vampires, spaceships, and fantastical worlds—the tales of L.E. Teetzel

Welcome!

Where the actual fuck did November go? Like, I blinked and it’s gone. What the hell.

November in the Rearview

No, but seriously. Where did the month go? It feels like just yesterday I was getting ready to start working on the first draft of A Burning in the Blood, and now it’s December tomorrow and I’m like, nowhere near my goal? The end of the year always seems to go fast, but this November seemed to move practically at light speed. Stuff still happened, because of course it did, but I’m not sure how exactly it did because how was there time?

Starting with the worst of the month to get it out of the way, I was in Toronto for an event on Thursday night (more on that later), and decided I would just drive home after even though it would be late because I had to take my cat to the vet for his annual checkup the next morning and wanted to make the most of my day off when I didn’t have to do anything. On the GO Train back to Aldershot, I started to see snow. At the train station, my car was covered. Normally, this would have just been a normal “oh shit, I have to drive in bad weather” moment, but I’d had a headache brewing for the last few hours that was just getting worse and worse. I started driving, planning to stop somewhere I could buy some pain meds, but the weather got super bad almost immediately and I was crawling down the highway at like 40/50 kph, if that. Again, under normal circumstances, this would suck, but it’s part of driving in Canada in the winter. It happens.

But my headache had evolved into a migraine and I was starting to feel nauseous and shaky. I get like, 1-2 “normal” migraines like every other year. Usually I just have ocular migraines, having trouble seeing properly for a bit and might get like, a regular headache. But this was full-blown awful. I started shaking and I knew there was no way I could safely drive the rest of the way home in shitty weather without, at best, ending up in a ditch. So I pulled over and got a hotel room, which was not money I wanted to spend, but I’d rather lose some money and have to struggle for a month or whatever than lose my life because I tried to tough something out.

So I made it home, yay, but I’m still recovering from the migraine—it’s Sunday. Migraines suck mega ass.

Anyway. I was in Toronto on Thursday for Chris Hadfield’s Generator (yes, the astronaut). It’s an awesome event where people from various walks of life and careers and hobbies and literally whatever come and do short talks about stuff. It’s funny, fun, educational, and, since TWRP Is the house band, awesome. It used to be an annual event, but thanks to the pandemic, it’d been almost six years since the last one in January 2020. Aside from the headache, it was a great night. During intermission, Sung invited me and a couple other obvious TWRP fans in the audience up to stand in front of the stage while they performed some of their songs, and the little mini show was totally a highlight. Didn’t even think about my head for like 20 minutes.

In the hours before the show too, I got some Christmas shopping done, bought some cool Japanese blind boxes (I’m such a sucker for a cool blind box collection), had dinner at my favourite diner in Toronto, and got to check out a crane game place that opened on Yonge Street. As I started watching CDawgVA’s videos on YouTube this month and he has a lot of crane game content, I was more than a little stoked to spend a little money to try them out. I don’t know how they compare to crane games in Japan, though it was certainly modelled off those places, but I dropped $24 (including tax), which was about 6 tries, and won two prizes, one on my first attempt. Not too bad!

Elsewhen in the month, I got to see Frankenstein and Predator Badlands in theatres (I need to get to the theatre more; I miss it), went to Medieval Times with friends which is always a blast, got the Disney Dreamlight Valley expansion, Wishblossom Ranch, and decided to start streaming on Twitch again.

Why on Earth would I add another hobby back into my life?

Well, because I miss doing it, playing video games is fun and relaxing for me, and when I did some thinking about what my ideal life situation would be, it was writing and playing video games all the time. Obviously I’ll need money to be able to not have a day job, and while I don’t know if I’ll always stream, I figured why not give it a shot again and see if I can’t get something going? Right now I’m stuck streaming through the PS5 (which isn’t great but it could be worse), and on my old gaming laptop (I got it in like, 2017) with a tiny webcam and the microphone built into my headphones. I would like to get some better equipment too, obviously, but one step at a time.

If you want to follow and watch my streams, my channel is here!

I would appreciate a follow (and of course a sub if you can)!

And now onto the writing, which is, uh, just okay news. 😂

From the Story Files

So I wanted to write 1000 words a day on the first draft of A Burning in the Blood, but I, uh, didn’t do that. I did okay for the first couple days, but then quickly fell off track. I’m horrible with self-imposed deadlines and projects like this. Like, I will finish the draft, but if I’ll manage to do it in three months remains to be seen. I’m not going to give up, but I’m dealing with some disappointment in myself which is never fun. Also no small measure of impostor syndrome because even though I’ve finished and published two books, one of which is a novel, who am I to think I can do it again?

For the record, I know that’s just my brain being an ass and my anxiety contributing, but it still sucks.

As for Gravity Well, I’ve picked away at it a bit more, but I don’t think it’ll come out this year, unless a miracle happens. But I will give you guys a date as soon as I can! I also still have to finish the cover and get everything else ready to go for it.

Doing this whole publishing thing by myself is a lot sometimes.

On the more marketing side of things… Please consider buying a copy of Icarus and/or An Errant Ray of Sunlight as a Christmas gift or a holiday treat for yourself! And if you’ve already read one or both, tell a friend about them, rate and review them, or share my posts on Instagram! I’ll be making lots of posts this month to try and get some sales, so head over there and interact with them! That’s an easy and free way to support me and all the other indie and self-published authors out there. 😊

In My Eyeballs and Earholes

Books

This month I read Paladin’s Grace, Paladin’s Strength, Paladin’s Hope, Paladin’s Faith, and Swordheart by T. Kingfisher, all of which are part of the World of the White Rat collection of books. There are a few more books in the world that I might read eventually too, since I really enjoy it, but I don’t think they fall in the cozy fantasy/romantasy category. And these books are all very cozy and warm. My favourites so far are Paladin’s Strength, because I love Istvhan SO MUCH, Paladin’s Hope, because Galen and Piper are a disaster couple, and Swordheart, because Sarkis is such a loser and Halla is a sweet baby angel and I love them so much. Not to mention Zale and Brindle. GOATs.

I also read The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling which was not what I expected, although I’m not really sure what I expected, and it was was a wild ride. So, so good. Deeply unsettling, but I love a good cannibalism tale now and then. And I read Good Spirits by B.K. Borison, which was exactly the cheesy holiday romance I needed, and exactly the kind of book I want to read in December.

Movies & Shows

Like I said above, I got to see Frankenstein in theatres and, surprising absolutely no one since Guillermo del Toro is my favourite director, I fucking loved it. Frankenstein is one of my favourite books of all time and it’s exactly the kind of gothic tale del Toro thrives with. The movie was a very faithful adaptation of the heart and spirit of the book and all the changes that were made make sense when turning a book into a movie. And it was visual feast. I knew it would be but I can’t wait until I can pause and stare at each scene to my heart’s content. And I am so happy it’s getting a physical release because this is one I want in my collection forever.

I also saw Predator Badlands which I also loved. I’ve always been a big fan of the yautja (Predator alien) and I’ve always want to know more about their culture and I got that. I love found families and reluctant partnerships and I got that. I love weird little guys. Got that. They could not have a made a Predator movie that was more tailored to me. It was so fun.

And, of course, VOLUME 1 OF SEASON 5 OF STRANGER THINGS. I’m a huge fan of Stranger Things and have been since the beginning. The first four episodes were awesome and I cannot wait to see what else they have in store for us. I’m not going to say anything else about it here so no one gets spoiled, other than to say I get to watch Stranger Things with my brother since it’s one of the things we both love, and it was really fun to stay up late and talk about the show as we were watching.

And beyond that, I’ve just been watching CDawgVA’s stuff on YouTube and Twitch, because I’m nothing if not someone who falls hard.

Video Games

Of course I’ve been playing Disney Dreamlight Valley and loving the new expansion, but since I started streaming again, I’ve also started Moonlighter, since I saw Gab Smolders play Moonlighter 2 and realized I’d had the first one on my PlayStation account forever and hadn’t played it, and Strange Horticulture, which is peak cozy game. I’ll be playing Dispatch soon, and I think I might start Borderlands again because I miss shooty bang-bang time and I can’t stream Bioshock on my PlayStation and don’t own it on PC yet.

I missed video games.

Music & Podcasts

It’s literally just been My Favorite Murder and my Current Jams playlist because I’m boring.

Parting Thoughts

This month flew by, I’m stoked for Christmas, and wish I had more time off to sleep, write, and play video games.

That’s it for this month! Take it easy, hot dogs! 💙