Category: Blog Maintenance

Year in Review, Part the Second

This was a rough year. The pandemic continues, as does injustice, but all hope for change has not been thwarted yet.

Here are some things I accomplished this year:

  • I started streaming again, launching the Tea and Sidequests channel.
  • My husband and I bought a house in possibly the worst market ever, and moved in June! This involved a fight with our former landlord, which is finally reaching its conclusion.
  • I completed Part One of The Book of the New Moon Door!
  • The first Reader Poll told me that the most popular next project was the sequel to Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea, so I started Journey to the Water.
  • I left my day job to focus on writing full-time.
  • As a birthday gift to me, my friends bought me an ad on the One-Shot Campaign podcast, bringing in a few more readers. (Hi there!!)
  • I officially launched my Patreon! I have five subscribers now, and I really appreciate their support.
  • During NaNoWriMo, I rewrote Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea and am now preparing it for self-publishing in January. If you missed the cover reveal, you can take a look here.
  • I continue to survive the plague (vaccinated and boosted) and fight the good fight in whatever small ways I can.

For next year, I hope to keep this going:

  • I want to publish Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea by the end of January.
  • Journey to the Water will continue, and likely finish in late 2022, at which point I will start editing it for publication as well.
  • Part Two of The Book of the New Moon Door will begin soon, probably in February after Frost-Cold Sea is released.
  • I’ve had to put my “big book,” the 500+ page manuscript I hope to traditionally publish, on hold, so I intend to un-shelve it this year.
  • I also want to start two new projects this year, one for Patreon supporters only, and another for the blog (with Patreon subscribers getting chapters a week early).
  • Lastly, I plan to expand my audience, which means publishing, being more active on social media, and continuing to write.

Happy New Year, all. I appreciate you being here.

NaNo Update: Moving Right Along

A screenshot from my laptop

Traditionally, the goal for National Novel Writing Month is 50,000 words in 30 days, usually of a brand-new project. I am trying to completely rewrite Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea for self-publishing. The version that lives here on the blog is just under 80,000 words, so I’m shooting for that higher goal by the end of the month. Hopefully I can get it published before Christmas!

I think I’m well on my way to finishing NaNo, and I’m staying on track for finishing this draft so far. If you’re writing, whether you’re doing NaNo or not, I wish you speedy writing and quiet time free of distractions!

Directory

Welcome! For a brief tour of this blog and my writing, click below:

Continue reading “Directory” →

Welcome, One Shot Campaign listeners!

Thanks for listening to my ad! You’ll find all the content I have available under the Stories and Modules tabs above. If you like them, you can subscribe to the blog through WordPress or via email and get notified every time there’s a new post:

Welcome! I’m happy you’re here.

I now have a Patreon!

Hello, friends! If you are interested, you now have the ability to support me on Patreon. There is only one subscription tier, for $3 a month, which is about the price of a medium cup of black coffee or a small candle in a jar.

Patrons will get new chapters A WHOLE WEEK EARLY, which means that you’ll get the next chapter of Journey to the Water next week instead of the week after! You can read exciting plot twists before all your friends. You also get access to some writing playlists, plus a community board where you can give me feedback or just talk about whatever.

There will be more rewards later, and possibly more tiers, as I continue to grow my audience.

Don’t worry, blog content will still be free. The same chapters will be available here a week later, and don’t feel bad if you can’t or don’t want to support me monthly! I appreciate you for reading.

You can see my Patreon page, and subscribe if you want to, HERE.

You may also notice the new link buttons at the bottom left of the home page. My Ko-fi will still be active, if you’d prefer to leave a one-time tip.

As always, thanks for reading. You make all this worthwhile.

Journey to the Water Prologue: The Citadel

Journey to the Water cover image: three evergreen trees stand on a hillside, shrouded in bluish fog. Subtitle reads: the sequel to Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea.

Table of Contents

He had been in the citadel for so long that he could not remember being anywhere else. Surely, he thought, there was a world beyond the city’s borders, past where the streets faded into fog and the marble walls turned blank and white, but no matter how far he walked, he always found himself back at the center square. Here, there was a temple he could not enter, with crystal archways that shone fiery red in the perpetual twilight and windows of many-colored glass. The stone door was far too heavy for him to move on his own, and he had been alone here for an eternity. Or, perhaps, it had only been an hour—the sun had never moved, after all, and the city stones did not change with the seasons as a forest would, or a field. 

Continue reading “Journey to the Water Prologue: The Citadel” →

Vote on my next project!

With Part One of The Book of the New Moon Door finished, it’s time for me to start a new project, and I want to know what my readers think. Do you want to know what happens next, or is it time for something new? The poll will stay open for a couple weeks or until I get around to closing it. ETA: The poll will close Sunday, September 19, or most likely early Monday morning.

Thank you for voting! Feel free to leave me a comment if you have any thoughts or opinions.

Song of the Week

Florence + the Machine, “Addicted to Love” (Robert Palmer cover)

Happy Monday! Please enjoy this song.

Not much to report for this week. If you missed the latest chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door, it’s available under the Stories tab above (or you can just scroll down from here on the home page). I’m trying to get back to a regular two-week posting schedule for the remainder of Part One. By the time that’s done, I might be in a position when I can post a chapter every week, but I’ll have to wait and see.

Until then, did you know you can get email notifications every time there is a new post on this site? You can do it right here:

Or there’s a similar widget at the bottom right of the page, where you can also subscribe via your WordPress account.

You are, of course, welcome to refresh this page all week, waiting for a new chapter, but this might save you some trouble 🙂

Thank you and have an excellent week!

Announcing the Tea and Sidequests channel!

A sword, a teapot, several cups of tea, a couple of bound books, a handful of polyhedral dice, some small shells, and an antique key lie scattered over a map of Skyrim.

My husband and I have created a joint Twitch channel! You can find it here!

We’re going to be streaming Monday and Saturday evenings, starting next week, from 6 to 8 in the evening (US Central time).

I’m very excited to start sharing some of our favorite games with you. In this time of isolation, I’m also looking forward to chatting with old and new friends. I hope you can stop by sometime!

If you miss a stream, we’re going to be uploading them to YouTube here. I’ve also updated the social icons at the bottom of the blog to these new sites.

Happy New Year!

Year in Review, part the second

I had high hopes for 2020, back at the end of 2019. For me, this year was a lesson in political involvement, compassion, listening to people who know more than me, and determining what I can and cannot change and acting on the things I can. I think next year can be better, but it will only be better than this one if we make it so.

With that being said, here is what I managed this year:

  • I got a new day job.
  • I finished both The Well Below the Valley and Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea, the projects with which I started this blog last year.
  • I also posted the story Love Song in Six Verses and the module Singer Lake.
  • I started The Book of the New Moon Door.
  • I hosted a game at Midwinter Gaming convention, back in January before the pandemic, and also learned more about game mastering.
  • Unfortunately, I didn’t finish the draft of my book. As of right now, I’m 511 pages and 144,881 words in, though.
  • I managed to pay down a lot of my debts.
  • I marched and donated water and snacks during the protests this summer.
  • Thus far, I continue to survive the pandemic.

Here are my plans for next year:

  • Finish this draft of my book! Then make one major plot change, and then give copies to beta readers and start editing. Hopefully it will be ready sometime in the next year so I can start looking for a publisher.
  • Finish The Book of the New Moon Door.
  • Edit Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea and self-publish it for the minimum price. It’s the most successful story on this site, and I’d like it to be accessible to more people.
  • Start the sequel to Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea here on the blog. Eske’s journey isn’t over yet.
  • Start another tabletop module.
  • Reach more people with the blog and social media.
  • Finish paying down debts so we can buy a house!

Happy New Year. May we all have a better 2021.