Hello, and welcome to my new subscribers.
Thank you for joining us at Where the Witches Gather, especially as we’re now in Witching Season! Yes, it deserves capitals. Samhain has passed with a flurry of spells, divination, pumpkins, and honouring our ancestors, and now we’re settling into November and descending further into the dark months.
There’s a soft, hazy quality to the air that is distinctly not Novemberish. It’s humid, rain-laden, and the sky is thick with clouds that promise lots of rain. It’s so still that I can hear the surf crashing on the beach two km down the road. But the weirdly warm days become chill evenings, perfect for a fire in the woodburner. At least the hour has gone back so I can rise in the light again.
Please don’t feel down about the darkness. These months are the perfect time to wind down, bed in, and prepare for winter. If we live seasonally, then it’s natural to spend more time indoors and cultivate a little introspection. In our house, we call these our hibernation months when we become distinctly more anti-social!
For me, November is about winding down from the intensity of writing my latest book, Cinderveiled Magic, the fourteenth White Haven Witches book, and releasing Night of the Wilding, the Shifters and Moonfell novella. It was a low key launch, but nevertheless, still takes time. I will start writing another book I’m sure this month - after a couple of weeks away, I’ll be itching to get stuck in, however, I will be catching up with much needed business jobs and personal fun stuff first.
In today’s newsletter, which is free for all subscribers, I’ll share my plans for the next few weeks, as well as news of the Jilleen Dolbeare Scholarship, and my current reads.
Let’s get into it, and start with my personal plans.
It might be because of the Taurus full moon, or just the general nesting vibe of the darker months, but I am in full house beautification mood. I have ordered three new rugs, new lampshades, and it’s not over yet! Two rugs are for what we call the Green Room (because obviously it’s painted a soft sage green), which is a little room to the side of the living room. It’s a narrow-ish space and we didn’t use it much at first, but has now become one of my favourite rooms. The dining room table is in there, and is now covered in my crafting bits and pieces. The rugs there are great, but not right for the space, and Jase wants them in his studio, so that will work out well. When you first move into a new home (2 and a half years ago), some things, as I’m sure you know, just get plonked in places, so it’s time to address all that now
I have discovered the joy of crafting my own grimoire, and have also just started a new diary that I’ll be adding images and text to alongside my notes. My skills are rudimentary, but I hope to improve! It’s so good to get off computers and devices and work with my hands. It’s probably why I love gardening so much, too. Next week I’m reorganising a small garden bed opposite where we often sit out, and weeding and cutting back the hedge at the top. I can’t wait to get stuck into that too, around the rain, which is falling right now!
I’ll actually be shopping mid-week next week which never happens normally, so you can tell I’m in between books.
Of course, I’m always reading, and have just finished the ninth book in the Rivers of London series, and have found there’s a few novellas between it and the next book. I have added it to my library. However, because I rarely binge read series, I’m now reading Empire of Shadows by Jacquelyn Benson, which is a Victorian era Raiders of the Lost Arc style fantasy book called Raiders of the Arcana series. Sounds fabulous!
Books and Stuff
As mentioned earlier, I have finished writing Cinderveiled Magic and it’s now with my editor. Always a moment of relief when I feel I’m stand blinking in the sunshine after the dark of the writing cave. It’s about 90000 words long, and I’m super happy with it, but already I’m thinking I need to rework the final chapter as I’m not quite happy with that particular bit. I’ll share more chapters with my paid subscribers later.
Don’t forget to pre-order it here. It’s set at Beltane and is a heady mix of dragon spells, djinn, hearth spells, awkward family reunions, and the dark mysteries of Ravens’ Wood. I’ve already got an idea for book 15, which I think will be about standing stones.
I have a list a mile long of things to do, and I’m already ticking them off. I’m adding more German translations to Happenstance Books and Merch. The first three White Haven Witches books were translated by a human translator, but was extremely expensive. I have translated the rest, in fact all of my series, using Scribe Shadow AI. Some of you might hate that idea, but it’s extremely common, and the results are good. I will return to human translation at some point, but for now it means they are out there - or will be soon.
The first seven White Haven Witches are for sale in my shop, and I will add another four eBooks over the weekend. Hopefully a couple this afternoon. The first three are in paperback and hardback as well as eBook, and the rest will be formatted soon.
I sell them on all retailers, of course, as well as my shop. The first six are on Amazon, Kobo, Nook, Apple, Google Play, and others, and I will load the rest onto the other platforms very soon. Amazon will be a much slower roll out as I have to consider their algorithms. Not an issue when selling direct! :)
I’m also updating my White Haven Witches and Hunters character sheets, and will start work on character sheets for the other series, too. I promised this a while ago, but they take a while to do, and other projects got in the way. These are a free gift when you subscribe to my newsletter, as well as a couple of short stories.
I’m adding more images and merch to my shop over the coming weeks, and will be organising the merch page by series, which will make it much easier to find what you want.
I have moved to a different audiobook distributor, which I think I mentioned last time. If you're looking for audiobooks and wondering where they are, it’s because of this process. I have to take them down off one site ready for the other. Again, they are still for sale in my shop, and still on YouTube. Next week I’ll be focussing on getting the audiobook bundles ready as the singles went weeks ago, then that’s another job I can tick off!
My own Night of the Wilding copies are the way, ready to sign and ship to my Ream Subscribers. I’ll work on the merch to go with them too.
The Jilleen Dolbeare Scholarship Fund
I am very sorry to say that Jilleen Dolbeare, a friend and fellow Urban Fantasy author, died last week after a five year battle with cancer, so as you can imagine, it’s been a sad time. She contributed to our Most Wanted Kickstarter Anthology, so I feel lucky to have worked with her on that, although I didn’t know Jilleen as well as some authors.
My friend Heather G Harris cowrote a series with her, and is absolutely devastated. She has set up a scholarship fund in her honour that “will support emerging indie fantasy authors, whether through new covers, editing, or a marketing budget to help your stories find their readers.”
If you’d like to contribute or apply, or just read more about Jilleen, please click the link below.
I think that’s it for now, although no doubt I’ll send this out and realise I should have mentioned something else. There’s always next time. Tonight we’re binging Celebrity Traitors - I know it’s over, but still… I’ve also just discovered the Grand Designs Deconstructed Podcast. Guess what I’m listening to while working on graphics later!
A few posts you may have missed:
And if your witch is calling, this is about my path:
Have a wonderful weekend, and stay warm and safe. If you’re in the southern hemisphere, I hope you enjoy the ascent into spring. Another lovely time of year. Please drop me a comment with your plans, as I always love to hear from my readers.
Take care,
TJ xx
