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2025 entertainment to remember

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Who doesn’t love a good year-in-review? Well, plenty of people. But here’s one anyway.

2025 was a shitshow for a lot of people, and I hope 2026 is an improvement. For me, 2025 was the year I self-published my 1984-set high school crime novel THAT OCTOBER, saw a bunch of short fiction and pop culture pieces published and joined with some friends in Constellate Creatives, where we’ll offer help to writers in the form of editing, publishing and marketing.

But like Milhouse from “The Simpsons,” you might be asking, “When are they going to get to the fireworks factory?” Or in this case, when is he gonna talk about something fun, like pop culture? Movies, TV shows, books.

I won’t try to tackle books here and I’ll note that some of my favorite books I read in 2025 haven’t been published yet. So that’ll wait.

In the meantime:

MOVIES: I don’t see a ton of movies in theaters. I catch a lot of movies on streaming services. So far this year, probably my favorite and best movie I saw, first in theaters and then on streaming, was SINNERS, Ryan Coogler’s story of race and vampires in Depression-era Mississippi. Just an absorbing, exemplary film and one that proves Hollywood can reach moviegoers/viewers with something daring and origiinal.

I think SUPERMAN should carry that definition too. Yes, we’ve seen sooo many takes on the classic superhero by now. But James Gunn’s SUPERMAN gave us one of the best, most original and fully-fleshed-out comic book worlds ever.

On the Marvel side, I really enjoyed CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, THUNDERBOLTS* and FANTASTIC FOUR. The latter seemed really safe and un-ambitious but was the best-by-far adaptation of my favorite comic book heroes ever.

Among streaming series, I think PLURIBUS was the best I saw, maybe tied with THE PITT. The two series couldn’t be more different, but PLURIBUS was thoughtful and funny and THE PITT was like a shot of adrenalin.

IT: WELCOME TO DERRY was also outstanding, I thought, with some of the best scares and characters and most authentic Stephen King atmosphere of any screen translation and expansion in years.

PARADISE was a good end-of-the-world contrast to PLURIBUS. BALLARD was a very good continuation of BOSCH. LONG BRIGHT RIVER was also quite good, moody and solemn and endearing. MURDERBOT was brutally funny. TASK was somber and intense. THE HUNTING WIVES was looney fun. THE BETTER SISTER was grim and affecting.

I wanted more of most of these series but admit I felt a little cheated of a proper conclusion when they ended with another season clearly in mind (or hoped for). I really want more DERRY and PLURIBUS and don’t mind feeling used and teased.

Filling the void in indie publishing? Is that possible?

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I won’t pretend to sum up the weird state of small publishing here. If you’re been following the world of indie and small publishing, you know that 2025 has seen some small imprints go out of business – in some cases leaving authors unpaid – and others purport to try to fill that void.

I’m not sure that Constellate Creatives’ publishing arm, Constellate Publishing, the enterprise I’m affiliated with, will fill that void. For one thing, we can’t be all things to all people.

But as we started Constellate’s venture into editing – developmental editing and copy editing — and publishing and marketing a few months ago, it became obvious that somebody needed to be around to step in and catch a few worthy projects. Or maybe juggle chainsaws.

It’s making for a 2026 I’m really excited about. Constellate Publishing will publish my novel SEVEN ANGELS but there’s a diverse lineup of books on tap for the first two quarters of 2026, including a book of mindful self-help, a book of poetry, my novel and two by Jill Blocker, a reissue of her WHAT WAS BEAUTIFUL AND GOOD and her new novel, HAPPILY AFTER EVER. The latter is what’s increasingly termed a “new adult” book and will appeal to readers post-YA in their reading interests.

I’m proud to have noticed that every book besides mine is written by a woman and even mine has a cast of woman as protagonists.

And note the slide I’ve posted above: Constellate Creatives is offering editing, publishing and marketing services, or some combination of those, and at socially-responsible fees based on the regional wage in each writer’s local economy.

Some of us love to edit copy and help with developing your work. Others (raises hand) love marketing. Yes, I’m weird like that. We can’t promise that PR about your book will land on large market-share sites like KTLA, where our news release announcing our slate for the first half of 2026, was picked up. But we’ll be pitching your work and you won’t have to deal with the dreaded marketing.

There’s a button somewhere on the CC site that will lead you to a free consultation. We might be able to answer some questions for you.

https://constellatecreatives.com/

Another career? In this economy? I’ve got a new title and new mission

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I’ve been a writer since high school and a reporter most of my life. As of today, I’ve got a new title: head of Content and Publishing at Constellate Publishing, part of Constellate Creatives.

The title is fun, but what I’ll be doing is what’s important: Helping other writers work toward their goals of writing, completing their book and publishing their work and helping them reach readers.

There’s a button on the CC site that’ll lead to a free consultation.

If writing is your dream, we can help make that dream a reality.

https://constellatecreatives.com/

Cryptic chapter titles? We got ’em for SEVEN ANGELS

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I love a good mystery. Obviously, it’s what I write, at least a lot of the time. So as Constellate Creatives is putting together my novel SEVEN ANGELS for 2026 release, I’ve put titles to the novel’s 69 chapters.

Here are some. And yes, I deliberately tried to invoke the “say what now?” feeling of the cryptic episode titles of shows like STRANGER THINGS.

Looking forward to June 2026 publication of SEVEN ANGELS.

https://constellatecreatives.com/

Playing with book pricing and formats is an interesting experience

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Some of you might know that in October I lowered the $9.99 price of my book THAT OCTOBER to $1.06. It was a pricing stunt, of course, and I increased the price to $8.99 today (although as of this writing, it was still $1.06).

Authors and publishers who’ve played around with prices before know there’s some fascination to watching what happens. No surprise that people are motivated to buy when the price is reduced and we saw a nice bump in sales all October long and the first week-plus of November. (The kindle version came out September 1.)

Royalties were down, of course, but we expected that, and that isn’t the primary point anyway, because I wasn’t going to get rich off sales at any price. (Maybe those solid gold editions I plan for the holiday season will take care of that!)

But practically giving the kindle version away caused the book to jump into the top 100,000 titles on kindle for a short period, which was very cool.

Also interesting was a price change I made in the paperback edition, which came out June 1. Most sites, like B&N and Powell’s and Bookshop dot org, have been selling it for the recommended $24. A few have knocked that price down a couple of dollars.

Recently I created a link to buy THAT OCTOBER directly from the printer, Ingram Spark, and at a discounted price of $20 for the paperback. It’s given the paperback a modest boost in sales.

We’ll probably run some other price discounts in the coming months, to get the book and ebook in more hands and to continue this experiment,

Here’s a link to get THAT OCTOBER for $20 from Ingram Spark:

https://shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?params=J7whM7pHUaWJ8Yo51MkumOJTtw3j1gvNLmIfhQBGBMi

Constellate Creatives Publishing gets a shiny new logo and shiny new projects

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It’s a work in progress, but aren’t we all?

Y’all know by now, if you care to, that I’m working with my friends at Constellate Creatives. We’ll be helping writers with editing (both developmental and copy editing) book design, cover design, marketing and publicity for their books.

The boss at CC came up with the CP logo above, which stands for Constellate Publishing.

We’ve got a bunch of stuff in the works and best of all we’ve got a few books in the pipeline for 2026, when we really gear up. They’re a diverse lot, too.

Here’s a link if you want to know more about Constellate Creatives. There’s a button on the site for more info (services with a foundation of socially responsible pricing based on regional wage numbers), including free consultation.

And I’ll tell you more over the next few weeks.

https://constellatecreatives.com/

Bring your story to life

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I’ll never forget seeing my novel THAT OCTOBER in the bookstore at Bouchercon, the world mystery convention, in New Orleans this summer. I geeked out and thanked the woman from Garden District Book Shop, which ran book sales for the NOLA Bcon, several times over the course of the conference.

I’ve been writing since I was in high school and over the decades in the newspaper business I won more than 30 first-place journalism awards, both state and national. I’m the co-author of four best-selling, award-winning true crime books.

But there was no experience quite like seeing THAT OCTOBER among books from other authors, available to anyone. (It’s all over online booksellers too, but again – having a novel that someone can pick up is an incredible experience.)

That’s a big reason I’m working with my longtime friends at Constellate Creatives to help other writers with developmental editing, copy editing, cover design, interior design, marketing and publicity including social media.

Maybe some of this perception was all in my head, but at the time of my first Bouchercon, in Nashville in 2024, I didn’t have a book in print and it felt very different to be in NOLA in 2025 with a book that people could literally pick up and purchase.

Constellate wants to help you with a goal of getting your book in readers’ hands.

There’s a button you can smash – as the young people say – on the site to ask about a free consultation.

We’re writers just like you. We’ve got some ideas.

Constellate Publishing

If you write, you’re a writer … and maybe you could use a boost

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It’s been observed by smarter people than me that writing can be a daunting profession and avocation because of the isolation inherent in sitting at a desk all day, typing on your laptop or making notes in your journal.

It can be a challenge, and I’m not talking about writer’s block, although there is that, too.

The bigger challenge can be the feeling of working in a vacuum, the feeling that you’re writing and writing and rewriting and aren’t sure if you’re getting where you want to be with your story, your article or your book.

I’m known to say, “If you write, you’re a writer.” It doesn’t matter if you’ve been published or not, if you’ve had short stories or books published, to great acclaim or total *cricket noise.*

Cause I believe if you’re writing, or making notes, or thinking about writing and sending yourself ideas in texts and emails … well, you’re writing.

Sometimes you need a boost. I know I do. I’m lucky to have writer friends who read my stuff, from flash fiction to novels, and tell me what they think. I’m lucky to provide the same kind of support for my writer friends.

So a small group of us are now offering a boost to writers, no matter what stage they’re in.

I joined up with Constellate Creatives a while back and just the other day announced my affiliation with CC, which is owned and overseen by longtime friends of mine who are writers but also know other aspects of the writing life, from editing (developmental and copy editing) to publishing to marketing and everything in between.

Our goal is to help writers.

There’s a contact button on the Constellate Creatives site that I’m linking to below.

And I’ll tell you more in the weeks and months ahead.

The image above isn’t the Constellate Creatives logo. It’s an image from the 1960s spy TV series “The Girl from UNCLE.” But it’s a pretty nifty bit of art and sort of communicates the international foundation of Constellate.

More info:

https://constellatecreatives.com/

Podcast: I talk a lot about journalism, writing and THAT OCTOBER

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Okay, be sure you have the beverage of your choice before you settle in for this.

I’m the guest for the new Pages & Partners podcast from Muncie Public Library. This interview was shot in June when I was last in Muncie. Host Gabby Sandefer was so much fun to sit down with.

I talk about journalism, true crime and my 1984-set high school crime novel THAT OCTOBER.

It’s almost an hour of me, but there’s lots of stuff about other topics, including late-night meetings with sources and how I cover cold cases and other true crime.

TCM is my comfort place – my spooky place in October

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I’ve always loved watching Halloween horrors on TV. That didn’t change when it became easy to find classic horror films on first cable TV and VHS and later online and on streaming.

There’s still something wonderful about the communal experience of watching horror films, old and new-ish, on TV, even if the communal watchers are all over the world. That’s one of the reasons I love TCM – Turner Classic Movies – in October.

A few years ago, AMC was a go-to place for horror films and documentaries in October and the channel still shows the genre, but TCM has the largest and most diverse and often strangest selection of films each October.

That’s again the case this year, with Fridays devoted to Creepy Cinema, Sundays devoted to Hitchcock and weekends featuring classic horror films. Look for Hammer horror on Monday October 20, Boris Karloff on the 21st, sci-fi horror on the 22nd and horror marathons the last few days of the month.

Here’s a link to TCM’s offerings this month. Happy Halloween!

Click to access OCT_AT_A_GLANCE.pdf