I figured out an actual release schedule for A Damsel and a Demon, which means it’s time to share the cover with everyone! Behold!
My cover artist (Miss Vie Book Designs, totally linking her here because she is the best) did an absolutely fantastic job and like, even just the proof looks stunning next to the first book.
I’m currently working through the edits I got back, and the publication date is set for November 1st! eARCs are available if you’d like to read it earlier!
This is a prequel to A Sorceress and Scones and it is recommended to have read that one first, but if you haven’t, no problem! There’s a question on the eARC sign-up sheet that asks if you’d like to receive a free copy of A Sorceress and Scones to read prior to this one, and I will happily send that along to you as well, if you so desire.
This month I continued to write far too many short stories. I was working on my submission for Indie Bites’s Potions and Paramours issue, which featured this character I had played in a Monster of the Week campaign with my friends years ago and was an absolute blast to write. It ended up being longer than I expected considering I was like, “Yeah, the plot is just two people vibing at a bar,” but that’s what happens when you try and throw in a bunch of sweet bonding moments, I suppose. This story also had me googling a hilarious amount of things about alcohol because I do not drink at all, so that was fun.
Regardless of whether or not this gets accepted, I want to write more short stories with this character! It was a very interesting change writing our-world fantasy versus writing more traditional fantasy.
I then also wrote a cosy fantasy short story to submit to Tales and Feathers, which had a limit of 2500 words, which was a real challenge! I ended up repurposing this very old story idea that I had written years ago and re-set it in the world of A Sorceress and Scones. It follows this girl named Amouri (and her friend Quentin), who works at this shop called the Findery, which carries items with particularly strong memories embedded into them. Amouri paints runes onto the items so other people can re-experience the memories and helps match people up with what they’re looking for.
Anyway, as soon as I submitted this I found out that they accept like 0.01% of the submissions they receive, so I’m pretty sure this will get left by the side of the road. But it was fun to write, it fleshed out the world a bit more, and Amouri and Quentin were fun and I want them to pop up in something longer now. And who knows, maybe it can find a home somewhere else.
All this meant that I didn’t actually even start looking at my A Damsel and a Demon edits until like the third week of August. But unlike with A Sorceress and Scones, there was very little that needed to change developmentally, so it’s mostly just grammar stuff and is much quicker.
And here’s my favourite random haiku from this month. I wrote this one when my work computer had to update to Windows 11. You can follow along with my random haiku adventures on Instagram or BlueSky, if you so desire.
I played some old JRPGs this month! My friends and I did a group replay of Final Fantasy V! I…did not like Final Fantasy V. The plot was either non-existent or utter nonsense and then the battles were so poorly balanced that I was just so incredibly grateful that I was playing a version with autosave, because it would have been infuriating otherwise. And I just don’t understand how this is sandwiched between IV and VI, because I feel like they just did not try at all. But I beat it and I can now say I have beaten it and that is…something I guess.
I also finished playing through the HD remaster of Lunar after having abandoned it when Clair Obscur overtook my life. Which means I am now finally playing through Lunar 2! I never really played this one as a kid. I started it with my dad, but I was mostly just sad that it wasn’t the same characters and, from what little I’ve played now, I think too young to appreciate the themes (I was like, 9). So I’m excited to actually give that a chance.
And today, on this holiday (in Canada, anyway), we have Millie reminding us to take it easy and take a snooze. ❤
See you next month!
Allie Leigh 
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