10/13/2019
It’s the 13th of October, in case you didn’t realize that from the date that’s literally right above this sentence.
As I suspected...a no-words day. But that’s okay! Today was a Halloween Special for me! If you never watched Dawson’s Creek or other dumb teen shows in the late 90s/early aughts, then perhaps you are unfamiliar with the Halloween Special, so let me give you my rough approximation of a summary: un Halloween Speciale is an episode where the normal continuity of the show is generally forgotten so that the characters can instead partake in a short anthology of scary stories, often (though not always) culminating in the deaths (or other bodily harm) of said main characters for dramatic effect, only for those deaths to be wiped away clean when the normal continuity returns next episode. November, that hallowed month of resurrection.
It’s been a very long time since I’ve watched Dawson’s Creek, but my memory is that these were the best episodes. For a modern version, see season 2 of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, the episode titled “Doctor Cerberus’ House of Horror”. (I think The Simpsons did these kind of specials too, but I never watched The Simpsons regularly, so that means it doesn’t exist.)
So, what was my personal Halloween Special, you ask? Why, my friends and I travelled out deep into the middle of nowhere...to a pretty popular attraction for children and their parents! It’s called Bob’s Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch. And every single one of us died and was born anew...if by “died” you mean “consumed enough s’mores that we almost certainly contributed to our own early deaths via heart disease.”
The attraction works thusly: we had a reservation at one of their firepits at 6pm--said firepits are located along the outside of an extensive corn maze, the shape of which changes every year. You’re supposed to show up more than an hour early so you can have time to take the hayride over there and then navigate through half of the maze to reach the side where the firepits are located.
So, at around 3:30, I hopped in the car with my partner and one of my roommates, and we put on some foreboding mood music as we traveled out of the city and into the idyllic countryside, crossing over the water and into the mountains, surrounded by the majesty of trees changing into a million colors on their way to gloomy death (winter.)
Then we met up with our other comrades and had some cider donuts and stocked up on EVEN MORE SNACKS (which were kindly ferried by Bob’s employees to our firepit destination for us) and then got in line for the hayride. Lucky for us, Bob’s does provide a map to the corn maze if you want it, and even more lucky for us, my roommate and I were AGGRESSIVELY competent at reading said map.
So, we made it to our firepit more or less intact, and proceeded to eat a bunch of sugar and share scary stories...most of which we had stolen from the internet.
Here are some pics.
Bodes well, obviously.
Nothing ominous here.
Normal, not-haunted corn.
Definitely no zombies.
Those who walk here, walk alone.
10/14/2016
101
Y’all, I swear I made an attempt, but your girl is TIRED AS HELL today. Probably should not have capped off yesterday with even more Taco Bell and a viewing of The Conjuring. Look, sometimes when you’re having fun, you just want MORE, okay?
Anyway, I’m tired now. On the plus side, I’d ordered a vanity table, and it arrived today, and I put it together almost completely. I kept telling myself I was just going to do a little bit more...and then all of a sudden it was almost completely done, and it was late, and I was way too tired to write much. But at least now my desk is just a desk, and not a combo desk and vanity, which is important because I do, in fact, own quite a lot of makeup.
10/15/2019
878
I’m limping back to full form! I was better rested today, but I also had to work late, and I also wanted to finish what remained of the vanity. Ugh, I hate how much I love doing practical projects. It’s so easy to convince me to work on something cool for my room instead of writing. Because it feels like work, but not work-work, you know?
But at least I worked out AND ate healthy today. Wait, why am I even down on myself? This was a decent writing day! (Answer: because I stayed up until 12:45pm to do it, and now, the next day, I am exhausted and I hate everything.)
10/17/2019
1,052
Now that’s what I’m talking about! I’m writing a pretty fun scene right now, but I do feel like I have to be extra careful when I’m enjoying myself with dialogue. I have a hefty tendency to over-write a scene. But hey, that’s what editing is for, right? Sometimes you just have to cut out like half of your words, ya know?
10/18/2019
569
Knocked it out of the park for a Friday! I think I was just feeling inspired, honestly. I actually think I had less time today than I normally do on a Friday--it was just one of those miraculous days where the words simply flow.
Then I watched Hereditary, and returned handily to my tradition of not being scared at horror movies. It’s definitely intense, mind you. But intense and scary are not the same. (To be clear, I understand why most people find it scary. I’m just a soulless robot, myself. Or maybe the word is “sociopath.” Who knows?)
10/19/2019
It was my partner’s birthday today. I think I’ll go ahead and forego torturing myself over a lack of word count.
We went back to the corn maze. It was much muddier this time. Our feet and legs became very sore from trying not to fall. And our boots became caked with mud.
Also I made a chocolate bourbon pecan pie, per his only request. It was good.
Weekly total: 2,600
Surplus from last week: 764
New total: 3,364
-Tess
Hey, thanks for reading! If you’re new here, and you’d like to hear updates on my writing, including these blog posts and my ongoing novel series, The Choronzon Chronicles, then click below to sign up for my email list!
Alternately, if you’ve never heard of The Choronzon Chronicles before, but you think you might check it out, you can find the first book right here: Shadow Summoner.