Happy Sextilis! I hope your summer is going well!
Before we go any further, I should clarify my opening greeting. Sextilis was the name of the month of August before the Roman Senate changed it in 8 BC. Sextilis literally means the sixth month, which is what it was before it became the eighth month in 700 BC. This was all thanks to Rome’s second king, Numa Pompilius, deciding the Roman calendar needed a couple of extra months to account for winter. Flash forward almost 700 years to 8 BC, and the sixth month that had become the eighth month was renamed to honour Augustus Caesar. Ah, history.
Speaking of Sex(tilis), I’ve always thought of my books as grown-up, story-driven horror without all the shagging (AKA: Sex). That doesn’t mean my stories are tame—far from it. There are monsters, blood, body horror, occasional strong language, and all manner of horrible things happening to people I’ve hopefully made you care about. But I’ve never felt the need to stop the story cold for an explicit sex scene to take place.
While reading James Herbert’s The Rats when I was in my teens, I was having a wonderful time with the giant rodent horror until, without warning, I suddenly found myself in the middle of something resembling Wanda’s Deep Throat Goes Behind the Green Door. It was rather jarring, and the moment has stayed with me all these years. There have been many other books I’ve read since, where the monsters are happily making mayhem, and suddenly I found myself transported beneath the covers and making whoopee, thinking, “Where did the monsters go?”
Don’t get me wrong, if a person enjoys a little rumpy-pumpy in their stories, there’s nothing wrong with that, but that’s a different kind of story than I write. With my fiction, there might be a little romance thrown into the mix on occasion, or maybe some light flirting, but nothing that you wouldn’t have seen in a TV movie back in the day. When my characters feel the urge, it generally happens behind a closed door, as it should between two people who care about each other. A kiss, a hug, a suggestion that two consenting adults might enjoy each other’s company is fine. After that, I’m happy to close the bedroom door and get back to whatever is currently trying to eat everyone. Some would argue that characters smashing every other chapter adds to the verisimilitude of a novel, but I disagree when it comes to a horror novel. I’m there for the monsters, the mystery, the humour and the action, just as you are.
(Click to see a larger view on my website)
With that passionate topic off my chest, I will now direct your attention to a new movie poster I have made of Nibbler and Fry that definitely doesn’t come from Earth-1218. This month, Nibbler enjoys his liver pate with some fava beans, while Fry works on his imitation of a moth.
And, lest we forget one of the reasons you’re reading this newsletter, there is something else I hope will be on the next level: Besieged. I am getting dangerously close to the end of the novel, with less than a dozen chapters left to go. My writing odometer just ticked over to the 91,000-word mark, so it was a good month last month, with over 15,000 words added to my latest tall tale. As usual, I am loath to give away any spoilers. However, let me say that Lively has just discovered that something he thought was a liability turns out to be more of an unexpected asset. Minerva, meanwhile, has discovered that the horror of the Slaughtered Lamb goes far deeper than she could have ever imagined, and it knows her name.
With the obligatory book update and parody poster out of the way, we can turn our attention to the monthly audiobook draw. This month, our two lucky winners of a Katie Berry audiobook of their choice are cassielovescoupons@XXXXXX.com and lenttt23@XXXXXX.com. Congratulations to you both, and I hope you have a great listen!
Okay, that’s about all for now. Next month I want to talk about some of the amazing new horror films I’ve seen recently (Backrooms, MadS and Cold Storage spring to mind, to name a few). I would talk about them in this newsletter, but all that shagging got in the way, and I don’t want to make it any longer than it already is, since I am trying to keep things short and sweet.
Good health and great reads to you all,
-Katie B