Hello dear readers,

I write to you from my office, the sun shining through the windows. Autumn has vanished as soon as it appeared, and we’ve been left with true Augtober weather¹. I’m wearing shorts and sunscreen! In October! No thanks.

I wanted to share with you some exciting writing news: as of last Friday, I’ve finished the second draft of the archive novel²! It’s been a bit slow getting here, what with all the other exciting writing things going on, but I’m happy to finally be at this point. 

Before I had an agent, I tended to work on what struck my fancy, and often had several different novels on the go at once. Now, though, I’d like to focus on just one, which means I’ll have the third draft of this novel done sometime in the coming weeks³. If all goes well, I might even have a fourth draft before October 31st.. though we’ll see about that.

And then it’s on to NovNov, which I am so excited about. The novel I’ll be writing during November is a similar flavour to the archive and the witches, in that it’ll be a bit spooky, a bit magic, and a bit strange. But that’s where the similarities end—which I’m fine with! I do have a tendency to return to the same themes and imagery⁴, but I try to make each novel as different from the last as possible. 

Speaking of NovNov: I created a chat on substack for anyone taking part in it this November, so we can talk about what we’re working on and generally lament the fact that we were nuts enough to try to write 50,000 words in a month⁵. If you’d like to join, let me know and I’ll add you in!

I’m also this close to sharing some very exciting writing news with you, but nothing is official yet, and so I will continue to be annoying and not tell you what it is. It’s also hard not to share all about the witches (and the archive, for that matter), but I know you’ll learn about them soon enough.

That’s all from me today! I hope you’re well, and that your writing projects aren’t being too ornery.

—Catherine

FOOTNOTES

¹ Though it’s backwards, and I don’t like it. October is supposed to be cold!

² Which I’m realizing that I’ve never actually called that on this blog, as far as I can find. Oh, well.

³ I started draft three this past Monday, and already have a good chunk of it done.

⁴ There is no way I can write something that isn’t a bit spooky/magic/weird. It just doesn’t happen, because it’s who I am as a person.

⁵ I am joking! We can do this!

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