Hello out there! It’s been awhile. I’ve been busy with gardening and, of course, writing. My husband and I planted seeds. We weeded. And weeded and weeded. Peruvian daisy, or quickweed, is a bugger to get rid of. On the plus side, we got a lot of purslane this year. It’s a succulent that volunteer grows in my garden, and considered a weed. It’s rich in Omega 3 as well as Vitamins A & C. I dry it and add it to salads, soups, spaghetti sauce, meats.
Then came the harvest. It was a dry year, and our carrots did poorly, but our corn and tomatoes did very well. I don’t think anything can discourage tomatoes. Ha ha
Partial harvest
Indeed, writers are many worlds trapped in a person. Not all of my stories take place on the same world. A lot of them are not even on this world. Write about what you know, yes, but don’t let that limit you. Can there be magic in this world? No? Then write about a world where magic does exist. Write what this world could be IF it had magic, or create your own world. But remember, your world still has to make sense. If you decide to have rivers of fire instead of water, you’ll need to figure out things like: how are these rivers contained? How do people cross them? Are there fire floods? If so, how are they controlled?
In my last newsletter I was reading one of “People of” books by Kathleen Gear O’Neal and W. Michael O’Neal. Since then I’ve read several books. “Soundtrack to the End of the World by my long time writing friend, Anthony J. Rapino. If you like zombies, read this book. If you don’t like zombies, read it anyway. Not a zombie fan here, but I loved this book. I’ve also read Cross Bones, A Conspiracy of Bones and Cold, Cold Bones by Kathy Reichs (a fave author). I also just finished reading The Magik Scarf (World of Daegries Book 1) by another long time friend, MK Browning. This is another book you need to read. Main character Alyssa Chance Oh draws you into a wonderful fantasy world.
I’m in the middle of reading 3 books. Someone Before Us by George Frederick Clarke, Etaerio: The Ineluctable Illogical Logic of the Deliquescent Primadivatastic Grits, and The Alliance of the Grim, another by MK Browning. It’s the second book in the Daegries series. (Etaerio is a very silly anthology and has some of my work in it.)
What are you reading right now? Favourite books?
(Not my dog)
Remember, Motherhood of the Moon, follow up to In the End is due out later this month.
In case anyone missed it my books are now in two local(ish) bookstores.
The Write Cup Bookstore Cafe - Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
Dog Eared Books - Oromocto, New Brunswick, Canada
I did a signing at Dog Eared Books for In the End. They were wonderful to work with. I sold 2 books. Not a huge amount, but hey, pretty good for my first signing! The hardest part of that adventure was not buying anything. They don’t just have used and local authors books. Go ahead and check them out.
In other publication news, I’ll have a story in Graveside Press’s Gradeside anthology this coming December. Then next year, I have two pieces (so far) scheduled to be published. One in Bullet Points and another in Illustrated Worlds. I’ve had stories published by both of these magazines before.
The Shauns - Another story I had published in Bullet Points, previously published in The Martian Wave in 2020.
Illustrated Worlds - Issue 10 - This issue had my story “Paperwork Prison”.
Here’s a drabble of mine to enjoy. This was published with Dragon Soul Press in one of their anthologies in 2023, along with 9 others.
Ex Stalker
MinWi sent a photo.
Great, thought Troy. Another stupid selfie. He opened messenger. Sure enough, there was his ex, holding some sort of ceremonial knife. Whatever. He deleted the pic.
MinWi messaged you.
What does she want now?
MinWi: Bringing doggo ovr 4 visit
TroyS: After 8 mos not letting me c her
MinWi: She miss you
TroyS: Don’t bother
MinWi messaged you.
Delete. Block.
“You have eight new messages. First new message.”
“Hi, it’s me. Bringing doggo over.”
All eight were the same. Troy deleted them all.
Knock knock.
MinWi stood outside his door, knife poised, ready to stab.
I’m currently at about 171 followers on my Facebook Page. Feel free to join me over there if you haven’t already.
That’s it for now.
Merci
Efcharisto
Denk u wel
Gracias
Danke
Thanks