Newsletter: February

This newsletter is coming a little later than intended (I had planned to put it out at the end of February) but at least it's here now?

It was a weird month, honestly. January was a wonderful start to the year, even with some of the bumps that came up, but this last month was a lot harder. I got off a lot of my routines and habits that had been working for me in January and I'm still trying to bounce back from that. Definitely trying to get back in the rhythm of things though, as when I did have those things working for me, it went really well.

Writing Updates:

I finished Weekend Warrior, the flash contest I was taking part in over January and February. I came out with some things I really liked, and some things that I know I'll like once I polish them up. I've already revised and expanded one thing that I'm pretty happy with, and I have plans for pretty much all the other pieces as well. I'm not sure how many of them are going to just be revisions and which are going to be more like complete rewrites, but I'm okay either way.

Part of what I'm learning with coming back to writing is that I might be a very short rough draft person that then goes back and rewrites/expands their work into something else. Which I don't mind now that I know this might be how I do things. I still love flash so, so much, but there are just some things that aren't meant to be flash-shaped and that's okay.

I'm now doing Victory In Verse as my next project. This means I'm writing poems for the next several weeks. Poetry isn't something I work with even a little, so it's going to be an adventure. I did get my first one done yesterday though, so that was good. After that will come the novella contest which I'm really, really excited for.

Story rec:

This week is only one story because I haven't been reading as much short fiction. A lot of other things came up, including just not having the right mindset for reading much, but I still have something for you anyway.

Willow at the Labyrinth’s Core - Lex Chamberlin
This was beautiful. I wasn't sure if this would be my sort of thing, but the language drew me in immediately. Then I kept reading and was so pleased that I did. This story was just stunning and with the kind of ending I was hoping for.

Microfiction:

I mentioned I was going to start doing these in the newsletters and blog posts. I have a whole backlog of things, but this one is more recent and came from a Bluesky prompt I got early last month. I think it's going to be something I play with and expand into something more, but for now here's the start. Also, I try and make these as short as I possibly can, ideally a single reply, so that's a part of why this only has so much to say.

The prompt was 'haunted submarine'.

You watch the sea life surround you, all of them seeming to adopt the submarine into their school. It makes you smile and feel welcome in the depths. Except when you look closer, you see where the fish were torn into or rotted through, and how the way they move seems staggering and wrong.

Last words:

I hope you're holding up okay, friends. I know things are so hard out there right now. I wish you all the best, and that you have everything you need, even though I feel like that's not likely. I want to say we'll be fine, that we'll get through this and everything will be okay. I don't want to lie though, I don't want to promise you something that's out of my control.

So I'll say this, if you need someone to reach out to, come say hi. You can do it here, or on Bluesky (howsweethewords) or via email (howsweetthewords at gmail). If you don't reach out to me, reach out to someone. Seek out the people you can trust and lean on the communities you have out there. I can't promise that we'll all be okay, but I can hope to hell that we can still support each other in times like this.