Hello, friends!

It is so wonderful to be emailing you this morning! It’s been sometime hasn’t it?

To be honest, for a while there I sort of floundered when it came to my writing career. *nervous laughter* This year has been one of big changes in my creative life and I didn’t know if writing was still going to be part of it or if it even belonged anymore. I had not been actively writing and as a writer, that led to me feeling inklings of hopelessness.

It’s strange to admit that, but as Jesus has helped me step out of my comfort zone time and time again, it felt like a big step to actually say I am a writer and author. That I want to keep writing even if I have no idea how things look on the publishing front or future publishing front.

But if I can hold onto one thing, it's that there is always hope.

Recently I was a special guest on the Anilujah Podcast and one of the things I shared is that regardless if my stories have overt “Christian themes” (like Gathering Faith) or have what seems no Christian themes (my current WIP and more on that in a moment), hope has always been the core to all my stories.

Hope may be acted out differently in each heroine or hero I've written, but hope is still hope.

I suppose that is where I am too.

Listen Now

Many have probably noticed that I am almost exclusively focusing on manga in relation to all my social media platforms. I still interview authors on my blog occassionaly, but manga really has taken over a large part of “my brand.”

Want another bit of honesty?

I super struggled with that for months. How in the world could “non-Christian” manga minister to others? How was my passion for manga and anime showing the love of Jesus?

These were deep questions that have plagued me for a while and in a time of desperation where I felt the darkness of depression trying to swallow me whole, I reached out to “my boss” at Beneath the Tangles.

We had an amazing conversation and I want to thank all the people who have reached out saying they have been praying for me (even if they aren’t reading this) because that day was a day of breakthroughs and peace.

I shared a lot more in depth in my latest piece on Beneath of the Tangles if you would like to read more of this struggle, why I’ve “transitioned” to sharing mainly only manga, and why I now know for certain that my passion for manga has purpose and eternal value.

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I hope whether you read manga or not that you find the piece encouraging to you personally. <3

Want to hear some writing updates?

Many thanks to my wonderful friend Cathy McCrumb (author of Recorder, coming out this November from Enclave Publishing, and my weekly writing buddy), I have finished a one-shot manga, I Need That Manga on My Shelf!!, based on my own struggle of trying to find manga during a worldwide manga shortage as well as a conversation I had with a friend. It was a super fun story to write and have been working through some ideas of how to flesh it out (because I still feel it’s missing something), but in the meantime, here is the working blurb I wrote!

What lengths would you go to get a manga?

Meg Lewis is desperate to get that one missing volume of her favorite manga. It doesn't seem to matter how much she searches in store or online, no one has it. Lucky for her, she unexpectedly finds a local bookstore has the volume in stock, but unlucky for her it's in the center of a gang-infested part of town. Will Meg brave the streets to get a hard-to-find volume or will her luck run out when an unexpected stranger crosses her path?

While I am brainstorming on those missing elements for that story, I have started working on an older one-shot tentatively called Yoga Instructor in Another World. If you’re familiar with the isekai manga genre where the main character (usually) dies and comes back to life but in another world with (usually) gifted abilities, then you can know this story is hitting some of those beats but with hopefully a few unique elements. I mean how many characters do you know want to teach yoga to pirates? ;P LOL!

Concerning Gathering Faith, prayers appreciated, friends! My illustrator said she should be finished with all the pages by the end of this month. I am praying so so so hard that it is! I’ve increasingly been thinking about this story and how I would love to share it with you guys! Lord-willing for sure next year!

Want to help me choose the next manga I read?

I’m doing another video collaboration with Beneath the Tangles and I am so very excited! It will be just like the last collaboration where you guys vote on a genre and theme and then I’ll film me shopping for manga that fits the winning choices!

On that shopping trip, I'll chose one to two different manga titles and then give a video review of each on Beneath the Tangles YouTube channel! (The last winning theme was fantasy and the last winning genre was adventure.)

As of sending this newsletter, out of the four rounds of voting in my stories on Instagram one poll is at a tie and the other is super close in that it could go either way!

Come join in on the fun and help break the tie between drama vs. action as well as between magical girl vs. battle!

Vote Now

Please note that final voting begins roughly between 10 and 10:30 AM EST on Instagram in my stories. (Though you might be able to still vote in the first round depending on when you're reading this!)

As always, friends, thank you all so much for your support!

Thank you for being on this journey with me and cheering me on! It means so very much to me and deeply thankful for each one of you!

Please know I'm cheering you on as well!

Love,

Laura