Hey! If you’re new here, welcome to my author newsletter. I’m Courtney, author of grounded fantasy, horror, and haunted audio fiction. My debut novel​ came out in October 2025, and my ​cozy horror audio drama series​ (2020-2024) is available free on all major podcast platforms.

Happy New Year!

When I started this newsletter, several years ago, I promised a variety of ink-related content. Today, I’m finally delivering on the fountain pen ink front with a swatch test and my personal ink color of the year.

But first, news and updates.

News

• I’ll be at Boskone next month! The schedule is still being finalized, but I’ll be there Fri-Sun. Track me down if you’re attending and you’d like Higher Magic, The Way We Haunt Now, and/or Unfortunately… podcast stickers. I’d also be chuffed to sign your copy of Higher Magic.

• I’m hosting an Unfortunately… podcast Writing Challenge to ring in the new writing year with some community accountability. It starts Monday, runs through the end of the month, and you can track words, pages, revision tasks, whatever. Details and link to join here.

• I’ve decided to do a novel-research newsletter series, with probably 3-4 installments over the course of the year. The first issue of Wallowing in Research will be out in March.

Writing Updates

I’m hard at work drafting my New England Horror Faeries book. As of today, I’m at 15,308 words. If all goes well, I’ll have a finished first draft by the end of March.

This is my first time writing in 1st person present tense at novel length, and it’s strangely satisfying.

There’s a (very ace) romance subplot, with a meet cute I’m quite proud of. Things are starting to get dire for the characters

Since it’s January, I’ve been doing some project planning for the year’s writing. Later this year, I’m excited to revise a historical romantasy novel I wrote 2 years ago and maybeeee draft a novella in that world. I’ve also got a prequel to the horror novella I got ready for editor submissions last year outlined, so depending on how all of the above goes I may dive into that. It’s got a viciously unreliable narrator, which I know will be a blast to write.

Swatching for my Ink Color of 2026

I picked up a Leuchtturm Some lines a day journal last summer, to better chronicle debut year and also because I wanted to do a little bit of writing just for me. I decided in December that it would be fun to pick a new ink color every year and write the whole year through with that.

2025’s color was my Higher Magic book signing color: Colorverse’s KSLV-II, which matches the deep midnight blue of my cover.

Lately, though, I’ve been drawn to chartreuse. Shades of pea green that dance the line between green and yellow.

It’s hard to tell what color ink actually is when you’re shopping online, so I bought a few samples from Vanness Pens (they have an amazing sample selection!) and waited eagerly for their arrival.

Since most of the colors were shimmering and I didn’t want to put them in my Pelikan, I also snatched up a TWSBI Vac Mini. I’d been wanting one for years, but they’ve been out of stock almost everywhere for the past year-and-a-half at least. I have a TWSBI ECO with an italic nib that is too wet for me, so I went with a medium this time and that feels right.

Finally, I used a book-shaped linocut I made last year as a swatch frame and got to work. Here are the results:

Diamine’s Razzmatazz delivered the green-gold effervescent pea soup color of my dreams, so that’s going to be my journaling ink of the year!

I had a blast with this, and I think it’s going to be new year tradition for me going forward.

May we all have a much more colorful year than the bland-toilet-paper mess Pantone tried to foist upon us.

January RWL

• Reading: A Far Better Thing by H. G. Parry — it’s a Tale of Two Cities retelling with changelings!

• Watching: Old seasons of Taskmaster while I finish knitting my first pair of socks.

• Listening To: Daughter’s Not to Disappear album.

Thanks for wallowing with me!

Courtney