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The Bed and Breakfast Between Worlds: I finished the first draft of this book on September 2 and am now working on draft two. My goal is to finish it this week, then get draft three done before the end of the month.

The Blackbriar Coven: Between drafts of the above book, I squeezed in a second draft of this one. I’m hoping to get draft three done this month as well.

The Appalachian Argument: This was one of Phill’s books that I finished editing last month. Lots of fun stuff in this one!

Salt in the Blood: I might change this title. Not sure yet. This is the second book in my Grey Witch Chronicles series, the sequel to The Blackbriar Coven. I’ve technically written a version of it before, but everything is so different from how things are in the series now that I consider it another book. Almost an alternate universe. Anyway, I’m looking forward to working on the new version and seeing how it turns out. I’ll be starting it as soon as I finish the editing drafts for the books above.

I finished Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne, the first in her Tomes and Tea series. I moved on to book two, A Pirate’s Life for Tea, and just finished it a couple days ago.

Now I’m on book 3, Tea You at the Altar. This has been a fun, lighthearted series. There’s one more book in this first quartet, but according to the author’s website there are two more quartets planned in this world with different main characters.

Phill and I finally finished Sherlock. Such a great show. I could’ve easily watched several more seasons.

Since then we’ve moved back to Shoresy, a spin-off of Letterkenny. Both shows have a lot more adult content than what we normally watch, but they’re also humorous, and the seasons are short (about six twenty-minute episodes each).

I’ve also slowly been making my way through Frieren, an anime about an elf who was part of a fellowship who defeated a demon king. The story begins after they defeat him, moving years into the future as her companions from that time begin dying one by one while she lives on, forever youthful. It made me think of Tolkien’s Elves in The Lord of the Rings, wondering what it was like for them to watch all their mortal companions pass on. It’s definitely a slower, more thoughtful anime. I haven’t made a lot of progress yet, but I’m hoping to change that soon.

I finished Tales of the Shire! This was a really fun cozy game, and I can easily see myself returning to it in the future. There were lots of fun moments, and the scenery is gorgeous. Plus, it’s set in Middle-earth. What’s not to love?

I also finished a cozy game called Wanderstop. I recently saw this one on my wishlist and had no memory of adding it, but it looked fun enough that I kept it on there, then Phill got it for me for my birthday. After finishing Tales of the Shire, I decided to give it a try, since it wasn’t supposed to be very long.

I enjoyed this game so much! Much more than I expected. Basically your character is a fighter with a three-year winning streak, but a couple of recent losses have her seeking out a legendary sword master in the forest. Suddenly she can no longer lift her sword, then collapses in the forest. When she comes to, she’s in a clearing sitting on a park bench with a strange man named Boro. He says he found her in the forest and brought her and her sword to his clearing, where he has a tea shop. She’s welcome to stay, rest, and recover.

I won’t spoil anything, but your character ends up staying for a while, learning how to make tea and serving it to the quirky customers who visit the shop. There were several laugh-out-loud moments for me during this game, and it was one of those that when I finished it, instead of feeling like I’d finished it, I just wanted to dive back in.

For the last few months, Phill has played the albums of The Amazing Devil anytime we take his car anywhere. I like a lot of the songs, and some of you may recognize the male member, Joey Batey, who played Jaskier in The Witcher TV show.

In this song, however, the female member, Madeleine Hyland, sings the lead. Warning for light swearing.

There’s something a bit witchy about this song, which fits both me and October. Phill says it put him in mind of a character from my unpublished novel The Witch of Myrwist Wood, which I can totally see.

Here’s everywhere we’ll be selling books for the month of October:

October 4: North Heights Porchfest in Joplin, MO

October 11 - 12: Card Con in Fort Smith, AR

Oct 18: Maple Leaf Festival in Carthage, MO

Oct 25: Shire Post Mint Festival in West Fork, AR

In this section I like to share words from languages I’m learning. This month I’ve chosen more Irish words.

I post once a week on Patreon about all sorts of things: writing, books I’m reading, things going on in life. Once a month I also share sneak peeks of whatever book I’m working on. It would mean the world to me if you considered joining.

I am also on Ko-fi, which is sort of like Patreon, but with one key difference: you’re not locked into a subscription. Ko-fi allows patrons to donate however often they’d like to creators they follow. No subscriptions if you don’t want them, no commitments, and you have control over when and how you donate. I don’t post quite as often on Ko-fi, but I’ve been having fun sharing little micro-stories there, if you’re interested.

I decided to try Substack, since I’ve seen so many people join it recently. I’m curious to see if I like it, if it’s any better than some of the other platforms out there, or if maybe it will be worthwhile long-term. Time will tell. Right now I’m duplicating content on my other platforms, but that might change in the future.