Finding the Light
On darkness and light, new books, finding that spark with a new writing project, and more!
Hello, friends!
Happy February, or as we like to call it in my house, happy oh-my-gosh-it’s-still-light-at-6pm-here-in-Wisconsin month. It has been a brutal winter, and in a time where the world feels increasingly more chaotic, I love that the light is staying longer every day. It feels a little like hope. Or like good things are on the horizon….
Now, yes, I must say, it feels a little cringy to slap a picture of my face here at the beginning of this newsletter, but bear with me. This photo is from a random Thursday evening in February, when, (talk about cringe), I was making TikToks in my car while waiting for tacos takeout. In that exact moment, the light was so golden and lovely and it wrapped me entirely. It made me pause because normally when I take a picture, I then dissect it to find all the gray hairs or flaws in my skin or other such things, but this picture made me think: why shouldn’t we let ourselves bathe in light, like celestial beings, even when we’re doing the most mundane things? After all, we’re all made of starlight. I like thinking about that sometimes, especially on dark days.
Speaking of starlight and other such things, I just did an interview about hope, light, magic, and loss with Madison Magazine for The Vermilion Emporium. Check it out here: “Love, Loss, Finding Magic and Paying the Price”
Writing updates
I’m so excited to announce my next YA Contemporary, Furious! This book was a joy to co-write with my friend, Becca Podos, and it’s a sapphic homage to the Fast & Furious franchise, F1 racing, southern small towns, and falling too fast for a girl whom you meet at exactly the right time, even if it’s a bad idea.
It comes out in Spring 2024 and you can add it on Goodreads now.
Yes, that does mean I have two books coming out in 2024, and don’t forget to also add my next YA fantasy, The Absinthe Underground, on Goodreads too!
While I work on revisions for both those books, I’m also hard at work on two different stories, a MG adventure fantasy and an adult fantasy that I thought I had figured out, but which has completely changed shape in the last few days, so I’m back to the planning stage on that one.
I’ll be writing while walking on this new standing desk/walk pad set up, which is changing my life, truly!
Craft Tips & Publishing Thoughts
On craft:
I’m working on a beast of a revision this month, and to do that, I’ve been diving into personality types and Enneagrams with zeal. If you’re a writer figuring out characters, I absolutely recommend this article, “5 Ways to Use Enneagram to Write Better Characters” by K.M. Weiland. It’s a basic intro to using Enneagram types in fiction, but it’s a reference I go back to again and again when I’m trying to make my characters more real and figure out their motivations.
On Publishing:
Here’s the truth: There’s so little we can control in publishing, but I think consistency is key in writing in order to completing projects, which can then (hopefully) turn into published books. I like to remind myself that the first draft doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to get done. I did some math about this on TikTok and realized, that:
If you write 100 words a day, every day of the year, you’ll have 36,500 words at the end of the year, which is a Middle Grade book.
If you write 500 words a day, every day of the year, you’ll have 182,500 words at the end of the year, which is several YA or adult books.
If you write 1000 words a day, every day of the year, you’ll have 365,000 words at the end of the year, which is a LOT of books.
So, just get the words on the page, keep going. You’ll get there.
A poem or quote I love
Let me share some magic with you. This screen shot of a tweet has been sitting on my desktop for more than a year now, saved under the name, “The Wold is Full of Wonder”, as a reminder when I need it most:
(Alt text: Bats can hear shapes. Plants can eat light. Bees can dance maps. We can hold all these ides at once and feel both heavy and weightless with the absurd beauty of it all.)
I mean, it’s so good, right?
What I’m Reading & Giveaway Winner
It’s been a great reading month!
If you want a story that will take you less than an hour to read but you will be thinking about for a long time, allow me to fling Alix E. Harrow’s brilliant short story, “The Six Deaths of the Saint”, your way.
I also finished Rebecca Ross’s A Fire Endless this month, and it was a perfect sequel to her breathtaking adult fantasy novel, A River Enchanted. Seriously. What a series! I was ready to throw the book across the room near the end of book 2, and then she brought it together perfectly.
I also read the second book in Becky Chamber’s Monk & Robot series, A Prayer for the Crown Shy, which is a warm hug of a book.
Finally, I can’t let February pass without mentioning Roshani Chokshi’s haunting, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride, which I read last fall after meeting her and have been thinking about non-stop ever since.
I’m giving a few of these books and some bookish socks away this month, and the giveaway winner is posted on my Instagram!
What I’m watching
The Last of Us, of course!
I usually hate zombie shows/movies and anything that even has a whiff of shambling, undead creatures crawling through it, but somehow, this show has defied my every expectation. Yes, it’s about fungus zombies, but there’s so much other storytelling happening around that main plot, and that’s what I’m here for. Episode 3, Bill’s and Frank’s episode, was a perfect, cozy, queer love story in the midst of an entirely broken world. And then there was episode 5, “Endure and Survive”, which a friend sent me a content warning about. And make no mistake, both these episodes destroyed me, but in ways that made me love a little more deeply and think about the things we do to protect those we love— and then, of course, all the ways we can’t protect those we love.
It’s a really great show. You should watch it. And if you want to hear all my thoughts on Episode 3, I made a TikTok all about it here.
Check out this Instagram account
Lastly, if you want some beauty and books, check out 1000 Libraries on Instagram. They are always posting stunning pictures of libraries that feel intensely magical and like it could inspire a book all of its own. Here are three of my favorites from their recent posts:
Hope the light finds you this month and talk to you soon!
xx,
Jamie
Email me questions about all things books, writing, publishing here: jamiepacton@outlook.com