Oh wow, it's already the end of July. It's been hot here in Salisbury, but we're making it through the summer waves this year. Although, I'm not sure if it could get worse - knock on wood!

July also marks the beginning of a new quarter, which means the start of some new projects, the putting aside of some old ones, and renewed energy of those continuing. One of the projects put to the side for the remainder of this year is my fiction novel Project Caramel Latte. I've gone into a longer explanation in a vlog, but that's the basis. On the plus side, I've gathered up some new nonfiction and fiction projects. And, to be honest, I'm actually feeling very hopeful and excited about what I've got going on.

So, let's get into some of the content that keeps you in the know for all this!

Incidental Mythology Blogs

This month, I've started up a substack to post up some blogs under the Incidental Mythology name. Some of these are posted to my website, but not all. I sent the first few on this newsletter, but I may not be doing it massively so in the future. I don't want to bombard people unnecessarily. So, if you're wanting more of this, go check it out on substack - its just an email list, so it's not too different to this.

Anyway, I've got some posts over there you can check out:

• ​Taylor Swift, the Corn Wolf - in this post, I explore a dynamic of the Taylor Swift and folklore essay (coming up on this list) that I ended up dropping from the outline because it didn't seem to quite fit. I use the concept of the Corn Wolf to show how Taylor Swift holds multiple roles at once.
• ​The Shape of Genre - I watched Shape of Water and absolutely loved it. I so regret waiting so long to finally see it. In this one, I get into the dynamics of how the movie played with genre to prove its point about Othering.
• ​Secrets Written in the Sky: The Folklore of Taylor Swift - this is the lengthy essay I wrote over on the vlog channel that's a look at how Taylor Swift creates her own folklore for herself and her fanbase. I'm really proud of this one, and it's a sneak peak of a much larger project I'm working on.
• ​Research Reflection: Taylor Swift and Surveys - as it may be clear from these posts, and what I'll mention in the vlog section, I'm taking on a full study of Taylor Swift and storytelling as a potential next book. In this post, I explain my stepping into quantitative research, whats important to keep in mind for it, and what the next research steps are.

Video Essay

Thi's month's video essay delves into the world of Schitt's Creek. I study how Alexis Rose, portrayed by the amazing Annie Murphy, tells the story and growth of her character through the way she moves her body in its interactions with others. Alexis has a little tick of touching people's nose with a little nose boop whenever she wants to show them some kind of affection. She begins with only David, but as the show continues she sees more and more connections with others, leading to more nose boops.

I really am happy to show you this one. It's been on my list for some time, but I finally got around to doing it. I love Alexis so much - she's one of my favourites in recent years - so I just wanted to write this love letter to her.

I'm a Fan of That!

My podcast, I'm a Fan of That, which I do with my cohost and friend, pop culture writer Holly Swinyard, had a few new episodes this month.

The first was technically at the end of last month, but wasn't tagged elsewhere. We did one on True Crime Fandom - we touched on a few of the more general topics related to it, like why do we love true crime so much and what the history of the fandom is.

We also did one on how genres can become combined and crossed in fiction. We chat about why its cool, but also why combining and crossing genres can sometimes not work really well, either.

Last one for the newsletter today, our most recent podcast episode is about K-Pop fandom. Its a biggie, that's for sure. I'm sure in the future we could delve into separate ones per band, but this one we look at the genre a bit generally and also talk about some of the political activision taken on by the stans.

Writing Vlogs

Got a few new projects on the docket today, a few finishing up. So let's just list them out for you:

• ​A Dreary Day Writing | Magic Tea Shop, Part 4 - That's right, we finished up quarter 2's short story during a bit of a rainy day here in Salisbury. I ended up quite happy with my polished draft.
• ​A Reset Week | Planning, Reading, and Cleaning for the new quarter - for two weeks between every quarter, I take the time off of my deadlines and research work to clean up my space, take care of life admin, and do some detailed planning for the coming quarter
• ​A Chatty Vlog About My Novel | Project Caramel Latte - As I mentioned earlier in this newsletter, I had to put my fiction novel to the side. In this vlog, I chat a bit about my reasonings and my experiences with querying so far.
• ​Planning a New Novel | Project Submarine - That's right, we've got a new fiction novel on the docket. It's a dark academia meets steampunk mystery/horror novel. And boy, so far, I'm excited.
• ​Plotting a Short Story | Academic Article, Part 1 - fresh off the youtube presses. This is the beginning of this quarter's short story. I'm thinking of doing a short story that looks like an academic article, inspired by my nonfiction side.

Well, that's July all wrapped up now. As always, be good to one another. And I'll see you in a couple weeks with some reading, writing, and what I'm enjoying.