The Sheltie Gazette: November newsletter
Nov 30, 2024 12:49 am
How are you doing, ?
We had a time change and an election, and the world is looking pretty dark around here. But this is the Sheltie Gazette, and the local reporting squad has herded together some happy news to keep our energy going!
Adare & Malin recruited their friend to help collect these stories for you:
- Announcement and Why Kilkenny?
- Update for "The Horned Women" (plus download link)
- Recommendation for free novella
- New Employee Joins the Puppy Team
- Joyful Embroidery Picture
The Castle in Kilkenny: Fairy Tales
When we were in Ireland this summer, I bought a book of illustrated fairy tales (for my children) and a book of collected historical fairy tales (for me). We finished reading the illustrated stories at bedtime during the trip, and then my 7yo went back to requested Harry Potter at bedtime. But Harry Potter is something he does with his dad, and when his dad went on a business trip he looked around for something to read with me.
Enter the book of historical fairy tales. These are collected from various sources and various periods, printed in tiny text with no illustrations, and contain thees and thous — not at all child friendly. Needless to say, my children loved them.
Normally, I write historical fiction. (About Great Britain and Ireland, which was how this all came up in the first place.) After finishing and sending out a novel in September, I was ready to write something short, and Irish fairy tales seemed fun. Night after night, I read a new story to my boys (the dogs snoozing on the floor beside us), and Maura and her tangled family came alive in my head. How would Maura get into this story? I thought, or, This could be one for Aiden.
Why Kilkenny?
When I was uploading this story to Amazon, Kobo, etc, I had to come up with a series title for the set of stories that I envision. I chose to focus on the place: The Castle in Kilkenny.
Why Kilkenny? Because it was alive in my imagination. This summer, we stayed in the countryside between County Kilkenny and County Tipperary and drove into Kilkenny Town almost every day, and this is where I envisioned Maura's family: down one of the winding roads with hedges on either side – and a shockingly high speed limit — and driving into town for school, shopping, and of course refresh Kaylee's highlights. (Or not.)
These views include Ormond Castle and Rothe House,
which were inspiration for Maura's little castle.
What's next?
I'll have news about the next fairy tale on December 10th! Thank you for bearing with me as I settle into this newsletter — I'm aiming for the second week of every month in the future.
The Horned Women: thank you for being on this reading journey with me!
Your compliments and reviews have made my world sparkle this dark November.
And I have something to confess to you. 🫣 I worked with two critique partners and a professional formatter, and after we went back and forth on the final details...we somehow put the wrong first two pages in. There were three or four changes I had made for clarity, one of which created a grammatical error. Somehow, all the other pages were the final version, and somehow, three of us read those first two pages at least three times each and none of us noticed it was the two-drafts-ago version.
If you've downloaded The Horned Women in the last week or so, you've gotten the correct version. If you were one of the first 70 or so people, then you got the Special Limited Edition version.
And if you haven't managed to get around to it, you can download your copy right here!
You're welcome to share the link with your friends. Do it soon, though, because on November 30th the free link expires, because....
The Horned Women is going up for sale!
I've spent the last week putting the story up on all the major e-book retailers. It's so exciting!
Picture of excitement. It won't let me add video, so you have to imagine
all the running and barking.
And now, you can help. Do you know what trains those book-selling Puppies Inside the Computer? Reviews. They really like reviews. So if you've read The Horned Women and are willing to write one or two little itty bitty sentences about it.... just use your Notes app or an email or something, then copy and paste...... it's okay, I'll wait:
Waiting. Me much patient. Many cookies.
Okay, that's lovely. It doesn't even have to be a five-star review, or say anything profound. Whatever popped into your head is brilliant. In Ireland, they said everything was brilliant. "Just hold that, brilliant..."
Now you say, "I will, yeah." And just click these buttons to train the computer-monsters...
After all that work, you deserve a treat
Here's a novella I really love, that launches a series that I really love. Courtney Milan keeps this prequel free on all the sites, so this is the Amazon link but you can get it anywhere, for free, any time.
Courtney Milan is doing everything that is wonderful in romance. She covers serious topics with humor and uplifting endings. She writes diverse characters and multi-racial relationships. Her characters work through communication issues and face the challenges of the historically rich world together.
This novella is a little bit dark, so if you aren't in the space for that then I highly recommend The Wedgeford Trials series, all of which are titled "The (Title) Who xxxn't." And all of which are hysterical, and will also put you in the mood for tea.
New intern at the Sheltie Gazette!
The dogs have very important work around here. They have to keep deer out of the garden and keep us smiling every day, not to mention researching this newsletter. They decided to train a new employee, who will eventually be in charge of reporting on dog shows.
Pictures from the trip to Idaho to pick up the new puppy. He didn't care for the snow or the cold on his baby paws!
All our dogs are named after places in Ireland, and we are calling this one Inish after the Aran Island of Inishmore.
Thank you for reading!
I tried to make this short, but I also promised you some embroidery, so here is an explosion of color:
It's my own riff on a pattern by Lolli and Grace, whose art I highly recommend if you need some light in your darkness.
Best wishes,
Christy
