April '25

Where I explain where I've been for the last month and a half...

Hello, everyone!

So remember when I said I was going to take a small hiatus in March and be back at the beginning of April?

Yeah, about that…

The truth is that I’ve been really struggling with a flare-up of my chronic illnesses lately. This means that everything else has suffered…we muddle through school most days and then I’m completely drained.

I wish I didn’t have to deal with this. I miss the days where I had endless energy and could get everything done, and it didn’t feel like I had to choose between having a productive housework day, a productive writing day, or a productive homeschool day. It’s been a huge struggle for me to adjust over the last couple of years, and this just feels like one more big step backward.

The good news is that the last few days, writing has picked back up a little. I’m trying to go slowly this time, and put in the effort to re-establish a consistent writing habit. I’m trying very, very hard to figure out how homeschool and writing and everything else fits into my life, as I’m also trying to manage my health so that flare-ups aren’t as bad.

The bad news is that I need to hold off on continuing The Knights of the Faerie Queens a little bit longer. I don’t know how long it will be—though rest assured that I am continuing to work on it! But if the beginning of this year has taught me anything, it’s that I truly do need a story ready to post—including editing and everything—before I begin sharing it. It’s frustrating and annoying, but I can’t risk flare-ups taking out my ability to keep up with my serials, and having it all ready to go is the best way to deal with that.

(And what about the promised audio story, The Lightning Piskie, you ask? Well… the short story is that my editing software got messed up when I moved to a new computer, and when I finally got that figured out, it turned out the file was trash…there’s a weird tapping noise that begins about halfway through the recording that will not go away no matter what kind of noise reduction and click filtering I do. So I have to re-record that story, which I will be working on.)

For now, my game plan is to continue releasing my short stories and audio stories. I’ve also been highly enjoying participating here and there in Flash Fiction Fridays, and I’m hoping to post stories from that more often now that I’m getting better and the serial isn’t stressing me out so much.

I’m sorry I didn’t write this newsletter sooner. I kept thinking things would get better, and I’d be able to start posting regularly again and be able to have a happy update for this newsletter… sadly, this is not the case.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to fill May with plenty of short stories, and have happier news in my May newsletter.

Blessings to you all <3