Writing Update - April 2025
Hello again friends. I hope you are taking care of yourselves in what is now a turbulent time. For me, I’ve been coping by reducing the time I've spent online and diving back into old hobbies that bring life. Here's my quarterly update for Spring 2025.
The Return of “Cafe in the Woods”
If you’ve been following me on Facebook, I announced there I’ve I decided to bring my Cafe in the Woods blog back from hiatus. I’ve been moving away from posting on social media as a whole and creating a more peaceful space for my musings. You can read more reasons on my returning post. Expect more musings on life, writing, theology, and yes, even book reviews again.
This does mean I have a total of three newsletters: the blog, this newsletter, and my Patreon. I’m still learning how to balance what items will go where, but my hope is to update the Cafe more regularly, use this newsletter for more quarterly updates, and the Patreon for special items for supporters.
Other Writing News
In March, I interviewed Samantha Shannon, author of the Bone Season Series, for the Wisconsin Book Festival. We had a fun conversation at the Madison Public Library on a snowy, windy, night. It was recorded, so if you want to see us talk about her latest book, The Dark Mirror, her writing process, and other fun stuff, click the green “Watch Online” button on this page. You will need to sign up with an email address before you can view the video.
I'm nearing the 50,000 word count on my AfroFae novel (with more words spent on world building). One of the books I'm reading for research is Subversive Habits by Shannen Dee Williams, which tells the history of Black nuns in the United States. Even though this is a fantasy novel, I want to highlight the struggles and perseverance of Black nuns back in the early 1900s, and that in turn, is encouraging me in present times.
Less of a writing update and more a life update: January got off to a scary start when my son had a seizure and was hospitalized for a week. It was a scary time, but we’re all doing better now. He has recovered and is back to his normal self. The doctors and medical staff were helpful and caring. I want to thank all those who encouraged us on social media.
I got a short story deadline coming up this month, and a request for another story, so I’m figuring out how to juggle those, especially since January was sort of a wash in non-productivity as we dealt with our son’s health emergency.
Con travel plans for 2025
This year is going to be a little different from my regular con travels. My husband plans to be on sabbatical later in the spring, so we plan to do some traveling in the summer out west, culminating in me attending Seattle Worldcon 2025. Sadly, this does mean I won’t be able to attend GenCon for the Writers Symposium this year, but I do plan to return to that next year (especially since it’s running by the always awesome Maurice Broaddus).
I also plan to be helping out with administration logistics at 4th Street Fantasy in June, as well as Viable Paradise in October.
My biggest news is that for the first time, I’ll be a guest speaker at a retreat! Specifically, for the Wisconsin Writers Retreat, run by Rev. Mindi Welton-Mitchell (author of the book Next of Kin—seriously go read her work—it’s awesome!), October 2-5 at Camp Tamarack in Waupaca, WI. I’ll be leading a couple of mini-workshops—one will be on revision; I’m still figuring out what the other one will be about—doing a bunch of writing and other fun camp things, like walks, canoeing, etc.
If you’re interested in joining us, you can register on the Camp Tamarack website. Click on “Wisconsin Writers Retreat”. Cost depends on what boarding you select.
How to Support Me
If you wish to financially support me, you can either do it through my newsletter here or through my Patreon. You can also follow me at the Cafe in the Woods blog (I’m working on setting up donation links there as well. And if you can’t give right now, feel free to share this newsletter, follow me on Facebook or Bluesky, or just write a comment or leave a like just to say hello.
Thanks for reading!