The Threat of Nuclear War, Women's Rights, a Cozy Mystery, & a Lizard

Why is it that at least every couple of years, it looks like nuclear war is imminent? We're all affected by things like this, but most of us don't have a direct impact on what's going on in the world. At the time of writing this, there's a happening: Russia and Ukraine are battling it out, Iran protests are raging from the fresh fuel of the death of Mahsa Amini, and here in my home country of the United States, hurricane Ian is soon to make landfall—and that's just a few things right off the top of the news.

If you're reading this, remember to do whatever you can to occasionally take a mental health break, in whatever form is available to you. It could be as simple as closing your eyes and breathing for a few moments.

What's New?

• Have you ever read a cozy mystery? A fellow author here in Arizona named Elle Wren Burke has a new book coming out on September 28, 2022, called A Fang to Remember—it's about a disabled vampire who runs a pet boutique in Arterial Falls, Colorado. Honestly, who wouldn't want to read that?
• A new Behind the Scenes for Absolution is up: Q&A With Tae, Editor & Propmaster, where I ask Tae about her experiences in making the immersive story, pick her brain about the literary meaning of monsters, and find out why she was chased by a maniac with a chainsaw.
• I wrote a piece titled Mirrors: Superstition, Mythology, Psychology, & Sanity a while back. A reader somehow managed to dig up something related to it from a 267-year-old-book and sent it to me. I'm still working on sorting it out because reading old foreign languages is time-consuming, but I should have an exciting update in the next few weeks.
• Next Week: A movie from Japan that forever changed the film industry.