September was a hard month, but as my wife and friends like to remind me, I’ve done it to myself. The most troublesome part was the September 15, 2022 tax deadline. Between the 14th and the 15th, I worked about thirty hours as a CPA. Honestly, I’m not sure how I’m alive. In addition, I was doing a great deal of reading research and I believe I was still joining the Bamboo Book Club for their meetings? Regardless, the Alexander survived. I’d like to thank my wife for listening to all my grumbling. There was a lot.
So let me tell you about the fun part of my September. I started writing on the sequel to He’s Going to Kill You. It’s called She’s Going to Kill You. The first step in my process is some good ol’ research reading. So during September, I read five books.
The first novel I read was Winters, Eve by David Edward Martin Dunphy. I actually met Edward through the Bamboo Book Club, and when I heard him say the book drew some inspiration from Silent Hill, I knew I needed to read it. The novel is a psychological horror suspense, so it fits in well in my research for my own works. In addition, much like myself, Edward is a self-published author. I highly recommend this book. It was a great read that kept me guessing the entire way and still hit me with some unexpected twists in the end. Here’s the blurb for it:
In a quiet town on the outskirts of Calgary, there is a Manor that is anything but ordinary. Evelyn Winters, a twenty-six-year-old bestselling author, just moved into a beautiful mansion with her seven-year-old daughter, Abigail. It has been a dream come true for both of them, but when Evelyn begins to suffer from insomnia, things go from great to terrifying. Evelyn realizes that the Manor has a deep-seated evil, which tightens its grip on her. When she does sleep, she begins to have vivid dreams about a woman, a beast they call the Butcher, and a little girl that looks an awful lot like her daughter. Evelyn begins to believe that the dreams are tied to the Manor. Desperate to solve the mystery of the house, she enters a realm of evil. Her dreams begin to blend into reality and her daughter is taken by the Butcher. Can Evelyn uncover the truth that lies deep within Oakville Manor and save her daughter, or will her dreams become their demise?
You can get a copy through my affiliate link here.
The second novel I read was Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. I added this one to my research because it was given to me by a friend. It doesn’t really fit in with my other research books, but every story you read will help you with your writing. This is probably the most polished novel I’ve ever read. It was excellent, and it’s actually given me some ideas on how to make She’s Going to Kill You a little more unique for its genre. Here’s the blurb for this one:
For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison. Kelsier "snapped" and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark. Kelsier recruited the underworld's elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Only then does he reveal his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot. But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel's plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets, and gotten it. She will have to learn to trust, if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed. This saga dares to ask a simple question: What if the hero of prophecy fails?
You can get a copy through my affiliate link here.
The third novel I read was The Housemaid by Freida McFadden. I previously read another novel from her called The Inmate, which inspired the way I wrote He’s Going to Kill You a good deal. Though I didn’t enjoy The Housemaid as much. It was still a great novel, and has inspired me to work a little hard as an author. Here’s the blurb for it:
Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor. I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband. I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out… and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late. But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am. They don’t know what I’m capable of…
You can get a copy through my affiliate link here.
I picked up the sequel to The Housemaid for my fourth research book. It’s called The Housemaid’s Secret. Since I’d never written a sequel before, I needed to do some research on sequels. This seemed like a good place to start. Turns out this is another magnificent novel from Freida McFadden. I was pleasantly surprised to find out how different it was from the previous entry. Here’s the blurb:
It's hard to find an employer who doesn't ask too many questions about my past. So I thank my lucky stars that the Garricks miraculously give me a job, cleaning their stunning penthouse with views across the city and preparing fancy meals in their shiny kitchen. I can work here for a while, stay quiet until I get what I want. It's almost perfect. But I still haven't met Mrs Garrick, or seen inside the guest bedroom. I'm sure I hear her crying. I notice spots of blood around the neck of her white nightgowns when I'm doing laundry. And one day I can't help but knock on the door. When it gently swings open, what I see inside changes everything....
That's when I make a promise. After all, I've done this before. I can protect Mrs. Garrick while keeping my own secrets locked up safe. Douglas Garrick has done wrong. He is going to pay. It's simply a question of how far I'm willing to go....
You can get a copy of this one through my affiliate link here.
My fifth and final book for research reading was The Yellow Wallpaper, which is actually just a short story. Someone on TikTok said this was the most mind blowing short story ever written. Naively, I believed them and added this entry to my research material. I was underwhelmed. Perhaps the history behind this piece and the meaning behind the story merits some praise, but I found the core story content lacking. Here’s the blurb:
This short story is regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature, illustrating attitudes in the 19th century toward women's health, both physical and mental. Presented in the first person, the story is a collection of journal entries written by a woman whose physician husband (John) has rented an old mansion for the summer. Forgoing other rooms in the house, the couple moves into the upstairs nursery. As a form of treatment, the unnamed woman is forbidden from working, and is encouraged to eat well and get plenty of exercise and air, so she can recuperate from what he calls a "temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency", a diagnosis common to women in that period. Gilman used her writing to explore the role of women in America at the time. She explored issues such as the lack of a life outside the home and the oppressive forces of the patriarchal society.
I don’t recommend this one, but if you’re interested, here’s my affiliate link.
And there you have it. Aside from taxes, that was my September. I’ll see you next month.

CURRENTLY LISTENING:
Ah, yes. My ears are currently being soothed by the sounds of the save theme from Resident Evil. Even after surviving the mansion, it still provides a great deal of comfort.
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