beholden to the moralistic restrictions of humanity. However, folks on Reddit have pointed out that on the show, Lestat seems to be in an abusive relationship with Gabriella. He tries to pull back from the sexual nature of their relationship and also in the flashback seems to possibly be regretting his and Gabriella's brutal murder of his brothers when their children return to find the horrible scene. It does feel like they are setting this up to be a struggle between his love for his mother and the affects of her selfish manipulations and predatory nature towards him.

I enjoyed Sam's performance after he kills the wolves and his mother is with him dealing with his many wounds. This was well done and right out of the book, including Gabriella's description of her detailed fantasy of going into town and f**cking all the men. Very obviously an inappropriate conversation whilst she is using the excuse of caring for his wounds to touch him in intimate places. Sam was suitably vulnerable in this scene and especially when crying out for his mother when she simply leaves him and tells him to clean himself up and come downstairs.

Really enjoyed Lestat on the bus explaining his vampirism to his bandmates and telling them why it doesn't matter that he drinks blood and sometimes kills people. I also liked the explanation of the Farm as a reliable blood source for any vampires who need it. His casually thrown-out comment about having the blood of Akasha was hilarious, since nobody knows what he's talking about.

Very cool again when Lestat freezes his audience and uses the cloud gift to fly up to Louis and give him his annotated copy of Interview with the Vampire.

The final scene between Lestat and Gabriella in the piano bar, when he sings a song in French to a montage of the two of them killing the rest of the family was both incredibly touching and so macabre. 

What am I reading on Sunday, June 14th, 2026?

I found this on a recent trip to my local Indigo, in the bargain books section (LOVE the bargain books section!). I was immediately drawn to the cover and when I realized that it was a curated collection of writings about famous cities, I knew I had to have it.

Peter Furtado takes excerpts from various diverse voices throughout history and aligns them with an alphabetical list of the best known cities in the world. It's enchanting and eye-opening. I enjoyed the way it was structured, with a brief description (by the editor) of each city and why that city was renowned. Then the date of the excerpt and a description of the author and why they found themselves in the city they were describing. 

​I think I paid $20 for this hardcover edition and it was totally worth it.

Since I've been buying books lately, actual hold-in-your-hands books, I decided it would be a good idea to go through the books I already had. I haven't done this since 2019 when we had our major renovation. I had also taken some books that my Dad couldn't bring with him when he moved into the retirement home and some from an elderly friend who downsized.

I know from experience that it's a good idea to keep a handle on the amount of books you own, because they are hard to deal with when moving. One of the things I like about living in a small townhome, is that there is not a lot of room to accumulate tons of stuff. 
​
I forgot to take a before photo but this is how things look after:

You can see clearly that I still have a ton of books left (and DVDs but that's another project).

It feels so good to get rid of things I'm not going to use. Some of the books I'd read and enjoyed but I knew I wouldn't re-read them. Others were books I was thinking I might read but, truly, I probably would never get to. My husband and 19 will be taking the dog for his bi-monthly grooming appointment and will drop off the boxes at Value Village.

Museum

I gazed out my window at the abandoned bistro tables and chairs by the canal. What had been supposed to be a fine, sunny day had turned cloudy and grey over a few hours, then a torrent of rain had released over the city.
A text came through on my phone.
Tory: Should we plan for another day?
Me: Or just go somewhere indoors instead…
Tory: Where?
Me: The museum? The history one.
Tory: Sure. Same time?
Me: Yeah
She was late.
I stood at the entrance to the museum and checked my phone. No text, and it was twenty minutes past the time we were supposed to meet. I’m not sure why I kept expecting her to be on time because she never was.
A little boy argued with his mother over going to the gift shop. A couple of teenagers hung by the dinosaur exhibit, gesturing and laughing together. A maintenance worker mopped the hallway.
“Hey, sorry I’m late,” Tory said as she rushed over to me. “Again.”
I laughed and shrugged my shoulders. At least she was here.
“No worries. I was just people watching.”
“You’re always people watching.”
“It comes with the profession.”
As a writer, I constantly had half an ear open for conversations in the vicinity, and a fascination with human behaviour.
“How are things at home?” I asked.
She made a face. “The usual. I need to move out. Again.” She threw me a wry smile. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful I have a place to live. But at my age, living with my parents is not ideal.”
“Have you heard from Brian?”
“Nope. And I can’t decide if I’m happy or sad about it.”
“That’s fair, I suppose.”
“On the one hand, I want my stuff back. But on the other hand, I’m really not missing dealing with his bullshit, y’know?”
I did know. I knew all about Brian and his bullshit.
“Sorry,” she said. “I know he’s your brother.”
“That’s not anyone’s fault,” I said with a sad smile. “Least of all yours.”
“Do you ever wonder if he’ll get his shit together? Or have you given up on him, too?” she asked, a vulnerable look in her gaze.
“That’s a tough question to answer,” I admitted. I gazed around us at the lobby of the museum. “He’s had so many chances.”
“Yeah.”
“You were one,” I said, rubbing my temple.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t—”
“No. Not your fault. At all. He was lucky you were there for him for so long.”
“I wish I could—”
“When I heard you’d left, I was…actually relieved.”
“Were you?”
“Yes. I can’t be sad for Brian because he’s hurt so many people. At some point you have to…”
“…take responsibility?”
I nodded.
“Do you think he ever will?”
“I doubt it. And anyway, there’s nothing I can do except live my own life well.”
She gazed at me, her eyes brimming. She nodded and swallowed.
“Then that’s what I’m going to do,” she said, clearing her throat. She forced a smile. “Come on, let’s go look at the fucking dinosaurs.”

I'm taking a break from working on big writing projects over the summer, but I thought of something I can do on this blog once a week to keep my writing juices flowing. It's called Friday Flash, and what I'm going to do is post a photo on Thursday, and then on Friday, I will post a very short piece of flash fiction (1-2k words) inspired by that photo. I've done this before and really enjoyed it, and I knew some readers at the time quite enjoyed my little bursts of inspiration.

I will open this up to any other authors who want to participate. Just send my your flash fiction pieces by end of day Thursday, and I will post with your name and any links you'd like to include. Since I have no way of inviting authors via social media, it will probably be just me for a little while, but I will directly contact some writers I know and ask if they'd like to join me.

The photo above is for this week's Friday Flash. Tune in tomorrow for a fun little fiction.

How to know you are living in a dystopia without hearing "You are living in a dystopia."

Honestly, I cannot even fathom the world anymore. It is now controlled by a small, elite group of people, mostly men, who have more money than sense and where 'progress' is idolized at the expense of safety and what may be best for humanity. 

That's all I'm going to say but I couldn't resist commenting on this absurdly apropos headline. 

And now back to regular escapist programming ;)

I just stumbled on this very recent video of the two of them reading thirst traps and it is hilarious, as always, and so funny how Sam doesn't understand half of what is said online. I love it.

Well, I did it! I stayed up until 10:15 Sunday night to watch the premiere episode of The Vampire Lestat with my husband and 19. It was...something, lol.

Super fast-paced and frenetic, it was hard to understand what was going on at times, but I was somewhat prepared for it. So many hilarious moments, although I must admit that I'm a little sad that I watched all the teasers etc. because I'd seen quite a bit of it already.

The highlight for me was watching Lestat navigate a crazy high after draining a drugged out groupie (Baby Jenks). The sequence was really well-shot and allowed Sam to shine with his impression of a Lestat not-at-the-top of-his-game and blissed TF out. Also the pink outfit with the corset and blousy shirt was sublime AF. 

Another part I loved was Lestat crashing out on Halloween after reading Interview with the Vampire, and confronting the band across the street with their inadequacies and essentially taking over. There was a moment as he was leaving their apartment building (that I won't spoil) that was so Lestat and hilarious, it made me gasp (as a parent) and laugh out loud (as a viewer).

Shout-out to Ella Ballantine who played Baby Jenks to perfection - I love that this character from the follow-up book The Queen of the Damned was included.

The end of this episode was so unexpected and I loved it. Cannot wait for next week!
​

I'm so glad that my husband and youngest offspring (19) are into this, and this will be an event in our household. Although I'm trying not to drive them MAD with constant talk about it, which is increasingly difficult. All the stuff I've seen recently is only making me more excited.

Nobody really understands that I've waited THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS to see this book and character brought to such dazzling life, never even believing that it would happen until about a year or so ago. I was in high school in the 80s when I read Interview with the Vampire and shortly afterward, The Vampire Lestat, which I loved even more. If you'd have suggested to me that eventually, at the age of 57, I would be watching Sam Reid bring this character to incredible undead life alongside my husband and 19 year old child, I would have laughed in your face. Kind of the way Lestat laughs, actually - "HA!"

But It's happening. It's really happening. And I'm so freaking excited. 

The reviews for the first six episodes, which were screened for a select group of media outlets, have been uniformly positive, and I'm hoping that the excellence of this season will encourage more folks to check out the first two seasons. I always knew that if they were able to get to this point with the show being renewed, and allowed Sam Reid, aka Lestat, to take centre stage, it would blow out of the water everything that has come before.

This man is such a professional and has given everything he has to this character. I'm so glad he got his season to shine. I was also so glad to hear in an interview that he pushed off some projects early in the year to give himself time to rest and recover from filming this thing, and that he is currently in a stage production in Australia to help him find some healthy distance from the character he's inhabited for so long. 

The creative team is so brilliant and has really marketed this latest season well. I've got all of The Vampire Lestat's songs (5 so far) starred on Spotify and I am really impressed with them. My favourite is Butterscotch Bitch but they are all amazing and his voice is incredible. I haven't been this impressed with an actor's vocals since Ewan McGregor sang in Moulin Rouge. Even the cover of Dancing with Myself (as an 80's high schooler I had the original Billy Idol version on replay for years) impressed me with its uniqueness and energy. Move over Billy Idol, Lestat is in town.

As an, ahem, older person with a chronic disease, I am generally in bed by 9:00 every night (and up at 5am btw) For Lestat, though, I'll stay up until...wait, 10:45??? The first episode is an hour and 45 minutes! Ack, I'm so excited. That's movie length! 

Well, if I can stay up for an MRI I can stay up for The Vampire Lestat! 

I'm sure I'll be posting each week with my thoughts on each episode so get ready for some in-depth analysis and chime in if you like.

And check out my dedicated page if you don't mind spoilers.