This month has been a lot of tiring, difficult stuff: family stuff, house stuff, money stuff, work stuff, and the political stuff. You know it’s not my favorite month ever when I mostly describe it with “stuff.”
Writing stuff, though: writing stuff has been good!
Since my sapphic mapmaker book is off querying, I started a new book project, and am already both loving it and wondering can I do this? which always seems to happen as I’m getting into a new story. I haven’t been able to start something completely new since September 2024, when I began writing the mapmaker book; since then, I’ve been either revising that or revising Seaglass. And as tired as I am with all the stuff, having a new story to think about keeps me going.
I don’t want to say too much about it yet, because it’s still so early. It’s not a romance, though it does have a love story, of course, and it’s a second world fantasy, in an entirely different universe from my other books, and it is looking like a true standalone, not a series. But here are some hints…
- Second chance romance (as in, the person you betrayed is the person you most need)
- Childhood friends to lovers to enemies
- Traumatic backstory (my usual)
- Heist! (That’s a new one for me)
- Hidden identities
- Protagonist in late thirties
- Chronic pain
- An archer lesbian (I decided I needed a break from sword lesbians)
- Chaotic, catastrophic magic and dangerous technology to harness it
I’ve got two main characters that I already love, wild worldbuilding, and have written my first villain scene, and beyond that I don’t want to say too much, because it’s all still so new and changing every time I write. I do have a playlist, though, if you want to experience the next book vibes! These are all songs that have some energy I want to get at, or that connect to the characters or plot points; the various musical styles don’t really have anything to do with the setting. I have two or three versions of “I’ll Fly Away,” because I’m trying to pick my favorite.
I’ve been reading through my very piled up TBR, and finished The Sovereign, the closing book in the trilogy of The Magic of the Lost, by C.L. Clark. This book ended the series in a perfect way I would never have expected, threading through chilling ups and downs and brutal violence, political and otherwise—there was a point where I was surly for half a day and had to explain to my wife that it was because “something happened in that book and I am very upset.” You know it’s a book to remember when you have deep personal opinions about all the characters; they’re so real.
I also read two non-sapphic fantasy books (I don’t only read sapphic fantasy! I just enjoy it and there’s so much to enjoy), The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson and The Poet Empress by Shen Tao. The Poet Empress is a beautiful, dark, and tragic book about power and abuse, and I’d absolutely recommend if you’re looking for an emotionally heartbreaking fantasy story. Hodgson was first a mystery author, and you can really see it in The Raven Scholar’s intricate plotting and intense whodunit vibes (not who you think! Ever!), but the worldbuilding and the characters are also fantastic; I can’t wait for the sequel.