Newsletter

Welcome to the last newsletter of 2024!

It's been...well, it's been. Like I said in my last newsletter, I've been dealing with some pretty hardcore burnout throughout the year. It all came to a head last month, and I crashed, eventually making the hard decision to put my urban fantasy serial, SEVEN NIGHTS AT THE AFTERLIGHT, on the backburner for a bit.

I've been on the mend since then, slowly but surely. I reached out for help with work rather than taking on a huge project just for the money. I didn't win NaNoWriMo this year (I only made it to about 25k), but I'm okay with that. This month, I only have one big event to get ready for - my dear queerplatonic partner's birthday party - and that's a happy one!

(No, Christmas doesn't count as a big event because have a pretty chill Christmas, taking up separate corners on our sectional and reading all day in our own sort of bastardization of Iceland's jolabokaflod.)

After that, I intend to take the rest of the year being as cozy as possible. It's time to snuggle up in warm blankets with a mug of hot chocolate and catch up on the many, many library books that I have out right now. I'll still be working, of course, but that's not going to take over my life. And I'll write, but I'll be writing at my own pace. This winter looks like it's going to be a bad one up here in Minnesota, and I'm going to take that as an opportunity to practice slowing down and letting go of expectation.

That said, there are still a few things to celebrate this year.

what i did this year!

• Wrote two drafts of Time's Sacrifice Book 2! It was like pulling teeth at some points, but I feel good about where we're headed now so it was worth it.
• Started my first serial...and put it on hiatus. But I'm still counting that as a win because after a decade, I started sharing it and I have plans to continue to do so next year.
• Started a new planner.
• Started taking "adventure days," hiking more and exploring my city (these will be indoor for a few months, but I'm glad I started them).
• Found a new coffee shop (Nina's Cafe in St. Paul!).
• Ran a couple virtual writing retreats over Discord set in my big fantasy world.
• Figured out the social media presences I'm most comfortable being active on (Bluesky, TikTok, and Tumblr).
• Took another crack at dating, a gauntlet all its own as an asexual panromantic anxious bean.
• Played some new TTRPG systems and actually wrote a couple games myself.
• Took part in some very long, emotional D&D sessions.
• Did my first courthouse vigil and my first phone bank.
• Figured out a work routine that worked for me...and then another one when it stopped working, and so on.

looking ahead...

So what's next for Time's Sacrifice Book 2? I'm going over my outline one last time before diving into draft 3. At this point I have the plot pretty solidly figured out and all the character arcs are sliding into place. After I finish this draft, I'll be sending it out to betas.

I probably will not have it ready to publish in early 2025 as I'd hoped. And at this point, I'm not going to promise another date. What I will do is keep working on it and then once I have it back from beta readers, I'll give you a more accurate time frame.

Seven Nights at the Afterlight will come back on March 1 for my Ko-fi subscribers and March 31st for those following it on here. Both of the first two chapters are posted on my Kit page so you can refresh yourself if need be.

I also intend to make more use of my website in 2025, including being a little more active with my blog. Oh, and in January of next year, I'll be removing THE WOUNDS OF WISDOM from Kindle Unlimited so that I can start selling the book on Itch.io. For a long time, readers have been asking me if I sell the book anywhere but Amazon. The book will still be available on Amazon, in both print and eBook, but I will also move it to Itch.

Other than that? I'm not sure. I want to keep finding ways to practice some political activism, and I want to keep having adventures. But beyond that, it's as much a mystery to me as to you. I think that's important for me right now. The less pressure I put on myself going into 2025, the less likely I am to overpromise and burn out. I've learned from this year.

Media of the Month

I've actually read some books that weren't T. Kingfisher! I read A Study in Drowning, my first Ava Reid novel. It was a solid 3-3.5 star read, which is to say it was heavy-handed and her style of writing was possibly not for me but I was compelled and entertained by the story. She a great sense of setting especially.

I'm also reading The Invocations by Krystal Southerland. The worldbuilding is fantastic here, and I'm so drawn in by the characters! Again, it's a bit heavy-handed at times, but I wonder if that's because both of these books are YA and I am a 33 year old woman. (Oh, no. Please don't let me grow out of YA yet. At least not until I finish my literal YA trilogy.)

Speaking of YA that I DO love, though, I read Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore. I thought it would be my least favorite of the series, as it took me a bit to get into it, but wow did that book pack a punch. You can find my review here. I've started Winterkeep, which opens the whole world up even further.

And I also started reading, though I'm now waiting for the audiobook to come back to me on Libby, a nonfiction called Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keene, about the IRA during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. I don't read nonfiction as often as I should, but this one is just engrossing.

Let's see, what else that isn't books? Doctor Slump is the perfect kdrama for trying to take care of myself after a while of burnout. It's been a bit since I've had a good music kick, but for the past few days, there's been a lot of The Arcadian Wild, and I regret nothing. And because it's December, Christmas lo-fi music for work.

Indie Fantasy Shoutout

Camilla Andrews recently finished writing the third book in her debut trilogy, THE ESSENCE OF EQUINOX! You can buy book one, When the Stars Alight, and book two, We Will Devour the Night, right now on Amazon. They're absolutely decadent, so get your hands on them in preparation for book three when it's ready to release!

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Indie Author Joy

Going over my outline again for Book 2, and as much romanticism as there is in being a "gardener" sort of writer, I really love being more of an "architect." I love planning out the structure of the story, the line work, so that I can color it in later.

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