Iceland, election rants, editing updates, and other items
"Nobody Trusts Anybody Now, And We're All Very Tired." —MacReady, The Thing
To kick things off: my last newsletter was a bit of a rant about art and politics, and had some not-so-nice things to say about Trump voters, and I promised to update all of you on how many subscribers I lost…
And in fact, I gained eight.
I got one piece of hate mail, which was very funny because 1. the grammar and spelling were embarassingly bad and 2. they claimed to have cancelled all their Barnes & Noble orders for my books, which isn’t even a good lie, because no one has orders just pending in the ether waiting to be cancelled.
I’m going to refrain from posting another rant (this one aimed at Democrats and our habit of eating each other over single issues, therefore snatching defeat from the jaws of victory…)
But as much as I want to turn this newsletter into a series of political rants, I probably should not do that. Only because I need my blood pressure to come down a bit, rather than climb any higher than it already is.
Let’s talk about something a bit more fun: Iceland!
Iceland Noir kicks off Wednesday, Nov. 20—and I will be there!
On Nov. 23 I’ll be on a panel about writing spy thrillers with Tim Glister and MJ Furtek, moderated by Jacky Collins. You can see the entire schedule and get tickets here.
I’m excited to spend a couple of days poking around Reykjavík. I’ve already booked some time at Sky Lagoon and a Northern Lights tour. If you have any suggestions for not-to-be-missed stuff in Reykjavík, let me know down in the comments.
This is the perfect moment to be going, because I need a teeny-tiny little break from America, though I suspect a lot of conversations will be either my fellow Americans asking “what the fuck happened?” or non-Americans asking “what the fuck happened?”
My plate is filling up a bit, so while I’m still open to freelance gigs (manuscript edits, query package reviews), I probably won’t be able to take on any new clients until the beginning of December (unless we already talked about working together sooner).
If you want to get in there, you’re still free to reach out! I’ll most likely only take one or two new clients in December, so I can focus on holiday stuff and my own writing.
Other than that, Nick Kolakowski did this great interview featuring me and
over at CrimeReads, about Dark Space. Have you gotten your copy yet? If not, you should get it. Then go read the interview.
There is a museum in Borgarnes with a section dedicated to Njal's saga. While you may not want to travel that far out of Reykjavik, the Icelandic sagas and related literature are treasures of story-telling. The sagas are filled with crimes of revenge and defiance against the Danish King. Be sure to eat some Geysir Bread.
Try not to miss the Lebowski Bar. Yes, it's a bar solely dedicated to the movie. The Phallological Museum is possibly a treat. Definitely worth a t-shirt. Guranteed to break the ice at parties (he said in his best Eric Idle accent)