Writing needs to be a contact exercise. In the summer, I wrote a story with four other writers in a round robin for the 2023 HP Lovecraft Film Festival and Cthulhu Con in Portland, Oregon. There are two other festivals — Rhode Island and Mississippi. We started with a theme “space” and spun off from there.

The story was printed in a double book reward for their Kickstarter (ended up making $62K), first and only printing of 300 copies. While HP Lovecraft’s personal philosophies are tenuous in the modern days, the community of his admirers show-up! This gets me excited, because I love writing cosmic horror (genre referencing HP Lovecraft’s style, themes, and monster types). I have a cosmic horror story coming out in 2024 about a ghost ship’s voyage in 1880.

If I learned anything from this experience, I would tell any writer to get together with friends and write a story or poetry. Stack your sentences. Weave your follies. While its fun to brainstorm ideas, putting the words together are a magical experience.