y'all... omg. On Sunday my next novel idea came to me in this big, multi-hour brain explosion. I've been in a writing drought since the start of the pandemic, just getting a couple short stories out and even then only because of a deadline.

But holy crap. This idea is good and I love it. Gonna be at least a year before I have a draft done so I'm not going to go on and on about this.

For now though, I'm in that glorious phase of research and discovery and making playlists and getting the story together.🥰

The newest issue of the magazine I run is out now! Free to read online, with ebook and print editions available from various outlets.

We now sell on Kobo and Barnes & Noble is coming soon!

"Stellar Short Fiction by Women-Identified Writers Since 2009"

https://lunastationquarterly.com/issue/issue-049/

Few things tick me off more than lazy, crappy book layouts and production.

I don’t need anything fancy but for the love of pete is it too much to ask for legible type and reasonable margins?

Like seriously this book I just received would have a much better first impression if the publisher had just copied a professionally formatted book’s set up rather than winging it like they did.

This layout makes me not want to read it honestly.

It's the last minute, but I decided to throw my books into the Itch.io winter sale.

Everything is half price and the bundle for everything is $6.50.

https://itch.io/s/64129/winter-sale-2021

Bundle includes:
- The Man Who Walked (fairy tales and poems)
- A Stirring in the Bones (a space fantasy novel)
- Castles & Starships (space fantasy flash fiction collection)
- Take on Me (queer romance, found family, neurodiverse main character + music, food, grief, and love)
- Homefront (chapbook/zine of flash and short fiction set during WWI)

If you wanted to learn a little more about my recently-published story, "Blessing", there's an interview with me up on the @lunastation website!

http://lunastationquarterly.com/issue-048-author-interview-jennifer-lyn-parsons-and-blessing/

(and you can read "Blessing" for free there as well)

@AaronTheIssueGuy You're welcome!

I have a personal blog that I post to very irregularly, but this morning in bed I scribbled something that I wanted to share.

tl;dr, self-indulgent writing is the BEST.

http://pixelpaperyarn.rocks/2021/12/07/on-indulgence-in-writing/

My beloved @lunastation is running a little short on funds this month because one of our big bills came up.

If you'd like to support the magazine, you can purchase anything on our gumroad store: https://lunastationpress.gumroad.com/

Or you can grab anything off my itch.io page: https://pixelpaperyarn.itch.io/

Both have items available for $1 and all my itch money goes to LSQ anyway. :D

We've got a donate button as well, if that's more your speed: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=H7YFLKUVCJFCU

(I'd love for you all to buy the print copy or support us on patreon, but these are the ways to get us funds immediately, without waiting for payouts.)

#pleaseboost #indiepublishing #fiction

My beloved @lunastation is running a little short on funds this month because one of our big bills came up.

If you'd like to support the magazine, you can purchase anything on our gumroad store: https://lunastationpress.gumroad.com/

Or you can grab anything off my itch.io page: https://pixelpaperyarn.itch.io/

Both have items available for $1 and all my itch money goes to LSQ anyway. :D

We've got a donate button as well, if that's more your speed: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=H7YFLKUVCJFCU

(I'd love for you all to buy the print copy or support us on patreon, but these are the ways to get us funds immediately, without waiting for payouts.)

#pleaseboost #indiepublishing #fiction

@voltur 😊 Thank you!!!!

My newest story, "Blessing", was published yesterday.

It's about middle age and crows and cardinals and healing.

cw: grief, gently-handled, which is a theme I write about a lot.

-----------------------------

Yes, she did want to go back to Clan Thrush, and not just because of the comfort found in her life, her family, her friends. In the years spent alone on the road, she had tried other things, other ways of being. At every turn, she found herself back at being a Hearthkeeper, back in that well-worn role. Over time, she realized it was more than simple habit that kept her coming back.

-----------------------------

http://lunastationquarterly.com/story/blessing/

Today's the day I got to hit "publish" on the bird-themed issue of @lunastation. If you like fantasy and sci-fi, the issue is free-to-read online (yes, there is a gorgeous print and digital editions) and even contains a story by yours truly. 😊 🐦 ✨

http://lunastationquarterly.com/issue/issue-048/

Not quite sure why it’s taken me so long to get around to reading Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott, but I’m reading it now and it’s so good. The section on perfectionism alone is worth sitting with for a bit to digest it.

A sample from Homefront:

Voice

Shivers ran down Marie’s back. The train was late. When it arrived the women pressed in, watching as the men disembarked. The crowd became a nightmare to navigate.

She passed face after face, many of the young men searching just as she did, with the extra advantage of height.

The crowd thinned as time went on, leading Marie to think she had the wrong train, the wrong day. Or perhaps she had missed the letter and she shouldn’t be here at all.

Then a soft, warm baritone whispered in her ear and the world was full of hope once more.

Today I published the first in what I hope will be a series of little fiction zines.

Homefront
Five prose poems and a short story set in the time of the First World War

https://pixelpaperyarn.itch.io/homefront

https://lunastationpress.gumroad.com/l/homefront

Finished the second/final draft of a story I’ve been working on on a deadline.

Since I made it that means I get to indulge myself writing fanfic.

I know what fandom and pairing I’m writing. Now to figure out what I have to say that hasn’t already been said.

Probably short pieces, I don’t have the bandwidth for anything long and I still have an unfinished long piece lurking around.

Still, I promised myself some self-indulgent creativity so here we go.

A cover of "Fields of Gold" came on just now and years later I am still DEVASTATED by a piece of Dragon Age II fanfic I read based on the song.

Some of the best, most impactful writing I've ever read has come out of fandom.

I've got a new story coming out on the first of the month. I didn't anticipate it being as long as it is, but it just took as many words as it took. (around 5k words, so not, like, a novel or anything)

I've also got a zine thing I'm putting up on itch.io soon. Nice to feel like a writer once in a while.

@AaronTheIssueGuy @selfcare Should be back to normal now! I had to switch services and am now using https://cheapbotstootsweet.com/ so I don't anticipate further issues.

@AaronTheIssueGuy @selfcare I'll look into this as soon as I can. Thanks for the heads up!!!