Tag: Inspiration

“It’s not your job to be as confused as Nigel.”

Sara Mazariegos

Frankenstein and Predator: Badlands. Last weekend, we saw two movies I really enjoyed. I’d been looking forward to seeing Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein ever since first hearing about it. It’s very faithful to the book! I wish it came out in more theaters; it deserves to be seen on a big screen. It’s beautiful and sad. And then we saw Predator: Badlands in theaters on Sunday and it was better than I expected. I like all of the characters in it, and the message of found family and working as a team instead of trying to do everything alone.

How is it almost Thanksgiving already? Next week is Thanksgiving. I’m still in a Halloween mood, but now I’ve got to think about spending time with people and eating too much. My job doesn’t give us the day off after Thanksgiving; I took it off so we’ll still be able to spend Thanksgiving with Luis’s family and then Thanksgiving II with my family. I’m looking forward to the days off, though they don’t really feel like vacation days, because we do so much socializing and cooking and stuff. I can’t just sit and read for hours. I don’t even really sleep in. Wah-wah. It’s nice, though. I just wish it was still October.

Any novel can be a comp novel if you try hard enough. A lot of people have a difficult time finding comparative titles for their novels when they’re in the query stage. I feel like I have a different problem; I find that every book I read could be a comp title. I notice little things the stories have in common with mine. They’re not usually big things, they’re usually subtle. But I think it’s because my novel is still being molded, so I’m imagining ways each book I read could shape my own story, and I shouldn’t do that because my story already has a satisfying shape. For example, I really enjoyed reading The Love of My Afterlife and finding little ways it fits with my story, but I think most people would think it’s a stretch for me to have it as a comp. There’s nothing supernatural in my novel. There’s no death or deadlines (heh.) But, then again, I’ve heard that comps don’t have to have all the same story elements as long as they have similar themes or worlds. So who knows? My story is also about self-discovery, found families, community, taking care of others, enemies to lovers… So that book could totally end up a comp of my story!

This blog is about my writing process, so here’s a glimpse at that thrilling part of it. 😅

Self-imposed deadlines. Speaking of my writing process, one thing I tend to do is assign myself these signposts to reach in order to keep myself on track. I aim to be finished editing my novel draft before Christmas so I can enjoy the holidays, and then I’m thinking of asking for another reader or two for their feedback. My big deadline for this story is the end of March so I can start sending out query letters.

But let’s see if it actually goes like that. I’m a writer, so I imagine and plan and have ideal situations in my head, but life rarely does what I want it to do.

Do you wanna know, know that it doesn’t hurt me?

Sara Mazariegos

I had an idea for a new blogging format. Let me know what you think.

New knee pillow (am I old?) I’ve noticed my lower back and knees are often sore when I wake up in the morning, particularly when I sleep in on the weekends, so I ordered myself a pillow to put between my knees or at least legs. So far, it’s helping me sleep in a better position. I read that sleeping on your side can cause spine twisting so it’s better to separate your legs to realign your spine. But it’s awkward if I want to move, because I have to move this rectangular pillow along with me every time, and every time I get out of bed I have to move it away. It may end up on the floor one of these days. I guess I’m too old to be naturally comfortable when I sleep now.

Days getting so dark by the time I’m on my way home. I love autumn, but I hate the daylight going away so early every day. I commute home after 5:30 so it’s always completely dark while I’m traveling. It lowers my motivation, which is especially bad because then I get home and I should be able to enjoy being home, but all I want to do is sleep. I’m looking forward to the longer days again in spring. At least there are more months of daylight in the year than months with early sunsets.

Holidays on random days during the week. Veterans Day was on Tuesday this year. It’s nice to have a break soon after a work day, but it makes it difficult to plan anything too exciting. Luis and I went to Subway and saw Bugonia before having some cake with his parents for his stepdad’s birthday. So I guess it wasn’t nothing, but being off on Monday as well would’ve been extra special. At least I only have to work three more days! A short week is always nice.

Book reading/Novel reading progress. I got some good reading time into this weekend. I would’ve gotten more if I hadn’t played The Sims 4 for two hours on Sunday, but I felt inspired to play after a long time, so it’s fine. I really like The Love of My Afterlife. It’s going along the way I figured it would, but it’s cute and funny. I’ve noticed that English romance novels are quirkier than American ones. I think English writers have a fondness for bizarre side characters that are not as common in American novels. Think about Bridget Jones’s friends. It builds out the world of the main character a little more. I like that and want to do that more in my own writing. Obviously without making my novel too silly, but the citizens of Bedford Falls are quirky characters, so I should have some funny people in my version, too.

I successfully completed my first read-through of my novel last weekend. Now I’m back into it, reading it and making notes of things to change. I started out thinking I’d only make change notes for this draft and then make a new draft copy for the actual rewrites, but I’ve started just rewriting and making the changes directly in this draft. Why wait, right? I have a lot of notes from beta readers in this draft already, so I’m using them as a guide and making my own changes as well. Hopefully, by editing and rewriting now instead of waiting until after another full reread, I’ll be finished editing this story before February.

The story is good, I just need to make it as close to great as I possibly can.

Games without frontiers, war without tears.

Sara Mazariegos

My Grandma passed away last week. She was ninety-three years old. I’m mostly grateful I was able to visit her last year, when we were unfortunately in town for my grandfather’s funeral (her husband.) We spent time watching hockey on TV and eating at nice restaurants, and we went to Point Defiance Zoo. She loved going to the zoo with family. I’m glad I was able to see her and she was doing well and having a nice time. I’m also grateful she didn’t become sick and spend months suffering. She didn’t have to be ailing for long. She was a sweet person and I’ll miss her.

I have a card from the Library of Congress that I was planning to send her. I’ll save it and give it to somebody else deserving. She’d like to know I’m still sending cards and letters. We used to write back and forth to each other. I always drew her a squirrel. 🥹

Luis should be very proud of himself for how well our (really his) escape room turned out last weekend. He came up with so many challenging puzzles and made all these cool videos to guide everyone along and congratulate them when they progressed. I hid the clues all over the house and got to be the helpful Haunted Mansion maid, turning lights on to guide them for clues and making things a little easier to find when needed. One thing that’s funny and a bit of an extra challenge is that we own a lot of stuff that could’ve corresponded to the puzzles, so we kept having to say things like, “No, sorry, it’s specific cards, not these random Pokemon cards. Oh, sorry, that’s just a Haunted Mansion painting on the wall because it’s decor. It’s not going to interact with your app.”

We had stuff that became animated by scanning it with an app. Oh yeah. 😎 It was fun! We’re already thinking up ideas for next year’s. It’s a great Halloween tradition.

I’m still reading three books at the moment: The Love of My Afterlife, House of Leaves, and The Cat Who Talked To Ghosts. Sometimes I wish I had extra time just so I could read, like how jury duty was supposed to be. I’m about halfway through all three of these books, but it’s not through lack of interest, I just don’t have enough time. I read the cat one on the train; it’s a murder mystery that’s not my usual genre, but it’s enjoyable. I love cats and ghosts. I read House of Leaves in the evening when I have a spare moment between activities… and I read The Love of My Afterlife before bed, unless I’m too tired or I need to squeeze in a Duolingo lesson before midnight.

Why do I practice Spanish before bed? No se.

I’m still 2 books behind schedule, because my goal is to read 20 books this year and I’ve read 14. I’ve gotta start reading when no one’s looking at work* or something.

Pacemaker was being all judgmental the other day because, to them, I haven’t worked on a novel project in over a year. But I haven’t been using Pacemaker to track my progress lately; holding myself accountable has been working fine. I set up a new project so Pacemaker wouldn’t delete my account, but it’s funny because it’s tracking my read-through of my novel at the moment, and I don’t read by word count. I’m reading through my story first before reading it again to make edit notes. I’m not sure how much I’ll be rewriting, but there are a bunch of things I think should be tweaked already. I’m tracking reading, then I’ll track the word count as it shifts with rewrites. I’m also feeling the common feelings of “is my writing any good?” since I know this story too well at this point.

A beta reader mentioned that my story is more like regular fiction with some romance, but I’ve noticed a lot of romance novels these days are like that. The Love of My Afterlife, for example, has a lot of personal growth stuff within. It’s not all kissy-kissy stuff. The two main characters don’t even know they like each other yet and I’m halfway through reading their story. I think novels where the relationship helps both characters find their happily-ever-after fit nicely in the romance genre. No bodice-ripping required.

That said, I’m going to amplify some of the romance in my revision… and take out some of the anxiety that both main characters inherited from me. Heh. Oops.

* This is a joke, because I’m the only person in my office. I could read while I’m here, except I’d feel guilty for doing so.

Somebody force me to care.

Sara Mazariegos

I kind of don’t miss “normal,” but the past few weeks have also been a lot.

Last weekend, we saw The Black Phone 2. It was fun and I’m glad they got the whole cast back instead of changing out the actors. I hope there’s not another sequel because it has a good ending and there’s not much more to do with the characters and premise. It’ll start to get stupid if they keep churning out sequels. It reminded me of Nightmare on Elm Street. That’s a perfect example of too many bad sequels, too.

As mentioned, we went to a Game Changer-themed party on Sunday. I was so nervous because it involved so much improv and it’s one thing to watch a show like that, but to actually participate in the games on the spot is kind of terrifying. Luis and I did a scene about a couple breaking up over a tandem bike. That was my proudest moment. We also got the group challenge to whisper everything, and I was really good at that. I wore the “Whispering” sticker the rest of the day. I was feeling very anxious on Sunday, so it was good to have a fun social event to distract my brain for a while.

I was anxious on Sunday because I had Jury Duty on Monday. I woke up at the same time as when I go to work and took the bus, getting to the courthouse nice and early so I could get through security and just relax with my books. I was led to believe I’d be sitting around reading for hours (that’s how it was in Virginia when I last had jury duty)… But Maryland does things differently. For one thing, there were about 800 people in the juror assembly room! They called out names for each jury pool early. I was in a pool that was around 200 people. It was a big case, and right away I knew I shouldn’t be selected. I had lunch and a brief break after the general questions, and then we came back in for more personal questioning with the judge and lawyers, with a white noise machine blocking out our discussion so the other potential jurors didn’t hear private information.

The case is apparently going to last eight business days. The judge listened to my reasoning and could see I was anxious about missing so much work at my 1-person office job, so she dismissed me. It helped— not on purpose!—that I completely blanked on the name of my company. All my brain wanted to say was my last job’s name, and I was panicking because I just couldn’t remember and I couldn’t force my brain to remember with everyone watching me and I felt so crazy. I thought she might say, “Eh, everyone wants to be at work” but she took pity on me and told me to go home. I tried not to act so relieved, but I bet she and the lawyers knew I was.

Who knew anxiety could get you out of jury duty? I wonder if it always would, though. I think it might depend on a few factors. I’m not planning to try to use it as an excuse in the future, because it was not fun to experience that.

Shifting over to something more pleasant, Luis and I are excitedly getting into Halloween preparations. We’re hosting another homemade escape room this year. The theme is Disney’s The Haunted Mansion (the attraction, not a movie.) I’ve mainly assisted with my ride knowledge and my decor collection; Luis has been coming up with all kinds of creative puzzles and he’s made a bunch of videos. He’s talented. We were originally planning a couple’s costume that was unrelated, but then I realized since we’re hosting a Haunted Mansion themed party and it’s my #1 favorite (hence the decor and my tattoo, etc) we should dress more thematically for that. He turned on a dime and bought a new costume. The party’s the weekend after this one. I’m grateful he had enough time to make the switch and I love that he was willing to do that for me. 💖

Of course I already had something to wear. I only needed an accessory, which I bought. I’ll be quite at home in our escape room at home.

As I said above, I didn’t have as much time to read during jury duty as I hoped. I actually surprised myself last night because I’m not even halfway through The Love of My Afterlife yet even though I read it a bunch. It’s hard for me to focus on a book when I’m distracted, and the courthouse people kept interrupting to make announcements and make us watch a video and tell us their judge stories. I really like the book, though. It’s a romance but I think it’s more general fiction with some romantic elements because it’s an adventure of self-discovery in a way. A lot of the “romance” books I gravitate to are like that. I also think I’ve discovered the true twist in the story. I hope I’m not wrong, because I love a good “aha, gotcha!” when the author sets one thing up and then veers in the opposite direction.

Finally, time for a writing update: I’m still taking a break from writing. After the initial “I have so many ideas though!!” few days, I’ve appreciated having time to relax and not think up plots or agonize about conflicts. It’s good to recharge my mental batteries. I do that for so many other things, why not do it for writing? I looked at the calendar the other day and realized it won’t be long until I’m reading through and editing my It’s A Wonderful Life story. And I thought, “Oh, so I better enjoy this time away while it lasts.”

I can’t wait to dive back in, but waiting is better so it’s not too cold.

Ain’t there a pen that will write before they die?

Sara Mazariegos

I stayed up late to watch Conan O’Brien on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday night. I lost about an hour of sleep. I think it was worth it. It’s not the sort of thing I’d do every night, though. That’s one of the main issues with those late night talk shows for me. How are you supposed to watch them on the night-of if you have to get up early the next day?

“You can always sleep through work tomorrow.” – Craig Ferguson

I had to stay up to see Conan though. He’s my favorite of the late night guys, and has been since I was little. I’m so glad he’s still around doing things*, and he’s doing such interesting, unique stuff. He’s in a movie, in a more serious role! And he’s going to be in the new Toy Story movie. (It’s an unnecessary sequel, but still it’s nice he gets to be in one.)

Speaking of movies, though thankfully it’s not a sequel, we saw One Battle After Another last weekend. I think it’s only the second Paul Thomas Anderson movie I’ve seen. One thing that’s funny is that it reminded me vaguely of a Wes Anderson movie, though of course it’s not quite as bonkers or bright or ~arty~. But it does have Benicio Del Toro. Hmm.

I really liked it. The acting was good, the story was good, it didn’t feel like it was over two and a half hours long.

Luis and I are making plans for future vacation times. The world being what it is right now, it’s hard to realistically imagine going out of the country, even though the list of countries we want to visit is long. I have a lot of wanderlust, but we’re planning to stick to closer places at least in the foreseeable future. Of course we’re thinking about going to Disney World again. I told Luis we could go in February for our 14th dating anniversary, but then he suggested we could make a week of it and go to Disney and Universal in October for our 9th wedding anniversary. I’m not going to turn down extra theme park days.

Possibly while wearing a hazmat suit, but still.

We got vaccinated last weekend. I even got a hepatitis booster shot. It took almost an hour for them to give us our vaccines, but once we finally saw the tech, it went by quickly and we feel good. We even made her laugh. A lot of people get so impatient and mean to poor pharmacy teams. I know it’s frustrating to have to wait and sometimes dumb things happen, but there’s no reason to be mean to people who are there to help you. Be mad at health insurance companies; they’re the real ones screwing people over.

For this week’s writing update, there’s not much to say. Roll credits.

Just kidding. But I am taking a break from writing, and it might be driving me a little crazy. I created an outline for a new story idea I have, and I’m going to let Luis read it and give me some feedback before I commit to writing it. I’m restless to write something new, something more out there than the contemporary romance novels I’ve been so focused on. A subgenre I really like is magical realism, especially related to ghosts. I’m playing around with some magical realism ideas and we’ll see if it becomes the next novel I’m working on.

Aside from future novels, I also have to edit the story drafts I’ve already written. I’m excited to dive back into my It’s A Wonderful Life novel, though taking a writing break beforehand—and also having a vacation and Halloween to focus on—will be extra helpful for my brain, I think.

It’s a little bit funny how November is still a writing/editing time for me. It’s just easier to write about the holidays when it’s actually the holidays time.

Until next time,

* Don’t even get me started on all the Colbert and Kimmel stuff. Flames. It- It- Flames. Flames! On the side of my face.

I’m not the kinda girl who gives up just like that, oh no.

Sara Mazariegos

We’ve created a TV schedule for our weeks, sticking to the same few shows until we finish them/the season and then watching different things. It used to be that we’d start watching a show, get distracted by something else, and then forget about the show. Granted, the shows in question were classics like Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart Show, and Golden Girls so we’re already more than behind on them, but you know what I mean. It’s been nice to think, “Oh, it’s Tuesday: Shogun night.” I like watching things that others are watching, so I don’t feel like we’re missing out. Shogun, The Bear, and Hacks are so good! Cable used to be like that, but you couldn’t skip ads or pause to go to the bathroom, so streaming is still more convenient.

Cable is going to go away. It’s not really a question. The only question is, how soon? It kind of relates to Hacks, in a way. Why have a late night talk show anymore?

The books I’m reading are enjoyable and quite different from each other. Aside from still weathering the storm that is House of Leaves (which is amazing! It’s just a dense textbook written by a crazy man,) I’m also reading A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston and Island by Aldous Huxley. Ashley Poston’s so fun, and her novels appeal to my interests because they’re humorous romances involving ghosts or imaginary characters (within the story; obviously all novel characters are imaginary.) I previously read and had to own The Dead Romantics because I liked it so much, and this novel is no different. It also has a gorgeous cover. The Aldous Huxley book is in a similar vein to Brave New World, but it doesn’t feel as bleak. I’m not far into it yet, though. It’s fun to read him discussing more modern things, since he wrote it in the 60s. It also feels prescient about what’s going on in D.C., which I kind of hate. 🙃 History just repeats and repeats itself… It needs to stop.

I’m looking forward to seeing John Green at the National Book Festival, though I’m still nervous about being in D.C. I’m always nervous about being in D.C., and I have to go there a lot for work. It will be nice to see him again! I wish I could talk to him in person, but he’s not doing a book signing or anything, so the chances are slim. I waited like a loser after his book reading in March, so we’ll see if I wait to try and spot him again. I understand he doesn’t like social situations much. I don’t either. I just really like him. He means so much to Luis and me.

Reading the Ashley Poston book has given me some useful plot guidepost ideas. I’m around the same page number in her book as well as in my writing, so I can’t help comparing where the characters are in their respective arcs. I may have mentioned before that A Novel Love Story is a good comp for my current work-in-progress, even though my story doesn’t involve any magical realism. It’d be fun to add some of that, but I don’t know how and my story already has a lot going on. I could keep it in mind, but maybe for another story. I’m currently within the “Dark Night of the Soul” part of the story, which means everything sucks for my main characters. Things are piecing together and building up to what’ll hopefully be a satisfying finale. I just realized I’ve been subconsciously following the Save The Cat beats without even marking them all out like that in my outline.

That’s pretty freaking cool.

Drunk on wine, I’m amazing.

Sara Mazariegos

One of the bad things about holiday vacations is coming back to work on the Monday afterward. Luis and I had a nice time last weekend, spending time together and with family. We saw This is Spinal Tap in theaters for the first time, for the 41st anniversary. It’s totally because they’re coming out with a sequel soon. At the end of the showing, they included a brief preview of the sequel and the audience laughed just at the sight of the way they look now, which is kind of mean but also fair. They reminded me of The Beatles during the “When I’m Sixty-Four” scene in Yellow Submarine.

Then, on Sunday, we went to the mall and bought the Nintendo Switch 2 for Luis’s early birthday present! It doesn’t seem that different from the original Switch to me, but it has a few improvements. And who knows? I might become amazing at Mario Kart by the time we get another game. I just hope it stops hurting my hand. I think I steer too intensely.

Now that the 4th of July is over, I’m not going to have a weekday off from work until Labor Day at the beginning of September. We have a few fun things planned before then, but there’s something to be said for having time off when I’d normally have to wake up early and commute. We’re seeing Weird Al on a Tuesday night, and I’m hoping I won’t be very tired during it and very tired the next day.

There was a Valley Girl on my train this morning. She was talking on her phone and she kept saying “For sure” and “Totally” and I was doing my best not to crack up the entire time she stood in front of me. At one point, she described her whole outfit and said something about needing to go shopping with her mom. “With the train, it takes me, like, fifteen minutes to walk. If I had to walk to work, it would take me, like, four hours. My coworker walks, like, half an hour to work each day. You know that’s not me.”

I did not expect to hear that accent in the D.C. area.

While working on a scene in my novel involving the DC Book Festival, I learned John Green is coming to the DC Book Festival this year, in September! So art is imitating life again. I’ll have to make mental notes of details I can include in the edits. The last time Luis and I saw him at the Book Fest, it was summer of 2012. It’s going to be inside the convention center this time, so it’ll be much cooler than doing it on the Mall like they used to. I hope I can meet him again! I can never meet John Green too many times. ✨

It’s confusing these days.

Sara Mazariegos

Last weekend was really fun. The party for Luis’s mom was great, and he made an awesome video with a bunch of his family members wishing his mom a happy birthday. Then he made a speech and it was so cute. I may be biased, but my husband is amazing. 🥰  Then the next day, we went to the Air & Space Museum and spent a few hours looking at the updated exhibits. I had a margarita in a can! I did not expect anything like that to be available in their cafe. Next month, more new exhibits are opening, including one that features Amelia Earhart. Just more reasons to go back again. We still need to visit the one in Virginia, too. That’s where they’re keeping Enola Gay these days.

Luis bought me a copy of the library book I was reading, so for a brief period I had two nearly identical copies of The Ex Talk. I’m reading my own copy now. My used copy is a retired library book, so I went from reading one library book to another. This one’s cover is laminated! I love owning old library books. They tell stories of their own.

He also got me a copy of Ashley Poston’s new novel, Sounds Like Love. I love her covers. Whoever designs them deserves extra points. I’m planning to read her other gorgeous novel, A Novel Love Story next.

We’re getting together with my family on the 4th of July. We always go see them and have food and watch the DC fireworks celebration, and then we set off a few small fireworks in the street outside the house. It’s always been about spending time with family for me, more than patriotism, really. It’s especially like that now.

I’m just grateful for a day off.

My writing is progressing well. I’m writing a little over a chapter a week, so I can really feel it coming along. I’ve also started thinking ahead and putting fun ideas in my outline, so I remember to actually use them. I’ve definitely thought of things to do and then forgotten about them, in the past. The first time I wrote this story, back in 2020, I didn’t even have an outline. It’s come a long way.

I was reading The Ex Talk last night and bits of it were aligning well with my story’s themes. I thought, “Yes! This really is a perfect comp.” It’s relatable to my life, too. I found this book just by searching for romance novels with workplace conflicts. I’m so glad I found it.

If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now.

Sara Mazariegos

There’s a horrible heatwave in a lot of the US right now. It’s fine if you can be inside, in the air conditioning, but whenever I walk to/from the Metro and bus, it’s so sticky. I wore a dress to work today in order to stay cool. I’m not a fan of wearing dresses, especially because the AC can make me cold and my legs aren’t covered. But it’s been warm enough inside so it’s okay.

I doubt I’ll wear a dress again tomorrow, though. I need to get some fashionable, work appropriate shorts or maybe some loose linen pants. I told myself I’d go shopping for new work clothes and then I learned I could wear jeans and t-shirts so I haven’t bothered.

On Sunday, Luis and I are finally going to the Air & Space Museum. I got timed passes and everything, like a real tourist. (You have to get timed passes to enter.) Not too much later than the 14th. It’s an important place to us, and it’s mentioned in my novel, so it’s part research but mostly just a nice place for us to return to every once in a while. We’re going to check out the food court. When we first met, it was upstairs and completely McDonald’s. A lot has changed in thirteen years.

I have a unique addiction that thankfully doesn’t happen all the time. I think I may have mentioned it before. I’ve gotten in the strange habit of getting a library book, deciding I want to keep it, and either buying it or asking my husband to buy it for me. It’s happened at least four times that I can remember: Georgie, All Along, Very Sincerely Yours, The Good Part, and now The Ex Talk. All of them have been used as comp titles. I love all of them. So there.

So far, I’ve purchased way fewer books this year than the past few years. I’ve only bought like three, and it’s June. I’m doing well. I need to keep reading the ones I already own, though. The little free libraries in my neighborhood are dangerous for my bookshelf.

Using my calendar for scheduling writing has been going well. I write about 1,000 words a day, broken up into 500 at the office and 500 in the evening when I’m home. It helps to break it up like that so I don’t ever feel stuck. It gives me time to think about things and plan it out, instead of feeling like I need to get it right then and there. I breeze through 500 words easily, and I calculated things out — if I keep writing at my current pace, I should be finished with this draft at the end of September. Just have to avoid skipping writing time because I feel tired and would rather watch TV.

TV can always wait.

We talk about this whole stupid world and still come out laughing (Ha!)

Sara Mazariegos

The 14th is this Saturday. Luis and I always do something a little special since we first started dating—and got married—on a 14th. I wanted to come to D.C. this time and explore the redesigned Air & Space Museum. But the Mall is going to be full of people and all kinds of militaristic stuff I don’t want to be around. 😞 So we’ll save that for another time (possibly another 14th) and go get pizza and books instead.

We went with his family to another fun escape room in D.C. last weekend. My main mode when I do those things is finding all of the useful parts and giving them to others to actually solve, haha. When a room is open, I look all around for puzzle pieces, flashlights, etc that will aid in getting out of the room. I’m pretty good at doing it quickly. The other day, I opened a combination on a door flap. That felt special.

Luis and I are working on designing a Haunted Mansion escape room in our house. I’m so excited, because—as you know by now, I’m sure—The Haunted Mansion is my favorite Disney anything. He’s been asking for my input and we’ve been using a lot of our stuff to create a fun story. Last year’s Batman escape room was a real hit, so hopefully this one will be, too. Luis even creates videos for them! One of our friends asked who made the Batman one and was amazed that he did. We could start a small business, performing home escape rooms, but it would be complicated because we’d have to go to people’s houses, like birthday clowns or magicians or something. I wonder if that’s already a thing.

Since I’m working on retooling my Nerdfighter novel, I’ve been paying more attention to similar books again. One tough thing in the whole query-writing saga is finding good comp titles. They’re supposed to not be too old or too famous, and they don’t have to be extremely similar to your plot or your characters. They’re mainly meant to have some similar themes or even just evoke similar feelings when you read them, so they give literary agents some good examples of how your book would do in the market.

I read the other day that a comp title can be older than five years as long as the author is still releasing books. I think I’m going to hold the internet to that, because I found a great comp that’s from 2021 and the author has released several books since then. The story in this one just happens to fit my novel the best.

Luis and I will be looking at books on Saturday, though, so who knows? I may come home with a brand new perfect comp title instead.