Hello there, fellow wallowers!

Academics like to bandy the T.S. Eliot quote that "April is the cruelest month," but I have come to find February crueler. The winter doldrums are here, and they're hitting hard. But I've been diverting myself, and procrastinating Magic Embroidery revisions, by writing a dark portal fantasy novella featuring a trio of adult siblings, a bunch of ghosts, and a (possibly) undead love interest. Also included: mushroom-encrusted pets, lichen tattoos, and a New England cemetery in the heart of the woods.

It's really refreshing to write something that's about 20k instead of 120k. I can actually hold the whole story in my head?!

If you want more of a sense of the vibe, here's my Spotify writing playlist for this project:

Updates

Starting next weekend, I'm teaching a 5 session Audio Fiction class with MetroWest Writers' Guild. I'm so excited to discuss (and make) audio fiction this month.

Speaking of audio fiction: production for The Way We Haunt Now continues in the background. We've had some delays, so I don't have a firm release date at the moment, but I'm hopeful that we'll have some shiny new episodes before the end of March.

Book Spotlight

I recently had the opportunity to read an eARC (electric Advance Reader Copy) of Claudia Gray's The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, which comes out this summer.

I was delighted to discover that the latest installment of Gray's Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney Mysteries brings one of Jane Austen’s most iconic characters to the forefront. The novel, in which Juliet and Jonathan are called upon to solve another murder––this time before it happens––builds on the previous two in a satisfying way. (Yes, I know that's vague, but spoilers.) I was most delighted by Gray’s depiction of Lady Catherine as a complicated, difficult person, but also a passionate and considerate one in her own way. I've appreciated the way Gray builds disability representation into the regency world of this series, and I think that Gray's disability representation has improved over time. Without giving anything away, I wish there’d been a little more unpacking of Mrs. Collins’s behavior at the end. But this was such a delightful read, and I’m always excited to get my hands on another of Jonathan and Juliet’s adventures!

February Recommendations

• September House by Carissa Orlando – I haven't finished reading yet, but this book latched on to my heart from page one. I love the unreliable, possibly murderous(?) narrator and her haunted Victorian house full of pranksters. Bonus: the audiobook narration is perfection.

• Nimona – I managed to watch this while it was (intentionally) free on YouTube (looks like it got taken down this morning), and it is so delightful and totally my kind of story: found family, self-acceptance, taking down the corrupt institution, dancing shark. You know, the essentials. I believe it's on Netflix, if you haven't watched it yet.

Hey! February's almost over. Here's to March and spring and sunshine returning.

Thanks for wallowing with me,

Courtney