The Final Act

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Originally posted to Beehiiv March 05, 2026

I had high hopes for getting things done last month, but unfortunately, we lost our nineteen-year-old cat and it’s an understatement to say that we were devastated. MaeMae found us when I was seventeen and saved me when I was at lowest many, many times. Losing animals always takes its toll, but this loss really hurt. I wasn’t sure I would be ready to get another cat for a long time even though we have always had at least two cats, and Baby was the only cat left in the house. But we went to pick up her ashes, there was a stray cat recovering from dental surgery and as soon as eye contact was made, mom knew she wanted to bring her home rather than her going back to the shelter once she was recovered. I was a little more resistant and only agreed to foster her for a week to see what would happen. In truth, the moment she headbutted me while I was reaching down for something, I knew she would be staying. The void is still there, but Emmy makes it a little easier to deal with. Without Emmy, we would still be wallowing.

Cat Tax :3

That being said, I did finish act three of UNTETHERED. I had hoped to finish the entire draft, but reaching another huge goal is nothing to sneeze at. Now, I have roughly six chapters left and I am determined to finish this draft by mid-month. I already have some edit notes for whenever I’m ready to look at it again, but once this draft is done UNTETHERED is going to marinate for at least a few weeks while I shift focus to other projects.

It’s incredibly helpful if you’ve read my books, to leave a review! Reviews help bring in other readers, but also, on certain platforms, it can boost my books in the algorithm (looking at the Zon here). If you’re tired of Goodreads and are looking for an alternative, try Pagebound! Pagebound is incredibly fun to use, not only can you review but you can also post in a forum and discuss your reads with other readers. My books are available on Pagebound here.

What I’ve Been…

Reading

I read several books in February, but these two were the standouts for me. I never watched The Expanse television show but the video game coming out looks very cool so I decided to take the plunge and start reading the book series. I am so glad I did. As someone who loves Mass Effect, this is scratching that space opera itch, and it has awakened the brainworms for the huge sci-fi series I want to eventually do myself. I currently have the sequel from my library and will be reading it ASAP. THE SECOND DEATH OF LOCKE is the perfect mix of political fantasy and middle fantasy, and the yearning??? Impeccable. I devoured it in a little over a day.

Watching

I started a Letterboxd at the beginning of the year to keep track of the movies I watch. Here’s what I watched in February:

  • Amy Bradley is Missing-A Netflix documentary that absolutely infuriated me as all true crime documentaries tend to do. I’m more shocked when police manage to be competent.
  • Dark Star (1974)-John Carpenter’s student film that launched his career. A dark comedy of science fiction movies that had me laughing. I saw it described as stoner sci-fi and that’s exactly the vibe.
  • Clown in a Cornfield-I expected something corny (I’m not sorry), and while I did laugh at some parts, it did not have much substance.
  • I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)-I will say, I did not see the twist coming. Absolutely silly, but I still had a good time watching it, and it was a nice nostalgia trip. I hope they do a sequel just because I want to see Brandy with some significant screen time.

I’ve also been exploring analog horror on Youtube and I’ve been working my way through The Monument Mythos series, and it’s pretty inspiring honestly.

Playing

Since I finished my perfection run of Stardew, I jumped back to a Coral Island farm that I had on hold and decided to finish that. I reached S-rank for the first time and fully decorated my farm. I was a little disappointed that there aren’t a lot of rewards for completing S-rank, but I had a good time regardless.

I’ve also been playing House Flipper here and there, Lake, and I recently started Fae Farm which I’m already having a blast with. I wish I was playing it right now.

She Got Away (I’ve been listening to The Subway a lot)

/ DJ / Leave a comment

Originally posted to Beehiiv on February 05, 2026

January started out good, I was on track, and then I was smacked with a pet emergency mid-month. The train derailed. My nineteen-year-old cat that I’ve had since I was seventeen was sick, and I didn’t know if she was going to pull through. Thankfully, she’s back to screaming at me when I’m not getting her food fast enough and laying on my chest so I can’t escape her stinky cat food breath. It took a little time to get my mental state leveled out again, and then we were snowed in. So I decided to knock out some things on my admin list.

I took down my websites in December because I needed to update them, but I also wanted to revamp the look of them. The website is now live. Check it out here!

I did manage to clear two chapters of act three of UNTETHERED before the derailment. Sadly, I did not meet my goal of finishing act three in January, but oh well. That’s life for ya. I will be getting back to it this week, hopefully hitting it hard and fast so I can finish this draft on schedule.

What I’ve Been Reading

  • The Eyes are the Best Part by Monika Kim
  • All These Sunken Souls: A Black Horror Anthology edited by Circe Moskowitz
  • The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike

What I’ve Been Playing

I’ve been in my cozy era this winter season, bouncing between Animal Crossing, Coral Island, and Tiny Bookshop. But more than that, I’ve finally finished a perfection run of Stardew Valley. On my Switch no less. I wasn’t sure I would be able to catch all of the fish without modding out the fishing minigame but I did it! I’m so ridiculously proud of my perfection farm.

Looking for some books to add to your TBR? Check out this month’s freebies!

Done and Dusted (One Year Ends and Another Begins)

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Originally posted on Beehiiv on December 31, 2025

We made it! The end of another year. While it wasn’t a great year, I still did my best and met some milestones. When it comes to UNTETHERED, I cleared two acts and am ending the year past the halfway mark (roughly 2/3 of the way through). I even had a month where I wrote every single day no matter the word count. I released one book under my romance name. The first anthology I was able to participate in will be coming out in the beginning of the year, and I was invited to the next one! And to round it off, WHERE WILLOWS WEEP was nominated for the Indie Ink Jet awards* for best setting, writing the future we need: bisexual or biromantic rep, and writing the future we need: trans or nonbinary rep.

*Today is the last day to vote if you haven’t already!

While a little over 150,000 words is not at all my best for a year, it’s nothing to sneeze at. Yes, I am hard on myself, why do you ask? But seriously, after my dad breaking a hip and needing surgery and out-of-the-home rehab, the loss of a pet, and several financial hits, I hung in there and still did a decent amount of work and I’m going to be proud of myself for that.

What to expect in 2026

I have two separate lists this year: a goal list and a wishlist. There are a lot of things I’d like to do, but rather than sticking them in with my goals and being disappointed if I can’t get to them, I am keeping them in mind if I have time.

Goals:

  • finish UNTETHERED (Luna Fiore) and publish it
  • draft and publish THE DRAGON’S LOVER (Moira Carn)
  • draft Antho piece
  • Outline UNFORESEEN and begin drafting
  • draft at least one short story/novelette

Wishlist:

  • outline and/or draft several short stories/novelettes
  • draft THIS BODY IS NOT YOUR BODY
  • participate in piss dash (I will not explain this lol)

I don’t know what this year will bring, not just for myself but for all of us, but I hope that it’s better.

The Month of Milestones

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Originally posted on Beehiiv on December 03, 2025

November was a huge success for me in terms of meeting my goals. I had two major goals: writing at least 20k words and finishing the second act of UNTETHERED. I did both! The Dirthhallow arc is wrapped up with a neat little spiderwebbed bow. Ten chapters of creepy, grotesque goodness, and a huge turning point for Deirdre in her journey. Finishing this section puts me about 2/3 of the way through the draft. I have two more sections to go and roughly sixteen chapters.

Getting back into the swing of writing has made me feel very accomplished. Though I am not at the level of writing I used to be, I am still writing consistently every day, and some days I’m even managing larger word counts and clearing whole chapters. I’m making real tangible progress. Finally. Not only have I reached my goals, I also hit the milestones of reaching chapter thirty and 80k words. UNTETHERED is happening y’all!

While it would be nice to finish the draft by the end of the year that’s not my goal this month…

I will be starting this month out with finalizing my edits for my short story for the Tales of the Tongue anthology. I am super excited to share this story with the world in all it’s filthy, disgusting glory. There will be an announcement soon about ARCs for those who backed that tier on KS, as well as the release date

Since it’s December and we’re super close to starting a new year, I want to take some time to step back and reevaluate. I want to make sure the changes I’ve made to how I view writing will stick so I can keep up the consistency because I am happiest when I am writing. I also want to rethink how I’m doing marketing. Right now, I’m currently not doing anything because I haven’t hit the point where I can balance focusing on writing a lot and admin work. Admittedly, it’s also disheartening to put a lot into marketing and very little return. Stepping back to look at the bigger picture will be helpful. I’m also hoping to do some admin work such as updating my websites and organizing my WIP ideas.

And, of course, I will be spending some quality time with my family during the holidays. Having an elderly parent, I never know when a holiday is going to be the last one so I want to make sure they’re all good.

What I’ve been playing

  • Murder on the Orient Express: A very fun game with puzzles that were challenging without being too difficult. The addition of another playable protagonist and another killer was a fun way to refresh a case quite a few people are familiar with. I hope to pick up the sequel, Death on the Nile, next time it goes on sale.
  • Stardew Valley: I’m still working on my perfection farm on the Switch. I wasn’t sure I would be able to do it because the fishing is difficult without a mod, but I did it! I can’t begin to describe the satisfaction of catching the lava eel and the legend. Now it’s just a matter of the recipes, one final monster slayer goal, the friendships, and decorating my farm.
  • Crime Scene Cleaner: Several of my friends recommended this one and I treated myself for my birthday since it was on sale. It is so satisfying cleaning up 100% of blood and tossing floppy dead bodies into a garbage bin. Can’t get a basketball in a hoop for the life of me though.
  • Tiny Library: Another birthday gift to myself. I love selling my books out of a tiny wagon attached to my car. Though sometimes I’m befuddled by how the books categorized, it’s a blast to play. I can’t wait to unlock the storefront!

What’ I’ve been listening to

  • Critical Role Campaign Four: I’ve been wanting to watch Critical Role and when the new campaign was announced, I was excited to be able to watch from the beginning. I am behind a couple of episodes, but it’s been fun to listen/watch with mom.
  • D3: I love Neil Newbon, and it is hilarious listening to him DM at a table with his friends, mostly wrangling them, while they go on a raunchy DND adventure. The episode where they spend most of it trying to catch and/or kill a fly had me laughing so hard I was in tears.

What’ I’ve been reading

  • The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  • There is no Antimemetics Division by QNTM
  • The Troop by Nick Cutter
  • Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  • The God and The Gumiho by Sophie Kim

Consistency is Key (I know, I know, but it’s true)

/ DJ / Leave a comment

Originally posted on Beehiiv on November 05, 2025

As someone with AuDHD, I live and die by schedules. I wake up around the same time every day (unless of course my IBS kicks in between 4-5am). Eat roughly the same thing at the same time for breakfast. Same for lunch. The best time for me to work is between lunch and dinner, while dad is resting. I eat dinner around the same time though it varies, and go to bed around the same time. Then things get nebulous. What happens when I wake up throughout the night and don’t get good sleep? What happens when I’m not feeling well and have to rest rather than take my sliver of work time? What happens when I get stuck in the loop of being tired and needing naps and ruining my sleep because I napped too long and then need another nap the next day…so on and so forth.

What happens when I fuck my schedule (or when life fucks it, really)?

I’ve spoken before about the trials and tribulations about the last couple of years, but the truth was, even when things were okay, I still was struggling to get back to writing. I want to write. I have to write. I’m happy when I’m pouring my heart and soul onto the page. But I was stuck. I was mad at myself because I couldn’t write the way I used to. I used to write in the afternoon without needing to rest, and write into the late hours without my sleep being too affected. That’s not my reality anymore, and I needed to change to fit how my life looks now.

Last month I decided enough was enough. I wasn’t writing because I was waiting for the perfect conditions in order to write large amounts rather than writing consistently. The perfect conditions don’t exist. So, I changed how I approached writing. I decided that I needed to write something everyday. No word count goals. No pressure. It could just be a sentence or some notes, and that would count. I wrote at my desk on days that I could, and days where I was tired and needed more rest, I wrote on my phone while lying in bed or sitting on the couch. It was working. Every day I felt accomplished because I was meeting this goal for myself and as the month went on, I felt myself being able to hit daily word counts I hadn’t seen in awhile.

Finally.

Now it’s on to the next step. Training myself to hit targets again. November is NaNo even if NaNo doesn’t technically exist anymore. Plenty of people still put together challenges in their own writing groups or do solo challenges. Now, I’m not foolish enough to think I can bang out 50k in a month without some serious consequences. I’m not interesting in crashing…again. I will be shooting for a more attainable 20k with a roughly 700/day word count goal until I meet the monthly target. If I go over, awesome! If I don’t, that’s also okay. While reaching for this goal, I will also be challenging myself to finish act two of UNTETHERED. I am roughly halfway so it’s entirely doable.

Part of what helped me to reach my goal of consistency was a set of October prompts put together by fellow author H.S. Wolfe. Wolfe is a godsend for the indie author community especially those who touch on taboo topics, and is one of the owners of the Monster Manor discord. I used these prompts to write flash fiction and meet my goals of writing something daily when I couldn’t work on any of my larger projects. I posted these prompts on my Instagram and my Medium page. They were incredibly fun to write!

It’s my birthday! I turn 34 today and I will spending the day doing a whole lot of nothing, and eating my favorite “dinner” which is sausage gravy over biscuits with eggs and home fries. To celebrate I am making all of my books in my Payhip store Pay What You Want! Times are hard so if you’ve been wanting to get my books for yourself and or to gift to your friends, they will be available as PWYW for today only!

I’m playing Alan Wake 2 again. I’m finally playing The Final Draft and revisiting one of my favorite games. While the Alan Wake games (and Control) are more of an inspiration for The Hermetic Verses series that I have up my sleeve, the overall narrative of fighting against a story is all too real. Maybe when I finish it this time, I’ll get around to writing my essay about the madness of a manuscript and the absolute fever dream of being an author.

“I brought you the heart, witch. Now show me the terror.”

I’ve also been keeping up with my reading. My words are a deep well and when the well runs dry it must be refilled. Now that I’m reading regularly again, I am having an easier time wrangling my words. I read some seriously chunky books this month. Many of them containing a similar question: what does it mean to be alive? Human? I swear I didn’t plan it that way.

See y’all next month with, what I hope is, a great update!

Act One is Done (and I also got into the Narratess Sale)

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Originally published on Beehiiv on August 23, 2025

It took way longer than I hoped, a lot of tears, frustration, and several false starts and rewrites, but act one of UNTETHERED is finally drafted which means I only have three more acts to go! Twenty chapters in and Deirdre and Co. have finally been thrust into Underhill, but in a part never seen before.

A city cut off by poisonous brambles. A city full of corpses and mouldering spirits that await death to release them. But there is much more that lay underneath the abandoned town. And what connection does Reluvethel have to such a place?

I can’t wait to get into it!

I’ve had to take a break from writing in order to get a release together for my romance pen name, but as soon as that is done, I looked forward to diving into the hidden horrors of Dirthhallow and the profound affect that will have on Deirdre and Co., but also on the state of the world moving forward. Dirthhallow is heavily inspired by Bloodborne with a touch of Dark Souls 3, and truly brings the horror in this already dark entry to the Children of the Morrigan saga.

I am also a part of the Narratess sale this weekend! UNBOUND is available at .99 alongside a wide variety of other books. I have also marked down UNCOVERED to .99 as well. If you’re interested in UNTETHERED but haven’t picked up the first two yet, now is the time! I also have both titles on sale on Payhip so there is an option to purchase directly from me

Currently Playing:

I’ve started playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and my goodness is it not a beautiful game with an incredible soundtrack. I’m not usually a fan of turn-based combat as I often find them a bit boring and tedious, but the combat in this game is an absolute blast even when I’m getting my ass handed to me by an optional boss that looks like a weird pink sheep. This game had me crying in the first ten minutes and I’ve been warned I’m doing to need a lot of tissues to get through the rest.

What I’ve Been Watching:

I love K-dramas and have been working through my list on Netflix. Last month we watched Beyond Evil and it had me hooked until the very end trying to figure out who had done what. Bad and Crazy is another detective K-drama but centered around a cop who looks the other way in order to move up until his alter ego shows up to knock him back onto the right path. Literally. Lee Dong Wook and Wi Ha Joon have incredible chemistry as they clean up corrupt politicians and cops, and get to the root of their shared trauma.

I’m also always watching movie and am pleased to report that Final Destination: Bloodlines was just as bloody as its predecessors and refreshing for the opening sequence alone. Death of a Unicorn was delightful when I wasn’t sure if it was going to be good at all. And The Monkey was also goofy and gory. I hope to add all three to my physical collections.

I’ve been doing a lot of catching up on reading these past few months now that I know the joy of library apps. These are my top reads of the past couple of months:

  • The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw
  • Ghost Starion by S.A. Barnes
  • The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey
  • Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas
  • Hazelthorn by C.G. Drews
  • The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
  • Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance (Southern Reach series 1-3) by Jeff Vandermeer
  • Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
  • Oracle by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

Secret Projects and Summer Jams (and Sales, oh my!)

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Originally posted to Substack on June 9, 2025

Hello! It’s Pride month! I have a lot of news this month and you will probably hear from me more than once this month so let’s jump into what I’ve got going on!

Tales of the Tongue Anthology

Folktales. Myths. Legends. Stories whispered around the campfire. Tales about cryptids, angels, and things that go bump in the night. TALES OF THE TONGUE is an anthology curated by CLC Press, edited by Nelka Mazur, and features thirty-one authors and five artists. Back the Kickstarter here and check out some of the extra goodies!

I am so very excited to be a part of this anthology. Being a part of a collaborative project was a big goal of mine as an author and I am proud of myself for taking the leap. ToTT will feature my short story [r]emerge, a tale about a young woman and a broken angel she must put back together.

Hot Wet Queer Summer Jam

As other selling platforms find ways to screw over authors in new and various ways, quite a few indies have been flocking to Itch.io and finding out how awesome of a platform it is. I love having my storefront on Itch and it’s the best way to support authors directly. That means fun new events and challenges as we explore what the site can offer us.

Jams are typically for developers on Itch. Developers are given a set amount of time to create a finished game as part of the jam. What if we did that, but with writing? Hot Wet Queer Summer Jam is hosted by Monster Manor and lasts until the end of August. In those three months, authors can write, edit, and publish anything from short stories to a full-length novel as long as they are meet the threshold of being, hot or wet or summer, and queer.

What will I be doing for this? I have no idea!

I have a list of potential ideas from short stories to maybe a novella or two that I can choose from. I will be working on these while I also work on UNTETHERED, using them as warm-ups or when I need a breather from UNTETHERED. Check out my top four ideas here.

Sales

I will be participating in two different Itch bundles this month as well as a sale. Once I knock my books down for sale on all platforms, I will keep them at that sale price for the rest of the month. I will send out newsletter reminders of these sales when they start as I don’t have links for everything yet.

Monster Manor Book Fair 6/13-6/15

Ink and Incense Itch Bundle 6/23-6/30

Minor Things

I will be moving my newsletter(s) from Substack. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile but I haven’t had the time/energy to do so but I will be working on it this next month and hope to be moved over by the end of June. I will also be updating my websites and uploading my newsletters there so I don’t lose them when I get rid of Substack. Y’all don’t have to do anything, or sign-up again, as I can shift my mailing list between sites.

Where in the World has Luna Fiore Gone? (Again)

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Originally posted to Substack on April 24, 2025

I disappeared again. I’m sorry. It will probably happen again.

I don’t usually get too much into my personal life on here because I internalize everything and hold it all until I explode, and I’m trying not to do that as much, but I also value my privacy so I won’t get too into detail about the last couple of months. Some know already that my mom and I take care of my elderly father, but in case you didn’t know, my full-time unpaid (sob) job is caregiving. My life revolves around taking care of my dad and it’s a rough job if I’m being honest.

Two months ago, he fell and broke his hip, prompting a surgery and a partial hip replacement. Six rough days in the hospital where mom and I had to grapple with the fact that he couldn’t come right home. We’ve been managing his care for ten years and now we had to give it over to a rehab center. It was an experience. Some good, some bad. Shout out to CNAs though, y’all don’t get paid and celebrated enough.

I wish I could say that I got loads done in those two months, but between visiting him every day and trying to get things done around the house we normally can’t do when he’s here—we painted the downstairs bathroom in two days—I didn’t have a lot of energy leftover. Now he’s back home which means finding the new normal with his new limitations and reconfiguring my schedule. With that being said…

What’s going on with UNTETHERED?

I worked a tiny bit, but admittedly not much. I don’t know what that means yet for the tentative release date in my head nor the tentative deadline I had set for myself in the beginning of the year. Things are still in a state of flux at the moment but I look forward to getting back on the horse. In the meantime, a snippet from the one chapter I did finish.

Getting to Know Your WIP-Week Two

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Originally posted to Substack on January 26, 2025

It’s the second week of the Getting to Know Your WIP event and this week’s theme is…well, theme. A subject that is very important, not just to UNTETHERED, but to the entire Underhill series. All of the books share themes while each tackling other, separate themes within those specific narratives. Having the books share certain themes has made it a bit easier to tie them all together even though they don’t all quite share the same genre. All are fantasy of course, but where UNBOUND is sort of your run-of-the-mill middle fantasy book, UNCOVERED leans a bit into a dark fairytale with its atmosphere and the tropes I chose. UNTETHERED plunges the series into dark fantasy tinged with horror, and that will remain for UNFORESEEN as well.

Series Theme: Change

Change began with Alannah. A cursed half-witch, bound to remain in between realms until the day she died. Settled with her lot in life and then the right person comes along and gives her hope. Then there was Makenna. Unhappy being her village’s sacrificial lamb for everything that would go wrong. A fire witch born amongst healers and made to be an outsider. She makes a deal with a wolf that shifts the trajectory of her life and uncovers deadly secrets. In the course of both books, Alannah and Makenna find that they are both tied to a fate of death in sacrifice that may end up being meaningless anyway. How can they change that fate? How does Deirdre continue this theme in his story?

Character Theme: Death

The end of all things. The beginning of others. Death is an important and necessary part of life that comes for us all eventually. For some it’s just an end, and for others it’s the beginning of another journey. But what happens in a place where Death fled a long time ago and never found a way to return? When spirit can be cleaved from body but both remain, stagnant. Badb was Death before. Why is Deirdre more important taking on the mantle of Death now?

These were questions I asked myself while crafting the narrative and characters of UNTETHERED. What makes Deirdre so important that so many people want to get their hands on him? Deirdre has lived his entire life in the human realm, living like a human and never believing he was anything else. How do I get Deirdre to acceptance of who he is and who he is going to be? These questions helped me discover who Deirdre is from the horrifying circumstances of his birth to all the ways in which he must die to truly become Death.

Villain Theme: Control

When I first wrote about the legend of Reluvethel in UNBOUND, I knew he was going to be my Big Bad. I touched on some things about him in UNCOVERED as well but there was something missing. Something I needed for UNTETHERED and UNFORESEEN. He’s typical in that he wants power, hoards it, and considers some people as unworthy of it. But why? What put him on this path? And what is his end goal?

This also led me to thinking about Underhill as a whole. Where these events exist in time. Underhill is recently reborn after a Convergence swallowed the previous iteration and birthed it anew. Magic is chaotic. Order, to a large extent, has not yet been established. What if one were to find a way to impose their order upon the realm? That is Reluvethel’s goal. How does he intend to achieve it? Well…that’s a question for UNFORESEEN to answer.

Weekly Word Count: 2780

I kept to my 500 a day word count goal, often getting more, until I decided to take a break for the weekend. I finished chapter ten and I’ve almost hit 40k on the WIP. I got myself some mozzarella sticks as a treat for hitting one of my short goals. I’m already looking forward to what I’m going to get done this next week!

Getting to Know Your Story-Week One

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Originally posted to Substack on January 19, 2025

I am participating in an event on tumblr that is focused on getting to know your writing through writing. Geared mostly towards discovery writers and yet, I have been looking for an excuse—a challenge—to kick myself into a higher gear where UNTETHERED is concerned. While I have the entirety of it outlined, I don’t know everything about my WIP. First drafts are where my characters show me who they are and because of that, things I have outlined are very much subject to change as my characters interact with the world I’ve crafted.

How apt that this week’s theme was characters…

Underhill has a cast of characters that have shown up throughout the first two books with focus on a few, and UNTETHERED will be no different. However, this is also where I introduce my final protagonist and arguably, the most important to what is going to come in the last book and the rest of the series.

Deirdre

Deirdre is my first genderfluid character (using he/she pronouns) and I am eager to explore that in the context of the story and what they will become by the end of this series arc. For thirty years, Deirdre has believed she is human and nothing really special. She has worked in a diner for years to help support her mom, Fia, and foster siblings but the diner is dying a slow death and she has no idea what exists for her after. Being fat and gay in a small town means Deirdre has swallowed down a lot of hatred from others and tried to make herself smaller and agreeable in the hopes that people will find her more…acceptable. Deirdre yearns for acceptance so when she is told she just might be special after all, of course she jumps at the chance no matter how terrified she feels. This also means she takes failure very hard.

Claimed by the Morrigan, wanted by Reluvethel, seen by a divine entity that wishes to return to Underhill.

Everyone else has plans for Deirdre. For what his destiny is to be. But what about what he chooses for himself? I already know but now I have to guide him there. I have to push him beyond wanting to be liked and wanted, to believe in himself enough to take control of his life. But sometimes, believing in oneself begins because someone else believes first…

Selanna

Selanna has appeared in the first two books as a minor character. Sister to Odhran. Friend of Eletha and Senna. What is she beyond that? Selanna is the eldest child of Valeria, a hunter of beasts by trade, and strives to live in opposition of whatever her mother wants. She tries to protect her siblings, throwing herself on the pyre if she has to, and is angry with herself when she can’t. After Meralith’s injury while hunting, Selanna has burdened herself with the blame. Guilt eats away at her but she hides it. While she does not have to get involved with the plight of the witches and their potential destruction if Reluvethel wakes, she knows a genuine threat when she sees one. Not to mention, she has a certain affection for the ones she keeps crossing paths with.

When she meets Deirdre, she finds someone with low self-esteem trying to make sense of what’s happening around them but not giving themselves time to actually understand. Deirdre throws himself into trying to prove himself and Selanna watches him get frustrated with his own failure over and over again. While she is impressed that Deirdre doesn’t seem to give up no matter what, progress is slow coming when he won’t address his fear. She offers herself as someone to talk to, and then as his protector when circumstance pushes them into the thick of things.

An offering Deirdre will repay when Selanna is the one in need.

Weekly Word Count: 1757

I had hoped for more this week. My original goal was to shoot for 500 words a day, but unfortunately, there were some outside things (insomnia) that were out of my control. All I can do is pick myself up and hope for better next week.