Pelthea was many things, vicious was not one of them. Shortsighted, maybe. But who isn’t, looking five hundred years into the future?
Who prepares for that future?
Only those who will be alive for it.
One such creature was leering at Pelthea now, revealing teeth just sharp enough to scratch glass. Pelthea didn’t know how she knew that, and the resulting imagined sound made her cringe.
The creature’s smile widened, maybe incorrectly interpreting the cringe as fear and not disgust.
Pelthea had never been capable of feeling fear. She had noted, when she was younger, that she might be missing something. She developed a reputation as a thrill seeker, a daredevil.
It had been a search for fear. There was none.
Welcome to the Catalyst Hijinks in Progress Newsletter (Chip’n).
I hope you are having a splendid holiday season! The holidays and end of year snuck up on me. My most exciting event of the past two months is I won the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) 2023 challenge by writing over 56,000 words during the month of November. That’s the most words I’ve ever written in a month, and I’m really proud of how great it felt to write that part of my story.
Thank you to everyone who encouraged me, asked how my writing was going, or wrote with me the past couple months. If you’d like to read a more detailed summary of my NaNoWriMo experience in 2023, please check out my blog post! And if you’d like to read about how I went from struggling to write 15,000 words in a month to happily writing over 50,000 words in a month, check out my NaNoWriMo tips post.
Participating in NaNoWriMo the past four years has completely changed my life, and I’m always happy to chat if you have questions or would like to try it.
The initial rough draft of book three of my epic fantasy, HOOD, is now at 60,000 words and counting. My plan is to finish the second half of the initial draft in April’s Camp NaNoWriMo at the latest.
I’ve made heavy revisions to the first five chapters of HOOD Book One over the past month. Those chapters are now revised to perhaps, dare I say, v1 stage instead of v0.9. LOL. Over the course of January I plan to continue heavy revisions to chapters 6-10 to also get them to the v1.0 stage. Overall, I’m feeling a lot more optimistic than I have in about a year with HOOD revisions. This time last year the revisions felt positively endless and now they’ve turned a corner.
Reading 📚 Below are the books I’ve finished since November:
Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes – Sci fi, Amazing storytelling and I’m excited to read book two! I loved how much this book pulled on pop culture jokes and tropes.
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott – Nonfiction on writing, Lovely writing ideas and encouragement. I appreciate how the entire book read as a massive pep talk for writers.
Sammy Keyes and the Killer Cruise by Wendelin van Draanen – Middlegrade Mystery, This was my favorite mystery series ever as a kid and I’d had no idea there were a few additional books published. It’s been such a treat catching up with this story.
Sammy Keyes and the Kiss Goodbye by Wendelin van Draanen, Middlegrade Mystery
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros – Fantasy, Hunger Games with dragons! This story made me really happy. I realized while reading that I was smiling constantly. Not sure what that says about me since a character dies every other page.
Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley – YA Thriller, The writing in this book was incredible. I was on the edge of my seat, probably my favorite pageturner I’ve read all year.
The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina by Zoraida Córdova – Fantasy, Such wonderful characters! I love fantasy books starring families.
Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett – Fantasy, The magic system and the characterization makes this story fantastic. I read book one in the series ages ago and book two was every bit as good.
Coming up next:
Locklands by Robert Jackson Bennett
Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them by Antonio Padilla
Have I Told You This Already? By Lauren Graham
Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs
Watching 🎆 National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation of course, my fav Christmas movie! And Outnumbered. And Gilmore Girls.
Listening 🎶 you’re a powerful ice queen, feared for freezing the hearts of your enemies playlist by the curator was such a mood during NaNoWriMo and beyond!
Wishing you an incredible and inspiring start to the New Year! Let’s go 2024!
She/Her
Fantasy Writer | Cybersecurity Consultant | Provider of Cat Treats | Blount Scholar
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