One Year Later…

“I’m not perky.”

Me either, Wednesday Addams. Me either.

“But I wanna be.”

No, Wednesday, no! It’s a lie, right? Right?

Yes, it’s a lie.

I went about this blog the wrong way. I started it when I had no idea what I wanted it to be. I got intense writer’s block with this blog because I got busy with a lot of other things, and I didn’t know where I wanted to go with it. It felt inauthentic.

I had thought I wanted it to be about New Mexico and anything spooky—thus the name (well, partly; my nickname is Sukie, and a young lady I grew up with did call me Spooky Sukie, as I mentioned in previous blog posts that I’m going to keep for nostalgia). I had taken a trip in July 2021 to visit a friend who lives in Massachusetts. Part of it was that I had never gone on a vacation or traveled by myself before. Part of it was that I needed to get away for a bit. Part of it was that I was considering moving to either Massachusetts or Rhode Island after the breakup mentioned in my very first blog post and in the dedication of my very first novel that I published myself: Sisters: Nymphetamine Fix. It’s available for purchase on Amazon Kindle and in paperback. Please look up the title, not my name in order to find it if you’re interested. For reference, the name on the book is my real name: Marinda L. Kippert.

I’ll admit I miss Boston on rainy days, and it’s been raining quite a bit lately. But I wouldn’t want to live in Boston. That written, I’m not very fond of living in New Mexico, either. I’d rather not get into details about why. I’m just not fond of it.

A lot has happened in a year: In October of 2021, I created a Facebook and Instagram to promote my writing and my book(s) as much as possible on my end. I also reached out to a wonderful, badass woman who has seriously changed my life for the better that fall (I can’t remember when I reached out to her specifically). Perhaps you’ve heard of Nikki Colmone or Kristen Ramezzana. I found Nikki’s podcast, Witchcraft and Wellness because I needed something positive, inspiring, helpful to listen to, something to help motivate me. The second my Instagram was up and running, I followed her. She advertised in her podcast one-on-one sessions, and I always thought someday. Someday, I’ll work with her. I’ll work up the courage to do a one-on-one call with her. Someday happened very quickly; she was launching her Womb Alchemy Academy, and it resonated. I contacted her. We had our one-on-one. In January of 2022, I went through WAA, and everything snowballed from there. One of the first things to do was an entity clearing; Nikki wasn’t able to do it herself, because she was pregnant at the time, and so we were to schedule with Kristen, which was how I met Kristen. On the heels of finishing WAA, I went into Kristen’s Money Magick.

I turned 34 in February—February 22, 2022 (yep, on TWOsday this year). I started reaching out to literary agents to get Sisters: Nymphetamine Fix off the ground and published. I’d either hear very polite “no’s” or nothing at all, unless I had accidentally reached out to what are called vanity publishers—we’ll publish your novel and we’ll do all of the promoting, but you need to pay us first. I launched a Tarot reading business around the same time I started to seriously consider Amazon Self-Publishing. I also somehow managed to come out of my broom closet to my dad. What is a broom closet, you ask? It’s very much like a closet for someone LGBTQ+, except the broom closet is for Witches. I was brought up Catholic, but from a young age, it stopped resonating for me. I could talk about that in another post, but I’m also thinking of writing about it for the introduction of my next book, as a prominent theme in the book is how Catholicism and Christianity didn’t work for my characters either. No, they found comfort and solace in Wicca/Witchcraft and Satanism. But we’ll get to that book eventually in this post.

I came out of my broom closet in May, and not long after, Money Magick started. It’s been nice not to hide it, to be able to tell my dad, whom I live with because I’m a state worker, I went to college and have loans and New Mexico is not only a poor state but an expensive one, “oh, hey, I have a meeting with my witchy friends” or “I have a witchy Zoom meeting” etc. I’ve also bought him a few Tarot decks, purely for the art, and I’ve offered to do readings for him, which he’s declined, and I respect his decline.

As of June 22, 2022, I published my book on Amazon. I couldn’t have done it at all without the friends I had at the time (some of whom I’ve outgrown, or vice versa), and I definitely couldn’t have done it without my psychologist or Nikki or Kristen, let alone the bands I was listening to on repeat at the time. I’m currently planning on doing an anniversary edition as well, but I’ve yet to really start working on it sadly. On July 22, I had a book signing, where I sold eight of the ten copies I’d brought with me to ReVamp, where I’d asked the owner if I could have the signing, and fruits and cakes were provided.

I’m back in the office for my government job part of the week. I’m not sure when we’ll be going back full time. My free time is precious to me, and I’m getting better at laying out my boundaries (thank you Psychologist, Nikki, and Kristen, and the friends I’ve made since joining Womb Alchemy, Money Magick, and the Underworld Club, hosted by Kristen! Awakening Witch Academy is soon to start!).

I’m between books right now, as I’ve finished Grave Matters: The First Necromancer.

(Can you see why I’d like to publish it by Halloween? Not quite? Well… There are ghosts, witches, and yes, necromancers!)

(But first…before it’s published…I really feel I should muster up the courage to come out of the broom closet on Facebook at the very least…there are reasons for this, of course, both personal and…well, come to think of it, I guess it’s mostly personal.)

And the rest of the year? What comes next after Grave Matters?

I’ve started working on Sisters 2, not to mention Grave Matters 2.

I’m researching Vampire: The Masquerade 2nd Edition as thoroughly as I can.

“But Spooky Sukie,” you’re saying, “what? Why? Don’t you know that Fifth Edition is out?”

Yes, I’m aware Fifth Edition is out. That’s where the heavy and thorough research is coming in. I can’t say too much on details, but I will say, I want my characters for a certain book in a series separate but linked to Sisters and Grave Matters to play Vampire: Masquerade, possibly also Werewolf: Apocalypse and Dungeons & Dragons. My books rely very heavily on timelines, and this particular book starts in the nostalgic year of 1999. That’s why I’m looking at 2nd Edition of Vampire and Werewolf (more so Vampire, if I’m honest). When I researched and looked at copyright years and publication dates, I found out very quickly (probably not the point of research papers in high school, but it’s definitely how I learned to look at/for copyright dates in books, and I’m forever grateful) that my characters would in fact be playing 2nd Edition. (Also, thankfully The Book of Nod had been published in 1997, and I couldn’t be happier about it! I read The Book of Nod so many times in middle school, and it’s still one of my favorite books to smell…er, I mean… *cough, cough* read. I meant read. Leave me and The Book of Nod alone, okay? We’ll be fine. Imagine my disappointment though, in finding out it’s actually more of a prop, it’s more used for people choosing to play elders, apparently…I still love it though, and want to reread it cover-to-cover, like I used to in middle school. Still, one of my characters gets to own it and read it!)

Hi, I’m a bit of a nerd. Welcome. You are here, you have arrived. If you’ve read this far, you’re here for this, you can close that browser any time.

Everyone else gone? We can go back to what we were doing? Great!

The other books I have in mind (hopefully) won’t take up that much lengthy research (she types and realizes she probably just jinxed herself, but she’s just blissfully unaware of it and how at the moment; talk about sympathizing with The Fool from the Major Arcana). The thing is, I’m just not sure what to write next. It was like this after having finished Sisters as well, when I was trying to get it published. I started so many other things while I was waiting to hear back from literary agents: First I thought to work on Sisters 2, because it was fresh in my mind…but I’m still trying to figure out a way around something that happens with the end of Sisters: Nymphetamine Fix, a loophole.

I felt like working on Legacy. I feel like Legacy is my happy place, which is a little weird and twisted…you’ll find out why in time. (Legacy follows a few more Demons and a Fairy. There’s also a Dragon! Well, two, but I’m working it out in my head.)

I made an attempt with Disguise (Werewolves), but realized I was starting at the wrong place with it, I needed to go back further with the character; show, don’t tell they taught in my fiction writing classes, one of the incredibly few things I agree with my fiction professors on (I’m trying to unlearn a lot of what they “taught” me; I much preferred my nonfiction professors, which is ironic because I much prefer writing fiction).

I tried working on Haunted (psychics, mediums, Brujas and Curanderas, as well as ghost hunters and ghost hunting). I’m very in love with the characters and the story, it just needs more editing and tweaking. And, of course, to be finished…. (And I just remembered: I need to do research on pretty much psychics, mediums, Brujas and Curanderas, so there’s that.)

Then I felt like working on Blood Scarlet (Vampires), but it felt like it wasn’t coming out right. For something that I’ve been around since I was fifteen, characters I’ve known for 20 years early summer of 2023, they aren’t necessarily getting easier to write as time goes on…it doesn’t help that I’m kind of wanting to find a different draft I was working on in 2017ish to steal a scene from it and make it fit better in this latest rendition… Around this time, I was getting the feeling that I needed to work on Grave Matters (witches). I really, really didn’t want to work on Grave Matters. I knew how it was going to start and how it was going to end. I just didn’t know the entirety of the middle.

“Your guides are telling you to work on Grave Matters. Work on Grave Matters,” Nikki told me in one of our one-on-one sessions.

*Cringe* Damn it, okay… I started…and found it was hard to stop until it was over. I think that could very well be another post—why Grave Matters was so hard to write sometimes, why I put off writing it, but once I stopped being lazy and pulled out my laptop, it was finished by July 4—Happy “Independence” Day! (That’s right, I’m not happy about it either. Visit the Rebel Witch shop for your very own “Keep your filthy laws off my Wombneverse” tank top today! Except seriously, Nikki and Kristen found the softest of fabrics from a storm cloud somewhere, I promise, and the design is absolutely wonderful and gorgeous!)

And now I’m here. Grave Matters didn’t need much editing or rewriting, not as much as Sisters had initially needed. I reached out to one of the friends I made from The Underworld Club, who had offered to edit if I wanted, asked if they’d mind editing Grave Matters. I’ve heard back, accepted the edits, and now I’m working on putting it in the format for Amazon Self-Publishing again. I have a cover picture for it already. Maybe when it’s published, I’ll get an idea or feeling on what to work on next…

Before I knew it, it was September 1st again. It was time to either renew my blog payment or take down my blog entirely. I decided to pay it out of nostalgia…and realized it’s not only another platform to promote my writing, possibly even my Tarot reading business, but it’s something I want to do. A lot of people suggested I do a writing blog. I didn’t want to and was very against it—I talk about it all the time, no one wants to read about writing. I’m still not sure what I want this blog to be, but I have the ability to make it what I want it to be.

But also, Happy (Belated) Birthday, Ricky “Horror” Olson! I had no idea I’d posted my very first blog entry on his birthday, and now the secret is out: HUGE Motionless in White fan, party of one here in New Mexico, please and thanks. And yes, in my first blog, when I tried to awkwardly gloss over what asylum I was looking up because favorite band, I was looking at pictures of Pennhurst for MIW’s June 9th, 2021 Deadstream when I saw pictures of Dean Winchester’s Baby and yes, I’ve very recently gotten my dad into Supernatural. Score!

Happy (Early) Birthday to Chris Motionless/Cerulli as well! Hopefully I’ll have another post up next week, but just in case…

All of this said, I’m hoping to be back soon with another post. Until then…

Keep it Spooky!