my first-ever “novel”¹ was basically Pirates of the Caribbean AU fanfic, but Baby E didn’t know about fanfic. in her defense, I’m pretty sure she legitimately thought she was writing original fiction inspired very vaguely by Will and Elizabeth. in the story, Will whose last name I forget and Elizabeth Byrd (not Swann, so you see this is a totally different character) chased wild ponies around the moors of fantasy!Scotland with Yanno from Eloise McGraw’s The Moorchild.

(Yanno, despite being a dad in the book, and despite my love of dads, was not a dad).

probably the best thing about the story was how much it showed off Baby E’s horse knowledge. I like to say I’m a former horse girl, but I’m pretty sure I’m actually still a horse girl. you can take the girl out of the horse (I say, nonbinarily) but you can’t take the horse out of the girl, or something like that.

anyway, the book was all fetlocks and cobs and the main pony had a whole character arc that resembles, to a shocking extent, the types of arcs my human characters get to this day. which is the main reason I started thinking about the point I promise I will make at some point in this overlong intro.

there was also this weird thing with Will where he was Different™. he was constantly worried about whether people would accept him on account of how Different™ he was, but what was different about him was never explained. Baby E just kinda went, “y’know, Different. you get what I’m saying.”

and I know exactly why: Baby E was a Weird Girl, who had been made to understand she was different but wouldn’t understand why for over a decade.

what I’m saying is, Will was definitely either queer or neurodivergent. based on most things about him, I’m 82% certain that it was neurodivergence in this case—although there is a point in the book where he tells his (female) LI that he needs to leave because he feels trapped with her, which had adult me like, “Baby E, with all due respect, what the fuck.”²

at any rate, all that brings me to my point, which is this: Baby E’s first “novel” was about a guy who was different and didn’t understand why but ultimately found love and was accepted for who he was, even if none of that was written particularly well, and also there were horses.

and The Lord of the Wood is a novel about a guy who’s different and doesn’t understand why but ultimately finds love and is accepted for who he is, and also there are horses.

it just feels like I’m writing something for Baby E this time. something that might’ve helped her have some realizations about herself sooner. something she sort of vaguely tried to write but didn’t have enough worldly knowledge or writing chops to write well. like I’m reaching back across time and space and connecting with my past self in a way that I haven’t with any other book so far.

preorder The Lord of the Wood

this very book releases in July of 2026, so preorder or add it to a TBR now! links here, book details below:

• link to add the book on Goodreads

• link to add the book on StoryGraph

• link to preorder from Bookshop(dot)Org

• for signed preorders: link to preorder from Gathering Volumes, my local indie

do you want to read a teaser for The Lord of the Wood? subscribe to my newsletter before the December issue releases on December 15!

The cozy fantasy of TJ Klune meets the creeping horror of T. Kingfisher in this magical novel about a man who enters a deadly enchanted forest expecting it to endanger his life, but not his heart…

Clockmaker Arthur Throckmorton lives a quiet life with his sister and her children, only dreaming of adventure. So when a wealthy client offers him a job that involves traversing Shiftleaf—an enchanted forest that claimed his father decades ago—he reluctantly accepts. The forest is treacherous, but the money will change his family’s lives.

The journey quickly turns perilous. Fleeing from monstrous birds, Arthur stumbles upon a hidden vale where he meets the Lord of the Wood—a figure from his father’s many stories. Instead of the fairy prince Arthur always imagined, Ira is a morose man, slowly transforming into a beast, his power over a dying forest waning.

Arthur enjoys the safety of the vale, and Ira’s company. But he yearns for his family. To safely return home and rescue Ira from a cursed and lonely existence, Arthur and Ira must reach the heart of the wood to heal the forest. Except the farther they venture from the vale, the more beastly Ira becomes. If they can’t complete their mission before he turns completely, Arthur could lose the man he’s falling for—and never see his family again.

odds & ends

recent reads

• The (Most Unusual) Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy by Roan Parrish, which was fun, sweet, and a little spooky. the supernatural stuff takes a backseat to the romance, just FYI, but if you enjoy contemporary romance AND the paranormal as much as I do, this is the book for you! I love love loved the relationship between Edgar and his family and seeing how Jamie’s relationship with their sister developed over the course of the story

• Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas, which my partner read and thought I would like AND WOW DO I. it’s styled as a paranormal Western but has fantastic Gothic vibes and oh my god I love Néstor so much he’s so soft and anxious which is kinda hilarious bc he doesn’t PRESENT as soft and anxious. so Nena spends the early part of their reunion like “ugh, this player who thinks he’s hot stuff, he’s nothing like the boy I knew!” and I’m sitting there going NENA PLEASE I BEG YOU, IF ONLY YOU COULD SEE WHAT’S GOING ON IN HIS HEAD. 10/10 yearning on both sides, incredible

recent watches

• Frankenstein (2025). Guillermo del Toro understood the assignment!! if you saw the frankly unhinged posts I made about Noah Medlock’s A Botanical Daughter a while back, you might recall that I particularly loved Jenny and thought I might’ve enjoyed the original Frankenstein more if only someone had taken Victor to task over his treatment of the creature. well, Guillermo del Toro heard me!! thank you, sir

recent listens

• Florence + the Machine’s new album Everybody Scream, which is surprising in that usually I’m not listening to whatever new album everyone’s excited about. not in like a hipster way, just in a way where I never know what’s going on and tend to get my music piecemeal rather than an album at a time. but someone shared “The Old Religion” on Bluesky, I loved it, and I instantly bought the entire album for that one song which is how I’ve bought almost every album I’ve ever owned. the whole album is pretty great, but that’s still my favorite song <3

• on that note, the CD player in my car rose from the dead, three days after crapping out on me, on the same day as the rapture we were supposed to have. which was objectively the funniest way for it to start working again

recent birds

• SO MANY because we had a family vacation down in Florida this month! boat tailed grackles, white ibises (mostly juveniles), sanderlings, tons of ospreys, Eurasian collared doves, brown pelicans, a yellow-throated warbler, and fish crows (which, although almost identical to the American crow, are easily told apart by their more nasal call)

until next time!