Birthday Bonanza!
In this issue: Grappling my Goals and my Q1 Project Progress Predictions, plus flirty Fiction Flings I can’t wait to read.
Newsletter Send Date: Friday, March 1st, 2024
Hey Dragonlings!
February has flown by. I realize it’s the shortest month of the year, which automatically makes it fly by quicker than others, but we have an extra day this month since it’s a leap year, and I STILL feel like it’s left behind. I mean, I’m already writing another newsetter when I could have sworn I just finished one.
This month has been BUSY!!! We finished up volleyball at the beginning of February, did a bunch of archery tournaments and finished up archery season, and I’ve stayed busy with work and class. It’s been… a month…
Anyway! Moving along! March is my birthday month! Woo hoo! I have a lot of fun things planned this month, and not just writing-related. In fact, the weekend before my birthday, I’m going to get my hair done did! It’ll be a surprise what I’m doing with it, but if you follow me on social media, you’ll be able to get a look as soon as it’s done.
2024 Armature—Project Projections
Speaking of writing and birthdays, I have to admit that I don’t generally think about character birthdays. That being said, I did give some (but not all) of the characters from the Shifters & Mages series distinct birthdays. Here are some of the characters you’ll meet across the series and their birthdays:
- Puck Dupree (Puck’s Choice): November 19
- Randolph “Rand” Hunter (Puck’s Choice): December 13
- Jay Reed (Puck’s Choice): August 21
- Iris Jones (Puck’s Choice): April 4
- Warren Emerson (Puck’s Choice): December 28
- Darren Rhodes (Puck’s Choice and Jenna’s Story): August 26
- Jenna Black (Jenna’s Story): February 27
I don’t know why I’ve never thought about Cassie’s birthday, as she plays a large part in Puck’s Choice, but for some reason I haven’t, and this is the only series where I’ve given much thought of characters and their birthdays in the first place. Maybe that will change over the course of the year.
While I haven’t been thinking much about character birthdays, I have been thinking about characters in general a lot. I’ve spent the last month doing another writing challenge. Yes, you heard me right… Another writing challenge.
The Good, Better, Best (GBB) Challenge is based on a writing challenge Sarah Mae Sutton did in January, combining her idea of writing so many words a week (and turning it into a daily achievement) with Sarra Cannon from Heart Breathings’ good, better, best planning strategy in order to get back in the habit of writing. I did an entire video as well as one of my bi-weekly vlogs about the challenge on my YouTube channel, and I’ll be posting an update with overall thoughts of how it went in the next couple weeks.
But, what’s coming up is a writing challenge near and dear to my heart, right in time for my birthday!
We’ve done the 7-Day Book Challenge multiple times over the past couple of years, and we’re doing it again.
This year, we’re doing the 7-Day Book Challenge three times. It’ll be the third week of the third month in the first three quarters. How exciting is that?
The first 2024 7-Day Book Challenge will be from March 18 to March 24, and I’ll be doing daily 2-hour live streams at 5 AM mountain time every day that week to talk about the challenge and get some writing done.
What do I plan to work on for the 7-Day Book Challenge? Honestly, I haven’t a clue this time. I had a whole list of projects I wanted to work on this year, and so far, I haven’t done much work on any of them. What I do know is that I want to write on something I haven’t before because that’s what I’ve done for every 7-Day Book Challenge so far when I have sucessfully completed it.
Last time I did this challenge, I asked you to fill out a poll and tell me which project I should work on, and I’ll be doing that again. Once again I have three ideas to pick from, and the one with the most votes will be the project I write and complete during the March 2024 7-Day Book Challenge.
You’ll get to pick 1 of 3 choices and you can find out more about each from the form where you can also cast your vote:
- Angel’s Fall (Fire and Brimstone, book 3)—a new adult (NA) paranormal romance
- Spell Gone Wrong (Five Kingdoms, book 1)—a new adult (NA) fantasy romance
- Hunting the Big Bad Wolf—a new adult (NA) urban fantasy
Remember, as a newsletter subscriber, you get free access to first draft chapters with every newsletter. Currently, the story you’re getting is Jessie Saint George, Teenage Dragon Slayer, which was the winner of the last 7-Day Book Challenge poll. I may not have completed the story during the challenge, but I did get a healthy amount done and you’ve been able to read along the entire time. If you haven’t started it yet because you’re a new subscriber, why don’t you check it out.
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Skye TBR
Speaking of reading, I have been doing a lot of reading over the past two months. So much so that I already, before we were halfway through February, beat my quarterly goal for reading.
Woo hoo! 🎊 🎉
And I don’t expect that to change in March. I’m a mood reader and I’ve been binging various contemporary and historical romance series, but there’s several new releases coming out in March that are closer to the genres I write that I want to check out as well. Here are the top four books I’m looking forward to that come out sometime in March!
BLURB:
When Middren falls to the gods, your kind will be the first to die.
Gods are forbidden in the kingdom of Middren—but now they are stirring, whispering of war. Godkiller Kissen sacrificed herself to vanquish the fire god Hseth, who murdered her family and endangered her friends. But gods cannot be destroyed so easily, and Hseth’s power threatens to reform with even greater strength and a thirst for vengeance. As tensions rise throughout the land, the kingdom needs its Godkiller more than ever.
Still reeling from the loss of Kissen, young noble Inara and her little god of white lies, Skedi, have set out to discover more about the true nature of their bond. As the divide between gods and humans widens, Inara and Skedi will uncover secrets that could determine the fate of the war to come.
Meanwhile, Elogast, no longer a loyal knight of King Arren, has been tasked with killing the man he once called friend. The king vowed to eradicate all gods throughout the land, but has now entered into an unholy pact with the most dangerous of them all. And where his heart once beat, a god now burns. . .
BLURB:
Effy Sayre has always believed in fairy tales. Haunted by visions of the Fairy King since childhood, she’s had no choice. Her tattered copy of Angharad—Emrys Myrddin’s epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the Fairy King, then destroys him—is the only thing keeping her afloat. So when Myrddin’s family announces a contest to redesign the late author’s estate, Effy feels certain it’s her destiny.
But musty, decrepit Hiraeth Manor is an impossible task, and its residents are far from welcoming. Including Preston Héloury, a stodgy young literature scholar determined to expose Myrddin as a fraud. As the two rivals piece together clues about Myrddin’s legacy, dark forces, both mortal and magical, conspire against them—and the truth may bring them both to ruin.
BLURB:
In a country divided between humans and witchers, Venus Stoneheart hustles as a brewer making illegal love potions to support her family.
Love potions is a dangerous business. Brewing has painful, debilitating side effects, and getting caught means death or a prison sentence. But what Venus is most afraid of is the dark, sentient magic within her.
Then an enemy’s iron bullet kills her mother, Venus’s life implodes. Keeping her reckless little sister Janus safe is now her responsibility. When the powerful Grand Witcher, the ruthless head of her coven, offers Venus the chance to punish her mother’s killer, she has to pay a steep price for revenge. The cost?
Brew poisonous potions to enslave D.C.’s most influential politicians.
As Venus crawls deeper into the corrupt underbelly of her city, the line between magic and power blurs, and it’s hard to tell who to trust…Herself included.
BLURB:
In a country divided between humans and witchers, Venus Stoneheart hustles as a brewer making illegal love potions to support her family.
Love potions is a dangerous business. Brewing has painful, debilitating side effects, and getting caught means death or a prison sentence. But what Venus is most afraid of is the dark, sentient magic within her.
Then an enemy’s iron bullet kills her mother, Venus’s life implodes. Keeping her reckless little sister Janus safe is now her responsibility. When the powerful Grand Witcher, the ruthless head of her coven, offers Venus the chance to punish her mother’s killer, she has to pay a steep price for revenge. The cost?
Brew poisonous potions to enslave D.C.’s most influential politicians.
As Venus crawls deeper into the corrupt underbelly of her city, the line between magic and power blurs, and it’s hard to tell who to trust…Herself included.
While this year hasn’t gone exactly to plan so far, I’m pretty pleased with how everything’s developing.
I will have a nice wrap-up of how the quarter (and year) has gone so far next month, as well as an update to my plans moving forward, but that’s a tale for another time.
For now, I’m going to sit back, read a little, write a little, and enjoy all the birthday shenanigans that are coming up this month because phew! *wipes brow!* There’s A LOT!!!
Stay warm, Dragonlings!
~Skye
🎉READER EXCLUSIVE ALERT!🎉
The story of Jesse St. George continues!
I have for you my friends and subscribers the latest chapter of my growing heroine the dragon slayer is available to ONLY MY SUBSCRIBERS! If you’re new to the newsletter and want to start this dragon slaying story from the beginning, check out the Jessie St George page! ( Password = JESSE )
💡Please note this is an unedited chapter of Jessie Saint George, Teenage Dragon Slayer (Title subject to change), an urban fantasy, and may contain typos. Please be aware some parts of the story may change between now and publication as well.
Chapter 6
The training yard was large, with a lot of open space in the center.
Along one wall were several weapons’ racks filled with more items than Jessie was used to seeing and some she’d never heard of.
Another wall had several dummies set up for practice. She could see several recruits like herself holding various melee weapons and practicing different strikes against the dummies.
A row of targets were set up along a far wall, and there were a couple people firing bows or crossbows at it.
Before going to bed that night, she’d sent text messages to both the numbers her mother had given her, not knowing what kind of reply she might get from either.
Trevor, or at least she assumed it was Trevor, invited her to the training camp the next morning at ten. She agreed that the time worked for her, and when she woke the next morning, she had a message from the other number asking her to meet at the local library in the afternoon.
She didn’t know if the men had coordinated their meetings or not, but she replied that the library meeting would work for her, and then she got ready for the camp.
She’d asked Bobbie what she should wear because she hadn’t a clue. Her sister pointed out she needed to wear something comfortable but not so loose that it caught during training. She’d settled on workout leggings and a tank top with a pair of sneakers.
“Welcome to training camp, Miss Saint George,” a gruff voice greeted Jessie. She looked up at the widest man she’d ever met. He looked like every viking she imagined existed in the modern world, complete with furs and leathers. Black soot from kohl smudged across his eyes and there were streaks on his cheeks where it looked as if he’d run his fingers down them.
He had a thick curly beard, dark with hints of white here and there, and coal black eyes that seemed to search the depths of her soul. Wrinkles marred his forehead, worry lines or laugh lines, she didn’t know which.
“Um,” she said, frowning at him. “Hi there?”
He grinned at her, as if he’d expected that response from her. She didn’t know how he could have, but who was she to judge.
“My name’s Trevor Hudson,” he told her. She recognized the name, but she definitely would have remembered him if she’d met him before, so maybe she’d only heard his name in passing.
“Are you ready to become a dragon slayer?” he asked.
Was she? She still wasn’t certain. She’d seen how Bobbie fought, and she knew she couldn’t replicate that. She’d started too late to be that good, and it would take everything in her to catch up with her sister’s level.
“You’re Kyle Saint George’s daughter, aren’t you?” Trevor asked when Jessie didn’t say anything.
Jessie nodded, unsure what to say to that. Everyone in the DSS knew her father. That didn’t mean she knew everyone in the DSS.
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