Ok, nothing spooky about it except it’s October.

It’s been a hot minute since I updated y’all! Sorry about that.

Both Mr. Katje and myself have been dealing with some health issues that have sapped all my spare energy and made it very hard to keep on top of updates, among other things. I’ve managed to keep up my daily writing streak but sometimes only by one word in a session. (Seriously.)

Anyway, I’m almost mended, he’s on the mend. We’re doing better. And I do have some updates for y’all!

CHOSEN OF KORE

Chapters are releasing, of course, and that will continue until morale improves. Actually until the book is done.

BUT. Mr. Katje finally finished his read through of it and he said it was good, he liked it, but what he would have liked at the end was just one more chapter–an epilogue, maybe, just to wrap up some stuff. Show that certain characters are alive and well.

I’ve thought that myself sometimes, actually, and I’m now giving real thought to writing one and how it would look.

What do you think? Should Chosen of Kore have an epilogue? This is, of course, assuming you’ve read the whole thing when it was published under its old title. If you’re just reading it for the first time, chapters should finish in the new year at some point–March or April.

What I might end up doing is writing the epilogue, posting it after the last chapter of Chosen of Kore, and then letting y’all decide if it should go into the relaunched version of the book or stay as an extra scene for the membership. It depends on how production schedule goes though!

Second pass of text updates will probably start in December, if I’m lucky.

STAR OF IXCHEL

Drafting continues! I am at just over 65K and I’d like to start sharing chapters from it soon-ish…maybe next month I’ll drop chapter 1.

I have taken a break from it in the past week, however, to work on a little short that came to mind….

MIDWINTERTIDE (working title)

This is a short story showing the initial meeting of two of my favourite characters, Jules & Ghia, and then the building of their friendship up until just before the start of Chosen of Kore. Each chapter is set right before Midwinter, starting in 4016 and ending in 4019 (Chosen of Kore begins on Midwinter eve, 4019).

These two are absolutely among my faves to write and read, so I’m enjoying this a lot. When it’s done, I’ll be reading over it and then Chosen of Kore to see how they match up in terms of character, and then making changes as needed. When it’s ready to be shared, I’ll be posting it in Chosen of Zarqon Extras and I might also send it to my newsletter list, depending.

I’ll be working on this short until it’s finished (I’ll likely finish this month) and then I will be turning my attention either back to Star of Ixchel, if it’s before the end of the month, or to a shiny new project I plan on starting on November 1st…

SHINY NEW PROJECT (title to be revealed)

Right, so. I got an idea in September and it quickly blossomed into a full story. Almost ready to start writing it–I’ve been working this month to prep so I can draft as fast as possible.

This story doesn’t exist within any of my current series or WORLDS–it is a completely new, secondary-world fantasy story, likely a duet/duology, and a romantasy. Or fantamance. A fantasy romance, whatever we’re calling it these days. (I am continually confused by the ever-changing definitions of the term “romantasy”.)

It’s inspired by the movie Legend (which I watched for the first time in September) and Asimov’s Nightfall, both the short story and the movie based off the story and later novel.

I am really excited about this story, and I think it’s good it showed up in my head because I have been reaching a point in Star of Ixchel where I know I’ll need to set it aside for a bit to percolate before I can dive back in, and I’m really not ready to dive back into Elemental Chemistry yet, so a new story is just what the doctor ordered.

So far I’ve come up with titles for each book and I’ve created languages for the world with the help of Vulgarlang (such a fun tool! Mr. Katje bought it for me so I could use it for this story). The languages need to be edited a bit and a bunch more worldbuilding needs to be done, and I still need to plot it out–but the entire story is in my head and it’s a banger, y’all. I mean. I’m biased, probably, but I really do think it’s pretty great.

I’m calling it romantasy for now because I THINK that fits, though as I said the changing definition is driving me a bit bonkers. It is a story that is 50% fantasy, 50% romance–not a romance set in a fantasy world but the plot is just the romance, nor a fantasy with romantic subplots. True 50/50 split and that *seems* to be the most common definition of romantasy.

(But it makes no sense that romantasy = romance with a HEA guaranteed, because it’s a portmanteau of romantic fantasy, which would be a fantasy with romantic/love story subplots but no guaranteed HEA. SEE MY CONFUSION???)

And I am planning for it to be closed door/low-spice/fade-to-black, whatever you want to call it. It won’t be spicy like Elemental Chemistry and probably won’t even be as open-door as Chosen of Zarqon. Will know better once I start writing the characters and get to know them better.

Anyway, I’ll tell y’all a bit more about it later; this update is getting pretty long already. And I’ll reveal the title either later this week or early November!

OTHER PROJECTS

Elemental Chemistry is still on my docket, obviously, buuut. I got a little burned out on steamy/spicy romance this summer and haven’t bounced back yet. ALSO, book 3 continues to VEX ME, completely eluding being pinned down and prepped/plotted, so I am also trying to hold off on diving back into FOREST’S FLAME because I don’t want to finish that one and then be like “OK NEXT” but not be able to work on it.

I’m coming to learn that sometimes I need to write a certain book before I can write a different one, because I need to learn something through the process of book A that will help for book B. So I’m embracing being a mood/intuition writer because it almost always seems to work out in the story’s favour, even if it doesn’t work out in the favour of being an author who keeps deadlines of any sort (even self-imposed).

Fate’s Promise is still on my revisions pile! It, unfortunately, was one of the things that took a back seat with our health issues sapping my energy, but I hope to get back to it soon and it will be shared with y’all and the newsletter before end of year. (REALLY. I’m holding myself to this. I need to release a book this year or I’ll EXPLODE.)

From the Ashes–very back-burnered right now. I’ll be getting back to it in 2025 and starting to share first chapters then.

My pomodoro timer just beeped, and I don’t remember what other projects I was talking about, and this update is massive so I’m going to end it now.

Hope you’re all keeping well! I’ll update again SOON.

Wildly/much love,

Katje