Slow and Steady

Everybody roots for the tortoise!

Aug 23, 2023

We’re finally nearing the end of summer! The ‘ber months are on the horizon! It doesn’t feel like it because it’s still 95+ degrees around here, but I think if enough of us band together, we can manifest an early/long autumn.

I guess the heat melted me because I’ve lost 14lbs since April.

HUZZAH!

I realize this isn’t a fancy picture, but it does scream autumn with the colors (YAS), and the shirt is everything, and BONUS - you get to see the floofy family hound, Coach!

I’ve been working a lot on my physical health over the last few months, and even though I’m much healthier than I was (physically + mentally) back in March, I haven’t fully recovered my writing pace from earlier in the year.

I’m way behind target, but we’ll talk about that.

What I’m Reading

Obviously I didn’t stick with the list I had in last newsletter. Lawd, I’m really bad at organization, y’all. Don’t tell anybody!

I did finish two books this summer, however! Both were excellent reads.

Craving Beauty - Jennifer Silverwood

Jennifer Silverwood is a fellow fantasy/romance author who helped with my LLDR book tour some years back, so we’ve become friends. I’ve read a few of her books, but I think this is my favorite work of hers so far. Lots of character depth and great world-building PLUS tons of twists on the Beauty and the Beast tale!

Definitely recommended if you like magic and fae. It’s the first in the Wylderwood Tales series, so the story continues for two more books that I can’t wait to read!

Getting Good with Money - Jessi Fearon

I did a publishing panel with Jessi Fearon back in May, and her book was so honest and raw on a tough subject. There was a lot of great info in it for those of us who struggle with money. I highly recommend this one if you’ve wanted to get control of your finances and just need some pointers and proof that it can be done.

Anyway, now I’m going to just commit to reading one book a month (like book clubs) because I think that’s my new pace.

September - Spells for Forgetting - Adrienne Young

October - Curses and Other Buried Things - Caroline George

November - Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi

December - Any suggestions? I love retellings, so a Christmas-themed one would be great!

What I’m Writing

So.

Ok.

I thought I’d be sharing Reckless Truth publishing dates and promo stuff soon, but summer with all the kids turned out to be more taxing mentally than expected.

I got nothing done with Reckless Truth.

Nothing.

I was in survival mode for two full months with the heat and sibling rivalries and tantrums and dysregulated emotions and no schedules and WHEW, y’all!!

Creativity is so strange and beautiful and challenging and wonderful and did I mention strange? It’s here one moment, gone the next, doesn’t return texts, and then sputters back into the driveway with a new haircut and a level of aloofness all of us cursed with self-awareness envy.

The point is, I just started my first round of edits, and then I’ll go through at least one or two more before I’ll be able to share it with my beta readers. Obviously with it being the end of August now, the tentative November publication date is out the window.

< LOOOOONG SIGH >

I’m not publishing during the holidays because they’re stressful enough, so we’re looking at spring 2024. The crazy thing is, I know I need more time to sit with a story than a few months. I’ve known writers who could pop out a full novel in a month (and do that a few times a year?!), but I’ll never be one of them.

And it’s ok.

In the meantime, here is my Spotify playlist for Reckless Truth and a reel I did for a live-action aesthetic board! I can’t post the music I paired with the reel, but it’s “Lilith” by Peter Gundry.