Craziest fullest year. Think I had eight weekends in a row where I was doing an event in a different city—well, I say “eight,” but . . . I actually ended up having to cancel the eighth, Miami. Was bummed, as the Rock Bottom Remainders were performing. But, knee was all sloshy with cortisone from, you know, bad decisions, and I wasn’t supposed to walk on it for the weekend. Am currently limping on it, using the cane now and again, kind of poling my way toward the replacement the doc says is coming. Guess it’s what happens when you run up and down the court hurt for too many games, back when I wasn’t having to pay for that kind of stuff. Now I’m having to pay. But? It was all fun; got no regrets.
Anyway, travel for the coming year, aside from touring, is hopefully dialed back some. I mean, I like talking to crowds, signing all the books, that’s forevermuch fun, but I’ve also been stretched thin these last few years, need to stop overriding the people who want to make all these travel decisions for me—the people who want me not stretched too thin. So, easiest way to do that was sign up with a booking outfit.
Anyway, didn’t even mean to be talking about surgeries and travel and the future. Mostly here to say what my favorite stuff was this year, starting with the apparent rollercoaster I was riding:
But, as for real Wrapped, this is the third year, maybe, of me being in the top .05% of Bob Seger listeners:
Anyway, my top artists, songs, and song this year, which really probably go for every year:
These were all system . . . tabulated (?), though—they’re not me, scrolling through a list I’ve been keeping and landing on this, or that. Which I can now get into, with categories, though I’ll probably just be doing clusters instead of favorites? Well, if there is a barely-favorite in a category, I’ll probably make it bigger or something.
Let’s go:
NOVEL
STORY COLLECTION
FLASH FICTION
COMIC BOOK
OLD COMIC BOOKS I FINALLY READ AND LOV-LOV-LOVED
NEW-TO-ME BANDS/ALBUMS
HORROR MOVIE
just seeing: three of these are alien films, yes? and haven’t caught The Dead Thing yet.
NEW TO ME HORROR MOVIE
Which is to say, this is listed as “2022,” but I only found it in 2024:
Guess it’s no real surprise that the sweet spot for me is the intersection of horror and paleo . . .
NON-HORROR MOVIE
2023 MOVIE
That I somehow didn’t catch until January 2024:
BEST REWATCH
NON-FICTION
POEM
SHORT FILM
LINE
Looking down the barrel of a gun, you don’t see the tip of the bullet, you just see darkness, like a preview of eternity.
—Jordan Harper, She Rides Shotgun
MUSIC VIDEO
NEW PODCAST
(in addition to the ones I already dial up all the time: Talking Scared, Colors of the Dark, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, The Kingcast, The Spiel, The Scares That Shaped Us, A Way With Words)
AD
AUDIOBOOK
ARTICLE
NEWS
SKETCH
DOCUMENTARY
TELEVISION
BEST TELEVISION EPISODE
MEMES & FROM ONLINE
2025
What I’ve got coming up are . . .
- . . . a “Monster” lecture course at CU Boulder, where we go through werewolves, zombies, vampires, slashers, demons, kaiju, aliens, and, finally, artificial intelligence, all with an eye to figuring out not just how to survive them, but how to put them down
- The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, out March 18th:
- Killer on the Road, out July 15th:
- The next installment of True Believers, which I also can’t show yet . . .
And . . . few stories already qeued up, some already through copyediting, some just ducking into that process, but none I can announce quite yet. Though, one’s “The Porniest Porn in Porntown.” Another’s “The Indigo Room.” Another’s “The Belle of the Ball.” Can’t say the others. But? Just wrote the next Slasher Nation. Who knows how many more I end up doing—every one, I think I can’t have anything more. But then, you know: ideas. It’s slashers, right? Who could ever say everything? They keep changing, developing, broaching into new terrain. Speaking of: 2025 will be the next Scream, yes? Couldn’t be more excited. The movie I went to see in 1997 (I was a month late, yes), it still isn’t over. I hope it never goes over.
stay golden . . . ish?
scary posting this six days before the end of the year. what if I see and read the most amazing, belongs-here stuff in those last five days, right? well, guess I'l edit, then. do hope to catch the Bob Dylan movie soon, maybe a couple more.