Autumn is finally here both on the calendar and in the weather patterns! I am very much looking to spending some time working on manuscripts outdoors in the crisp air. After this summer, it’s really just nice to be able to step outside without immediately breaking into a sweat.

I’m currently about 70% through a big revision of Shattered Souls. At the end of August, I got my manuscript evaluation from the magnificent Cameron Montague Taylor, who also edited The Bloodstained Shade. I have been so absolutely buzzed to do these revisions: it’s a lot of not enormous but significant changes that are really clarifying so much about the character dynamics.

I very much intended to send this newsletter out in September, but I was waiting for the Multiverse schedule to be public — which it now is! So, on with the show:

News

Well, I didn’t win a Hugo, again.

WorldCon was great fun nonetheless — I got to be on some really excellent panels, and the two I moderated seemed to go well. Worldbuilding for Masochists got to do a table talk and record a live episode (which will drop soon!), but best of all, we got to hang out together for a few days! I genuinely love these two so much.

And, most importantly, I looked like a goddess.

At the end of September, I participated in the James River Writers Conference, run by my local writers’ group. I’d never attended this one before — it’s often been the same weekend as other events — and I’m so glad I finally got to go! The panel moderation was excellent, the audiences had good questions, and I got to have some lovely conversations.

Upcoming Events

We’re getting out of the event-heavy season! Next up is Multiverse Con in Atlanta, October 16-18. And my schedule is as follows:

• Saturday, 10am: MEETup: Astrology -The Stars Align

• Saturday 11:30am: Imagining Hope

• Saturday, 2:30pm: Writing Historical Fantasy

All of my panels are sort of clustered together, so the rest of the time, I’ll just be able to enjoy the con! I’ve heard such wonderful things about this one, and I’m particularly looking forward to karaoke and the dance party.

What I’ve Been Reading

It’s been a very good reading time for me!

• Daggerbound by T. Kingfisher

• Several volumes of Uncanny X-Men by Gail Simone

• Circe by Madeline Miller

• Bodies of Magic by Freya Marske

• The Medici: Power, Money, and Ambition in the Italian Renaissance by Paul Strathern

• Sea of Charms and The Magical Cheese Emporium by Sarah Beth Durst

• The Flower Court by Kate Elliott

• City of the Plague God by Sarwat Chadda

In addition to the above, I’ve also had a few historical Great Courses on audio. Circe I have of course read before, but it’s turning out to be a major inspiration for next summer’s Mythik Camps theme, so I revisited it. City of the Plague God was also a work read, from the Rick Riordan Presents series. The Medici was also for research, though not for my day job — for an idea I’m toying around with that got put on the back-burner once I got my edit letter for Shattered Souls.

Daggerbound I think I like even better than Swordheart, the first in that subseries in the World of the White Rat — all of which are excellent. (I’ve actually also been re-listening to some of the Saint of Steel books, even though I read them earlier this year; they just put my brain in a happy place!) Sea of Charms and The Magical Cheese Emporium are the next two installments in Sarah Beth Durst’s Spellshop series of cozy fantasy-romances, and as delightful as ever. And then Bodies of Magic and The Flower Court might be my top picks of the year so far. Bodies of Magic is a murder mystery set at a magical medical college, and it’s thoroughly compelling. The Flower Court is set in the same world as The Witch Roads and The Nameless Land, but now we’re inside the treacherous halls of power rather than out in the hinterlands.

Wrapping It Up

Once I finish these Shattered Souls revisions, it’s back into the querying trenches with me! I’m seeking new representation since my agent left the industry last year, and I can’t say I’m super looking forward to the process. But, I’m not in the same position as back in 2013. I have a debut that earned out its advance in 18 months. I have a 6-time Hugo Finalist podcast. I have a stronger sense of the industry I work in, shifting sands and all. And I still have plenty of tenacity.

So, good luck to me! And the same to you in whatever the autumn’s bringing you.