Thank You, 2022, for All the Fish

 As we wind down the last few days of 2022, looking forward to a new year and the waxing of the light, this week at the SFF Seven we're offering thoughts or blessings for the year that has been or the year to come. 

For me, 2022 delivered a kick of a ramp-up back to life closer to pre-pandemic levels. Though spring started slowly, with several in-person conferences canceled, I was able to return to hanging again with other writers in person in April at the Jack Williamson Lectureship. It was SO GOOD TO PEOPLE AGAIN. One of the great lessons of the pandemic for me has been how much of my social life depends on conferences and conventions. (Can I just call them both "cons" for short? What even is the difference?)

Seeing people in-person again meant I also made new friends this year, which has brought light into my life I didn't realize I was lacking. Not unlike as the days grow longer and sunshine returns, warming the earth, and you begin to realize just how long and dark the winter has been.

I had a less productive year, wordcount-wise - in fact, my lowest year ever for wordcount, though I'll give final numbers next week - but it looks like it will be my best income year ever. So, looking ahead at goals for next year, I'm considering decoupling my wordcount goals from my sense of success and focusing on what makes me most comfortable financially. 

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I'm also completing a year of 16/8 intermittent fasting, where I fast for 16 hours and eat during an 8-hour window. I also vastly decreased added sugars from my diet. I'm thrilled with the results. I'm down 18 pounds since January 3, 2022, 16 pounds of that from body fat, and I'm down over 4" around my waist and hips. It feels like really healthy weight loss, like I'm no longer so insulin-resistant, and I just feel tons better overall. 

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While in many ways, it's been a difficult year, the work I did at the end of 2021 to break the stress cycle has really paid off. While we're facing the loss of our senior cat Isabel, who is 17 and declining, we've also welcomed in a new life, with kitten Killian joining our household. So many wonderful things have happened to me this year - including wonderful people entering my life - that it feels truly miraculous.

I'm grateful for the blessings of 2022 and eagerly look forward to what 2023 will bring. 

A Wish for the New Year

Dear Readers,

As we head into 2023, I wish you all good health, success in your personal and professional endeavors, and an abundance of happiness. 

May your soul thrum with joy, 

KAK

Holidays: Three Things That Bring Me Joy

 

Image credit: Jill Wellington from Pixabay

Love it or hate it, the holiday season means a lot of things to a lot of people. As for me—a famously hermit-like writer who abhors the cold—I always focus on what I enjoy about this or any time of year. Below are three things about the holiday season that always bring me joy.

Lights

It’s no secret: I love holiday lights! There’s nothing like driving around the neighborhood enjoying the twinkling lights with a nice travel mug of cocoa. My neighbor across the street seems determined to outshine Clark Griswold, though my husband does give him a run for his money. Our local park also does a Dr. Seuss-themed display, and it is gorgeous. We go every year!

Of course, lights aren’t limited to the winter holidays. At my house we put up lights for Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day, Memorial Day, and for any other occasion we think of. Hmm, maybe I should work on creating a book-themed display.

Image credit: Michelle_Maria from Pixabay

Baking

I bake year-round (even in the sweltering hot summer months) but there’s nothing like a holiday for an excuse to go all-out. This year I’m making cinnamon star bread, brioche dinner rolls, and vanilla bean cake with my special chocolate icing—and that’s just for Christmas! For the rest of the week I’ll make a few different types of breads, some for immediate consumption and some for freezing. 

Here’s a writing tip: if you’re stuck on a plot point or a bit of character development, nothing helps you work out the kinks in your story like a solid session of kneading. Just imagine that blob of dough is your unruly characters, and all those frustrations get worked out.

Image credit:  Couleur from Pixabay

Downtime 

I typically take the last ten to fourteen days of the year as down time. This means no writing deadlines, no social media obligations, and definitely no editorial meetings. It gives me a great opportunity to reflect on the past year, relax with my family, and eat all those baked good I’ve been churning out like a madwoman. Which leads me to my bonus fourth favorite thing: planning!

Image credit: Jill Wellington from Pixabay

Planning for the Next Year

What’s that old saying—if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail? I wholeheartedly believe this, and let’ face it, failure is not an option. I make several yearly plans, organized under household goals, writing/publishing goals, and the like. For instance, one of my main household goals for 2023 is to finish painting the porch ceiling; I’d run out of paint, and by the time I got more it was too cold to finish the job. Well, that’s what next spring is for.

As for writing goals, I’ll be releasing two full length novels, a special edition hardcover, and I’ll be attending my first two in-person events since before the 2020 lockdown. Yes, I definitely need to plan for all of those events. I’ve also got a few new books in the works, and by setting aside time in my planner to flesh out and refine each individual story, I am confident I’ll be able to give them the attention they deserve.

Image credit: StartupStockPhotos from Pixabay

What about the holidays brings you joy? Tell us in the comments, and as always, happy reading!

Jennifer Allis Provost writes books about faeries, orcs and elves. Zombies, too. She grew up in the wilds of Western Massachusetts and had read every book in the local library by age twelve. (It was a small library.) An early love of mythology and folklore led to her epic fantasy series, The Chronicles of Parthalan, and her day job as a cubicle monkey helped shape her urban fantasy, Copper Girl. When she’s not writing about things that go bump in the night (and sometimes during the day) she’s working on her MFA in Creative Nonfiction. Get to know Jenn at https://authorjenniferallisprovost.com. Jenn’s latest release, Oleander, is available here: https://books2read.com/poisongarden-oleander

Joy Times Three

Tis the season to remember that joy needs attention. It requires focus. Joy is a little like a butterfly - beautiful, fragile, but persistent and capable of astonishing feats. Held too tightly, it crumbles. It arrives when conditions have been cultivated to attract it - like planting milkweed in the garden attracts monarchs. You can also chase joy across continents and into dark jungles if finding the rarest kinds intrigues you. I am one of those people who needs to be reminded to allow myself to stop and let joy arrive. Three things help do that.

1. Cats. Living with little obligate carnivores who have massive outsized personalities is a delight. Each cat has his or her specific routines and every day, I'm gifted with a few minutes with each of them. Perceval wants to nap in my lap. Arya wants me to brush her and then throw her favorite toy. Peseshet wants me to come out to the lanai and pet her while she rolls on the bricks in the sun. Crow wants to lounge in my lap each evening. Raven needs a milk bottle cap slid along the floor for him to chase and fetch back to me. And Corvid needs a cuddle in one specific rocking chair in the house where he can flop over and pretend to nurse against my stomach. There's a lot of cute (and weird) but there's something warm and lovely and joyful about being a safe place for these creatures who share my home.

 

2. Boats. This one is cheating a little because it hits so many joy buttons for me. Nature. Stories. Freedom. Adventure. Getting to go new places and see/experience new things. Silence. Broad swathes of stillness and time. Sailing requires that you make room to simply stop and be. I love the sun on my skin and a good breeze filling my sails and the pull of water on my wheel or tiller. Feeling my way into the groove where wave and water and boat all work together. It isn't always possible. Conditions aren't always right for that. But the times it all aligns, challenging conditions turn into a sleigh ride that takes you from point A to point B in relative ease. It's a metaphor that extends well past taking the swells on the quarter and a 25 knot wind slightly aft of abeam.

3. Tea. Tea is a trip in a cup. It's a simple ritual that invites you to slow down, close your eyes, breathe in the fragrant steam rising from a set of wet leaves that grew half a world away. 

Joy Bringers

I make a conscious effort to find joy every day. Big or small, and especially when I’m feeling down. So it was difficult to narrow it down to three for our week’s theme of Three Things That Bring You Joy!

Exploring brings me boundless joy, especially when I talk my whole family into it. Hiking trails, or making our own, is something we do in all weather. And it never fails to trigger images of characters traveling on quests or spy pieces that could be on another planet. 

Like chocolate and peanut butter, it’s wonderful when two good things combine into something even greater! My husky pup, Ullr, accompanies me when I slip out to my greenhouse to play with plants. Even on days where it’s negative fourteen Fahrenheit, playing with my plants makes me happy.

Last is one thing that helps spread smiles across my face. Yoga and meditation. Being able to clear my mind and stop the thoughts from bombarding me constantly helps my dopamine and helps my writing. And yoga gets me some zen and keep me limber after long writing sessions. 

There are a few of my favorite things. How about you? What are some of your favorites that bring you joy?

Jeffe's Three Joys

 

This week at the SFF Seven, we're talking joy!

As in, three things that give us joy. As many of you know, I'm a big fan of making decisions based on what will yield the greatest happiness. Thus choosing the happy means a lot of things in my life bring me joy. But I'll try to keep it finite.

1. Shiny new books
   While Christmas shopping yesterday, I bought myself a present - this Fairy Atlas! It's technically a children's book, but it has a lot of cool stuff in it from around the world that I'd never seen, and I love the illustrations. Perfect for what I'm writing now! And it looks pretty on my desk.
   
   
2. Friends
   I'm so blessed in the community of my wonderful friends, many of whom check in on me daily and remind me of what's important. From friends who've been part of my life for years to people who entered my world in just this past year, I am rich in companionship of simply amazing hearts and minds.
   
   
3. My profession
   Like any career, being an author presents its trials and it can be easy to focus on the difficulties, but this kind of poste offers an opportunity to step back and truly appreciate that I am able to wed my passion, my avocation, with my vocation. Making my living as a writer is a tremendous privilege and the realization of lifetime goal.

I am so blessed. 

 

Trio of Joy

As we putter closer to the end of 2022, we're asked:

Holidays: Three Things That Bring You Joy
(anything from art to recipes, to books, to yoga poses)

Pi
That's not contrition.
That's mayhem seconds
before launch

First and foremost must be the resident SWMBO, my pupper Pi. With a permanent wink and an expression of "let's do mischief together," she brings me love and joy even when she is the most pesty. It's been four years since I adopted her from the rescue and I wouldn't trade her for the world.

The second thing of joy: Limitless playlists. Whether it's Bryn Terfel singing a rousing ditty about hippopotami or the Helsinki Vampires (aka the 69 Eyes) asking if they're scary enough for me, there is always music streaming somewhere around me. Gone are the days of having to flip the tape or reload the CD changer (shhh, I'm old, I know). 16 hours a day (24 if you include the sound-soother rainstorm pattering throughout the night), I'm reveling in the joy of all kinds of music all the time. 

Third thing: Illustrations. Artists, man, I am continually amazed and thrilled by their skills. From comics to covers to stand-alone commissions, whenever I need to be in a particular emotional headspace, I go to online galleries. Often buying prints of the pieces that move me, I've accepted that unless my home magically spawns extra wall space, I must rotate the pieces regularly in order to reap the benefits of my collection. While the prints haven't outpaced by TBR pile, they're doing their damnedest. 

Cheers to a very merry holiday season!

Fantasy Romance Christmas Gifts

 

I’m hearing Last Christmas at least once a day, my Netflix recommendations are 95% holiday movies, and people are skating on the canals of the lovely Dutch city where I’m living. I’m ready for Christmas, in other words, and that means I’m ready for gifts, too!

For this week’s blog, I’d like to chat about a couple of fantasy romances I consider perfect gifts for yourself the readers among your friends and family. 

Once Upon A Forbidden Desire

First of all, for everyone who loves fairy tales but prefers them with an adult flavour: check out the Once Upon A Forbidden Desire anthology. With twenty retold fairy tales, this collection is the perfect bedtime read for fantasy lovers. The stories range from sweet and swoony to deliciously spicy, so there’s something for everyone here!

Some of my favourites are an intensely romantic fae Cinderella by AJ Lancaster, a dark and steamy Pied Piper by Zoey Ellis, and Vela Roth’s Twelve Dancing Princesses with a vampire twist. But each story is a gem, and I strongly recommend savouring them one by one rather than tearing through the full book at once.

Court of Blood and Bindings

For fans of longer books, I’d like to shamelessly plug my own Fae Isles series! The first book, Court of Blood and Bindings, is an epic fantasy romance with plenty of creative worldbuilding and plenty of steam and banter. If you enjoy enemies to lovers stories, fae fantasy, and books where the villain gets the girl – this one is for you.

When the deadliest assassin of the fae empire catches twenty-year-old Emelin using forbidden magic, she believes her hour has come. Instead, the Silent Death carries her off to his home to offer her a dangerous bargain. If she agrees, she could free all of humanity. But can she trust a man with so much blood on his hands?

Worse, when his smouldering dark eyes and dangerous secrets reveal glimpses of the heart behind his murderer’s mask… can she trust herself?

Court of Tricksters

As a final recommendation, I would like to give the spotlight to an author buddy who has saved my sanity several times this year and deserves all the holiday love for her newest release.

SL Prater’s Court of Tricksters is an utterly delightful Gaslamp romance featuring the sexy fae duke of Night, a shy but stabby forest witch named Rain, and a scheming, backstabbing court where war is always looming. Set in a gorgeously atmospheric world, it’s the start of a brand new series I can’t wait to see more of.

Court of Tricksters releases in January (I got my grabby hands on a review copy), but thankfully it’s already up for pre-order! And even better, it’s only 99c until release – so I strongly suggest getting it now 😊

Lisette Marshall is a fantasy romance author, language nerd and cartography enthusiast. Having grown up on a steady diet of epic fantasy, regency romance and cosy mysteries, she now writes steamy, swoony stories with a generous sprinkle of murder.

Lisette lives in the Netherlands (yes, below sea level) with her boyfriend and the few house plants that miraculously survive her highly irregular watering regime. When she’s not reading or writing, she can usually be found drawing fantasy maps, baking and eating too many chocolate cookies, or geeking out over Ancient Greek.

Find her at https://lisettemarshall.com/.