My official press shot for WHALEFALL (Pic by Virginia Kemp)
I’m a writer. I’m also a realist, a pessimist, a pragmatist, a utilitarian, a logician, and an atheist. And yet. And yet! Today I feel a glimmer of hope. Every time America seems down for the count, the Rocky theme swells and I hear my favorite quote from that series:
It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.
By and large, the election deniers—the greatest immediate threat to democracy—lost their elections. The nation has bought itself another few years to keep kicking. Love and respect to the voters, especially the young ones, who I have perennially doubted (even when I was one) and who came through.
Hi, by the way. I’m Daniel Kraus and this is Issue #23 of my newsletter, Last Kraus on the Left.
This newsletter is still a thing, you ask? Fair!
I ran out of energy with the newsletter in April 2021. The main I reason was overwork. Any work time I don’t spend writing books feels like wasted time to me. This is largely why I don’t write short stories and, for most of my career, didn’t do events. The events thing changed big-time in 2022. I made 9 trips related to book promotion. I'm not going to call those trips “inspiring,” because I don’t use words like “inspiring.” But invigorating? Often.
Highlights included:
- Somehow avoiding Stephen Graham Jones's Covid at StokerCon in Denver
- Paneling with Gabino Iglesias, Rachel Harrison, and more at ALA in D.C.
- Writing 4,000 words a day at the jaw-dropping Milkwood retreat
- Being stuck in an airport for many hours after Scares That Care, but being able to spend those hours with new friend Rio Youers
- Giving a keynote address in Salt Lake City, which has the distinction of being maybe the prettiest major city in the U.S. and the shame of making the worst cocktails on Earth
- Spending quality time with a couple of my favorite writers, Meg Elison and David Demchuck, at WorldCon
- Doing a two-leg Graveyard Girls book tour with Lisi Harrison
- Showering in an outdoor shower in upstate New York while taking the above press photo for my upcoming novel Whalefall; I’m not sure why this was life-changing, but it was.
Anyway, Q&A time.
Why are you restarting this newsletter?
Because Twitter, the only social media I use, does actually seem to be inching toward non-existence. I’d still give Twitter a 60% chance of survival, but, you know, those are still not great survival odds. So I’m doing 3 things.
1. I’ve opened an account on Mastodon, which has emerged as the most likely Twitter replacement. The search function sucks, but otherwise it couldn’t be easier to use and, so far, is at least peaceful-feeling.
2. Brian Keene, who impresses me with his decision-making at every turn, has started an old-fashioned horror community forum. I have a dedicated Daniel Kraus page there where you can post questions and, you know, I’ll actually answer them. I love this. It feels simple and clean and effective. Evil Dead voice: joooooooinnn usssss.
3. Relaunching this newsletter. It's really the only thing I can control. The key, I think, will be keeping the issues shorter and more conversational, so they feel like less of a chore. I need fewer chores.
Will you be bringing back your patented Work In Progress chart?
Jesus, those took forever to do. Maybe?
Should we be nominating any of your recent books for awards, like, for example, the Bram Stoker Awards?
How kind of you to ask! I'm blushing. Yeah -- I'd recommend The Ghost That Ate Us, which is one my favorite things I've ever written.
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