Week In Review: September 2nd, 2023

In Case You Missed it, here’s the round-up of all of my latest content, plus updates from old guests! Read on if you want to know more. If not? See you next week with more writing tips and writerly musings.

Coming up this week:

On Youtube/Twitch:

Morgan’s Lazy Sunday Afternoon “Productivity” Stream: – 4:30pm EST. Come, hang out, eat snacks, and maybe even get some productivity done yourself.

Content Around The Web:

On Youtube:

Querying is the Worst – While I rewrite query letters for fun, writing my own is basically the worst. Here are a few reasons why writing your own query letter sucks, and a few things that query letter needs in it.
Shorts (also on TikTok)
- Space Fantasy Update: 9/2/23 #writing
- Spooky Season Is Coming! #spooky

On Season 7 of the Podcast “Writing Tips and Writerly Musings”:

World-Building Economics – Economics is usually seen as a dry topic, full of game theory and calculated systems, but economic systems do not exist in a vacuum. Here are 5 Things To Consider When Designing Future (or Fantastical) Economic Systems

On The Blog (In Case You Missed It):

Querying is the Worst – While I rewrite query letters for fun, writing my own is basically the worst. Here are a few reasons why writing your own query letter sucks, and a few things that query letter needs in it.

Upcoming Events:

Capclave 2023 – Sept 29 – October 1, 2023 – Rockville, Md

What I’ve Been Reading:

Nothing this week, but finished binging Season 2 of Ted Lasso and Season 2 of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime with my roommates.

New Works By Previous Guests:

The latest novella from Abigail Manning (who’s on a roll this year!)

Charlotte and the Cozy Cottage (Autumn Tales #8)

She’s a con artist who’s ready to start fresh. He’s her last target before she’s placed under house arrest. What will happen when he pays her a visit in her new prison?

Charlotte Chryses has spent enough time pick-pocketing and thieving to know that it’s not the life she wants, but her father doesn’t feel the same. Her illusion magic is far too useful for her father to let her leave the family trade. She could always run away, but that becomes more difficult when one of her father’s tricks offends the king.

With no other way to keep himself out from behind bars, Charlotte’s father convinces the king that his daughter’s magic is capable of turning common items into gold. This intrigues the king just enough to place her on house arrest with instructions to transmute whatever he brings her, but how is she meant to fool the king when her magic can only cast illusions?

With her freedom and her father on the line, Charlotte finds help in the most unlikely of guests when her solitude is interrupted by a former victim of her thievery. With only a weak form of magic, a strange new companion, and one very fat cat, Charlotte must find her way out of the cottage and out of the life that holds her trapped. Will she ever be free of her cozy prison? Or will she end up in a cell that’s far colder?

And a novella from Darian Smith:

The Lost Pendant of Pania

A new school is hard when you’re the kid whose mum died in an earthquake. In Mia’s case, that’s just the start of it.

When her dad is abducted, Mia discovers there was more to her mother than she ever knew. Now she’s trapped in a magical conflict between mythical creatures hiding in her ordinary New Zealand town. Mia must learn the truth of the local legend of Pania and the powerful artifact she left behind – all while making new friends and dodging bullies.

If she fails, her dad will pay the price. Mia will do anything to bring her dad back alive, even if it means rejecting her mother’s legacy.

And! Book 4 in Kelly Brakenhoff‘s

Death 101: Extra Credit (A Cassandra Sato Mystery #4)

Failure is not an option.

At Morton College, learning comes with a hefty price.

The search committee tasked with hiring a new president is on the brink of chaos. A student production of The Three Musketeers devolves into a bloody sword fight.

Join Cassandra Sato and the students in a Death 101 course as they put their detective skills to the test. Unraveling the tangled web of secrets and lies, they must act quickly as the college’s very future hangs in the balance.

Personal Project Status Updates:

For accountability, (and so you can tell I haven’t just been editing the same manuscript for a decade), I’m going to talk about my projects.

My Novel-length Works In Progress:

My Short-Story Length Works-In-Progress:

My poetry tally:

Picture(s) of the Week:

I hit the farmer’s market this past weekend and thought the red tent gave the vegetables a sinister tinge.

Tomatoes, cucumbers, squashes and more, lined up in bins. You can see some grass to one side. There is a bit of a red haze on everything except the grass.