Hello!
I’m sending love and joy to you, and magical summer solstice blessings, and wishes for a wonderful festive season and an enchanted, enchanting new year.
As the summer solstice dawned, I started pondering the year almost gone and worrying that I hadn’t achieved much – but it turns out I was more productive than I thought…
Things I Published
After working on a secret project with brilliant artist (and brilliant author) Selina Fenech for five years, our gorgeous oracle deck Practical Magic finally came out, and it’s been so heart-warming to hear how much people love the deck – and the massively thick guidebook (it’s longer than my first novel, lol!). It’s available on my website, as well as in bookstores and many wonderful spiritual shops – thanks to everyone who’s sent us photos of it in the wild. We also discovered that it’s now been published in the US and the UK too, when we started seeing amazing reviews on Instagram and youtube. And it ended the year on the Blue Angel best-seller list, so that was awesome too.
I was happy that I finished my novel The Snow Queen’s Daughter in time for the Australian Fairy Tale Society Conference in June – although it took me until November to properly release it, and December to actually announce it… So, um, Surprise! This original faery tale is officially out and available everywhere, and has had some truly beautiful reviews. As a winter solstice gift, since that’s when the book is set, you can download your free ebook here until January 3.
I also continued work on The Sun Queen’s Apprentice, the companion to The Snow Queen’s Daughter, which will be out in 2024, and wrote a second oracle deck, much different to Practical Magic, but very cool in its own way, which should be out in 2024 too.
I wrote my first short story, The Magic of Trees, which will be out in April in the charity anthology Third Name’s A Charm. I struggled a little with the short story form – it’s such a specific skill, which I’m not sure I have. For starters, when I finished writing it, it was 10,000 words long, and the maximum was 6000, so I had to cut it pretty drastically! But I like the characters in this magical faery tale of curses and wicked stepmothers, sewing and enchanted trees, and friendship and redemption. The anthology also includes wonderful stories by K. A. Last, Sky Sommers, Astrid VJ, Susan Stradiotto and more.
And, intrigued by the challenge, I’ve enrolled in a short story course in January, so perhaps my next newsletter will include a story exclusively for you…
Alongside my own writing, I also worked on several books and other projects this year for my day job, including Georgina Steytler’s gorgeous hardcover book For the Love of Flora, A Conscious Garden, a Scouting activity book, and all of Australian Geographic’s 2024 calendars and diaries, amongst other things. So yeah, not really unproductive this year – in fact the pressure of my day job alongside my own writing, and the overwhelm from other commitments that should have been fun but weren’t, made me realise I was still burned out, so I was sad yet also partly relieved when I was made redundant from my day job in August.
Things I Did…
I swallowed my fear and spoke at the Australian Fairy Tale Society Conference, which featured Kate Forsyth, Alyssa Curtayne, and many Australian writers, storytellers, academics and artists who all work with faery tales. I also helped organise the three-day event (and I wondered why I felt so overwhelmed this year!).
Event-wise I did the Easter Show in April, then Sydney’s Mind Body Spirit Festival in May, which was the official in-person launch of Practical Magic and The Snow Queen’s Daughter, and was fun because I got to catch-up with so many friends. Then I was at BABE, the wonderful author signing extravaganza that is Ballgowns and Books, where I got to hang out with my writing besties Selina and Kim, dress up in ballgowns and meet lots of book lovers. I also got covid, which sucked, and meant I couldn’t be at Supanova the following weekend – but my lovely hubby offered to do it for me, which was the sweetest thing ever (plus he explains my books to people better than I ever can!). Thankfully I was all better for Oz Comic-Con, which ended up being a fantastic event, Book Fair, where I saw lots of friends and was surrounded by people who love books as much as I do, and two Living Wellness events, which were fun too.
I also spent three wonderful and super-productive days on a retreat with some of my writing friends, did some pottery classes (and made cups, bowls, plates, a teapot and a beautiful altar), and went to the ballet a couple of times with a faery-tale friend.
Things I Read…
I will have read around 80 books by the end of the year, and there were so many brilliant, moving, heart-breaking, incredible ones. I post my reviews on Instagram, and I’ll do a round up post soon, but some of my favourites included (but were not limited to!) Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko, Morgan Is My Name by Sophie Keetch, After the Forest by Kell Woods, The Lights of Sugarberry Cove by Heather Webber, Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen, The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams, Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, Still Life by Sarah Winman, The Wonderful Thing About Phoenix Rose by Josephine Moon, Like A Curse by Elle McNicoll, Wifedom by Anna Funder and The Witch of the Woods by Helena Nyblom.
I also went to lots of book launches, author talks and writers festival events, including a morning tea with Holly Ringland, high tea with Pip Williams, a gingerbread-themed launch for Kell Woods, events in libraries, cafes, bookstores and churches, and great panels on history, magic, politics and romance (not all at once, although there was some crossover!). I also loved my regular faery tale book club meet-ups with the Sydney Ring of the Australian Fairy Tale Society, accompanied by many cups of tea, and the themed food we all dream up to match the story…
Life…
There have been lots of ups and downs this year, and lots of doors closing, but others have opened up too. Being made redundant from my day job is giving me the space to be more focused on my own writing, and to figure out what I most want to do. Earlier in the year I had to pull out of a couple of anthologies because of work deadlines, which was disappointing, but also made me a bit more conscious of what I most want to put my time and energy into, and what to prioritise. First up, finishing The Sun Queen’s Apprentice, then getting back to the original Australian faery tale I started writing just after The Swan Maiden, this one set in WA. There are also two very different series I started a few years ago, which I can’t wait to get back to and start dreaming into being.
What do you want to put into the world in the coming year? I’d love to hear…
I had my one-year scadiversary in late September, after my stress-induced heart attack last year, which was a strangely emotional day. The fear that it will happen again has lessened a bit, and I’ve been able to go off two of the medications, so that’s felt good. I’ve continued to work out pretty much every day, as I always have, which helps my mind as much as my body, although I’ve had to switch low-rep high-weight workouts for high-rep low-weight workouts. This means I’ve had to drop some of my favourite routines, but fortunately BodyPump and BodyCombat have always been my soulmate workouts, so I’ve been pretty much alternating them every day, with some old favourites, some walking and some yoga thrown in here and there.
And now it’s spinning me out that another year is just about over. I’m going to take a couple of days off to drink tea and read books (bliss), and to enjoy my very favourite festive ritual, jolabokaflod, with Juz, then we’ll spend Christmas Day with my aunty eating yummy food and sharing wonderful memories of my uncle, then I’ll probably read some more. And then I’ll get back to writing!
I hope you all have a magical solstice, a joy-filled festive season, and a new year that brings you peace, passion, creativity and inspiration…
Much love,
Serene xx
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