December 2023 Newsletter

Happy Holidays everyone! This is Justin with our latest newsletter!

Current Events

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season! The weather has been very bipolar up here in the Northeast going from warm spells to frigid cold and vice versa. Between that and the kids getting sick with whatever bug is floating around, it's been a hectic time for sure!

But we managed to sneak in a quick Elli Twy family holiday photoshoot!

We visited the New York Historical Society Museum near Central Park in New York City, which has a replica of the Oval Office on permanent display! I'm a bit of a presidential history geek so it was great to experience some of our nation's history.

Writing Updates

We got another batch of illustrations from Sara Abbas (you can check out her Instagram HERE) and making great headway for the Heart Warrior book. She should be finalizing the last batch of illustrations soon, then the next step is working on the front and back covers. After those are done, we have to find a formatter to put the text on the pages and make it look all pretty!

I'm on my fourth draft for Shades of Resilience and am going through again with a fine comb. It's a tedious process, but there is a beauty in it. Each book is like a secret kept close to the chest. I've shared it with beta-readers, my editor, and of course Ashley, but it's still unknown to the majority of the world. You go through all the daydreams of what the success of that book looks like—enjoying the reveries before the reality of self-publishing comes to light.

Writing Inspiration

This month's writing inspiration album goes to Slow Rush by Tame Impala, which came out in February 2020. I discovered this band by accident on a trip to Cape Cod back in 2015. Ashley and I were exploring downtown Boston and saw a street performer trying to woo the crowd with all his tricks. He had "Disciples" playing and I naturally checked out the rest of Currents, their brand new album at the time.

The Slow Rush is one of those albums that matches the mood on the album cover. Ethereal, psychedelic, and having an ability to get stuck in your head, the songs channel a "sands of time" Salvador Dalí vibe.

The album cover itself is based on Kolmanskop, an old diamond mining town left abandoned in 1954. I find one of the most fascinating phenomenon on this planet is witnessing Mother Nature reclaiming what rightfully belongs to her. Time is a consistent theme throughout the album, even reflected in the title, which is a reference to the conflicting duality of time passing fast and slow.

We live in a world that has moving ever so fast. Despite being more connected than ever before, the divisions that have existed since the dawn of humanity have only concentrated further. I truly believe art is one of the most powerful tools we have to bridge that gap. Much like food is a common ground for many cultures, so too can be books, movies, paintings, music, and other forms of media. There is a spiritual connection that occurs when we open our eyes to the beautiful souls around us. Hopefully this holiday season, we can find that common thread.

As we welcome a new year, may we all find peace and work towards bringing more light into a world that is perpetually falling dark.

Happy Writing!

Elli Twy Publishing