The End of 2024
The Cat and the Comma Issue #21
There are thirty-one days left in the year 2024. A year of plenty of ups and downs, for certain… I’ll save all the ruminating and reflecting for a post next month, though. For now, let’s talk about what I’ve been up to!
Misc. Professional Update
Preparation is still underway for Reverent: An Anthology of Divinity, a collection of poems, essays, and short stories from various authors discussing the Divine across multiple cultures. As I’ve previously mentioned, I am a contributor to this anthology with my short story, The Comforts of Home, which follows an autistic woman who reconnects with the Theoi and Hestia in particular after a rough breakup shakes her way of living. Early feedback has told me this short reads like a warm hug. I’m very excited for it and the rest of the anthology to go live!
Otherwise, I’ve been forced to slow down in a major way due to my numerous states of employment. I’m finally starting to get financially stable again, a whole month after the Boeing strike ended. Things are still a bit tight and tense, but it is what it is. I’m just hoping that, come January, I still have a job and haven’t been laid off.
Anyway. On the publishing and marketing front, I signed myself up for a couple of Stuff Your Kindle events and am planning a sale in February for my birthday, so keep an eye out for announcements of both of those!
Writing Update
If you have seen me talking on Tumblr or Bluesky, you’ll know I have thrown myself full-force into The Distance Between Stars and Salt, my sapphic, Maltese-inspired seafaring fantasy novel. It is inspired by the likes of Maltese mythology, folklore, and history, Final Fantasy 10, I Am Setsuna, The Tiger’s Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera, and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. I’m working through a sort of “zero draft” getting down the basic bones of the project. While there’s actual scenes now, there’s still a lot I want to include in later drafts, including a fantasy version of the Knights of St John and their presence and occupation of Malta. Exciting stuff!
Last time, I shared a summary I had thrown together based on the proto-outline I had constructed. I have since received feedback on the outline, which was greatly altered as a result. As such, here’s a new one:
There was and there was not, in the oldness of time, a star-born woman and her hapless wife who ventured on an arduous quest...
Star-born Seren has been gone for a year and a day, conscripted as all Celestine eventually are to track the cosmos for signs of a legendary devourer of worlds. When she returns home, her wife Edera couldn’t be happier… until Seren confesses that she herself has seen the World Devourer’s return and that, because she was the one to see it, she must be the one to stop it. Unwilling to allow them to be separated again, Edera and Seren must venture across their drowned world in a harebrained effort to save it. But as darkness looms in the fringes and a strange rot afflicts the world they love, they will have to race across the raging sea to avoid being consumed.
But just what is it that lies at the end of this mission? And how can they stop a force so much larger than themselves?
It sucks that I’ve had to work so much lately, because I’m positively on fire for this project and I’m having so much fun. I’ve been able to send questions and receive information and pictures from my nanna, which has been invaluable in conjunction with all the research I’ve done and continue to do.
This project has been healing, in a way. Perhaps that sounds strange, but that’s how it is sometimes.
Here’s an excerpt from where I’m at, too.
“Edera?” Your footfalls were feather-light on the floor; I didn’t notice your approach until your glow consumed my vision. “What happened?”
I remained hunched over, hand to the stones. The cold distracted me, somewhat. “Docks,” I choked out as my stomach gave another awful lurch. “Fish. Dead.”
Your light flared, bright enough I had to squint against it, and lasted several seconds before dying again. “Dead fish?”
“Awful,” I said. Then, after a shuddering breath, “A plague.”
With your guidance, I slid down to the floor and brought my knees to my chest. It took several more breaths before the ocean in my stomach at last began to settle. You rubbed slow circles into my back, humming all the while.
When I looked up, I did not expect the storm brewing within your eyes. You stared into the middle distance, your ministrations growing rougher as I stared you down. A cold wave of dread washed over me.
“Seren?”
Your hand stilled. “We must leave.”
“We will. I acquired a boat for us.”
You shook your head, disrupting silken strands of hair. They slinked free of the braid you’d weaved and fell across your face. “Today. We must leave today.”
The steel edge of your voice brokered no room for argument. It lashed down the undulating husk my stomach had become, built a stone dam behind my eyes. With a mute nod, I rose alongside you.
If you’re intrigued by this project and what comes out of it, you can currently read the first five chapters if you become a member of my Patreon!
Media Update
I have been playing a lot of Final Fantasy 12 this month, and in general am working myself through the Ivalice Alliance section of Final Fantasy games. Recently, with the help of trading in some old games, I completed a physical collection of this series when I acquired Vagrant Story for the PSX. I’m soooo excited to get to play through this world and the various lenses of it, even if the connections between all the games are tenuous at best. Otherwise, I’m playing through Wind Waker as well. I doubt this is surprising.
I’ve been watching a lot of Greenleaf, of all things, which is a TV drama series about a Black pastor family and their various intrafamilial dramas. I watched it once a long time ago, but I never finished, so I’m watching it again. Been enjoying it so far!
As for reading, I have… greatly slowed down. Given what little time I have right now, I’ve devoted my attention to less… intense mediums. Given how I like to read books, this has meant putting them to the wayside for now. I miss it, though. I miss it like nothing else. That said, I’m slowly working through The Bone-Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart and am trying to finish Starling House by Alix E. Harrow.
Blog and Video Update
I barely have the energy to do livestreams right now. I want to go back to doing them, though, especially so I can talk about my current drafting and research process and how I’m going about it all.
Otherwise, I’m planning a video going through all the research I’ve been doing for TDBSaS… Cause there’s a lot.
The Cat Recommends
I like to use this space to shout out other indie writers, cause I think we could all use a boost from time to time. This time, I’m using this space to shout out Ladz and their wealth of short stories, which are currently on sale on Itchio! Normally, I include a summary as well, but there are multiple shorts here. Instead, all I’ll say is, if you like (often erotic) horror, Ladz is your person and I highly recommend them. Give their shorts a try! They’re on sale for two more days!
The Cat Thanks
One of the perks for higher-tier patrons is shout-outs at the end of newsletters. Special thanks to Ceph, Hannah, and Larkspur. If you want to have your name here with theirs, subscribe to my Patreon!
And that’s a wrap. I wish you well on all of your endeavors and hope you stay safe.
Kindest regards,
Alex