September 2023 Doings!

Well, September is over — nearly a week over at this point, but of course my usual Doings! day was also the day of the Wisest Counselor Awards Ceremony, so we had to delay things a little. It's certainly been a very busy month, between book releases, Silmaril Awards, work, and general life stuff. So, we should have plenty to cover in this post . . .

But first, a quick announcement! If you're in the Northern Virginia area, you should come out to Eat Local Read Local on October 14 at Cascades Library! From 11am to 2pm, seventy local authors — myself included! — will be selling and signing books. There will also be food trucks, live music, and some kids' activities. So, if you want to pick up a paperback of your favorite of my books, or if you want my signature on something you own, please stop by! You can find out more by clicking here.

And now, on with the Doings!

Writing!

• Obviously, the main writing event of the month was the release of Song of the Selkies! The weeks leading up to this were hectic as I rushed to finish edits before release day. When I say that I was re-uploading files until the very last minute, I'm not joking! But the release itself was amazing, and I am super grateful to my beta readers (for all their input) and my ARC readers (who all had lovely things to say about the book and who also helped catch a few typos that I otherwise would have missed). If you haven't picked up your copy yet, make sure you do that; it's currently available in both ebook and paperback on Amazon.
• On the topic of Song of the Selkies, did you catch the character art I shared on Facebook and Instagram leading up to the release? I've shared it above for anyone who missed it — isn't it so good? I commissioned it from the lovely UrbanHart, who did an amazing job bringing the characters to life. If you're looking for a character artist, I highly recommend her!
• Outside of Song of the Selkies, September was also Silmaril Awards month! I hosted the Wisest Counselor award this year, which was fun. It was a nice change of pace from the Friends last year. If you haven't yet, make sure you check out this year's awards ceremonies (not just mine) — I honestly think some of them are the best we've had yet!
• In addition to all this, I did a little bit of work on Bastian Dennel, PI #4 — by which I mean that I finished Chapter 28 in September and wrote most of Chapter 29 this past week. It's been slow going as I try to adjust from Ceana's voice to Bastian's, Kona's, and Dayo's — and from medieval language to 1920s slang! I'm getting back into the swing of it, though, and hopefully I'll be done soon anyway.
• I did not do any D&D writing this month, but my D&D group did meet a couple times, and we're having fun. We spent a whole session dealing with some weird dreams and discovering that one character has fey heritage that even she didn't know about. That was honestly delightful.

Reading!

• This was an excellent month on the reading front — I read so many good books, I hardly know where to start!
• A good chunk of what I read were ARCs. I've already reviewed Second Chance Superhero, When on Land, and My Fair Mermaid, so I won't repeat myself on any of those. 
• My favorite two ARCs were Black and Deep Desires and Wormwood Abbey, both of which are absolutely delicious gothic tales. I talked about Black and Deep Desires a little in my Fall 2023 Reads post; as I said then, even if I don't usually go in for vampire stories, I am delighted that I made an exception for this one. It's full of eeriness and mystery meshed with found family and an excellent romance, and I just love it so much. Then we have Wormwood Abbey, which is a much lighter cozy gothic — with dragons! And a mystery writer heroine! And a solid family that genuinely loves and cares for one another at its core! I need the rest of the series immediately, please and thank you very much.
• Continuing down the ARC train, Steal the Morrow was another good one. I loved Jenelle's take on Oliver Twist — it's far shorter and less depressing than the original, and her Olifur is an lovable blend of principled, clever, and determined. And Twisted Grimms, an anthology of fairy tale retellings that I read on and off between other books, was generally good. There were a couple stories in it that I didn't much care for, but there were also some excellent takes on very obscure fairy tales that I really enjoyed.
• Outside of ARCs, the highlight of my reading month was Dark & Stormy, the much-anticipated third book in Suzannah Rowntree's Miss Dark's Apparitions series. This one was just as good — perhaps even better — than I expected, and it had me internally screaming (in the best way) at multiple points. Our crew — Vasily in particular — definitely go through the wringer here, but there are also some absolutely lovely moments.
• I'll just give a quick run-through of my other reads. Spellbreaker and Spellmaker were roughly what I expected from Holmberg novels, which is to say that they were quick, enjoyable reads with a clever magic system and some nice romance, but I'm not sure if they have the depth to hold up on the reread. Ruth and the Ghost was a short horror story by W.R. Gingell; it's weird, but I liked it well enough. Salt Fat Acid Heat, I actually mostly read back in August. I don't think I would ever make any of the recipes in it, but it did help me understand some cooking principles a lot better than I did before reading it. A Wrinkle in Time was a reread inspired by the presence of the Mrs. W's in the Silmaril Awards, so that was enjoyable. And I read another installment of Fullmetal Alchemist on October 3, as that's a significant day in the fandom — plus, I still had a book hangover from Dark & Stormy, and I figured the best way to get over it would be to read something where my expectations are almost completely different, so I wouldn't have to worry about the comparison game.
• Oh! Almost forgot — while it's not pictured above, I did read 75% of Gillian Bronte Adams's Of Fire and Ash, trying my best to participate in the readalong Gillian was holding. In general, I enjoyed it, and I see why it won a Realm Award. I don't think it's going to be a new favorite, but that could just be because I was too stressed to properly enjoy it for parts of my reading time.

Life!

• The month started off wonderfully with a Bible Study retreat at White Sulphur Springs, otherwise known as one of my favorite places on earth. This was a joint retreat between our study here in Virginia and another study in Ohio (the one where many of the original members of our group met, in fact!), so there was a good crowd, and we had the chance to visit with some long-time friends. Plus, my sister attends the Ohio study, and she came down, so I got to see and hang out with her! And that was really nice. While we were there, we went down to the old hotel, which the WSS staff recently renovated, and toured it to see what had changed and what was still the same. We also had square dancing one of the nights, and I actually had a partner so I could participate, and that was a delight! I love square dancing, but usually no one asks me, and I'm too introverted to ask someone myself. This year, one of the other participants was very actively making sure everyone who wanted to dance had someone to dance with, and I just really appreciated that.
• Once we got back, it was back into the regular routine of work-edit-classwork-blog-and-sleep. Most of my work projects have gone well, aside from one or two hiccups, so that's good. I honestly expected to be a lot more stressed at work than I actually was. Apparently I accidentally front-loaded most of my stress into August, I guess? The one area where we did have some issues was with the livestream — for some reason, our internet decided to buffer badly enough to prevent the stream three weeks in a row. We're still not entirely sure why it suddenly became a problem, but after much investigating, testing, and calling tech help on our part . . . it seemed to mostly resolve itself? Or something? I don't know. We're trying to figure out how to lower the demand on our bandwidth on Sunday mornings so we can make these issues less likely in the future.
• My grad school class also eased up pretty quickly, though the weeks leading up to Song of the Selkies's release were a bit rough. There were multiple weeks when I was submitting all my classwork in the last days of the week when it was due, having also done most of that work within a day or two of the due dates, but most of the assignments were small enough that having to do that wasn't a huge issue. This past week's assignment was a different story; it's been . . . problematic. I probably should've been working on it during the time I was writing this post . . . but said project has been driving me nuts and I don't want to think about it more than I have to. It's one of those things that should have been boring-but-straightforward, but then research turned out to be an absolute nightmare. Still, next week is the end of the class, and it should actually be easier.
• I did get to make bagels one weekend, though! Sourdough bagels, to be specific. They were delicious.

October Plans

• Obviously, October is already a quarter over at this point, but I shall list my plans anyway.
• I have a couple events this month that I'm really looking forward to! One, of course, is Eat Local Read Local on October 14, which I mentioned at the start of this post. This is my first real author event aside from the book fair at Realm Makers, and I'm a little nervous, but I'm also hopeful that it'll be a good time. In addition, a friend and I are planning to meet up at a local Renaissance Festival, and I am so looking forward to that! It's the same Renn Faire we went to last year, and it was a ton of fun then, and I think it'll be great this year as well. I do still need to figure out what I'm going to wear for that, but I'm sure I'll get it sorted out.
• My writing goal for the month is to finish BDPI #4 and write at least one short story for a writing challenge I'm participating in. This is the same writing challenge I did last October. I somehow ended up in the same category as I did last year, and I have no idea what I'm going to write, but . . . I'll figure something out.
• I'm also finishing up one class and starting another for my master's program. I will get a week's break in between, which will be nice. The next class is going to be on grant writing, though, unless I misremember, and I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about that. I don't like asking people for money, and that's basically what grant writing is, as far as I can tell.
• On the reading front, I've worked my way through most of my ARCs, so I'll be trying to clear up some of my library stacks and checking to see how I'm doing on my reading goals for the year. Some (like all the book recs I solicited) are probably a lost cause at this point, but others (like classic or non-fantasy reads) I might still have a shot at.
• Work will continue to be busy, though October is probably the calmest of the fall months — our big things are Stewardship and a service event, and I did most of the design work for both of those in August or September. Still, there's always something that needs doing.
• I'm sure there's something I'm forgetting that I should talk about here, but if I can't remember it . . . eh. Probably wasn't that important.

How was your September? What are you looking forward to in October? Was September a good reading month for you? And will I see you at Eat Local Read Local? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

Stolen Songs Release Party: Song of the Selkies Sneak Peek [IT'S HERE]

 

You know what today is? It's RELEASE DAY for Song of the Selkies! And I couldn't be more excited! The process of writing this book has been a journey in which absolutely nothing went as expected (and very little happened on the original schedule), but I have fallen in love with these characters and this world anyway. And now I get to share them with you! Which is delightful and terrifying. (Releasing a new standalone or series start is, for the record, always terrifying. When I write Bastian Dennel sequels, I know that people already love the characters, and that's half the battle. And I think y'all will love the cast of Song of the Selkies — my beta readers and ARC readers certainly do! — but setting them out into the world is still daunting.) Anyway, I know that some of y'all already preordered and are probably just as excited as I am, but in case any of you need a little convincing, I'm giving you a sneak peek at the first chapter — or you can hop over to Light and Shadows to discover five reasons why I think you should give the book a try.

About . . .

Song of the Selkies

Undercover in a foreign land, a princess discovers the secrets behind a generations-old enmity.

The youngest princess of Atìrse, Ceana always planned to marry for the good of her people and let love come later. With her sisters' marriages ensuring peace with the nearby human kingdoms, Ceana sets her sights on their last unallied neighbor: the magical and reclusive selkies. The two peoples have experienced a wary peace for generations, and the time seems ripe for a deeper alliance that will benefit both kingdoms. The last thing Ceana expects is for Fionntan, king of the selkies, to take the proposal as a grave insult.

With relations between the two peoples suddenly precarious, Ceana is determined to set things right. Aided by her grandmother, she disguises herself as a selkie and travels to their hidden home of Emain Ablach, where she hopes to discover the reason behind King Fionntan's reaction. But the more she learns about the selkies, the more she uncovers long-kept secrets of her people — and her heritage — that shake the foundations of how she viewed the world. Her growing friendships with and affection for some of the selkie nobility, including King Fionntan himself, further complicate matters, especially as her admiration for the selkie king begins to blossom into something more. No relationship built on a lie can survive, but revealing her true identity as an Atìrsen princess will doom her efforts towards peace.

In order to bridge the divide between selkies and humans, Ceana will have to overcome generations of selkies' suspicion and reveal the insidious evil that's taken root in her homeland. But the greatest obstacle to her success may be her own heart.

Discover a magical new world in this Little Mermaid retelling from the author of Through a Shattered Glass and the Bastian Dennel, PI mysteries

Find it on: Amazon || Goodreads

Song of the Selkies Chapter 1

As betrothal ceremonies went, Ceana couldn’t help but feel that this one was rather lackluster. She should know—she’d attended five before this just for her own sisters.

True, all the elements for such a ceremony were present. The seats of the castle chapel were filled with the most notable Atìrsen nobles, along with many of the lesser lords and ladies who lived within a week’s travel and ambassadors from most of Atìrse’s nearer neighbors. The chapel, while not as grand as the one at the royal seat, looked lovely. The afternoon sun streamed through the many tall, narrow windows, setting the enameled murals on the walls aglow, gleaming on the pale stars beneath the Maker’s Hand, the scarlet footsteps of the Shepherd’s Path, and the vibrant flames of the Gèadh Naomh. Banners hung on either side of the murals, displaying the colors of both Atìrse and Glassraghey.

And Mirren herself, standing at the front of the chapel with King Seòras and Queen Isla, her and Ceana’s parents, and Lord Pherick, the Glassraghean ambassador, looked so lovely that she might have been ready for her wedding, not just her betrothal: serene and solemn, her honey-brown hair falling past her shoulders beneath a web of thin braids held in place with gold pins tipped with tiny jewels that matched the sunset hues of her kirtle and gown. The skirt, sleeves, and neckline of the gown were nearly covered in embroidery, all done by Mirren’s own hand, the tiny stitches forming designs intricate enough to be the envy of any woman. It was, Ceana knew, Mirren’s favorite gown, and she added to its embellishment any time she came up with a new idea. Beside her, everyone else practically faded into obscurity. Still, something seemed to be lacking.

With effort, Ceana tried to focus her attention on the ceremony itself and on King Seòras’s speech. “We are honored by the chance to join our family to that of Glassraghey and to solidify the bond of peace between our peoples. Dèanadair has truly laid His blessing upon Atìrse, allowing us to seek friendship with our neighbors and lay aside suspicion, and we seek to honor Him in maintaining that peace …”

Perhaps that was part of the problem. King Seòras had given nearly the same speech a year and a half ago, when Rhona, the third-youngest of the sisters, had been betrothed to Prince Gwynfor of Addewedig. He’d changed some of the details for today, removed some small parts and added others, but much of the flow and wording remained the same. Of course, after having given similar speeches five times before, he was probably running low on new things to say. All the same, Ceana couldn’t help wondering how many others had noticed.

King Seòras finished his speech, and Lord Pherick began his. “On behalf of Prince Martyn and their majesties, King Austeyn and Queen Mureal, allow me to express the royal family’s joy at this coming union, and their great sorrow that they could not be personally present …”

Ah. That was another part of the problem—the greatest part, even. The whole ceremony would have been far better if Mirren’s intended were actually here, rather than represented by Lord Pherick. True, Prince Martyn and his family had good reason for their absence. Just the week before, they’d sent a mirror-message to say that several members of the royal household, Prince Martyn included, had fallen gravely ill, and so it would be best if Pherick stood in their stead. Even so, it wasn’t the same, and Mirren really did deserve better.

A sharp nudge in Ceana’s side warned her that her thoughts were beginning to show—or, at least, that they were visible to Onora, the crown princess and Ceana’s eldest sister, who stood beside her. Ceana hastily recomposed herself. If she couldn’t give Mirren better, she could at least keep from spoiling things further by letting her thoughts show.

At the front of the chapel, Lord Pherick went on with his speech. “The greatest gift Dèanadair grants any of His people, after the gift of the Path, is the opportunity for each of us to serve our neighbor. And with this union and the greater peace it brings between our lands, so may our two nations more freely partake of this gift …”

Well, that much was true! And that—the betrothal, not the betrothal ceremony—was the important part. Every betrothal and marriage between Atìrse and her neighbors was another step towards ensuring a friendship between the nations that would, Dèanadair willing, last for generations. Ceana and Mirren, like their sisters, had grown up knowing it would be part of their duty to contribute to this peace—duty and honor both! For what greater service could there be than ensuring peace for one’s people, both in the land of one’s birth and the land of one’s marriage?

And, technically, they needed none of this pomp to make a betrothal official. Atìrsen law only required that any royal betrothal be finalized in the presence of a certain number of noble witnesses. Making it into a grand affair just provided an opportunity for the nobility who wouldn’t be able to travel for a foreign wedding to show their support for the union. In that respect, today’s ceremony was more than sufficient.

Lord Pherick finished his speech, and now came Mirren’s turn to speak. She flushed slightly as she began: “I am truly honored to have been accepted as Prince Martyn’s future wife. Though I do not yet know the prince, I know of him, and I look forward to building a life with him that will benefit both Atìrse and Glassraghey and will honor the name of Dèanadair. May His blessings be upon us both and upon our countries.”

Even with the blush, she delivered her statement well—as she ought, given that she’d practiced it nearly a hundred times last night and made Ceana and Onora listen to most of those repetitions. Onora had privately commented afterwards that she’d felt less nervous about her own wedding than Mirren evidently did about this ceremony—but that was Mirren for you!

With the speeches now ended, King Seòras, Queen Isla, Lord Pherick, and Mirren all bent and signed the betrothal contract, one after another. Then King Seòras and Lord Pherick shook hands, and Lord Pherick bowed to Mirren. Had Prince Martyn been here, he would have kissed her hand—but he wasn’t, so he couldn’t. With that, the ceremony ended, and King Seòras offered his newly-betrothed daughter his arm to depart the castle chapel for the banquet in the great hall.

Lord Pherick followed just behind, escorting Queen Isla. Next came the Dowager Queen Moireach, Ceana’s grandmother, leaning on an elegantly carved ivory cane. Then came Onora, escorted by her husband, Prince Alasdair. Ceana brought up the rear of the procession, escortless—for now. Not for long, if she knew her father and mother.

She stepped outside just in time to see King Seòras give Mirren a quick squeeze of the shoulders, then leave her with Onora and Alasdair as he, the queens, and Lord Pherick moved off to speak together. Now that the ceremony was over, Ceana dropped her formal pace and hurried over to hug Mirren. “Congratulations! How does it feel to be properly betrothed?”

“A lot like being not-betrothed, so far.” Mirren wrinkled her nose, but returned the hug. “And Glassraghey can still back out.”

“But they won’t. They want an alliance as much as we do.” Ceana released Mirren, though she kept her arm looped through Mirren’s. “Isn’t that right, Onora?”

“If Glassraghey changes their mind at this point, it means something has gone very wrong indeed.” Onora raised herself on tiptoe to give her husband a kiss on the cheek, then pushed him in the direction of the main keep. “Go distract anyone who tries to enter the Great Hall, won’t you? That ceremony finished faster than I thought, and I don’t think the servants have had enough time to set up.”

“Bossy,” Alasdair teased, returning the kiss. “And who’s lord of this castle, I’d like to know?” Nonetheless, he set off towards the keep, walking as if it had been his idea in the first place.

Onora took Mirren’s other arm. “See what you have to look forward to?” Still, she laughed. “Don’t you worry. Everything will be fine. By all accounts, Prince Martyn is quite taken with what he’s heard of you.”

Ceana grinned around Mirren. “Oh, your agents afield are keeping track of our allies’ love lives now, are they?”

“Well, naturally,” Onora replied, raising an eyebrow. “Part of their job—” She paused as a stub-tailed cat darted over to rub himself against her legs. “Oh, bother. Càirdeil, what are you doing out here?” She let go of Mirren’s arm, bent, and scooped up her cat. “As I was saying, part of their job is to find out who would be best suited and most amenable to an alliance so I can advise Athair and Màthair. Should Prince Martyn be infatuated by some local lass, we’d not about send one of you off to marry him.”

“I’d go anyway,” Mirren murmured, though she didn’t sound entirely certain of her statement. “If I needed to. I’d have every cat in the palace to keep me company if the prince didn’t care to.”

Càirdeil chose this moment to let out a rumbling meow, as if to say he approved. Onora gave a little shake of her head. “Maybe, but a marriage with nothing between husband and wife is a dishonor to Dèanadair and a disservice to both countries it binds.” She set off towards the keep, and Ceana and Mirren followed her. “I don’t know why we’re fussing over this anyway. I already told you that Prince Martyn fancies you, as much as he can without having met you.”

“True, you did.” Mirren’s lips quirked upwards. “So if you’re helping Athair and Màthair find marriages for the rest of us, who do you have in mind for Ceana? It’s her turn now.”

Was it Ceana’s imagination, or did a hint of worry cross Onora’s face? But Onora just shook her head. “What Athair and Màthair have planned is for them to say in their own time. I’ll not spoil the anticipation—not before Mirren’s feast is over!”

“As if they won’t tell her anyway in a few days!” Mirren protested. “Surely you can tell us.”

“’Tis theirs to tell, not mine.” As they neared the keep, Onora turned towards the great doors. “I’d best see how the servants are faring. I’m sure Alasdair can only hold the crowd so long. Go mingle, and I’ll see you at the feast.”

She hurried away, her full skirts swishing around her legs. Ceana and Mirren called farewells after her, then made for the crowd gathering in front of the main doors.

As soon as they reached its edge, guests started coming forward to offer Mirren their congratulations. Ceana stood politely by her sister, smiling and occasionally nodding or responding to comments made in her direction. But her thoughts were already flown past the feast towards her own future. Tomorrow, she knew, the king and queen would come to her or call her to meet with them so they could tell her who they had in mind for her to marry, just as they’d done for all her sisters.

But who would it be? That was the thrilling question. Someone from Addewedig to the south or from the Talaschean Kingdoms to the west would be most likely—and that would put her close to either Rhona or Mey. Joining Mey in Talascheal would make sense; they had five royal families there, plus a high king, and that meant plenty of potential matches—and more opportunity for Ceana’s marriage to really mean something. Addewedig had been a strong ally to Atìrse for generations upon generations, but the Talaschean Kingdoms had only recently made a proper alliance. And surely it would be worthwhile to create ties to all five kingdoms?

With effort, Ceana pulled herself back to the present. Today they celebrated Mirren’s betrothal; she ought to focus on that. She’d have plenty of time to dream later.

Thankfully, the doors to the Great Hall of the keep opened not long after, signaling the beginning of the feast. The crowd streamed in to find their seats: Mirren in the place of honor between King Seòras and Queen Isla; the rest of the royal family, various Glassraghean representatives, and other particularly important guests arranged around the high table; and the remaining attendees at lower tables according to their rank and where they could find space. King Seòras blessed the meal, thanking Dèanadair for Mirren’s good match and the bonds of friendship forming between Atìrse and Glassraghey.

And then the servers brought forth the food! The dinner began with thick, savory vegetable and barley stew. Next to the table came every manner of fish, perfectly roasted, some in cream and some in sauce, some on beds of wilted greens and flecked with spices, and some served over crisp-edged potatoes and brushed with parsley sauce. Along with the fish came a splendid venison roast, so tender the meat practically fell off the bone at the first touch of a knife.

Ceana could have happily finished with the venison and fish—but the servants next brought forth roasted poultry: peacock for the high table and those nearest it, and duck and goose for the rest. One servant slipped Ceana a plate of duck without having to be told, and Ceana gave him a quiet thank-you in return, making a mental note to tell Onora the same later. An occasion like this demanded the fancier peacock meat, which Ceana had never much cared for, but duck prepared by Onora’s cooks was a delight, common fare or not. With the fowl were roasted vegetables and fluffy rolls still warm from the oven, their tops glistening with butter.

At last, however, only bones remained of the birds, and the servants cleared away the platters, replacing them with trays containing tarts laden with creamy custard and spiced stewed pears. Ceana could only manage one, she felt so full from the rest of the feast, and she couldn’t even touch the accompanying bowls of honeyed plums and candied nuts.

Yet when the court musicians struck up a tune and King Seòras escorted Mirren down to the floor to open the dancing, Ceana sprang to her feet and hurried down after them. She allowed Onora’s brother-in-law, Evander, to claim her hand for the first dance and set to the steps with as much energy and enthusiasm as she could muster. Failing to dance, after all, would be an insult to her family and to Glassraghey—and it would be bad luck for both her and Mirren, besides.

She stepped and spun through seven dances before her stomach and legs’ mutual protests convinced her that she had better rest a moment. So, she made her way back to the high table. King Seòras had returned to his seat as well, she noticed, and Lord Arran, along with his wife, had moved up to sit across from him.

Onora still danced, so Ceana slid into her seat beside the king without hesitation. King Seòras gave her a side-smile as she did, but Lord Arran only nodded and went on with the conversation with barely a break. “Your majesty, with all due respect, I urge you to push for better terms when the treaty with the selkies is renewed. That they should maintain such harsh sanctions over an offense that was old and half-forgotten when our great-grandparents were children is, frankly, ridiculous.”

“That we refrain from hunting seals is no great hardship, Arran, nor is paying the little they ask.” King Seòras spoke with a tone of weary patience. “We have paid more for safe use of ports in some other lands, and had less good of it.”

“Your majesty looks far too kindly on such extortion.” Lord Arran’s face was all thin, disapproving lines. “The sea belongs to no one, human or selkie, and it is madness that these seal-folk think they can claim it as their own.”

“Yet the selkies travel the same routes we use, and they have done so longer than we have. If we can claim the land as ours, I am willing to let them have the sea.” King Seòras shook his head, leaning forward with his arms resting on the table’s edge. “And I have no desire to anger them such that they start attacking our ships again.”

Lord Arran just scoffed. “Your majesty should have more confidence in your people. The selkies would find us far harder to sink than they have in the past, and I think they would soon learn to leave our ships alone.”

Ceana stifled a sigh and instead exchanged a sympathetic look with Lord Arran’s wife. Lady Eilidh’s expression suggested that she’d heard this rant too many times before. True, she almost always looked like she were trying and failing to remember what a smile felt like, and her eyes—huge and dark as the storm-tossed sea—frequently held the kind of bone-deep weariness that Ceana mostly associated with grieving mothers. But today, she seemed especially defeated.

Another day, Ceana might have invited Lady Eilidh to walk and talk with her. Though the lady spoke little, and she struggled when she did speak, she always seemed to appreciate the escape from her husband’s presence. However, today, Ceana needed to sit, so she remained where she was, listening to King Seòras and Lord Arran debate policy and treaties until she’d recovered enough to leave them again and rejoin the dancing.

The next time she looked towards the high table, Lord Arran had gone, and Queen Isla sat beside King Seòras, leaning into him, her head on his shoulder and his arm around her as if they were still young newlyweds who could be excused such things. Ceana smiled as she saw them and mentally whispered a prayer to Dèanadair asking for that same blessing for Mirren and herself. She knew her parents had met the first time only a few days before they wed, but they had been as determined then as they were now to do right for their countries, and love had sprung from that shared determination like snowdrops after the first spring thaw.

Someday, that would be her fate. Someday soon, she hoped. Now that only she among all her sisters remained unattached, it was only a matter of time.

~~~~

What did you think of that sneak peek? Are you excited to read the rest? Tell me in the comments! (And if you want to find out what happens next, make sure you go order your copy!)
Thanks for reading!

 

August 2023 Doings!

Hello! Welcome to September! I'll be frank; I'm really glad that August is over. I'm not happy that summer is almost over, to be clear — just that this bit of it is done. I feel as if the theme for this August, at least for me, was something along the lines of "Well, it could be worse." It's not that nothing good happened, and it's not that the worst thing possible ever happened, but I did spend a lot of the month, especially the second half of it, feeling worn and stressed and worried. And, of course, when you're in the middle of being worn and stressed and worried, you can't remember what it was like not to feel all those things, and I didn't really stop feeling any of those things for longer than about three hours at a time until the evening of the very last day of the month (yesterday evening, if you're reading this the day it was posted). But! It could have been worse! Some things were actually very good! Like the writing, which we're going to talk about now.

Writing!

• As one might expect, my dominant project this month has been editing Song of the Selkies. I received the rest of my beta feedback over the first week-and-a-bit of August, and pretty much all of that was very good and very helpful for figuring out how to make the story the best it could be. I hoped that I'd be able to finish the first edit by the end of the month — not an unfeasible goal, since I knew most of my first draft was pretty clean — but I ended up having to rewrite more scenes and write more new bits than I expected, so I was only able to get up to about Chapter 24 as of the writing of this post. Still, that's over half done, and the back half should be easier than the front half. It almost always is, at any rate, since in the first half of most drafts, I'm still somewhat figuring out the story, characters, and world, while I usually have those well-sorted by the end. I'm wrapping up the month with 78,034 words edited, 13,126 of which are newly written or rewritten (plus whatever I did last night after writing this blog post).
• Even though I am not where I want to be with the editing, I will say that I still love this story so, so much, and I am so excited about it. Literally all I want to do right now is work on it, not just because of deadlines, but because I really enjoy it, and I'm having such fun spending time with the characters, and I want to be able to share the story and characters with y'all. Has it been stressful at times? Absolutely yes. But I still love the book.
• (And I'm currently commissioning character art for it! I'm working with a new artist, and she seems very good. I've seen a finished piece for one character and roughs for several others so far, and I just love her style and the way she's managing to capture my characters. I'm super excited to get to show off the finished pieces!)
• Also on the topic of Song of the Selkies: would you like to help spread the word about this book or any of the Stolen Songs releases? Signups are now open for both the release party and review copies. Check out the release page for a full list of all the books and links. Word of mouth is very important in helping indie books succeed, so whether you're sharing premade graphics and a blurb on social media or going all-in with interviews, reviews, and guest posts, I really appreciate anything you do to share about Song of the Selkies and the other Stolen Songs stories.
• Outside of Song of the Selkies, I did work some on Bastian Dennel, PI #4 at the start of the month. I have another two chapters penned (about 3,786 words), bringing my chapter total to 27 and my plot almost to the climax. Once Song of the Selkies is released, BDPI #4 will go back to top priority, and I'm looking forward to finishing this up.
• Speaking of finishing things: also at the start of the month, I finished writing my D&D Feygate adventure! I also started running said adventure, and it's been a lot of fun so far. We had one session that was 90% the players trying to solve a longish riddle that will partially determine how the rest of the adventure goes, and I am really proud of how well they did with it — they even managed to come up to an answer to part of it that was way better than what I originally planned. One of the party members also decided to adopt a Displacer Beast kitten and is now trying to tame it, which I . . . did not expect. We're going to see how that goes, but if anyone has any advice on how to approach this (or how to approach non-familiar party pets in general), please feel free to share.

Reading!

• I read exactly two physical books this month. Everything else was on my Kindle. That's not a statistic I usually include on here, but the Kindle app has started doing these reading challenges — perfect week, perfect month, read so many books, read so many days, read books in X category, that sort of thing — and of course only Kindle books count. And in June or July, I came really close to a perfect month, and the perfectionist in me was like "No, we gotta get it this time. We're gonna do this." So . . . lots of Kindle reads.
• The two physical reads, if you want to know, were The Battle at Hackham Heath and Spinning Silver. Hackham Heath completed my Ranger's Apprentice reread, although it wasn't a reread. It was ok? I didn't love it but also didn't hate it. Spinning Silver is a Rumplestiltskin retelling (with shades of other fairy tales), which I read because several of the Realm Makers faculty recommended it. It's one of the books where I'd learned all the spoilers, and I wanted to see how they happened in context, and then the actual context turned out to be nothing like what I expected. It was a good book, though I didn't always love the writing style and I really wish the author or someone had labeled the shifts in POV.
• The highlight of the month was, of course, Wet Behind the Ears, the latest in W.R. Gingell's Worlds Behind series. This one had lots to love, including some great character moments and the return of a few old friends — well, technically they returned in the previous book, but we got more of them here. The story was excellent, and now I'm more excited than ever for book 4.
• Dream by the Shadows and Network Effect were also both very good. Dream by the Shadows is a dark, gothic-y fantasy centered on dream magic. I requested it as an ARC because, well, dream magic, plus I was promised a Beauty-and-the-Beast style enemies-to-lovers romance. And I can say that it did deliver on both of those things, though not entirely in the way I expected. Though the beginning was very dark and hard to read (particularly because I was super tired and stressed when I started it), once the story started spending more and more time in the dream realm, things improved, and I really did enjoy it. I originally planned to post a full review on my blog, but, uh . . . there was a fade-to-black scene towards the end, so I don't know now.
• Anyway. You know what had no fade-to-black scenes (except when the main character literally collapsed a few times)? Network Effect, the fifth book in the Murderbot Diaries. This is possibly the best entry in the series yet, and I had a very hard time putting it down. There's so many good character dynamics and character arcs, the action bits are excellent, and the . . . antagonistic force, for lack of a better word, is cool. Weird, but cool. Ten out of ten; probably will reread.
• As for the rest of the books pictured in this month's reading, they were all varying levels of good (none worse than average), but I don't have much else to say about them.
• Last thing to note on the reading front: since I finished listening through all of the Dear Hank and John podcast, I decided to work through the backlog of Re:Dracula, which is basically Dracula Daily but in audio drama podcast form. (If you don't know what Dracula Daily is: it's an email subscription where you read the classic novel Dracula in real time, and it's one of the best things the internet has come up with in the last ten years.) At this point, I'm caught up with Re:Dracula to about a quarter of the way through August, and I'm very much enjoying it. The voice actors all did a marvelous job. I will say that I don't like the voice actor for Quincy Morris, as his take on the character's accent makes him sound like Jim Weiss — granted, I like Jim Weiss, and his CDs were a major part of my childhood, but it is not at all right for Quincy.

Life!

• So, yes. Here's where all the "Well, it could have been worse" comes in.
• To be perfectly fair, the start of the month was pretty good. Work was quiet, I was having video calls with my sister every couple days so I wasn't lonely (even though I was home alone), and the fact that I was still waiting on beta feedback meant I had some spare time to watch things (mostly YouTube), play Hearthstone, get to bed at a reasonable time . . .
• And then I got rear-ended in a parking lot, and everything kind of went downhill after that.
• Before anyone worries: I'm fine. Everyone else involved is fine. My car wasn't even badly damaged — just a bit dented, and it's fixed now. But I had never been in an accident before, and I definitely freaked out, and thank God my dad was there to take the lead on things like getting the other person's information and asking for a witness statement from someone and all that sort of thing. And thank God as well that I have good insurance so I could get my vehicle fixed and get a rental in the meantime . . . but the fact that it could have gone worse didn't mean it wasn't scary.
• It didn't help that work had just gotten a lot busier and a lot more stressful, or that those trends continued through the rest of the month. Half the content for the fall newsletter was delayed longer than I'd planned for it to be (for good reason, but good reasons don't change mailing deadlines). We had two short-notice funerals in the space of a week. Preparation for fall ministries and activities started ramping up. We discovered that the system we're using for our new online directory sends alarmingly-worded emails to people whenever you add them to said directory, which means I had to run damage control. (Note: I don't actually mind running damage control on this; it mostly just involves sending emails, and I'm good at those. But it's still an extra thing to worry about.) And almost every time I thought I'd have a quiet day, half a dozen new projects suddenly appeared to drop themselves in my lap.
• (On the upside, we're way ahead of schedule on materials for the Stewardship campaign — almost everything is ready to send to the printer, and that event isn't until October. So, yay for that.)
• Additionally, remember how I mentioned that my mom went back to Pennsylvania at the end of July to stay with my grandpa for a few weeks? A few weeks turned into the whole month and nearly turned into until the middle of September due to the hospitals not being able to get their act together until the last minute. She did get to come home for one weekend in the middle of the month, which was good . . . but that doesn't change the fact that I missed her when she was gone, and it didn't take away the stress of the two-ish weeks in which we all worried she wouldn't be able to come home for a month and a half. (She's home now, though, which is why I'm actually able to be semi-optimistic again.)
• Oh, and because all that wasn't enough: I started grad school two weeks ago, still in the midst of worrying about whether or not my mom would be able to come home before the turn of the month, still worrying about my car . . . that was not a good week, let me tell you, and it was a rough start to the semester. The first couple days were so bad that I genuinely wondered why I'd thought this was a good idea — and while I'm used to feeling that way in the middle of a class, it seemed like a bad sign that we were starting at that point. Everything felt like Too Much. Nothing on its own was more than moderately hard, but everything together, on top of what I already had going on, seemed like a crushing weight. I made it through the first week, though, and the second week might be a little better — we'll find out once I actually manage to do the half of the assignments that I keep putting off because other things take priority.
• And for the record, I do feel bad complaining about all this because I know so many people who have it worse. Like, I am getting off lightly in every way. I'm stressed about when my mom is coming home? My mom's the one away from home, taking care of my grandpa, not knowing when she'll be able to leave. I got into an accident? Two of my friends got into worse ones — at least my car was driveable and I was able to get in touch with insurance and get a repair appointment quickly. I'm tired from cooking and laundry? I'm doing a fraction of what other people do, and their additional workload isn't any lighter than mine (and they're doing it with chronic pain or fatigue besides). I'm stressed about work deadlines and projects? I'm not the one running the events; I'm not the one going through the personal stuff that's causing the delays. I'm worried about my editing pace? I know people who've written books this close to the publication date and done just fine. I'm overwhelmed by grad school? I'm only taking one class, and I don't even have any big papers or exams yet. I have no right to be upset.
• But telling myself all that just makes me feel worse — and feeling worse just makes everything harder.
• (All this may sound like I'm fishing for pity, or sympathy, or something. I'm not. I honestly debated whether or not to say half of it because, as I said, lots of other people have it worse, and I didn't want to complain. But . . . I write these Doings posts for myself as well as for others. I write them so I can look back and remember where I was. So I'm leaving it in for future me.)
• I don't want to end this section on a downer note, so let's talk about something more fun: the latest from the D&D group I play in (not the one I run), wherein we finally defeated one of our nemeses. It was glorious — he's a schemer who's spent the last several months (out of game) hitting us wherever it'll hurt the most. He's the reason why we're wanted in about half the campaign world (because he framed us for murder), the reason why there's a war on . . . and, most recently, the reason why one party member decided to essentially disappear and retire, because he took one loss too many. We arguably hate him more than we hate the actual big bad villain of the campaign. He's gotten the jump on us so many times . . . but we managed to find out where he was and teleport in on top of him, and the whole thing was just immensely satisfying. Oh, and we may have made some tentative allies among the drow, and I am very excited about that in- and out-of-character. A lot of this campaign has been centered around making friends out of enemies in order to deal with bigger enemies, and I'm glad we might be managing to do that with the drow as well as other groups. Also, my character somehow became very rapidly attached to one of the drow — a young woman in whom I think she sees a lot of herself and her younger sisters — and I really hope I can continue to develop that. I think it's going to give lots of good storytelling opportunities in the future.
• Oh, and I learned the basic strokes of modern calligraphy through a free online course my mom told me about. That was kinda cool. I thought about going on with the next course (which I would've had to pay for), but September's going to be busy, so I think I'm going to wait on that. It was fun, though.

September Plans

• Song of the Selkies needs to be finished and uploaded by September 15. So . . . that's going to be my next two weeks. That and preparing for the release party.
• (Storms, is it really only two weeks?)
• After Song of the Selkies is done and released . . . well, we'll see. I may take a week or two off, or I may jump straight back into writing BDPI #4 (though at a slower pace). It'll depend how I feel and where I am with other projects.
• Almost as exciting: I get to see my sister this month! Our Bible study and the Bible study she goes to (which are connected via many close friendships) are doing a joint retreat, so we'll all be going on that. I get to spend a weekend in one of my favorite places with some of my favorite people; it's going to be good. Hopefully I can actually enjoy it and don't just spend the whole time stressing about Stuff That Needs to Get Done.
• Another happy thing: September is also Silmaril Awards month! I will be hosting a category again, even though some might question where I'm finding the time to do so. I like it too much not to do it, though. However much stress it adds, the fun balances it out. Keep an eye out for nominations opening next on Monday!
• Less happily, grad school will probably eat up a lot of time as well. I'm hoping that it'll get better now that I have fewer other things to be stressed about, though. I do think this class has the potential to be interesting if and when it shifts away from just being Workplace Writing 2.0, and I'd like to be able to give it enough thought and attention to actually find things in it to enjoy, rather than just pushing through one assignment and another and another.
• As far as work goes . . . I do not foresee anything slowing down until about January. Fall is also my least favorite church season to design for; it's hard to find good imagery for most of the annual events, and the color palette's arguably the hardest one to work with (at least for me). Still, I'm ahead of the game on Stewardship (as already mentioned) and on graphics for the big fall service project (because we've already started promoting it), so that should help.
• Last on the list, I'd like to do some baking since I didn't get to do any in August. In particular, I really want to make bagels again. We'll see if that happens or not, though.

How was your August? What are you looking forward to in September? What's your favorite audio adaption of a book? Are you signed up for the Stolen Songs release party? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

Hello, all! The summer months are almost at an end (assuming you consider September fall, which . . . let's be real, it really isn't), and that means many things. It means the Silmaril Awards are coming up in just a few weeks. It means that Song of the Selkies is less than a month away from release. And it means that it's time for another Taleweaver's Desk update. Once again, there aren't a lot of changes since my previous update, but I have made progress on most of my active projects. So, let's see what's new! As always, if you want to know more about any project in this post, you can ask me in comments or take a look at my Works in Progress page.

On the Taleweaver's Desk Issue 9: August 2023

On the Desktop

These are the projects you might find open on my laptop or desk if you took a peek at it during a normal day. They're currently in progress and at the top of the priority chart.

Song of the Selkies (Daughters of Atirse #1)

What is it? A roleswap Little Mermaid retelling featuring selkies and a princess who genuinely wants to do all the things a princess is supposed to do.

Status: Fully drafted; a little less than halfway through the first edit. Available for preorder now!

Everything about this book has taken longer than anticipated, but we are pressing onward. I give thanks every day that I write pretty clean first drafts so I can focus most of my editing energy on making the actual story better without having to wade through lots of spelling and grammar mistakes. (I also give thanks that I found such a great team of beta readers, all of whom gave excellent feedback on a rather tight turnaround.) The part of the book I've been editing this week involves a lot of rearranging scenes and trying to make sure the timeline works, so that's held me up, but I think once I get past this section, I'll speed back up.

Bastian Dennel, PI #4

What is it? Book 4 in my Bastian Dennel, PI series and my first murder mystery.

Status: Twenty-six and a bit chapters drafted.

Having to spend extra time on Song of the Selkies met I didn't finish this in July like I hoped, nor will I finish it in August. I expect that this will be my main writing project in October, once Song of the Selkies is released and the Silmaril Awards are over. Once I finish drafting it, I'll decide whether I want to switch the order of Books 4 and 5 like I mentioned back in May, though at the moment I'm leaning away from that plan. The only real advantage of that plan is that it might mean getting a book out a little sooner, but either way, there probably won't be a new BDPI book until 2024. Sorry!

D&D Campaign: Defenders of Serys

What is it? Defenders of Serys is the homebrew D&D campaign that I run for my D&D group.

Status: In between writing adventures.

I finally finished writing and running the Middle Earth adventure — huzzah! — and wrote another, much shorter, adventure that we're in the middle of now. I'm currently taking a break from D&D writing to focus my energy on other projects (namely, Song of the Selkies and grad school) and hoping that what I have written lasts long enough to when I can work on the next adventure. I thought it would, but my group has cleverly bypassed about half the encounters I planned, so we'll see. For the record, I'm quite proud of their cleverness — I gave them an open-ended riddle, and the solution they came up with was much better than either of the answers I had in mind. And the encounters they bypassed, I'll save for another time, so we're fine on every count except maybe time.

Stacked on the Side

These are the stories that I'm not actively working on (at least not officially), but I'm keeping close at hand because I plan to get back to them soon (or I just work on them sporadically as the urge takes me).

There are no significant changes to any of these projects since my last update, but I'll leave the list here for anyone who hasn't seen it before!

Blood in the Earth

What is it? Blood in the Earth is the sequel to Blood in the Snow and a retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses crossed with the myth of Hades and Persephone.

Status: First draft finished; awaiting rewrites. I probably won't get back to it until late 2023 or 2024 at this point due to all the Bastian Dennel, PI books I have planned.

Once Upon a Dream

What is it? A light steampunk (or gaslamp fantasy?) Sleeping Beauty retelling; the predecessor to The Midnight Show

Status: Edited several times over. Awaiting another round of rewrites/expansion/edits.

Shelved for Now

These are stories that are also on hold, but which I don't have specific plans to work on very soon. They're still within easy reach should I decide to return to them, but they aren't a top priority.

There are no significant changes to any of these projects since my last update, but I'll leave the list here for anyone who hasn't seen it before!

Dust of Silver

What is it? Classic-ish fantasy retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses crossed with Rapunzel, the first book in what has the potential to be a rather long series. Also, a rewrite of a book I wrote years ago that won't let go of me because CHARACTERS.

Status: Several chapters into the rewrite, though those several chapters haven't been touched in a few years.

Between Two Worlds

What is it? A portal fantasy adventure about what happens when you come home from the adventure, only to discover that the adventure isn't quite as done with you as you thought.

Status: Awaiting another round of edits/rewrites while I write other things and daydream about its sequels. May get bumped further up the priority list depending on certain other factors, but probably not for a while yet.

The Way of the Pen

What is it? Self-aware fantasy adventure about a girl and her author.

Status: The first draft is sitting on my shelf, patiently waiting for its turn back in the spotlight, as it has been for some time. Of everything in this section, this is the most likely book to move up to Stacked on the Side or On the Desktop, as I occasionally have wild thoughts of editing it and shopping it 'round to traditional publishers. However, that actually happening in the next couple years is improbable, due to selkies and Bastian Dennel taking priority.

Berstru Tales series

What is it? A classic epic fantasy series and the longest-running series I've worked on (either in the number of books written or in how long I've worked on it.

Status: Needs to be rewritten from the ground up, but the bones are good. There's a particular character who's getting a whole new arc, and I'm really excited to write it . . . when I have time.

Awaiting Delivery

These are the stories that are on their way, but haven't quite arrived yet to the point where I can write them: ideas I'm toying with but haven't even started to draft because they're still too nebulous.

Additional Bastian Dennel, PI novels

What is it? Exactly what the heading said.

Status: I am having lots of thoughts about Book Probably-5 (Jack and the Beanstalk) and have figured out 90% of the setup and 60% of the plot. I don't outline books before I'm ready to write them, but I may have to start making exceptions for BDPI books because I'm genuinely getting really excited for this one and have no outlet for it. I'm also excited for Book 6 (Little Mermaid + a non-fairytale classic novel), and I may have to outline that one too so I can properly organize all the ideas I have for it.That said, outlining is part of how I usually work up to starting a story, so . . . we'll see how that goes, if I decide to do it.

Daughters of Atirse stories

What is it? At least three other stories in the same series as Song of the Selkies. Specific stories planned: The Goose Girl crossed with Puss in Boots (a prequel), something in the Beauty and the Beast Family (a sequel), and my take on Tam Lin crossed with a couple other fairy tales (another prequel).

Status: I want to write all of these so much and I haven't even published Book 1 yet, y'all. It's a struggle.

Novellas from the world of Blood in the Snow

What are they? Currently, three ideas for spinoffs, most of which are also fairy tale retellings: one Puss in Boots (no, really), one Orpheus and Eurydice (probably crossed with a similar Japanese myth, Izanagi and Izanami), and one that's not currently a fairy tale retelling but would be about Gan and Azuma before they were animal-keepers at the emperor's palace (inspired the summer I spent watching a lot of Hogan's Heroes).

Status: Won't be written until after I edit Blood in the Earth.

Unnamed Fantasy Murder Mystery

What is it? Exactly what the headline says. A prominent noble is murdered; his adoptive daughter is poised to inherit his lands and position — but some are saying her hand was behind his death.

Status: Still just an idea, but it's an idea with a really good soundtrack. Still not going to be tackled until after Blood in the Earth. May end up being set in the same world as Daughters of Atirse, though not in the same series.

What projects are on your desk right now, and how are they going for you? How far in advance of writing a book do you outline it? (And have you had any success with outlining far in advance?) Tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

July 2023 Doings!

Hello everyone! Questionably fun fact: I completely forgot that I was supposed to write a Doings! post this week until about 6:20 yesterday morning. In my defense, it's been a weird month and a weird week, and I am tired. July was a good month, but it was far from a restful one. And if you want to know what I mean, well, that's what this post is for, so let's get on with the Doings!

Writing!

• Well, this has definitely been an exciting month on the writing front! We started out with the release of the Fellowship of Fantasy Wags, Woofs, and Wonders anthology on July 6. I didn't end up doing as much as I wanted with that release, but thankfully the other authors were much more with it. It's currently available in both ebook and paperback formats, so if you'd like to enjoy some feel-good short stories featuring magical doggos and guaranteed happy endings, go ahead and pick that up.
• The week after the anthology release was, of course, the Realm Makers writing conference. I had a great time at the conference, and I'll talk more about that in the Life! section, but there is one element of the conference that I want to mention here . . . which is, of course, the fact that Through a Shattered Glass won the novella category of the Realm Awards! I've said this a few times now, but I was thrilled and honored just to be on the finalist list, and actually winning is amazing. (I am also very proud of myself for managing to not embarrass myself when I went up to receive the award, as I sometimes get nervous around large crowds, and I definitely did not prepare as much as I intended.)
• The last bit of exciting news: shortly after returning from Realm Makers, I announced my next book release: Song of the Selkies, a roleswap Little Mermaid retelling that will release September 19 as part of the Stolen Songs Arista Challenge group. If you want to learn more, click here and check out my cover reveal post! I also finished drafting this novel in July, the day after the cover reveal — yes, I'm cutting it closer than I normally do, but we'll be fine. Even the first draft of this book turned out really well and has gotten great feedback from betas so far, so I'm excited to get to release it into the world.
• Even aside from all the exciting stuff, July has been a really good writing month for me. I ended up writing almost 43K words this month, spread out across three different projects. Finishing Song of the Selkies took most of those words — just over 32K — and involved a lot of 1K+ days. And my last two days of work on it both had a wordcount of around 5K, which is a lot for me! Additionally, I wrote another 4.6K words on the fourth Bastian Dennel, PI book, which isn't a ton but is respectable for the fact that I was only actively working on it for about a week. Finally, I wrote about 6K words in my D&D Feygate adventure, which has been so much fun to put together. The Middle Earth adventure was nice in that I had the storyline laid out, and I just had to translate it into D&D, but I've missed getting to do my own thing. I'm currently having a grand time coming up with potential scenarios, NPCs, and so forth, and I very much look forward to actually running them. We've already played two sessions of the adventure, and people seem to like it so far, so I'd call that a good sign.

Reading!

• July was also an excellent reading month, as you can probably see. Most of what I read continued my Ranger's Apprentice reread, which has been a lot of fun. As I said last month, rediscovering this series has been a lot of fun, and the books hold up impressively well. At this point, I'm done with the reread portion of it, and I'm in between the two Early Years books, which are new-to-me reads. Well, technically, Goodreads claims I read The Tournament at Gorlan back in 2015, but I have no memory of doing so, and that was before I did Doings! posts, so . . . who knows? I certainly don't.
• We only have four new reads for the month. A Storm Grows is a book of poetry by Janeen Ippolito, which I primary read for purposes of a reading challenge. Power Through was my Realm Makers read — I like to read something by a Realmie author while I'm at the conference, and so far, that author has been H.L. Burke both years. Power Through is the third book in Burke's young adult superhero series, and I quite enjoyed it. Of course, it had Wildfyre in it, as well as peak dad!Fade, Voidling, and Jake and Marco both doing some growing, so the odds were very much in its favor. Finally, we have volumes 11 and 12 of Fullmetal Alchemist, both of which I really liked. I don't know why I enjoyed them more than I have previous installments? But they were both very good, especially Volume 12. (Speaking of things I can't explain: I somehow, in the space of approximately three books, got attached to Lanfan, who is very much a secondary character at this point, and I do not know how or why, other than I seriously respect both her courage and dedication.)
• So, yes. The other few books I read are all rereads, and I have nothing much to say about any of them other than that Gothel and the Maiden Prince, like most of W.R. Gingell's work, stands up very well the second time around, as does the Ticket to Write anthology.

Watching!

• Not a lot to report here, since lots of writing, plus travel, means I don't have much time to watch things in the evenings. That said, I did watch How to Steal a Million and North by Northwest towards the start of the month. I very much enjoyed How to Steal a Million — I love a good heist story, and the setup for this one was so fun. Plus, the lead actors played off each other very well.
• North by Northwest, I was a bit less of a fan of — conceptually, it was cool, with the whole "ordinary man gets mistaken for a spy and then has to go on the run" thing, and the action and adventure was great, but the romance elements weren't really my thing. Ah well.

Life!

Left to right: Wyn Estelle Owens as Breen from Mechanical Heart, me as a steampunk cowgirl (feat. my Realm Award!), and Kendra E. Ardnek as the Gardener from her Austen Fairy Tale (which is very good and you should read it).

• July was, as already stated, a busy month, but it was still a very good month for many reasons. And reason number one, above and beyond anything else that happened, was that it was the first (and only) month this summer in which all my immediate family members were in the same place for the majority of the time. My mom came back from my grandpa's the first weekend of July, and it was so nice to have her home again.
• We didn't end up doing anything much for Independence Day, even though we were all home. Usually, our Bible Study would get together, but so many people were out of town that it just didn't happen. That said, I'm not really complaining . . .
• But now we come to the highlight of the month, which was, of course, REALM MAKERS! Though this was my second year attending, it still had a lot of firsts for me: first time flying solo, first time at the St. Louis location (which I'd heard so many good things about from friends), first formal book signing thing . . .
  • After the craziness of last year (amid which I almost missed the start of the conference), I opted to fly out on Wednesday before the conference. That was definitely the right choice, even though plane schedules meant I ended up arriving super early that day — 9am St. Louis Time. Thankfully, navigating the airport on both sides was much easier than I expected, especially since my dad ended up leaving on the same day and at roughly the same time for a business trip, so I wasn't trying to do everything myself on the way out. And the early arrival time gave me some good writing hours and plenty of time to catch up with friends (namely, Kendra E. Ardnek and Wyn Owens) before the conference proper.
  • It also gave me time to run the Realm Makers-themed one-page RPG one-shot I'd prepared, which was super fun. What happens when three wizards' creature companions — an octopus (who would like you to know that he's a totally normal human man, not an octopus, why would you think he's an octopus), a hyperactive weasel, and a prim and self-absorbed cat — have to defeat the mad inventor and his machines that have put their wizards to sleep? Much chaos, that's what — including, but not limited to, the weasel overdosing on coffee, the octopus using the weasel as a projectile weapon, and the cat deciding that she was, in fact, a god. They did successfully wake their wizards, though, so that's good.
  • Thursday, I helped out with the registration desk in the morning (which was nice because I got to meet some people and also felt like I could recognize people later), and then the conference officially opened in the afternoon. The keynote address with Steven Laube was excellent, focusing mostly on the idea and value of wonder. Also excellent was going to dinner with Wyn and Katie Hanna and chatting about our various books and ideas and tropes and whatnot. (Katie Hanna, by the way, is writing a Western fantasy series that sounds fabulous). Additionally, Thursday was when I finished writing the climax of Song of the Selkies, which was most exciting. 
  • Friday and Saturday were both very busy days, with lots of great sessions. For my continuing sessions, I attended Charlie Holmberg's "Speculative Worldbuilding" series, which was interesting. Some of it I felt like I already knew, but it was cool to see her process and hear her advice and thoughts. She tends to do map-first worldbuilding, which is not my usual approach, but I do see how effective it can be. I also attended a two-part elective by Donald Maass on writing series characters, which gave me some principles I think will be super helpful as I continue to write my Bastian Dennel books. My one complaint about that elective was that the two parts were scheduled right after lunch on Friday and Saturday, so I kept having to rush out of lunch to make it to the talks on time.
  • Friday was also the Awards Banquet, which was exciting for a multitude of reasons. There's the obvious one, of course — the fact that I was one of the people who received an award. I also had fun dressing up; I decided to go as a steampunk cowgirl at the last minute, and I had a grand time talking in an accent that would have done Quincy Morris proud. (As a bonus, I discovered that I actually look rather good in a cowboy hat, if I do say so myself!) Also, Wyn decided to dress up as my character Breen from Mechanical Heart, and I think I might have gotten just as excited about that as I did about the award. I'm not even joking. Additionally, we got to sit with a couple who we'd met at the 2022 Realm Makers, and it was nice to catch up with them. (I should probably go find and friend them on Facebook, but I . . . have not managed to do that yet.) And we ended the night with several rounds of Bring Your Own Book, which is always a delight.
  • The conference ended on Saturday with the book fair. The book fair includes an opportunity to get your books signed by Realm Makers faculty and Realm Awards winners, so that was kind of my first official author signing event! I will admit that I kind of missed being able to wander around the vendor hall like I did last year . . . but it was also nice to get to sit in a comparatively quiet area and meet people and actually have conversations without struggling to hear. And, let's be real, I spent way less money than I would have if I had nothing to do but walk around the vendors.
• So, yes. All in all, Realm Makers 2023 was just as great as it was in 2022 — better, in some ways. The hotel was more comfortable, for one thing, and I didn't feel quite so perpetually overwhelmed. I will say that, contrary to what one might expect, the best and most exciting part wasn't the awards ceremony or the book fair or getting to meet authors I look up to or anything like that. Rather, it was the opportunity to see people like Kendra, Wyn, and Katie in person and the fact that I got to spend four days in the company of people who love the same things I love. That's the biggest reason I went back in 2023, and it's the biggest reason I hope to return again next year (Lord and finances willing).
• The last big event of July was both sad and happy, as my little sister officially moved to another state for her first job out of college at the end of the month. I'm happy for her; I know she's going to be doing something that she enjoys and can get excited about the way I can get excited about my work. Plus, she'll be close to many of her friends, and she has a great church community up there. At the same time, though, having to say goodbye in the knowledge that she won't be back next summer was sad, and I miss having her around and being able to talk to her about stuff. I mean, we've done several video calls since she left, but it's not the same. (Plus, my mom went back to Pennsylvania for a few weeks at the same time, so . . . yeah.)
• I think that about covers it. Work is work, crafting and baking have barely happened . . . My D&D group did get in a few sessions, which were intense. We're trying to take down one of our nemeses, and he's the literal worst, and two of the party members have lost NPCs who they were super close to. One of the party members actually retired over it, so that was doubly sad. The player is still in the group and made a new character, but still . . . sadness. Oh, and the DM said that we're probably only a couple levels away from the end of the campaign, which is . . . terrifying. Exciting! But terrifying! The group will continue with new adventures, though, so we can look forward to that.

August Plans

• My number one plan for August is to do LOTS of edits on Song of the Selkies, plus formatting, tour prep, and all that good stuff. The fact that the book turned out way longer than I planned means I'm on a tight schedule now. I'm committed to making sure everything is done on time, but I do not expect it to be easy. 
• And it will only be made more difficult by the fact that my next semester of grad school starts at the end of the month. I thought about delaying and having overlapping classes again like I did last year, or even about only doing one class this semester, but I know that if I delay grad school stuff every time I have a busy writing season, it'll take me ten years to finish this degree, and the goal is not to do that, thank you.
• In between edits and class work, I'll continue working on Bastian Dennel, PI #4 and my D&D Feygate adventure. I'd like to finish the Feygate adventure this month, and I think that's a pretty reasonable goal, especially since I'm well over half done already.
• I have no idea what will happen on the blogs. I have some regularly-scheduled posts that will need to go up, and I would prefer not to take too long of a hiatus (especially as I know I may take another semi-hiatus sometime in the fall), so hopefully we'll be back to the regularly-scheduled weekly stuff? Assumed I don't get slapped in the face by the need to do three million things?
• Work will probably be busy, but I don't expect it to be notably busier than usual. I do have both the newsletter and Stewardship campaign materials this month, but those are usually pretty enjoyable projects, so I'm not super worried. I'm a little more worried about our directory project, but it'll probably be fine.
• I also want to do some more bread-baking with my fresh herbs while I have fresh herbs to bake with, but we'll see how that works out.
• I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but whatever. My basic goal for August is to survive, edit all the words, and not miss any deadlines. That should be doable, right?

How was your July? What are you looking forward to in August? Did you go to Realm Makers, or have you gone in the past? If so, what was YOUR most exciting part? Have you been doing more new-reading or rereading lately? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

Song of the Selkies COVER REVEAL + Preorder Info!

 

Hello, everyone! Some of you may have seen this on Facebook yesterday evening, but if you're not on Facebook (which is probably a wise choice, to be honest), I have some exciting news. That news, of course, is of my upcoming book release: Song of the Selkies, a roleswap Little Mermaid retelling. I've been working on this book for a good while now, and I'm super excited to get to show it off.

So, without further ado, let's give it a chance to shine . . .

Undercover in a foreign land, a princess discovers the secrets behind a generations-old enmity.

The youngest princess of Atìrse, Ceana always planned to marry for the good of her people and let love come later. With her sisters' marriages ensuring peace with the nearby human kingdoms, Ceana sets her sights on their last unallied neighbor: the magical and reclusive selkies. The two peoples have experienced a wary peace for generations, and the time seems ripe for a deeper alliance that will benefit both kingdoms. The last thing Ceana expects is for Fionntan, king of the selkies, to take the proposal as a grave insult.

With relations between the two peoples suddenly precarious, Ceana is determined to set things right. Aided by her grandmother, she disguises herself as a selkie and travels to their hidden home of Emain Ablach, where she hopes to discover the reason behind King Fionntan's reaction. But the more she learns about the selkies, the more she uncovers long-kept secrets of her people — and her heritage — that shake the foundations of how she viewed the world. Her growing friendships with and affection for some of the selkie nobility, including King Fionntan himself, further complicate matters, especially as her admiration for the selkie king begins to blossom into something more. No relationship built on a lie can survive, but revealing her true identity as an Atìrsen princess will doom her efforts towards peace.

In order to bridge the divide between selkies and humans, Ceana will have to overcome generations of selkies' suspicion and reveal the insidious evil that's taken root in her homeland. But the greatest obstacle to her success may be her own heart.

Discover a magical new world in this Little Mermaid retelling from the author of Through a Shattered Glass and the Bastian Dennel, PI mysteries

Releasing September 19, 2023

Preorder on Amazon || Add to your Goodreads shelf

For those who read that blurb and now have questions . . .  yes, this is a kissing book. (Technically, it's a romantic epic fantasy, but that's a technicality.) Don't worry; I'll still be writing plenty of nomance and low-romance books in the future! But I wanted to do something with the idea of a princess who wants to get married, and who wants the arranged marriage that so many young adult heroines spend a lot of time and energy running away from, and that meant that there had to be a love story in here alongside everything else. It's very much a slowburn, though, and it's super sweet. I had fun writing it, and I think y'all will like reading it just as much.

Also, in a turn of events that will surprise absolutely no one who's been following me, Song of the Selkies is releasing as part of the Stolen Songs Arista Challenge collection! One of the other covers for that release has already been revealed, and the rest will be uncovered on Saturday. Check out the Facebook party to learn more! Additionally, all the Stolen Songs books are on a special $0.99 ebook preorder special for just a little while longer, so make sure you place your preorder soon!

So, what do you think of the cover? How excited are you about Song of the Selkies? Please tell me in the comments!

July 2023 Doings!

Hello, all! Between work, writing, travel, general life stuff, and the fact that my intended blog hiatus ended up being significantly less hiatus-y than intended, June has been a very busy month. Not a bad month, necessarily. Lots of good things have happened this month on all the different fronts, many of which I'm excited to share with y'all. But things have been busy all the same, and I have spent more time sleep-deprived than is necessarily pleasant.

Writing!

• I have had a very productive writing month this May, I have to say. I racked up about 28k words on my Selkie Story, which is just about finished with its first draft. It's ended up a lot longer than I originally intended, which is why I'm finishing it so much later than I hoped I would . . . but I'm very pleased with it, and I think it'll be even better once it's fully finished and edited. A lot of those words were written on the road — the lack of consistent internet makes it a little easier to focus, so long drives when I'm the one driving are often pretty productive. (Of course, depending on the trip, the days in the car often have to be productive to make up for days of no writing at all. But still, it's good.)
• I also spent a fair bit of time this month designing the cover for my Selkie Story, which should be revealed sometime next month. I have to say, I'm super excited to show it off. I had to dust off some parts of my graphic design skill set that I haven't used since college to make it, and I think the result turned out quite well indeed.
• In addition to my Selkie Story writing, I did a fair bit of D&D writing — 5.7k words worth, to be specific. I finished writing my Middle Earth adventure (finally) and worked more on the next module, which I've been referring to as the Feygate Adventure. I also finished writing a non-D&D adventure that I started working on last year but had to set aside due to other projects taking priority. I got to playtest that one with my group last weekend, when one of our number was on vacation and we didn't want to do our usual campaign, and that was super fun! I'm looking forward to running it again with another friend group soon.
• The other writing-related news, of course, was the whole business with Uncommon Universes Press closing down and the change of publisher for the Wags, Woofs, and Wonders anthology. That was largely resolved with minimal input from me, thankfully. You can read my blog post about it here for more info.

Reading!

• This month involved a lot of revisiting old favorites, as you can probably see — out of the twelve books I read in June, seven of them were rereads. And I'm happy to say that all were delightful, though I knew that they would be. Some, like House of Many Ways and The 13 Clocks, I've read many, many times before (though I haven't read The 13 Clocks since before college). Cinderella Must Die is more recent, but there's never a bad time to throw a W.R. Gingell murder mystery into the mix. And I started a reread of the Ranger's Apprentice series, partially because some online friends kept posting fanart that made me miss the characters and partially because my sister was rereading the series and was talking about it. I will say that I'm very pleased with how well the Ranger's Apprentice series, at least the early books, holds up. The last time I read them was apparently before I was on Goodreads, so it's been a bit. But they're pretty much what I remembered, which is to say, pleasantly clean and easy-to-read adventures that don't go overboard on the romance, and I'm enjoying revisiting Will, Halt, and the rest of these old friends.
• On the new reads side, I finally finished my last yet-unread Discworld book, Small Gods, and completed the series. I'd procrastinated on this one because I knew it was tackling the topic of religion, and I wasn't sure how much I actually wanted to read it. Having at last gotten around to it, I don't think I'll read it a second time (it had some interesting thoughts in it, but was, on the whole, not as fun as most Discworld books), but the completionist in me is glad to have read it once.
• I also read two books for the book signing I attended (more on that in a minute): Into the Heartless Wood and Cruel Beauty. Into the Heartless Wood is by the same author as Echo North (which I devoured back in May), and while I preferred Echo, Heartless Wood was also lovely — half Beauty and the Beast, half Little Mermaid, with some very interesting magic and a nice take on a non-human perspective. Cruel Beauty is also Beauty and the Beast, but blended with various Greek myths (notably Pandora and Cupid and Psyche), a little bit of Bluebeard, and, magnificently, Tam Lin. I had mixed feelings about the start, and there was a bit more sexualness in the middle than I normally go in for (though it bothered me less as the couple in question is, y'know, married), but the ending was so lovely (allegorically so, even!) that I couldn't really complain.
• Moving on: Tide and Scale, I've been reading on and off throughout May and June. It's an anthology of mermaid and mermaid-adjacent stories, and is, as anthologies often are, a bit of a mixed bag. But it does include a Rapunzel retelling by my friend Wyn Estelle Owens, and I loved that one, so that's all that really matters to me.
• Finally, we have Wraithwood, which I picked up because its sequel is a Realm Awards finalist and I wanted to know if I should pick up a copy. The answer, as it turns out, is an unequivocal yes, abso-storming-lutely. I loved Brinnie and her story, and I heartily applaud the author for avoiding a lot of the tropes in contemporary not-quite-portal fantasy that usually bug me the most. Notably, she managed to provide a good in-world reason why characters refuse to tell the protagonist things, which I love. This is an author who looked at a plot problem and instead of just smoothing over it or handwaving things, saw an opportunity. And to that I say: well done.
• I am, of course, still reading various classics via email subscription. Notably, I've started Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped, which I know nothing about, but which seems promising so far! (I'm about two chapters in at this point.) I am also somewhat regretting my decision to pick up the Moby Dick Whale Weekly subscription, but I started it and so I'll see it through.

Watching!

• Not a lot noteworthy in this section other than to say that my sister and I watched a few more episodes of Leverage. We're up to the departure of a certain character (can't say who) and still quite enjoying the show. And I have to say, the episode in which that character departs and the episode right after it may be going on my list of favorite episodes in this show. Both were super fun, even with the emotional bits, and I just really enjoyed watching the team in both cases.

Life!

• This month has, as I've already said, been a busy one — we were either traveling or had something going on almost every weekend.
• The most exciting trip was midway through the month, when my sister and I trekked up to Ohio so I could visit with my former roommate and attend the W.R. Gingell and Suzannah Rowntree book signing. (It was, for the record, not exclusively their signing, but they were the authors I was primarily going to see.) The signing was, for the record, awesome. I absolutely loved getting to meet some of my very favorite authors (and discovering that they're just as wonderful of people in real life as they seem to be online) — if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you probably saw my post about the signing and about both Gingell and Rowntree actually recognized my name from our online interactions. I also got to meet up with some online friends and fellow fans while I was there (and introduced them to Bring Your Own Book), which was also lovely.
• My visit with my roommate was just as lovely as the signing, for the record. Even though I see her on D&D video calls most weeks, I still miss being able to spend time with her in real life. Also, her family had just gotten a new dog, so we got to meet the pup (who is very cute). We also played lots of Sentinels of the Multiverse and, notably, finally attempted the Oblivaeon endgame-type scenario. We lost that one in the last stage, after spending about eight hours playing through it, but I was still impressed with how well the makers set it up. Even though it was a long game, the gameplay varied enough that it didn't drag like I worried it would.
• Then we got home from that trip, had about four days to recover, and set off for Pennsylvania so we could see my mom and grandpa again. For those curious: my grandpa is still recovering well, even if he really wants to push the limits of what he can do while wearing a neck brace. We're hoping for good news at his next doctor's appointment.
• Amid all the traveling, I've been doing quite a bit of baking — and cooking, since my mom's not here and my sister and I are mostly trading off that responsibility, but the baking is mostly more exciting. (The exception to the mostly is that I made ham and spaetzel for the first time, which is quite an undertaking because you make the spaetzel from scratch, and it turned out really well.) I tried out a new pretzel roll recipe at the start of the month, and that was very tasty. I also made a lovely Scarborough Faire Sourdough loaf to take up to my grandpa's house, with three out of the four herbs (parsley, rosemary, and sage) taken fresh from my plants. I was very pleased with how that came out. In between, I made shortbread (to give my roommate's family), rolls (for my dad to take to work), and flatbread pizza (also using fresh rosemary and basil pesto from my plants!).
• All the travel this month means my D&D group hasn't been able to meet much, but the sessions we've had have been fun. Stressful — a lot of people almost dying — but still fun, with some very exciting moments and some excellent roleplay. I also got to join back up with the library D&D group this month, so that was cool. It's a little bit of a struggle because I created a character who's supposed to be very outgoing and action-oriented, hoping that would help me stay involved rather than just being in the background. But because the rest of the group knows each other better than they know me, and because we meet online, it's hard to actually get into character or play my character how I want to play her.
• On the work front, things keep swinging back and forth between SUPER BUSY and really quiet because no one's in the office. I did get to take pictures of handbells and stained glass windows for the summer handbell concert, though, and that was delightful. I love the church's stained glass windows, and bells are a lovely shape to photograph, and it was just generally a very fun morning, y'know?
• I did have high hopes of doing more crafting this month, mostly in the direction of costume accessories for Realm Makers. Alas, that was not to be. Aside from working on my embroidery, I did basically no crafting of any kind. Ah well . . . maybe next month. Or, more likely, maybe August.

July Plans

• Ok, for real this time . . . the Wags, Woofs, and Wonders anthology releases on July 6, just under one week from today! There was a little bit of a hiccup with this caused by Uncommon Universes Press shutting down, but the book is going forward, and there's still time to preorder the ebook if you want to read my short story, "Grim Guardian," or any of the other seven stories included in this anthology. While I haven't been able to do as much as I wanted to with this launch, it's still a thing that's happening!
• In more exciting news (aka news that has had me internally vibrating with anticipation on and off for literal months): REALM MAKERS! IS A THING! WHERE I WILL BE! My books will ALSO be there, at Kendra E. Ardnek's table (because she is a fabulous person and will be handling my sales). I'll be hanging out at her table as well on and off throughout the conference, between sessions and mingling and such. I'm so hyped, and also my brain cannot entirely believe that it's so close. I'm looking forward to seeing my writer friends (and making new ones), learning from the experts, and the general adventure of it all. And, of course, I'm excited to see the results of the Realm Awards, especially with Through a Shattered Glass in the running.
• Continuing on the writing front: I'll be working hard this weekend and next week to try to get my Selkie Story fully drafted and in the hands of beta readers before I leave for St. Louis. (I also need to make sure I have beta readers to hand it to . . . that's a task for this weekend.) I'm so close to the end that I can taste it, and I've been daydreaming variations of the climax for about a month now. Once I finish that, I'll return to BDPI #4 and try to get that wrapped up — though I may take the week of Realm Makers off from actively working on any particular story. (Oddly enough, writers' conferences aren't a great place to get actual writing done . . .)
• Moving on to the rest of my life, we're expecting that my mom will be back home (at least for a while) this month, while my uncle takes a turn helping out my grandpa. I'm very much looking forward to having her back home, but I'm also perpetually paranoid that something will happen to prevent her return . . .
• As for work, it'll probably be pretty quiet, with the occasional burst of lots of activity. The first part of the month will definitely be busy, since I'll have two short weeks and I'll be working ahead to cover my time out of town. The rest shouldn't be bad. One exciting thing: the kids summer VBS thing is coming up in August, and it's a space theme, which means I'm going to have so much fun designing promo materials. (I've already had fun with the first round of promo. But now I get to have more fun. It's great, and I would like to thank the kids ministry director for her absolutely stellar choice of curriculum, pun entirely intended.)
• Finally, a word on what to expect around the blogs: I'm still hoping that July will be a semi-hiatus, but my Mid-Year Best Of/Book Roundup posts, various book releases and book news things, and one or two other things I have in mind mean it might be pretty full anyway. At the moment, my plan is to post as my time, energy level, and priority list allows, but not to default to not posting if the post in question isn't time-based.

How was your June? What are you looking forward to in July? Will I see you at Realm Makers? What's the best book signing you've ever been to? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!