It’s been another while since my last post but I’ve been Bizay!
In the best ways.
I am currently beta reading for the extremely awesome Stephen Black of Fractured Faith and the Kirkwood Scott Chronicles fame. (lucky me I know) and I’ve been working on my online art gallery.
I hope you will visit my stores. I’m selling prints and merch of some of my best works.
Here are my links
Www.artpal.com/AmyWestphal
Www.RedBubble.com/AmyWestphal
Take a look, pass the word, and comment. Anything is greatly appreciated.
Hope is a window, even when it feels like a door. For too long, locked. For too long, the dark curtains hanging over our world have felt so heavy, so insurmountable.
But hope is a window.
Even though the curtains have grown grey with dust from this longest year, they are still just curtains.
Opening them will be messy, and the light that streams through will be stark. It might not be pretty.
There’s a new normal outside too, it’s not pretty either, but it could be.
Our will eyes adjust, we can adjust. Shield your weary eyes and take a peek.
New is scary, change is hard, and perhaps? We have become accustomed to the darkness.
But hope is a window. It’s time to let the light in.
This review is for the the engaging and artful Novella ~A MAP TO THE STARS By author, editor, and artist Ashley Hutchison— co-founder of Lost Boys Press.
Like the enigmatic artistry of Kintsukuroi, A Map to the Stars is a reminder of how malleable we are. Like beautiful ceramics, we are fragile, breakable, but as we repair, the cracks left behind make us more beautiful. Ashley Hutchinson’s novella is a unique and stunning journey of introspection. A true testament to the indomitability of spirit.
Like a symphony, this story is a movement. I recommend you read it as such, in one sitting. But don’t forget the tissues.
With Ashfield Estate’s second round developmental edits safe with my editor, (not in a metal trash can set ablaze) Yay!
I’m finally tackling my TBR!!!
So today’s post is a review for the wonderfully weird, kind, and talented Stephen Black’s The Kirkwood Scott Chronicles: A New Jerusalem.
A must read.
Stephen Black’s The Kirkwood Scott Chronicles: A New Jerusalem is a rollicking romp through time, space, and genres! A little dystopian, a little historical, a lot of urban fantasy, and a pithy wink of dark comedy. This is a fantastic sequel To Skelly’s Square. The world is bigger, the stakes are higher and our merry band of heroes couldn’t be cheekier. I can’t wait for the third installment.
Support our amazing indie authors and order today! And don’t forget to leave a review.
Next up is Chad Ryan’s Ghost River. An extreme horror that mesmerizes as much as it terrifies.
I finished my first round of developmental edits for my latest novel: Ashfield Estate– a YA mystery that plays with the classic boarding school trope but adds elements of horror, dystopia and satire.
Although I have a ways to go before it reaches the query stage, I have completed my second book!
It is now in the capable hands of my editor. Which in my mind, is the equivalent of handing over a jumble of tangled chains to someone and waiting for them to return necklaces.
I’m hoping this book is the one. It’s leaner, it’s meaner and I think I’ve learned and grown as a writer in the process.
The prospect of a better tomorrow appeared bright by the light of shiny spangled signs and glittering balls as we said **** (claim you expletives) to 2020.
But a week in to 2021, nothing looks better or brighter. Death, an unwavering pandemic, rising poverty levels, and the unbearable weight of racial injustice have been compounded by the unforgivable assault on our democracy. The result–an insurrection.
And the world looks on. This dystopia is a global nightmare. But it is ours. This is our past, present, and future.
But I don’t think we are doomed. I still see something brighter on the horizon, I see people on the move. Collectively moving forward, toward something beyond the shadows. What is this thing? Hope? Resolve?
Both…We can get past these atrocities if we believe we can.
But we cannot forgive, and we cannot forget. Every stone laid by complicitity and hate has destroyed the bedrock of our being. We have to be better, because we have to be.
In this shared, dystopian nightmare. We aren’t alone, but it has been lonely.
I hope as the sun sets on this year that wasn’t, you are all safe, well, and ready for something better.
I know I am. And to celebrate the end of 2020, I have some fresh vent-sesh poetry.
NO ONE~
No one knows.
Unwound, unrobed.
Who you are when the doors close,
When the sun has shone.
No one knows.
And when your eyes close,
the curtain call is like a dark rose.
What reaps, what sows?
No one knows.
Velvet soft and thorn prone.
But in silence the dew flows, salty throes.
All’s exposed.
And no one knows.
It’s been another long time since I’ve visited and as always I regret it. But sometimes, there’s just not much to say. And yet, so, so, much.
But for me, this blog has always been about a journey foreword. And a journey it still is. But on any adventure, we get sidetracked, bogged down, or lost…
Or sometimes we are simply floating on a stagnant sea without a paddle.
The price of self preservation.
Now, I feel my ship ready to sail again, I have a weather eye on the horizon and some brand new, book related news!
I have a fresh book in developmental editing. I wrote it in a four-week fever dream and can’t wait to share.
In my next post I will reveal the title and cover art for my new work. A 64k word YA Utopian Horror, yes. It’s exactly that.
And it won’t be months from now, someone, please. Hold me to it!
Amy-Westphal.com 