Toddler tea party with her stuffed animals — My daughter got a tea set as a gift before the holidays and we have had so…so…so many tea parties since. 🫖

1. Latest News from the Desk of Sooz

When this email lands in your inboxes, I will be recovering from surgery.

Don’t worry: it’s nothing major! I just have to have a tendon repaired in my left wrist. It will be an unpleasant few months while I wear a cast and recover, but I have been living with this injury for over a year and a half…so I’m mostly just happy to (I hope) get some resolution for ongoing pain.

Since I am in surgical dressings for the first two weeks after surgery and can’t really type, I’m going to pull back on the newsletter for a bit. Hopefully once I’m in a cast, though, I can get back to typing and resume regular posting! 😊

P.S. If you’re a founding member, make sure you’ve filled out the form to collect your free, signed book! I’ll be sending those out soon. 💚

2. Writing Prompts

SHORT STORY ✍️

In an attempt to start off the new year on a positive new foot, your character makes a resolution to _______. They make a plan, take the first step, and…everything goes wrong from there.

JOURNALING ✍️

Now that some of 2023 has passed, how are you feeling about what you hope to do this year? As you’ll see from my post below, I’ve already made changes to my goals for the year!

3. Introducing The Hunting Moon!

Have you seen, DenNerds!? We revealed the title of the second Luminaries book! You can look for The Hunting Moon in US stores on November 7, 2023!

I love it so much. As I told the LumiNerds, who got to see the title early, it really fits with the themes and plot of the second book. Winnie is out hunting for answers about her family, about the nightmares of the forest, and about the dangerous, mysterious Diana soceity…

But Winnie is also being hunted herself by something new and unknown.

You can buy the book in US stores November 7, 2023!

And hey, look! You can go ahead and preorder in the US at these retailers! Yes, yes. I know. Didn’t we just get hounded to preorder, Sooz? Can we please have a break from the begging?

That’s fair. I will just drop in links regularly…and hold off on the hounding until closer to November. 😘

But here's a preorder link just in case

P.S. UK Release Delay

I am so sorry to have to announce (if you haven’t already seen) that the UK edition of The Luminaries is delayed a few weeks due to printer errors.

Learn more here, and please accept my apologies and the apologies of the team at Daphne Press!

Side note for my loyal, patient Witchlanders:

I’ve been plugging away at the final Witchlands book with great success over the last month and a half! I don’t have a set release date yet to share, but the hope is to release in summer 2024! 🤞

Of course, I’ll need some time off right now as my wrist heals…but I’ll return to our Cahr Awen crew soon enough!

Official graphic of Aeduan — Official Aeduan art by Melie Scribbles

4. Battling Impatience

I have been putting off this post despite having, like, five people ask me some variation of the same thing in my AMAs. I even went to all the trouble of filming “a day in my life” to answer the question(s), but then the whole thing was basically obsolete a week later.

So what are the question(s) I have been avoiding? 1. How has your routine changed since becoming a mom? And then, a similar variation: 2. What does your day look like? What are your routines?

Now here’s why I’ve been struggling to answer: I have no set routine and everything has changed since becoming a mom.

Prior to a kid, I had a ton of flexibility. I got to read when I wanted, work when I wanted, and exercise when I wanted throughout the course of a day. Since having a kid…well, I’m sure you can guess. Each day is now dictated by my toddler’s childcare situation, and that has been in constant flux since I finally got consistent care last June. (Before that, my schedule was dictated entirely by Cricket’s naps!)

Babysitters have come and gone like revolving doors overthe past six months. Some had school semesters start or new job opportunities pop up. Some lied to me about their vaccination status (okay, that was just the one). Then when I finally got Cricket into a daycare for two days per week on December 1st, she got sick on her second day. I knew it was inevitable, but I didn’t expect it to happen quite so fast…

And if you follow me on social, you know that first cold she caught turned into a nest of secondary infections, so I still haven’t sent her back to daycare!

Anyway, my point is that I don’t have an easy answer for what my new routine is. I work when I have the space and time, and when I don’t have the space or time…I put on the TV for Cricket1 2 3 and do as many newsletters or emails as I can.

At the end of 2022, I talked about how my goal for the New Year was to stop feeling frustration at interruptions:

Misfits & Daydreamers

What I learned in 2022

It’s the end of the year. A time when we all lean into contemplation and inward study. When we ask ourselves, How did 2022 go? What did I learn? And what can I do better in 2023? Well, read on to see my answers…

a month ago · 27 likes · 26 comments · Susan Dennard

I want to stop assuming that “immersion” is the only way to be creatively productive.

Having now ruminated on that goal for a few weeks, I’ve realized I should tweak it slightly. What I actually want to learn in 2023 is how to push through my impatience and stop viewing “speed” as virtuous.

Let me explain this more.

I am “lucky” to be #1 Adaptability in the Clifton Strengths. It means I’m, well…adaptable. I go where the wind takes me at any moment, and I don’t find it too stressful if plans change. In fact, I find travel deeply not stressful because if a flight gets cancelled or we’re stuck on the tarmac, oh well! There will always be another flight tomorrow, and hey, I’ve got plenty of books to read on my phone!

Yet as helpful as it is to exist so firmly in the present and be unfazed by sudden change, I am also “unlucky” to be a #1 Adaptability because it means I can’t tune out distractions. Whatever is in front of me is where I place my attention. So if I open my browser and a newsletter draft is open, then the next thing I know, I’ve been working on that for an hour instead of the copyedits I was supposed to be finishing.

Or if my toddler comes into my office wanting something…then that is that. I get up and I do what she wants. I can’t work until I know her needs are dealt with, even if it’s just accepting the booger off her finger.4 I literally cannot focus when something else is in front of me demanding attention.

And this is why I’ve struggled to answer these AMA questions from you awesome readers! Since having a kid—and since now all of my pets are aging and ill—there are constant distractions. Just constant. Either a dog is in front of me urgently needing to pee because his bladder ain’t what it used to be, or else my toddler is at my office repeatedly shouting, “Mama, Mama, Mama, look!”

Yet for all that my circumstances have changed, I myself have not. I’ve always been leaf on the wind. I have always adapt to the changes as they come, and it has never stressed me out too much if plans flip on a dime. But the problem I have now run into is the cascading effect of all the interruptions.

After two years of no childcare, I did start to feel a lot of anxiety over all the demands for attention that weren’t my manuscript. I felt so behind and so overwhelmed by my deadlines. I was truly miserable this time last year.

However, since finally getting childcare six months ago—albeit with a tone of speedbumps along the way—I am slowly working my way back to a sense of control and peace. It’s not ideal if Cricket gets sick and I lose a month of work to tending her, but it’s not nearly as devastating to me as it would have been in 2021 or early 2022.

And this is where the impatience now creeps in.

I am not the only writer who is impatient. I know this. I also know I’m not the only writer (or honestly, human) who gets extremely excited when she has built up momentum, so she starts daydreaming about ALL THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN HER FUTURE!

Oh, I am steadily writing 3000 words per day! I can totally finish this first Witchlands draft in 3 months! Then I can shift to the third Luminaries book and finish that, and I bet I can write another book after that too! All before 2023 ends!

Obviously I should know by now that this is not attainable and the momentum never lasts.

Obviously I should know by now that no matter what new productivity system I try or new writing program I discover, I will never have smooth sailing like I’m imagining I will. I mean, for one, I have just had wrist surgery! It’s a minimum of eight weeks recovering, and for two of those weeks, I won’t even be able to type. Then in March, I have to start traveling again for work, which will eat into my writing time.

And oh yeah, remember those chronic migraines I have?

Yet I still can’t help but let my imagination run away with me…and then I can’t seem to stop being disappointed when I never hit those daydream markers I’ve decided I must aim for.

So that is why I want to tweak my goal a little for the year. Why do I want to finish three books in a year? Is it career stability or because I have been trained to believe more = better? And will I be happier if I actually do write more than a single book? Or will I still wake up the same Sooz I was before?

Spoiler alert: I will definitely still wake up the same Sooz as before, and while sometimes more can be better, it isn’t always. Especially if you’re a writer like me who needs a great deal of “simmer time” to produce her highest quality work. More might actually lead to worse—and it will certainly lead to less time with my family.

And so I end up with a constant friction between this vision I have of more, more, more…and then what actually happens during my day to day.

Last year, I’d dreamed of finish both The Hunting Moon and the final Witchlands in a single year. Instead, I only got through The Hunting Moon, started in on the third Luminaries book, and started the final Witchlands.

But then I also wrote 60,000 words in a different book I first started back in 2018…

And I did a ton of self-promo to prepare for the release of The Luminaries.

And oh yeah, I raised that toddler of mine.

So why did I close out 2022 feeling like I’d failed?

I already closed out 2021 that way, and I really do not want to close out 2023 feeling it once more. Which is why I want to tweak that New Years plan of mine to be more reflective of what I need.

Interruptions don’t actually bother me. Nor does losing momentum because I’m actually quite good at simply shifting over to something else and finding new momentum there instead.

But creating these visions that don’t reflect the realities of my life or my process—and as such aren’t reasonable…It’s time to let those daydreams go.

A year ago I said I was ditching writing goals because I got discouraged when I didn’t hit them. This remains true, and I haven’t set a word count goal since. That has been truly freeing for me.

But now I want to also shift my larger goals and visions. It’s nice to daydream about what might be, and it’s nice to imagine a future I can work toward…but I’m not actually daydreaming in a way that aligns with who I am! I am daydreaming instead toward what society has told me is best: producing more and producing it quickly.

No more, friends! Or at least…I shall try to pull myself away from that and craft new visions of a future that fits who I am. I’m not sure yet what that would even look like.

But I’ll let you know if…no, when I figure it out.

5. Sooz Recommends!

It has been a while since I shared a recommendation, so I’ll start by saying: this is not an ad, I get no commission, and I only share what I truly think is beneficial to my fellow writers and creatives.

And I can absolutely say with wholehearted certainty that the Wordsmith Workshops run by New York Times bestselling author Beth Revis and award-winning author Cristin Terrel are beneficial.

Their next in-person retreat is coming up in March in sunny Orlando, so grab your seat while they’re still available! They cover story structure, themes, character arcs, and more—and I have actually been a guest speaker with them in the past! It’s such a positive, educational vibe.

Find out more here!

And that is all I have to share thus far in 2023, my wonderful friends! I am healing as best I can from this surgery, so I’ll be quiet for a bit online…

But as soon as I’m back to typing, you all will have more writing-related content coming to your inboxes!

Thank you for all your support!

🐙 - Sooz

1

I had to ban Bluey because the shortness of the episodes made my brain break. Hearing the theme song every seven minutes was actual torture. Not to mention, we’re on the fourth watch through of every season, and I can’t do it, friends. I just can’t.

2

I also had to ban Elmo’s Nutcracker after twelve (yes TWELVE) viewings. 🥲 RIP my love of the Nutcracker music.

3

I realize that might not sound like great parenting, but to you I say: Then you come here and watch my two year old for me, thanks! Or else come pay my bills! Either option works for me.

4

When I do really want something though (e.g. writing, running), then my self-motivation and discipline are through the roof. I just…don’t rely on a routine to get it done.

Misfits & Daydreamers

Battling Your Own Impatience to Finish the…