As of right now, the horror collection is 40 poems long!

I anticipate adding no more than 10 poems from this point forward.

There is a section for…

• Halloween and Halloween-themed poetry
• Immortals, most of which are vampires
• People who take the phrase “’til death do us part” too literally
• Murder, Magic & Mayhem – that’s it, everything falls under one of those
• Twisted individuals who have far too much fun doing bad things

Note: These are not actually how the sections are titled!

I am really enjoying compiling all the poetry, but I’ll also be really glad when I’m done.

At that point, I’m going to take a break and switch over to compiling the poetry on mental/chronic illness that is going to be released in November.

I take frequent breaks from projects after I am done with each stage of drafting because it makes it easier to come back and look at what I have with fresh eyes. Even at this stage, where it’s mostly about organization, layout, formatting, etc – I’m still more likely to catch mistakes that I haven’t previously caught and find ways to make improvements I haven’t previously thought of if I just take a break. It’s very important to my method as a writer.

After I’ve compiled the mental health poetry, I’ll just switch back, and I’ll keep switching back and forth basically until each is done and it’s time for cover design, promo images, and marketing strategies.

It really is that simple… and that difficult. I would much rather write, edit, and format indefinitely and never have to worry about promoting or marketing at all. I’m actually good at marketing and I still don’t want to have to do it. It is much easier to do if you are willing to run paid advertisements, or you have an established website where you can get paid subscribers and other great options.

I don’t have any of that, but if you want to help me work toward my goals of:

1. Registering my copyrights for both books (45/ea)
2. Turning this blog into a site where I can sell books/merch and get paid subscribers, etc (300/yr)
3. Creating said merch/swag for other horror lovers like myself (???)

please visit my kofi because I have a fundraiser going there. There’s also a shop! I’ll also be opening my custom options/commissions back up soon. Presently, there’s no horror merch at all, because you have to be kind of careful when it comes to selling platforms as they have rules against ‘glorifying violence’ that seem to be interpreted differently everywhere you go. It makes it hard as a horror creator to find a safe space to sell certain things.

If you don’t want to use kofi but still want to help, you can find all mutual aid options in my linktree.

For the record, I am contributing to my own fundraiser. Not only does it count as putting in work when I create content and shop items that I may or may not get paid for, I am putting actual money that I earn other ways into these goals as well. I am investing in myself, but when you’re disabled and currently pursuing a diagnosis so you can get your SSDI case in, there’s only so much to invest.

Thank you for being here with me on this journey. Even if you have no dollars, I appreciate every single reader who shows up and likes my content and reminds me that I should keep going when I feel like quitting (which is more often that I’ll admit today). It has been incredibly helpful to see people liking what I’ve been writing and sharing on this blog. It’s gotten far more traction than I anticipated when I began. I am feeling more motivated than ever to get my writing published, starting with these two poetry collections later this year.

Seriously. Thank you.

Justine