Marvelous May
May 2025 edition of the Boopish Newsletter
Topics (click the link to go directly to the thing):
Relentless Storms and Seasons
Book 3 and a million other things
New pumice soap and SOAP SITE SOFT LAUNCH
April showers bring May flowers.
But sometimes the rain soldiers forth into May, feeding the weeds and killing my roses. If you live in the Midwest, or somewhere in tornado alley, you’re familiar with the above saying, enduring through the stormy seasons to at last get into glorious summer when the heat strips all the grass of its color.
It’s not enough that the winters seem like they last forever, leaving us lingering in that “winter doldrums” state for far too long. We then have to make it through the following season of rain, which seeks to keep us shackled inside another month longer.
But just like the seasons we can observe, we go through seasons in our lives, which can be a great blessing, or a painful realization.
Right now, I’m going through a season. It’s not fun, and it’s full of very hopeless realizations. I’ve been naïve about a lot of things, and I find it harder and harder to navigate this world. Honestly, I believe it’s not just me… society has been going through some crazy stuff, and frankly it’s been hard to watch.
In my flawed human thinking, I have no power to change any of that. However, I have an outlet in my writing craft, which is why one of the more hidden, yet insidious conflicts in my fantasy series is society.
It’s easy to read the more lighthearted, yet sometimes brutal adventures of Loren and his friends, but the more obscure agenda lies in all the ways they’re forced to comply in various ways… yet they accept their reality as “just the way things are.” The villain of book 1 forces them all to see outside their narrow world view (albeit in a villainous manner), which still seems to have little effect on them in book 2 due to their own compliance and need for acceptance in the world1.
I’m having fun writing book 3, where those needs change drastically and they’re doubly-forced to open their eyes or die.
With that being said, I’m a fan of the show Black Mirror because of some of the themes I expressed above, and I created a ranking post for my favorite episodes in the post here:
So, some fun news: I participated in the NYCM short story writing challenge, and my Fairy Tale featuring a procrastinator and home ownership got an honorable mention in round 1! While I didn’t win that contest, it was a first for me, so I’m excited for that.
Also, my short story in the Wonder competition for Writing Battle has gone into round 2, which is exciting as well! Normally my pieces in the WB competitions fall flat, so it was nice to see it move forward. I created a cover for it to set the mood:
Since the story is still in the judging phase, I can’t share it yet.
I plan on gathering all my short stories since I started writing them into an anthology. I’d love to do a Kickstarter for this one as well, but I need to do way more research into what running a campaign looks like before I make that decision. If anyone has any experience with that, please reach out!
BOOK UPDATES
Reaper’s [_E_A__]?
Book 3 of the Northern Roseaarde Series is still plugging along! If you can’t tell, I’ve revealed a couple letters of the new title. See if you can guess! I’m about 30K words deep, but I’m wrestling with the “go back and edit” bug that I can’t seem to shake.
Whenever I find myself having a bit of writer’s block, I shift over to another work in progress for a change in scenery. Right now I have the following in the works:
A soap making horror, vigilante style
An apocalyptic thriller with an unusual main character
A dark fantasy featuring a werewolf leader with a secret
A time-bending drama
A 3-book horror series in a “familiar” world
What interests you the most?
LH Soaps & Sundries updates
A new soap made with pumice and embeds has landed on the shelf! I also included the making of video at the bottom of this newsletter in case you want to see the process.
This one is remarkably easy to do - even if you don’t have perfect square cuts, you could also use shreds. I just love the way this soap turned out! It’s the perfect amount of exfoliation and in such a bright fragrance (pink grapefruit)!
I’ve also soft-launched my new website for LH Soaps. I would love for you to check it out! CLICK HERE to go straight there. If you have any feedback, or errors, or anything you’d like to see on the site, please let me know!
I’ve mentioned before that I’ve opened up customization, so if you’d like to get a set of personalized soaps as a gift for someone special, use THIS LINK. It will take you straight to the customization information page with links to fill out the form. I also appreciate any feedback or bugs you find!
Latest YouTube Video(s):
Making of the embedded soap:
A moody playlist and a chill playlist:
That’s all for now! Thanks for being awesome :)
My favorite verse is Romans 12:2, which states, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Loren acts counter to this verse in so many ways, but book 3 will change all of that.
Sounds like lots of great things are going on... and challenging things as well! I published an anthology of short stories last year and have another one to do, so if you want to chat about the process, just let me know.