Fall 2024 Update

It’s been quite some time since I’ve posted much about me, so I’m just going to dump here along with some bookish updates because screaming into the void of my blog used to help immensely long ago when I had no one to talk to, so let’s see if it does the trick again!

The Bound to Fall Audiobook is Here!

And it’s just as sweet as I’d hoped! Ellen Quay and Seth Podowitz do an amazing job bringing Celeste, Reeve, and all the other inhabitants of Briarwyck to life in the first of Villains & Virtues’ spinoff tales. Bound to Fall was such a joy to write, I think because the world was so cozy. Sure, there was a shadowy bad guy trying to suck Celeste’s soul out, and my main character had crippling anxiety and the self-respect of a worm, but it was a nice break in the midst of everything else going on at the time. I had intended to release Xander’s book at the same time as Celeste’s but that ended up taking me almost an entire extra year! Bummer!

But Bound and Tide did eventually rip its way out of me, and it’s getting an audiobook too! (Coming 12/10/24) I sneaked in a Christmas book last year too, The Elven Days of Christmas, which you’ll also be able to listen to just in time for the holiday season! (Coming 11/19/24)

Taming Wyverns and Other Wild Beasts is a little delayed…

I don’t know, guys, I’m just burnt out. I thought I’d be done with this one in November for a December 1st release, but it’s just not happening. I moved the release date to February 1, 2025, and I’m sticking to that, I’m just…tired. Like all the time. I sleep ten hours most nights (with multiple wake ups for various nonsense) but I’m still sleepy and drained all day. I’ve also had an inconsistent but pervasive something in my throat/nose/head since June that’s been making wording real hard-like. (And that ick is back today! Why?) It sucks because I know this story, I know what it’s supposed to be, yet I am dragging it kicking and screaming into something legible line by fucking line.

One of the issues has been that it’s just…not funny? I posted about this on IG, and everyone was so sweet about it, but there’s a somber cast to this world, and I sort of had a feeling there might be but not like this! They take their gods a little more seriously, their magic is also revered and feared, creatures are hunted to extinction, and the world is a different kind of dangerous. There’s the equivalent of police brutality and animal abuse on the page really early on, and a heartache throughout the story that is really hard to, like, poke fun at. Every time I write a joke for Lyra, I’m like, “but her babies are missing and her family is dead and her ribs are broken! What’s funny about any of that?” I’ve got a framing device and some footnotes that add a little comedic charm, and some scenes that might make a reader giggle, but overall, the tone is just a lot more severe. I don’t hate this, and it is a part of me and my writing, but it’s scary to really commit to. I just planned on a lighter story, but it’s felt a lot heavier than I meant, and maybe that’s a good thing!

And maybe when you read it, you’ll be like “this isn’t that serious, Ashley, get a grip!” but right now everything in my life feels like that, weighed down and a little sadder than it ought to be, which is dumb because I should be thrilled! There is so much cool stuff that I’m gearing up to work on! I’m just so worn out.

So, Take A Break, Dumdum

I can’t! Don’t you understand? I’m every single person in my organization. If I don’t do the thing, there is no one else to do any thing. If I take time off, that just means everything sits undone. I don’t have PTO or sick time, I don’t have holidays, I just have me, and if I want to succeed, I gotta do all the shit all the time.

Warning, lots of moaning ahead. Skip to the next header to avoid it.

And even when I do take a break, there are regular life things that creep in like housework, and then irregular life things like one of our chickens getting murdered by gods know what wild beast from the woods. Add on that we live pretty remotely so anytime we need anything it’s a long drive, and if there’s a service we need? Forget it! There’s one plumber in the entire tri-county area, he’s booked two months out, and he probably won’t be able to come the day he’s scheduled because the part he needs didn’t arrive on time. And also it costs $3000, paid up front, and it probably won’t resolve the problem, it’s just a guess as to what’s going on.

But I have been taking more time off lately…to go to the doctor. Between me and Husband, it’s like every week or two we’re doing an hour round trip to the closest medical complex that the state is thinking of shutting down (and I get why–they have probably half the staff they need to run efficiently but, you know, for profit medicine is a greeeeeeat idea). I have next to zero answers for my problems except basically, “well, you’re a lady, and you’re probably making it up? Maybe try being less sad?” and a bunch of pending referrals out of state but no one will call me back, so who knows if I’ll ever get those appointments, not that I have the time to go to them!

I should feel privileged that I get to see a doctor at all. I mean, there were many years that I didn’t have insurance, so I just ignored that 9 out of 10 pain in my gut and willed it away (and guess who has two thumbs, ovarian cysts, and didn’t die?), and then many more years that I did have insurance but it was so bad I still couldn’t afford to see anyone let alone afford to take the time off the job I had to get to an appointment. Not taking care of stuff for that decade plus probably led to the problems I have now, but “nothing’s wrong” so I guess it doesn’t matter.

Okay, quit bitching and offer some good news maybe?

Books! I love books! So many books! Like, legit, my greatest joy is opening up something new or returning to the epic series I’m listening to or grabbing something I’ve read 100 times and reading a random page for a quick kick in the pants of inspiration. And I’m not just reading them, I’m making them.

Foes to Flames is still available, but only for a limited time! November 30th, 2024, it’ll be gone, so read it now in KU or grab a chonky, beautiful paperback now! Fox and Raven Studio did the cover for that one, and you need to check out their Etsy shop for beautiful prints, many of which have that cozy but a lil spooky fall vibe.

Taming Wyverns will be here 2/1/25, and an audiobook will follow probably in May of 2025 as well! Anna made a beautiful cover for the book, and she’s doing some spicy illustrations for me as well as some headers that are to die for!

After TW&OWB comes out, though, my publishing plans are a little up in the air.

I’ve been working on a secret project with a fellow author for months now, and it has been such a fucking joy. First of all, working with someone that gets it is a relief. I haven’t really worked with anyone since 2018 (when I had a job in an office) except for on the anthology which was such a nice change of pace. I enjoy my alone time and producing projects on my own terms, but having a partner to create with is dreamy especially when she’s a wonderful person in general. The timetable for our creation isn’t all ironed out yet, but expect something cozy, smutty, and monstrous in the future. Do those things go together? Honestly, yes, you are going to be delightfully surprised at how seamless this project feels when it’s finally in your hands.

I’ve also got another secret project that I’m hoping I can make some kind of announcement about soon. Actually, it’s kind of two secret projects in one. But I can’t talk about it now! No, stop asking me, I beg of you! Okay, I’ll give you a little hint: one is V&V related (not new stuff, so don’t get that excited), and the other is entirely new stuff that I’ve never even mentioned before! I had this idea a while back, a really good and funny idea, but I knew then wasn’t the time to actually write it. I wasn’t even excited to write it at that moment, just excited to have it squirreled away. So I opened up a new Scrivener project, free wrote every little piece of it that came to mind, made a secret Pinterest board, and then stuffed it all away with plans to drag it back out in a couple years. But then this opportunity came up, and I was like, “Wait! The idea! That’s why I had it back then! It’s because I needed it for now. Wow, Past Ashley, you finally didn’t fuck over Future Ashley for once! You gave her a gift!” Anyway, that thing might see the world earlier than I originally planned and that’s exciting!

But that’s all maybes and possibilities and far away times. I am, of course, also working on a host of other projects, one with another friend who is brilliantly hilarious, but it isn’t a book, and of course I am also writing Dragon Race in a way, sort of all the time, but it’s such a big endeavor! And once Faeted to Fall is no longer published in Foes to Flames, I have to find a vehicle for it! I want to stick it in my own mini anthology of fae stories, but that means I have to write the other three that go along with it, and where’s the time for that, huh?

I’ll find it! Probably! I mean, I want to, I love doing all of this, truly. I don’t want my whinging to come off as ungratefulness or unhappiness. Words are my jam, and I love them! I just gotta get my brain to do them a lil better.