May '26
Chickens, Library Sales, Realm Makers, and Minecraft news all herein!
Hello everyone!
I’m sure you didn’t expect a chicken staring into your soul when you opened my newsletter, but surprise! This is Butter Squash (name courtesy of Youngest), during one of the garden forays.
The girls were starting to get a bit too big for their brooder box, so about halfway through this month I started tasking the boys with chicken-sitting for about an hour every few days. Since we don’t have a garden this year, we would let them out into the garden space to forage for bugs and greens. This made for some much-less-grumpy chickens when we’d put them back into the brooder box (as Youngest said, “I think I’d be upset if I was locked in a box with nine siblings too!”) But now, thankfully, we have a fully enclosed coop and run for them, and so far they seem to be much happier there. (It made me so happy the other day when Justin and I went to check on them, and all ten girls came running as soon as they heard my voice. I am really enjoying being a chicken lady, lol!)
(Oh and if you’re wondering about the kitchen renovation…hehehe. It’s still ongoing. I’m so ready for it to be done…)
Some more pics from this month…
READING
Despite the library book sale…I’ve actually not gotten a ton of reading done this month. I’ve been busy trying to get Serpent King’s Castle launched as a serial and put together as a paperback in time for Realm Makers. (Saint Louis! June 26-27! More below.)
However, I did manage to both read and then read out loud to my kids the book version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (did you know this existed? I only found out a few years ago—and it was written by Ian Fleming!) which we all enjoyed. I also picked up and re-read, for the first time since I was a teen, Anne of Green Gables. I do love Anne, but I think I’m going to have to find the Emily Starr books next, as she was always my favorite of L. L. Montgomery’s heroines.
WRITING
I’ve started work on two new short stories this month, one a sort-of sequel to A Magical Mix-up about an older witch who is babysitting her friend’s drens (dragon hens) when one mysteriously escapes; and the other is my Q2 Prompted story!
The winning prompt was…
Tooth fairies are a smaller and friendlier subspecies of the much larger and more hostile bone fairies.
I’ve decided to write it in a epistolary format, as a kind of ode to the Emily Wilde series that I read and adored earlier this year.
I’ve also begun to sort out my notes and pick at the next threads for The Hollow Shrine.
So, WHAT’S NEXT?
I’m going to Realm Makers this year!
I’ll be at the Expo (June 26-27 in Saint Louis, Missouri) at the Fayette Press booth, hopefully with books to sign and ready to chat with anyone who stops by! If you can swing it, I’d highly encourage you to come hang out…this is my first year at the Expo (I used to go yearly back when Realm Makers was just a writers conference) and I’m so excited! (So is Oldest. I promised for years to take him when he turned thirteen. We’re having a lot of fun putting his cosplay together!)
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…
Serpent King’s Castle is live! The first three chapters are available to read or listen to!
If you prefer to do your reading and/or listening off of Substack (the platform I use to power my newsletter), all chapters are also available for listening on YouTube or reading on Royal Road.
Didn’t know I have a YouTube? I do! I post mostly my short story and serial chapter narrations, but I also occasionally share my videogame streams there too! Here’s a recent Minecraft horror map I did with my friend Red!
Oh my gosh, I might finally get to meet you after all this time! :O Since I too am going to Realm Makers. I was assuming Jamie would at least be at the Fayette booth but now I have an extra reason to stop by! Eep! Also, I spy Over Sea Under Stone in your haul. One of my faves! Tuck Everlasting is also classic.