July '24 Newsletter
Hello readers,
It’s time again for another newsletter, and it’s been a busy month for me. I’ve been working hard on lots of projects, but more about those later. Outside of writing, I have also been trying to read more, and after finally finishing Miriam Margolyes’ second biography (I lost steam while reading, the books itself was great), I managed to get back into a flow. After that I read another biography called the Seven Ages of Death, from a pathologist. I absolutely loved that book too.
It’s not something I have talked much, but I love human biology and find it really interesting. Anatomy to me is really fun and I’m also the type to watch all the medical documentaries too.
I think it’s important sometimes to switch genres that we are reading so we don’t get burnt out one one, but also to explore how other authors write as genre can dictate some things. I try to keep an eye out for these kinds of things to also help improve my own writing. And sometimes it can come from unlikely sources, for example, while researching about a hagfish for a story I found the line: "The skin is naked and covers the body like a loosely fitting sock."
I found it wonderful how this line was written and yet perfectly gives you the mental image of the skins properties. It was also very amusing!
Although I have been reading biographies, I also fell back into my ever-so-favourite fantasy with a huge smack of nostalgia. I remembered books I read around 11-12, ones I had loved so much and had left impressions on me. Then I made it my mission to refind them, and after hunting down secondhand book websites, I managed to get the full 12 books. The series is Everworld by K. A. Applegate, and even now I remember a few bits of the plot lines here and there. So, once they arrived, I got stuck into them. Reading children’s books as an adult can be strange, and where some books hold up fantastically well (such as Michelle Paver’s The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness - which I still give 5 stars after multiple rereads at many ages), others do not. So far I’ve only read the first book, but this one falls more towards not holding up as well. Perhaps the later books will change my mind, I’m definitely going to reread them all and find out.
Unbound by the Sea
I’ve spoken about this project before, and this month there has been a bit of a development. At first when I was planning parts of the story, I thought this was going to be a novella. I aimed to be a novella too, as I am used to short stories, and although I’d love to write full novels, I can’t seem to hit those word counts with my plotting… or so I thought.
Unbound by the Sea is going to be a full novel!
It only struck me as I was writing chapters and noticing that the vague plot points I’d written down went all the way up to 42 (and I haven’t figured out the end yet) and I was at 11k on plot point 3. I’m not sure how I didn’t notice before, but now I did!
It’s been strange for me, but I’m still powering on how I was before, and now going to try and give the story more depth where I can. I feel like editing this one will be tougher, though that’s a future me problem.
You can read it now over on Ream, chapter 1 and 2 are available to my followers (which you can do for free) and 3 onwards are subscription only.
On Ream
For June’s stories on Ream I have posted two chapters of Unbound by the Sea as each chapter is shorter than a full short story. I always make sure my subscribers are getting a good deal!
Here is a teaser from chapter 4, where the main character Yuna is being tempted.
Want to read it now? https://reamstories.com/odessasilver
Tales of Yamato
I’m still patiently waiting for this to come back from my editor, however it should be arriving any day in July. Then I’ll be hopping to editing as soon as possible. I’ve taken a longer gap from it that I planned, and hoped to write a new Tales of Yamato story for June, however I feel like having longer has meant I can stop myself from getting burnt out and also I can return fresher. Part of me is still eager to write a brand new story, and I do have some ideas, but writing something else which is easier has definitely been better for my brain! Watch out on my social media for up-to-date updates.
Want to find new authors and/or books to try?
For July I have some awesome character focused free fantasy books to share. These stories will be similar to mine, how I follow real close with each character we meet. Come have a look now: https://books.bookfunnel.com/characterfantasy2024/46ycbgiu4y
Thank you for reading this far. Want to chat? Comment on the substack post or even send me an email. I’d love to hear from you.
See you again in the next newsletter.
