We’re almost a week out from julafton (or Christmas Eve) and I’m always surprised by how quickly the year ends when we reach December. Is it like that for you? We got snow early this year around October 12 and by November it felt like we were in the middle of winter.
I just finished wrapping up my final week working on a narrative project for my game design course (a 3 week project), and aside from the usual winter colds my family always experiences around the holidays, I’m relieved to have a slightly slower pace as we wind down to the end of 2023.
Here’s a few highlights from the past few months.
September to December
Writing has continued on my romantic story (every morning at 5am) and I’m currently working on the final chapters. I intend to do another pass to add in more descriptive details, and then (fingers crossed) give it to my critique partner in January or February. There’s still quite a lot to do, but I think it’s time to share the title. :) Ready? Book one of my Soltaria series is going to be called The Keeper and the Rebel!
I released a new website for my game design projects, which you can visit here. I write about some of the development process for my projects which you can read in my blog, and link to several YouTube videos. Yesterday, I shared links to two interactive narratives I created using Fabella* (a web-based tool that allows you to create audio stories) for a school assignment. Starbound is about Karis Venik, a young woman who dreams of exploring the stars, and Daemons & Dealings is about a mage acquiring their first daemon companion.
The witchy story I’m co-writing with Allison Carr Waechter, that I mentioned in my last newsletter, has been rescheduled to next fall, but we’re talking about something we can share with you earlier. In the meantime, Allison’s newest book, The Hollow Plane, is out now and it is wonderful! So check it out if you want to read a gaslamp romance with gorgeous vibes and fantastic worldbuilding.
Best show I’ve watched recently is Blue Eye Samurai, an anime show on Netflix. I highly recommend checking it out, but keep in mind that it’s anime and gets rather bloody. I also just found out that Netflix renewed it for season 2 so yaaaay!
I also have two sales to share with you…
All my books available on Smashwords are currently FREE until January first. You can find my books here and the full sale here. There are lots of books to choose from!
The Spiral Bookcase is having their closing sale this week and books are 20% off, including KoE, DFS, and GoL (3 of my books!). In addition, Victoria, the owner (and a lovely human!), has announced the release of her debut novel, Beyond the Aching Door, which sounds incredible (gothic vibes, inspired by Slavic and Welsh mythology, dangerous Unseelie King!). You can check it out here.
And that’s about it! There’s a lot going on in the world right now with Gaza and Ukraine, so I know it feels difficult to celebrate. I hope, despite the grief and fear many of us feeling, that you’ll also find moments of joy and encouragement as we get closer to the darkest day of the year.
Until next time,
— Holly
*Please note, Fabella uses AI voices like what you hear when using Amazon Alexa, and was a requirement for my school assignment. It’s not financially feasible to hire voice actors for student projects. Regarding my books, I don’t currently use AI, so only have a single audiobook available for Kingdom of Essence. Some day I’d like to offer more! (If you haven’t listened to KoE, btw, Kate Reading is fantastic.)