The Darkest Winter Update 13

The Darkest Winter

Don’t give up. Books have a million lives. It doesn’t matter if no one has read it yet and it has been out a while. It’s always new to the reader encountering it for the first time. And be patient. Success doesn’t happen overnight. Expecting it to will only lead to disappointment.                  –David Gaughran

This is good advice for me to keep in mind as I look at my sales report for November. My marketing reach since launch has gotten to everyone in my immediate circle. Breaking out of that circle is incredibly difficult. My slow sales show that and I’ve learned some things in the past month that I’m going to share now.

The Darkest Winter is published through Amazon. Since the start, I never considered selling the paperback through anyone but Amazon. With their Extended Distribution channel, I thought I’d be covered well enough for any bookstores, libraries, schools to buy the book if they wanted it (and that would be a serious marketing win if I got sales through this channel. I haven’t but knowing that the book is so widely available has been reassuring). For the ebook edition, I planned on keeping it exclusive to Kindle for 3-6 months. That 3 months is getting very close and that brings me to the point of this post.

Amazon’s Extended Distribution is garbage. There is no way to tell if a book has sold through that channel until after it has shipped. Amazon’s printers may not be the one who prints the book for this channel so there is no telling what the quality is. It’s possible that your book won’t be available to the distributors in this channel (like Baker and Taylor) for some unknown glitch that Amazon is “working on.”  It’s basically impossible to find out what’s going on with this channel it’s so buried and shady. The royalties are garbage, almost to the point where it isn’t worth selling it.

I found all of this out because last month I organized a deal with the North Haledon Library for their book club. I huge sale for me and the order was placed through Baker and Taylor on Oct. 16th. Three weeks later, nothing had happened. I could not find out why. So I organized to get the book directly from Amazon using my Author Discount. So the books are coming to me next week, I’ll hand them off to the library and I’ll actually make some money in the process. It’s mindboggling stupid how this has worked.

You know what else is crazy? When you dig around the help pages on CreateSpace, there is a line that says this….I’m paraphrasing but this is the message:

ProTip: Don’t use our Extended Distribution feature. Use another company, they are way better at it.

So I’ve deselected that one in my account because it doesn’t do anything. This has led me to do research on other companies and I’m on the fence about getting the paperback available wider. A decent amount of re-setup is necessary and I’m not sure if it’s worth it. For example, if I wanted to get the book onto Barnes and Noble shelves I gotta get an appropriate price barcode and another ISBN barcode on there, and submit all sorts of stuff to B&N and wait 3 months for a yes or no.

Since I know I’m going to expand the reach of the ebook, that’s more in the forefront for me. Get it on Kobo, iBook, Nook, Google Play, etc. That’s going to happen I just need to decide when. Amazon Select (a minimum 90-day commitment) gets the ebook into their Kindle Unlimited and borrowing program which nets money on page reads. I had over 3.000 in September and about 1,000 in October and much less this month so I’m not sure if it’s worth keeping TDW exclusive for another 90 days. The royalties for this service are super weird as it’s based on the month’s allowance (I think September was around $22 million) that is divided up by all page reads. I haven’t seen any royalties from that yet.

So, come January or March, the ebook will be available basically everywhere.

So while this has been frustrating, I’m really close to 100 books sold. That’s awesome, to say the least. 9 fantastic reviews are on Amazon right now and I’d love more. I’m going to think local for now I think. With the success of the NH library sale, I’m going to check around for other book clubs. Plus I’m going to speak to the group at NH so that’ll be fun and a great way to get the word out further. I think this could be the path to greater success.

I gotta get the gears spinning on this and we’ll see what happens.

Speaking Out Loud

The Darkest Winter

Last Thursday I did my first public speaking gig at the Hasbrouck Heights Library for my book, The Darkest Winter. There were around 20 people in attendance and I’m happy with how it went.

To my surprise, I wasn’t nervous going into it, or at the event. I attribute a lot of that to my writer’s group, where I’ve essentially been speaking to a group of people almost every week for the past 4 years. I’ve become much more confident in speaking with people in a group setting and because we talk in depth about topics, I’m also better at organizing my thoughts and preparing what I want to say. It also helped that I know this content inside and out so my confidence in what I was speaking about couldn’t have been higher.

I was the 6th presenter and while my intro was a bit sloppy (I forgot some of the smooth lines I wanted to say so things came out a bit disjointed) I think I did really well with the segment I read. I chose Chapter 22 which is my favorite section of the book. It’s one of the shortest chapters with a lof of suspense and there is a lot of dialog which made it easier to read aloud. I also think it’s one of the strongest examples of the quality of my writing so as a preview to get people interested, it checks all the boxes. It felt engaging, I got a lot of compliments, and I met some great people. I’d call it a success.

I’m most surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It was more of a community talent showcase than a focused meeting for author engagement so I didn’t get to speak as much about the book and the writing process as I would have liked to but I think it was a great initial step to do more speaking events in the future. So far it’s one of the best elements of being an author I’ve experienced so far. I wonder if it made me feel so good because it fed into my narcissistic side since it was all about me and my work, but maybe it’s not so bad to get your ego some attention once in a while.

The Horror! Part 4

Movies

A trip down Stephen King Lane!

1922– This story reminded me a lot of the kind of pieces that Edgar Allan Poe wrote. Wilfred James is a farmer struggling to make ends meet in 1922. When he gets the idea that the best fix for their problems is to kill his wife for financial gain, he convinces his son to help. Like any good story with a moral center, this action by Wilfred has consequences he never could have foreseen. It’s a slow ratchet up the hill of insanity for Wilfred. A plan that seems like the best and only way out for him and his son to prosper, one he plans out as best he can, completely ruins his family. The damage radiates for from his home as well. A very telling line early on is one where Wilfred narrates ” I discovered something that night that most people never have to learn. Murder is sin. Murder is damnation. But murder is also work.” I liked this a lot for the road it traveled. How Wilfred, who did everything to hold on to his pitiful pride, lead himself to bring hell on Earth. What he held dearest, his land and his son, not only continued to drift away but also rotted from the inside out because of him.  I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this but came away with an appreciation for another Stephen King concoction.

Gerald’s Game– This tale takes place almost entirely in one location. I’d consider this a “bottle” episode where the razor-sharp focus is on one character and their journey of self-discovery. Here, the character study is on Jessie. She and her husband Gerald go away for a weekend. The spark in their marriage has been on life support for some time and the idea for them to be alone and explore new things with each other on a lovers retreat seems like a good one. It goes wrong quickly and Jessie finds herself alone and trapped in the house. Once she’s alone I wasn’t sure where the story would go but I liked where it went. A deep dive into Jessie’s past makes her confront her long locked away secrets and find a possible path to save herself. I saw Jessie a certain way at the start and found her to be completely different at the end, something I always look for and appreciate when it’s done well. Things get weird, in typical Stephen King fashion as he explores childhood trauma and emotional shackles that can weigh anyone down, even if they aren’t conscious of it. Mix in flashbacks, hallucinations. a few boogymen, a dash of ‘oh nooooo’ gore, and you have a Game you won’t soon forget.  Another one I was pleasantly surprised with.

The Horror! Part 3

Movies, Netflix Original

Little Evil– With running so much horror back to back I felt it would be a good to shift into a horror comedy title to cleans the pallet. And Little Evil was a disappointment. A goofy take of Omen and various other That Kid Ain’t Right movies, Little Evil follows new step-dad, Gary, try to bond with his step-son, Lucas. His time dating (and marrying) Samantha was a whirlwind so they haven’t spent too much time together. Lucas is a quiet kid and when the disturbing events around Lucas start stacking up it’s clear there is some deviltry at work. As a horror movie and as a comedy, both halves barely show up. I was surprised at how safe this movie played everything. Anything scary comes down to lighting in the scene, not the action. Lucas does one thing really messed up, but even that was pretty tame all things considered. There’s no real suspense, surprises, and a body count so low it barely registers. it often felt like nothing much was happening. The comedy is a few chuckles here and there and most of that comes from Bridget Everett. If you are a big fan of Adam Scott, this might be worth watching if you want to see him play his role in Parks and Rec again, but in a different setting. I like Evangeline Lilly too but nothing the actors do make me want to recommend this.

The Witch– Here we find the classic tentpoles of horror: isolation, paranoia, and possession. It’s the 1630s and a family recently immigrated from England has made their home at the edge of a forest. The move isn’t going well. The planted crop has mostly failed so any sustenance and income is essentially non-existent. With that stress weighing on the father, the youngest child, Samuel disappears under the watch of the eldest daughter, Thomasin. This puts the mother into hysterics and the rumors of a witch living in the woods start to take over. As the family tries to continue on, signs of evil encrouch futher into the home and everyone starts to turn on Thomasin, thinking the abductions are her fault. They lean on their faith as the decent into madness continues. Of all the movies I’ve watched this season, this is my favorite. I think isolation and paranoia are the most effect avenues to make real horror and The Witch does a lot to keep the questions popping up and the dread moving in. There’s a little bit of gore so the squeemish need not worry. Everything flows through Thomasin (huge props also go to Harvey Scrimshaw who plays Caleb, this kid can act) and I was with her for the whole trip. Religion is a big part of this story as the families faith makes their interactions drastically change as each event unfolds (there’s a whole lotta blame being flung about). I am on the fence about the ending. I can see why it was done but I’m not sure how effective it is. Less is more might have been the way to go.

The Haunting of Hill House

Netflix Original

I watched The Haunting of Hill House as part of my The Horror! Halloween updates, but as this is a show with 10 episodes it’s a much bigger story and commitment compared to a movie. Plus, I liked it a lot so I can write more about it.

The Crains, lead by mom and dad Olivia and Hugh, move their family into Hill House in 1992. Their five children, 2 boys, 3 girls aged 7-13 or so, come along as their parents are on the final leg of their “forever home” mission. Once they fix up and flip Hill House, they’ll have the money to build their dream home. The problem is, Hill House is super haunted.

The story of the Crain family is told in the past and the present. You never get the tale in a linear fashion, it jumps back and forth from 1992 and 2018 as the Crains are drawn back to the house, remembering chunks of the horrors they went through when they moved into the house.

The kids notice something is off about the house almost right away. It’s very simple and subtle stuff like one of the kids mentioning that the house is cold (they move into the house during the early summer months with plans to move out sometime in August). The weirdness grows from there like a red door that no one can open on the top floor and strange noises. Then the ghosts start appearing to the kids and Olivia becomes more and more affected as time goes by.

The whole series is largely devoid of violence and gore. The ghosts are the most gruesome things on display (very corpse-like) along with some disturbing images (like missing eyes) when the main characters have nightmares/hallucinations. The show leans on the creepy and disturbing for its scares. While there quite a few startle scares, violence and gore are never used as a showcase/scare tactic. It’s a decision that often works very well (I think jump scares with orchestra hits are a super cheap tactic but I think what you get here is pretty reserved in this regard). The show is a slow burn so the haunting is very subtle until the end of episode 3. From there, it escalates faster with each episode.  What happened on the last night in Hill House is largely unknown to the kids and that secret is held by Hugh. One that the House forces out of him.

The shifts in time worked way better than I thought it would. The strange events that happen early on in 1992 are often re-visited later. For example, what one thinks at one point is simply the ghosts messing about is actually much more than that. The house does things for specific reasons, things are connected way more than you think, and that realization is one of the greatest parts of the show. Episode 5, “The Bent-Neck Lady” is my favorite for this reason. This episode has the most horrific part in the entire season in its final minutes. Brilliantly done, it blew my mind when I saw it. Runner-up goes to the cellar scene in episode 3 that made me say “Oh fuck!” out loud. If that happened to me at that age, there is no way I would have recovered from it.

Along with all of this storytelling praise comes another shovel full when I talk about the cast. The five kids are all amazing actors. This entire project would have been a failure without this quality of a cast. They’re all fantastic and the emotions they get shoved through are immense and show incredible range. I completely believed that these people were actually family members (I got really attached to Nell and Luke, both as kids and adults).

The family is the most important aspect of the show. The introduction is simple and slow at the start but over the 10 episodes, time is given to each character so by the end you really know them. Luke and Nell are very close as they are twins, Theo is the oddball middle child, and Shirly and Steven as the oldest kids, emulating their loving parents, Olivia and Hugh. When the final credits rolled, I appreciated all the effort that was put into fleshing each family member out. No one is two dimensional.

The time inside Hill House traumatized them all and that trauma stayed with them all for 26 years. It’s sculpted who they in present day.  The secrets come out and you get a much deeper understanding of their relationships with each other. Some are walking disasters (Luke) while others are just better at hiding it (Hugh and Shirley). Hill House caused this family a lot of pain and anger and changed the family dynamic. As much as the house is haunted, so is the family that hadn’t set foot on the property in 26 years. It’s the exorcism of those demons that the show revolves around.

Production wise this one is a knockout too. Every episode looks like it cost a million bucks and think this is one of Netflix’s best original programs. Watch it.

The Horror! Part 2

Movies

Cargo– A simple and straight forward story of a family trying to survive a pandemic in Australia. While the cause is never covered, it’s a zombie-like virus that is spread by being bitten. Once contracted, a person has about 48 hours before they transform completely. In just a few hours, the first terrible symptoms start. Andy and Kay are traveling with their infant daughter and after making a misstep, Kay is bitten. From there it is up to Andy to keep his daughter safe. Andy is played by Martin Freeman so he’s the immediate draw. He’s great in this, a father doing everything he can to keep his family safe. This reminds me of The Road as it’s a bleak story in a minimalist environment with few characters. I like this kind of stories, where people are pushed into tough situations and have to make major decisions that can mean life or death. The “what would you do?” angle is a fun thought experiment. This isn’t a scary movie, maybe a bit more if you have children, but it’s a well done if unoriginal survival tale that doesn’t overstay it’s welcome at 100 minutes long.

The Night Comes for Us– This isn’t a horror movie, but the level of gore and violence push it in that direction. If you like the two The Raid movies, you are going to want to watch this right away. Ito is a gangland enforcer, a stone cold killer in a group called the Six Seas. So deep in the Triad world, a person can never get out of such a position by simple means. After a brutal mission overseas, he can’t take carnage anymore and he defects. Once home he’s sucked into an insurrection is his Triad family and all hell breaks loose. He and his remaining friends are constantly being attacked and they must take extreme measures to protect themselves as it’s killed or be killed. The story is kept simple, with a few screens of text at the start to give the background set up, then you meet the main character and it’s off through almost two hours of straight mayhem. Brief pauses in the action set up the next action sequence and it’s some of the wildest and most vicious fight choreography around. This one is solely for action fans, dig in.

The Horror!

Movies

Let us discuss!

The Void– A cop parked on the side of a street on the look out for speeding cards comes across an injured man who stumbles out of the woods. He takes the man to an understaffed hospital (it’s being shut down soon) and the night takes a turn for the worst when a cult shows up along with some rather hungry creatures. This movie starts pretty strong but doesn’t really go anywhere. The Void is a pretty opaque thing and very little detail about it is given. The movie is pretty scant on any kind of detail as people are forced into a tight space for survival. So at the start, there’s a lot of angry people yelling at each other and for some reason, they don’t want to fill in each other about what they’ve been through or what they know. As a whole, it’s pretty well made. There are some impressive creature effects here and there but the gaps due to a low budget are pretty obvious. There are a few parts in the first half where the editing gets really weird like they had to cut around the fact that they didn’t have footage to show some things. Like the bottom half of a creature doesn’t exist so they had to severely limit shots. A person will move around or get pulled away by a creature in a strange jump cut where a lot of movement is assumed, the gaps so big it can look like things are teleporting around.  While darkness and flashing lights are pretty effective at hiding flaws, it’s mostly the weird editing moves that make this production look rather cheap. It’s not what I’d call scary either. I got a certain Hellraiser vibe from The Void but it never reaches that kind of intensity or sense of dread. I’m having a hard time nailing down what’s missing but I guess the ending was so unsatisfying that it makes me hesitate to recommend this.

I Am Not A Serial Killer- I mentioned this movie two months ago and it left such a positive impression on me that it’s made me want to discuss it. John is a troubled kid. He sees a doctor about his disturbing thoughts, most of them homicidal. He’s constantly worried that he’s going to eventually hurt someone, act upon his terrible thoughts that his doctor and mother help him keep in check. Then a strange murder happens in town and John becomes obsessed with it. He’s naturally drawn to the macbre, so with someone killing and taking body parts, he can’t help himself from investigating. This movie is a fun and well-made whodunnit and monster movie that thrives on its aesthetics and great cast (Christopher Loyd still rules). It’s got some great moments of mounting dread and suspense with quick pops of gore and violence to bring the message home. I found it tastefully done and was interested from start to finish. I like the end so I’m going to give this one a recommendation.

It’s A Busy October

Games, Movies, TV

We’re heading through the last half of October already. New seasons of TV are well underway, The MLB World Series kicks off tomorrow, the NBA season has started, and the NHL is chugging along with the Rangers struggling to compete (I’d write more on this but it’s too depressing).

South Park, It’s Always Sunny, and Mayans M.C. have all been very good so far. Mayans, the spin-off of Sons of Anarchy is a welcome addition to my Always Watch list.

I’ve been bouncing around Netflix watching too many things at once. I’m almost done with the always jolly Great British Baking Show and for the first time in ages, two animes! A new batch of Seven Deadly Sins just went up and I just found Dragon Pilot which I’ve found to be pretty endearing.

On the movie front, I’m going to watch as much horror as I can fit in as Halloween is getting ever closer. I’ll probably do quick hits on my selected titles so those will likely be the next things you read here for the rest of the month.

On the game front. Forza Horizon 4 is brilliant, as expected. The monster of the year comes out of Friday: Red Dead Redemption 2. Seven years in the making and 5 or 6 years since Grand Theft Auto 5 was released, I’m ready to bathe in Rockstar juices.  The hype is real and all 107GB of the game is already on my Xbox waiting for the switch to flip.

Shameless S9E07

TV

Down Like The Titanic

Fiona is sitting in a ditch and it’s Deb who finds her and gives her a hand to help get her out.

It’s been a while since Fiona has been truly down and out (the drug incident with Liam being the big one a few years ago). Career and personal life both imploded at the same time so it’s not surprising we find her laying on the floor of her bedroom in a what can only be described as a hot mess. But it’s Deb who puts the effort into finding her MIA sister and immediately gets to work on putting the Gallagher keystone back together. With a rather large mound of problems to tackle, Deb figures she can help with the car first. Upon seeing the wrecked RAV4 Deb is shocked to find out what happened and hooks Fiona up with her first connect: her co-worker welder who’s got the hook up at a junkyard. Striping the car for parts will net Fiona a quick $600 in cash and pulling some insurance fraud will get Fiona clear of the lease. That still leaves her doomed on her property investment. Max, her investment partner shows up at the apartment open house looking for her $25k. Unable to lie anymore, she admits she’s broke. In a rather hair-raising discussion (I don’t really trust Max, the opportunities for Max to take advantage of her countless) they come to the verbal agreement that Max will get the apartment building for the exact amount of money she owes the bank. The upside: this means she’s going to get out from under the wreckage without being crushed to death. The downside: she’s left with nothing and still owes him the 25k (with interest) he’s going to cover for her to get out of their property deal. The other upside for Fiona is her revenge on Ford that Deb sets up for her. The solider of the season award goes to Deb.

With Ian out of the Gallagher nest, Carl is excited to get his own room, with a door that locks, for the first time in his 17 years of life. Kelly shows up with a stack of West Point admission material and forces him to put his nose to the grindstone to make sure he gets in. Now, any fan of the show can tell you that Carl and school never went together well. He bombs everything (some of the greatest Carl lines came out of this), even with Liam’s help, so Kelly pivots to plan B: use your sob story to get in. With Carl’s past, he racks up the pity points as she asks him questions. Not only was this whole section funny, but Carl also finds out he is Kelly’s boyfriend and their reactions to the public admission is adorable.

While Fiona is in the dumps, Lip has a great day! He runs into that trainwreck of a bridesmaid he hooked up with earlier this season and they hit it off! A night of vigorous nude gymnastics leaves Lip so happy he literally skips down the street.

Frank has wormed his way close to Ingrid again and he parties down with her like it’s 1999 at her place. Medical marijuana, staircase tabogganing, shaving, and more! Frank is head over heels for her and they continue their freak fest at her office. Ingrid’s ex-husband Randy warns Frank that he doesn’t know what he’s getting to and with Ingrid off her meds, it’s only a matter of hours until she completely loses it. He’s been her guardian for 19 years, picking her up and putting her back together everytime it happens. Frank, with his decades of experience in debauchery, waves the warning off. He’s confident he can handle Ingrid until the time comes where Ingrid forces Frank to eat food with broken glass in it at knifepoint. That’s a bit much for Frank and he sprints to The Alibi until things “settle down.” That settling down happens and it’s all thanks to Ingrid’s ex. True to his word, he swept in to pick up the pieces. Frank, being the selfish douche he is, sees Randy as a problem and an opportunity. He begins his manipulation to keep himself close to Ingrid.

After cleaning up all their adult toys, V comes to realize that they have a mountain of baby stuff that’s taking up room in their small home. With the twins now 4 years old, and them done having kids, she bags it all up for a friend. When Kev sees it all in the living room he gets upset on two fronts: first, you’re just getting rid of all this sentimental stuff and second: we’re done having kids? The subject has come up over the years and the discussion of having more kids was always kicked down the road by V. That, according to V was code for “We’re not having any more kids.” We rarely see Kev and V fight and this is the biggest domestic issue they’ve had in a while, Most of their problems have been from external forces but this one is deep and personal. I thought this was a great subject to bring up for the couple and Kev’s response to this coming to light was a good example of his tender heart. I’m actually disappointed that they resolved the problem so fast. There’s a lot to the issue and it felt rushed how it all shook out in two or three scenes. V doesn’t want to physically have any more kids (a great reason) and she throws out adoption to appease Kev pretty quickly. They didn’t even go into the obvious from Kev’s perspective: yes it’ll be a financial hardship but the way V first shot him down made it sound like she didn’t want to have more kids with him. It sounded like a major wrinkle in their relationship and by knocking the issue off the table so fast I feel like we missed out on something much more interesting for Kev and V, the long-running co-stars who always seem to be stuck on the fringe of every story. I love these two and would like to see them get more meaningful screen time.

What really bothers me is this episode was the mid-season finale. So what does that mean? The show is off until January 20th! Three months! Shameless has never broken up a season and I hate this whole concept. The show is on a roll and now it all comes to a screeching halt! Boo Showtime! I say boo to you!

Shameless S9E06

TV

Face It, You’re Gorgeous!

By going for the plea deal, Ian gets sentenced to 2 years in prison. It’s not long before he has to report to the prison and Ian wants to have a relaxing last day at home before he has to live most of his days watching his back. Everyone has something to do so his family is in and out as Ian kicks it around the house.

Carl spends most of the day with Ian and Kelly comes over to teach Carl some advanced self-defense moves. Watching the two throw each other around, Ian asks for some tips and Kelly happily obliges.

Frank is the first to leave the house off to meet his latest muse, Ingrid, at the psychiatric center. Her mandatory 72 hour detainment is up and Frank wants to whisk her away from there so they can start their new life together. Frank brings Liam as support and to check out his “new mom.” The whirlwind first meeting of Ingrid left an impression on Frank, he sees her as his new Monica. Frank doesn’t get what he wants as Ingrid is now no longer in a manic state and her ex-husband came to take care of her.

Lip is out for the day too, taking over babysitting duty for the actress Jen Wagner (Courtney Cox!). She’s got a presentation tomorrow for her biggest sponsorship and if she shows up drunk, she’s in trouble. Lip is really good at his job as he chases her around town and thwarts her attempts at getting a drink. They end up hanging out at the Gallagher household for Ian’s final dinner at home: White Castle. Deb has a very small role this week, more or less getting advice from Jen.

Fiona is handling business all day and right from the start it goes south and spirals out of control. She’s at the start of her investment career, meaning she has very little capital to work with. The 100k she put into the empty lot to turn into a senior living facility has hit a wall of red tape. At her first meeting with her fellow partners, she’s asked for another 25k to keep the process moving. Fiona was expecting a quick turn around on her investment and now she’s looking at years of delay and with no way to get her money. She runs around looking for more money and ends up scrounging through the safe at the restaurant. She’s overleveraged on everything and her stake in the property is at risk  Ford pushed her to get their own place together, a 3k a month rental, so her entire financial world has come to a screeching halt. When she tells Ford they need to back out of the agreement, he takes it as she doesn’t want to live with him and storms off. Later that night, she kisses a co-worker, comes home to an empty apartment and tracks Ford’s phone to find him at…his wife’s home. Cur Fiona’s mind imploding. She races away, crashing her car and stumbling off into the night.

Kev and V are confronted with a rather shocking show and tell. Sister Frances stops by to show them the dildo that Amy brought to school to share with the other kids how her parents show love. Kev and V are brought in to talk with Father D’Amico and it turns out he’s more of a freak than they are. Still, they are moved (shamed) to get rid of all their toys.

This brings us to the next morning where the family is together with Ian ready for Fiona to drive him to the prison. She’s MIA and Kev drives him instead. Once there, the only ones who came to see him off are his family who gives him a tearful goodbye. Like they say, when you go to the hospital or prison, you’ll find out who your real friends are.

This is the last we are going to be seeing Ian for a while. Locked up and fearing the worst for his well being, we’re given a final bit of fan service to see Ian off. Mickey, after snitching on a cartel in Mexico, is locked up in the same prison.

In the original UK version of Shameless, almost everytime an actor left the show, the character just disappeared with a nonsense reason at the start of the season. Cameron Monaghan is the first Gallagher to leave the show and it’s great to see that he wasn’t killed off or simply disappears. We know where he is and he’s not alone. But with reuniting Ian with Mickey, arguably Shameless fans most beloved couple, it shows everyone a plot that they’d want to follow. Knowing we aren’t going to see that is a bit of a rip-off.

So now this raises a big question, where is the show going from here? Emmy Rossum is leaving in a few episodes too and Fiona is the biggest character next to Frank. How much time is left for Shameless?

The cast is still robust enough to keep going. Ian’s plots got thinner and thinner since Mickey skipped town so him being gone isn’t the biggest loss. It’s also set up that his absence is temporary. He can come back in a few seasons with all sorts of new angles to explore after prison and it could be possible to get Mickey out at the same time. But will the show stay in production long enough for that to happen? Fiona has been the rock that the family has leaned on from the start. With the kids now all adults (almost) her role as matriarch has diminished. In the past few years, they are rarely all together and they can go a long time without seeing each other (especially Fiona as she had sworn of bailing out everyone every time they screw up some time ago). So her moving on (I’ve been thinking she’s going to find huge success in real estate and move away to a better part of town, now I’m not so sure) makes sense. She’s not as needed as she once was and with her gone could mean bigger and more important stories for the other Gallaghers. Kev and V might get more integration.

It’ll be interesting to see where this goes.