Hello, Monsters!
Today’s post title is inspired by one of my favorite fall poems from Laura Jaworski.
It’s included in this post I did a while back to ring in the autumnal season. Because why not? Feel free to share it around with anyone you know who loves this time of year too.
Welcome to all newcomers! I’m so happy you’ve found your way into our booklovers’ hideout. If you haven’t heard from me before now, you probably stumbled into the lair by way of a special sign-up or found me in a search on Substack. Either way, welcome again and do have fun looking through the archives on my homepage.
In Other News
I did a thing! A design-y, crafty kind of thing. I’m not a super crafty person, mind you, so this is big. I will say that I did have to help with costuming for some of the shows I did when I was choreographing and staging ballets about a half million years ago, buuuut I was not very good at it. I did what I could. But, yeah, my attempts were pretty bad, so like I said, not real crafty. ;) Anyway, the other day I wanted something and I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for, so I made one instead and ta-daaaa:
What do you think?
Handwriting spurs my creativity in a different way than typing so I like to keep pretty notebooks around to write in. Shopping around, I didn’t see anything I liked and thought, you know what? I bet I could design something myself and I came up with this pretty Storyteller journal. I love the way it turned out! There’s a beautiful quote on the back (you know what a quote hound I am) and the inside is perfect for capturing story ideas. I’m so happy with the results that I put “Storyteller” up on Amazon. If you want one for yourself here’s the link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJKY8CR4
I’m thinking of putting some more of these together in the future, since this was so much fun. I’ll be sure to post pictures here in the lair if I do.
Anyway, Monsters, how about you? What sort of mischief and fun projects have you been into this week?
If you are crafty yourself, or at least more than I am (it would be hard no to be, honestly) you might want to check out
over on her publication, Twisting the Myths, and follow her on Notes. She knits the cutest little fantasy creatures and has just started hosting Maker Monday for other crafty types.Writing News
For my writing update, I’ll just let you know that I have made some more progress on my vampire romance. I shared the opening scene in last week’s newsletter. If you missed the post, jump over here and have a look. Marissa has come fully on the stage with her own scene and I’m just about at the part where she meets Lucien face to face. Very exciting! I’ll probably share some more from them later on.
Remember, this work in progress is a continuation of the cyber fairy tale world I started in my big bad wolf retelling, Who’s Afraid of the Sexy Villain, a year ago. I’m set to start sharing that novella, in it’s entirety with extra author tid-bits, for paid subscribers as we head into October. Just in time for Halloween! I hope you’ll join me on this new adventure.
Here’s a collage of story teasers From “Sexy Villain” to whet your appetite:
Reading News
Can I just say, I had an absolute hey day shopping the
three day free book event last week! I picked up sooo many books. I’ll probably post some of them in My Mystical Mood Reads section as I read them. It’s going to take me awhile to get through the long list of titles I snagged, but someone has to do these things, right? How about you? Did you stuff your kindle (or ereader) with any of the books featured by Romance Bookworms last week? Which ones? And have you read any of them yet? I’m full of questions.I think that brings us up to date with everything going on in the lair today. Till next time, beautiful beasts, I’m wishing you many magical moments and lots of…
Happy Reading!
Amanda V Shane
Your journal looks awesome! I admit I am a journal hoarder, but I never seem to write in them. Probably because my handwriting is terrible. I feel like I'm ruining them :-( But maybe I'll dig one out and make some doodles or something, haha.
You did a fantastic job with your craft!