So, yeah...

Wow. It's October already. We're coming up on Samhain, the days are getting much shorter, and here in Ireland the leaves are nearly done turning color and falling. One more good storm coming our way will take care of the last of the Autumn leaves.

Not that I really want a big storm coming our way, but, well, it's the season for them. Ireland doesn't really get cold enough for snow in the Winter (well, it does snow, just not enough to stick for long), but it does rain a lot. In some ways it's a lot like California's rainy season, just colder.

There's been a lot going on the last couple months, so let me catch you up:

Some of you already know this, or maybe have figured it out, but I'm changing my name to LJ Spencer permanently and my pronouns are switching to he/they. "Leo James Spencer" will be my full name, but I'll be going by LJ. I'm really grateful to all my friends and family for being really supportive as I've come out about this, and if you have any questions, feel free to email me.

My books, for the moment, are still under my old name. We need to revise my covers with my new name, but it will be a little while before we're able to sort that out. So, those of you who have the old paper copies now have collector's items! I will also be releasing 2nd Editions of the first 4 Survey books, hopefully in February. I think I've mentioned this before, but the 2nd Editions don't have major story changes or anything, just some tweaking of the stories for consistency with the later books and fixing some formatting issues.

Because of this, the Survey books will temporarily only be available as eBooks through Draft2Digital (which covers Amazon, Barnes and Nobel, Smashwords, and even US library apps like Libby and Overdrive, among others) and the podcast (which is available via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, iHeartRadio, YouTube, and directly from Libsyn). Links are available on the book pages. I am planning on publishing my paperbacks again through Lulu.com after the revised covers are done.

I just finished writing a Survey novella called A Tank Walks into a Tavern which is set after the forthcoming novel Zeno's Quicksand (Survey Book 7). Zeno's Quicksand is with my Awesome Editor at the moment, and I hope to have that novel out sometime towards the middle to end of next year. That novella will be coming out in an omnibus collection of short stories, along with a second Survey novella (set after Consortium), and The Four Keys. I'm not entirely sure when that collection will come out yet (probably 2027).

I'm still working on the Night Church and The White Queen manuscripts. The White Queen story is complete and in the editing process, and, I'm excited to say, the cover for The White Queen is done! The cover was done by the beautiful Nova and I can't wait to get to the point where I can show it to you! They were amazing to work with and I highly recommend them if you need cover art or illustration work!

Night Church, on the other hand, is going slowly. Like I've mentioned before, the subject matter is difficult and every so often I need a break from it. I'll get back to it soon, I hope.

Speaking of breaks, because of multiple medical appointments (I'm fine, really-- mostly catching up on exams and screenings that I've put off while waiting for my visa and such), my streaming schedule has been hit or miss lately. I have been hanging out in my Discord's video chat, and if you're in the Discord, feel free to join me if I'm in there. I should be back on Twitch next week, though.

Speaking of co-working, I'm creating what I'm calling the "January Slump Challenge," which is similar to other month-long challenges like NaNo or Inktober, but you can use it for any creative goal you wish. I'll have check-ins in my Discord, but I'll be talking about it on Twitch, too. The primary purpose is to get us all going again after the holidays and to cheer each other's small creative victories. I'll have more details about it towards the end of December.

I'm still trying to get through my Kindle TBR pile, and I've recently finished Heart of Iron by C. M. Alongi. which I really enjoyed, since I'm also a big fan of their CaFae Latte series on TikTok (and now YouTube shorts because apparently TikTok in the US is changing their payment algorithms). You don't need to have watched the TikToks to enjoy this book, though, because the book story is a little different from the videos (to kinda paraphrase what they say in the intro to their book, it's more like a Marvel Comics vs. Marvel Movies kind of thing). Both are equally good and well worth the watch and read.

I've also started Oath of the Wolf by Elisabeth Wheatley which is part of their Wrath and Weeping series. I signed up to get an early copy of it, but I think it comes out widely fairly soon. The first book, Tears of the Wolf was really good and I do recommend it. I recommend all their other series, too, if you want some solid high fantasy reads.

I was also trying to get through Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John LeCarre, but, well, I got distracted by other books...

Additionally, I've been listening to the audiobook version of Patrick Stewart's autobiography Making It So: A Memoir while doing chores, which has been a delight to listen to. (Then again, I could listen to Patrick Stewart read the dictionary and enjoy it.) I especially recommend this for Star Trek fans, since he does go into interesting TNG stories throughout the book.

I finished my Playing Card Oracle Deck, which was a lot of fun to create. I'll be using that for the tarot channel point rewards on stream some of the time. I'm a little surprised at my art in it, and when I read with it the other day, it was rather intense. I think folks will find the readings they get with these cards interesting.

If you're waiting for more art from me, then come back in December when I do the next installment of the Diamine Inkvent Calendar. Actually... now that I'm thinking about it, maybe I'll do little pictures with the inks this year instead of just swatches. It's a thought.

Anyway, that's what's been going on the last couple of months. I wish you all very Blessed Samhain, and Happy New Year to my fellow witches out there! May the Ancestors give you wisdom and guide you into the next turn of the wheel!