Newsletters

Greetings, fellow humans. I’m Caroline and I write fantasy and horror—my debut epic fantasy novel, The Obsidian Druid will be released in April 2024. I also have a mild obsession with Web 1.0-era websites. This is my newsletter.

Publishing News

If you’re wondering what on earth I’m talking about, and what it is I’m actually publishing, may I kindly direct you here: Investing in Myself—I’ve started my self-publishing journey, join my descent into madness.

Remember that cover I talked about before? The one I loved so much I kept sneaking looks at just to get a sweet, sweet dopamine hit? Well… the day has finally come to reveal it!

Here she is, in all her glorious beauty. I’m unveiling it here in my newsletter before screaming about it on any socials because that’s how much I appreciate you guys.

Unfortunately, all the sneaky dopamine hits in the world haven’t prevented me from surfing the anxiety wave this week. I’ve been stressing myself out trying to finish all the publishing-related jobs I’d penciled into that planner I keep banging on about. Screw you, planner. I’m still on track (just) but some things took me longer to complete than I’d scheduled for, namely, creating graphics for my web and social pages. I am quite pleased with the results, though. Would you like to see some more exclusive world firsts?

I made this doodad:

And this, because it’s what all the cool kids are doing:

I also have this tasty banner:

Good grief, I love Canva. Now I just need to sort out the interior layout, figure out how pre-orders work, research Amazon keywords and categories, sign up for ARC websites… I think I need a lie-down.

The Obsidian Druid, Book One of The Age of Aikana, will be released in April 2024.

Current Favourite Website

Nana’s Place - First Created ? - Last Updated ?

There’s a little caveat to be aware of with this website. When I viewed it in Chrome with no ad-blocker, it looked like a dystopian vision of capitalist hell and was virtually unviewable. When I viewed it in Brave however (which blocks ads automatically), it worked fine. So now you know.

In the long ago before times when people first made personal web pages, they were often nothing more than snapshots into that person’s life, interspersed with animated gifs and littered with guest books. Nana’s Place is a great example of that type of site, complete with family photos, favourite recipes, and movie recommendations.

Nana’s Place has an oddly fitting late-90’s-goth aesthetic, with bold red writing (Comic Sans, naturally) on a red and black background. I couldn’t find any dates but it’s a Tripod site (can you believe Tripod sites are still live? Angelfire, too) so I’m guessing it must have been made in the mid-late nineties. Most of it still works, but I don’t know if I’ll ever get over the disappointment of finding that the link to LUMPENSTEINS CHAMBER OF HORRORS (“Beware. Our cat Lumpy is coming for you! She's got her own scary movie site”) is broken. It led me instead to a modern Yahoo page which on the day I visited, provided me with the news that the Princess of Wales is laid up after surgery, and social media is controlling my life. Now I’ll never know what Lumpy thought of Demon Knight.

It feels a bit voyeuristic in 2024 to be made privy to the sort of information that’s now reserved for friends lists on walled gardens like Facebook. I know that Nana married “...a guy whose net nikname is Punchy”, she collects cow trinkets, and one of her hobbies is “...stitching together small childsize dolls and dressing them in actual kids clothing.”

I’m not creeped out, you are.

If you decide to drop by Nana’s Place, sadly you can’t mark your visit by signing the guestbook because clicking on it just takes you to the Lycos frontpage (yes, they still exist, too!) but you can grab a sweet recipe for barbecue chicken wings.

That’s it for now.

Greetings, fellow humans. I’m Caroline and I write fantasy and horror—my debut epic fantasy novel, The Obsidian Druid will be released in April 2024. I also have a mild obsession with Web 1.0-era websites. This is my newsletter.

This might be a bit late coming on the twelfth day of January, but this is my first newsletter of 2024 so, Happy New Year! Any other ’80s children who can’t quite believe they’ve made it to the sci-fi-as-hell-sounding year of 2024, please raise your hands.

As much as I enjoyed welding my butt to the sofa over that weird Christmas/New Year period when nobody can remember what day of the week it’s supposed to be, it has been nice to get back to normal (after being gifted a litre bottle of Smirnoff Vanilla Vodka, my liver is definitely thanking me for some normality). We watched a lot of movies this year, and I finally got around to watching Violent Night. I hate to admit this, but I think it might now outrank Scrooged as my favourite Christmas movie of all time (sorry, Lumpy).

We’re long past Christmas at this point. The decorations have been hauled back to the loft and the cards have been recycled, but I have to share these spooky Christmas children we found in a nearby town—because if I have to carry these cursed images around in my head forever, then so do you.

Okay, that’s quite enough of Christmas. Let’s all agree not to do it again for at least a year.

Publishing News

If you’re wondering what on earth I’m talking about, and what it is I’m actually publishing, may I kindly direct you here: Investing in Myself—I’ve started my self-publishing journey, join my descent into madness.

It’s been a productive week as I work towards publishing my epic fantasy debut. The planner must be working because, in the first full week of my kids returning to school, I’ve finished going through my edits, started the first draft of book two in the trilogy, and produced what I think might be the final blurb. I’m letting the blurb cool for a while now, just to make sure I’m totally happy with it (which is a lie—I’ll probably never be totally happy with it), but here’s what I have:

Three monstrous tumari escaped the labyrinthine dungeon beneath the sea. One ripped apart the frozen homeland of the Asrai, staining the ice crimson with their blood. One blundered its way into the ancient forest of Nymed, and one rose in the city of Armoria, crushing buildings and bone beneath its great webbed feet. Only Dewer—ageless High Lord of the city—knows the truth behind the creatures’ wanton destruction, and he hasn’t trusted anyone with his secrets for over one hundred years.

Gwin, a moon-blessed Asrai with the power to freeze flesh, arrives in Armoria determined to raise an army against the man who slaughtered her family. When she discovers that city guard, Vanth, harbours magick of her own, she knows they could be of use to her, but Vanth would rather see Gwin hang than turn traitor.

Vanth the Vile is many things: a skilled swordswoman, a debauched tavern crawler, and a Salt Sword fiercely loyal to the High Lord who saved her from a life on the streets. The one thing she never wanted to be was moon-blessed. In a city where those caught using magick without permission are left to rot in Dewer’s Pit, embracing her burgeoning powers would be a dangerous gamble.

The twin moons of Joria are turning. For a century, the night has shone silver in Mamai’s cold light, but when Aikana comes to the fore, the world will dazzle beneath her violet glow. The Changing of the Moons heralds a time of unrest and upheaval, and Vanth has a devastating decision to make.

The Obsidian Druid is book one of The Age of Aikana—a dark epic fantasy set in a rich world of cut-throat cities, satyr warriors, rum-soaked taverns, scheming witches, and creeping forests besieged by horrors that crawl in the shadows.

So… what do you think? Comments and suggestions for improvement would be thoroughly appreciated! People say writing the blurb often feels harder than writing the book, and I was certainly no exception. I’m thinking about explaining how I researched writing a blurb, how I tackled mine, and how I ended up with the finished product in a future newsletter. If that’s something you might be interested in reading, please feel free to let me know.

Editing was an eye-opener (as I reckon all good editing should be). I found a kind and willing soul with great feedback on Fiverr who agreed to work on the manuscript over the Christmas and New Year period. They did a brilliant job of catching all my errant commas <(or lack thereof), tidying up some weird phrasing, and generally making sure I’ll now be able to present my book to the world with no crumbs on its shirt or chocolate on its face.

During this process, I’ve also discovered that “look” is a common crutch word, and it's one that I use a lot. My novel now has a lot less “looking” going on, and a lot more “glancing”, “gazing”, and “staring”. That’s if I didn’t cut the offending sentence entirely. Why do my characters need to be staring and glancing and gazing at each other all the time, anyway? Their poor, overworked eyeballs must be exhausted.

At the beginning of the week, I posted this to Bluesky:

I have started book two of my trilogy, whoop! After taking a long break from book one (the initial drafting stage, anyway—editing has been ongoing since dinosaurs walked the earth) I thought writing these characters again would feel strange, but they were waiting for me right where I'd left them.

Please excuse that cringey “whoop!” I was obviously over-excited (or overtired. Over-something, anyway.)

Now the week is nearing its end, I can officially announce that The Scarlet Warrior has hit its first word count goal. I just have to do that another 48 times, and I’ll have the second novel ready to publish by this time next year. What could possibly go wrong?

Current Favourite Website

Frogland - First Created 1995 - Last Updated 2006

My daughter’s mad about frogs at the moment. Frogs, toads, and mushrooms. Her bedroom’s starting to look like a weird 60’s acid trip. Do you know who else is mad about frogs? This person:

The person in question being a webmaster called Dorota, a self-confessed “...freak who really likes frogs.” Frogland (surely Dorota’s magnum opus) is a huge site presented on a salmon pink background which includes the FrogBlog (for all the “…latest random Froggy News!”), an extensive frog art gallery, Froggy Games, and frog jokes (“What happens when you mix a frog with a bathtub scrubby-mit? A rubbit!”)

This website was obviously a labour of love. The ultimate froggy passion project, if you will. Among all the fun things is a plethora of information about frog species (did you know the pixie frog is one of the largest frogs in South Africa?) and frog care—so much of it in fact that Dorota has kindly provided a page called Teacher’s Corner, in the hope that kids will “...have lots of fun learning about frogs AND playing on the Internet!” Honestly, Dorota seems like an all-around awesome froglerino. I wonder if they ever envisaged a time when teachers would beg kids to STOP playing on the internet?

That’s it for now.