Happy New Year!

Jan 01, 2026 7:25 pm

January News

Contents

Introduction, updates, and newsletter giveaway
Giveaways and promotions
Book recommendations
Closing remarks
My books

Hi ,

Unfortunately, between illness and holiday chaos, progress has been slow these last few weeks. I've written a little and haven't managed to get anything done on the audiobook.

Since Once upon a Forbidden Door and Once upon a Vow are tied for the title of Iris' book, I'll need to be the tie breaker. I'm leaning toward forbidden door because I think that has stronger Bluebeard ties. This month, I have a quick google survey I'd like you to fill out. I've always know that this book will be darker than my other work, so I'm planning to have it be the start of a connected series instead of placing it within my Once upon a Story series. I'm thinking about using Once upon a Darker Story as my new series name, but I welcome any potential suggestions. The themes alone make this something that I want to include trigger warnings for. So this will be different than my other books, but it will still have the type of satisfying ending that I'm hoping to be known for. Just as a heads up, my questions have some spoilers for what I'm planning to write, but I think most of them are mild because Once upon a Shoe sets up certain expectations. If you want to help me determine just how much difference there will be between this book and my previous books, let me know your opinions on this form.

I'm realizing that I might want to do things differently this time because of the specific challenges this book presents for me as a writer. I usually prefer to focus on one book at a time, possibly playing with a few ideas in the background, but not allowing myself to put any significant time or effort into anything beyond the main project. This works well because if I allow myself to always wander wherever, I may never finish anything. However, I'm thinking this time I'm going to maintain two main projects or maybe have this as my main project while keeping a secondary project to switch to. I just need to give myself occasional space from the story since it dredges up personal history that I typically try not to think about.

So for my alternate main title/secondary project, I'm going to work on the next Divine Artifacts book. This one will follow Tempest to a new land within the world and will be titled Prince of Shadows. At this point, I'm not sure whether I'll finish and publish Once upon a Forbidden door or Prince of Shadows first, but I'm hoping to release both sometime this year.

Another thing I want to focus on this year is my audiobook production. Right now, my throat is still recovering from recently being sick, but I'm hoping it won't be long before I can make some progress there.

Aside from that, I'm working on character art to share. I know AI is something that's controversial, but that's what I'm starting with. To be honest, I'd rather hire an artist, but unless my sales start going way up, it will probably be ten years or more before I can hope to pay for a human artist. So I'd rather try to figure out how to get good enough art from AI for now, then upgrade to a real artist later.

Giveaways and Promotions

Book Recommendations

Tamar, Origin Story by Stacy Thowe

Paul, one of the heavenly leaders, recognizes Tamar’s unique gift and sets her before giants. Tamar, determined to keep her secret, almost loses her opportunity to become a Guardian.

She is chosen to become part of a team, share her secret, and recognize it for what it truly is. A gift. But will her doubts prevent her from using her gift and fulfilling her purpose?

Her Guardian team pushes her to levels higher than she believes she could reach. Fighting against them most of her life, she doesn’t recognize a friend when they are knocking at her door. But will a friend remain if they know you can destroy them? Another secret.

When Tamar finally allows herself to be vulnerable, she is sent to a human that makes her stronger and mightier than she ever dreamed. She feels herself being drawn to him. He is a selected mortal. One destined to do great things. One that speaks her name, out loud, when no other mortal can see her.

Come discover the secrets, uncovered, in the origin of Tamar.