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The Blackbriar Coven is now available! This is the first book in my new series, The Grey Witch Chronicles, and I’m so excited to share it with all of you. If you like witches, talking familiars, Victorian-type worlds, monsters, and lots and lots of tea, I hope you’ll check it out!

Spirits of Salt and Sea (The Grey Witch Chronicles book 2): Formatting is nearly done for this book and my cover artist should start working on the cover soon. I’m hoping to have this one out sometime in September.

Dreams of a Dead God (The Grey Witch Chronicles book 3): I recently finished draft 3 of this one and sent it to my editor. It’s the largest book in the series so far, and things definitely take a creepy turn. Can’t wait to hear my editor’s thoughts.

A Vial of Poisoned Light (The Grey Witch Chronicles book 4): This one has been…slow going. 🫠 What with launching The Blackbriar Coven, editing the earlier books in the series, and traveling for conventions, my writing time has been reduced dramatically lately. I’ve still got a ton of things sitting on my desk vying for my attention, including a new book I need to edit for Phillip Drayer Duncan. My hope for this month is to at least work on this book a little bit every day, even if I only write a couple hundred words at a time.

Secret Book: Act 2 is underway. I’m hoping more progress can be made this month because it’s felt like this one has been slow going lately as well.

Amhrán Gan Choinne (not the actual title): Once more I barely touched this book for the month of July. With everything else sitting on my desk, this one has been pushed to the furthest back burner. I’m still excited about it, though.

I finally got around to recording another song, this time “Into the West,” originally sung by Annie Lennox for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Near the end of July my band Wildwood Minstrels played our first open mic, which was a lot of fun!

Every performer was limited to ten minutes, so we managed to play three songs. We’re playing at another event later this year, and I’ll be sure to share more details as it gets closer.

We’re taking a short vacation for my birthday this month, which we haven’t done in years, then we’re heading to World Con in Anaheim. The whole trip will take several weeks, but I’m looking forward to it.

At last there comes news: her beloved brother is riding to be reunited with her—but the Queen of the Fae and her insane court are hard on his heels.

Continuing June’s saga of short games, I finished several at the beginning of July.

First was The Suicide of Rachel Foster, which I enjoyed way more than I thought I would. You play as a woman returning to her family’s hotel after her father’s passing, with the intention of getting the place ready to sell. A blizzard leaves her trapped for several days, and as she explores the hotel she starts to uncover things that happened there when she was a kid.

It was an intriguing story with lots of creepy moments, and I can easily see myself playing it again.

Next up was What Remains of Edith Finch.

I actually expected to like this one more than I did, which isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy it. It was a lot of fun, and I really wish I could live in a house like the one in the game. I played it right after The Suicide of Rachel Foster, though, which no doubt affected my opinion a bit.

After that I played another short game called Gone Home.

This one started out really creepy and I thought it would turn out to be more of a ghost story, but it went in a completely different direction. It was all right, but it wasn’t really what I expected.

I tried to play another similar game right after finishing the ones above, but the one I tried relied heavily on puzzles that didn’t make sense. I love puzzles, and I love when patterns emerge and things fall into place. This game didn’t have that, and as far as I could tell, the puzzles were completely random, with no logic guiding them, no clues to find, which just frustrates me. So I stopped playing it and instead picked up Wytchwood again.

Those who have been following this newsletter for a while might remember when I first played this game. It quickly became one of my favorites, and as soon as I started playing again, it was easy to remember why.

This game is so fun, and its quirkiness, gorgeous scenery, and fairy tale-inspired story was just what I needed.

Since finishing Wytchwood for the second time, I haven’t actually started another game. Instead, I plan to spend my evenings this month reading and possibly brainstorming for another series I plan to launch next year.

Josienne Clarke released a new song recently: “Fotheringay,” which is a cover of a Sandy Denny song. The melody is beautiful and wistful, and Josienne’s interpretation infuses it with her signature melancholy and nostalgia. Check it out below.

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