Allie Leigh

Wishing everyone good vibes to kick off 2026!

A few months ago, I got a story accepted by Heartlines Spec! This publication is centred around long-term relationships: platonic, romantic, or familial. My piece, Of Flowers and Snails, focuses on Alyssia, a human girl, and Rowan, the fairy who has been visiting her since she was a child, as they work to save a grove that protects the humans from the dangerous magic waiting beyond. You can read it here!

I really enjoyed writing it, as it was an idea that I’d had kicking around in my head for years, and was pleasantly surprised that I could fit it into such a small wordcount (about half of what I’ve been writing for Indie Bites!)

This past month, I started plotting the third Of Mist and Magic book. Initially, my goal was to have the outline for this done by the end of January. I have come to accept that there is absolutely no way this will happen. This is partially because I am playing with different scenarios a bit, and partially because the outline is way ridiculously more detailed than I originally anticipated. I am essentially writing out dialogue in script form and occasionally just full scenes. This means it is taking much longer than I anticipated, but I’m essentially getting a 0.5 of a draft out of it, so I am okay with this. Also, I think I found a stronger direction for the plot than I previously had, so I am pleased in this regard.

In December I also finished plotting the short story I want to submit to the next issue of Indie Bites, so I get to start writing that this month. Stay tuned for more news on that front!

Story time!

I have been slowly making my way through the Tales of Xillia remaster. It has long been an inside joke between my sister and I that I will send her/sing Elize’s silly little skit where she talks about it having snowed last night each winter when it snows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoVAZGokSTU

Anyway, she has since moved away to the UK and has escaped our Canadian winters.

Naturally, while I was replaying it, this skit came up, so I whipped out my phone, recorded it, and sent it to her saying, “I recorded this JUST FOR YOU.” I then woke up the next morning to a message saying, “I blame you for this” and a picture of it having snowed overnight in the UK (which is infrequent). This amused me far too much and I have decided that clearly, I am a wizard.

Last month I also read The Works of Vermin for a book club.

Never have I been so confused yet wished so fervently that I could understand. Even after I got to the twist and understood it, I was still confused (not about the twist, but about everything else). I feel like this book is trying to say something, but I have absolutely no idea what that is. But I would really like to, because it’s written beautifully and I really enjoyed the characters. Hopefully book club can help explain it to me. I think a reread might also be in order.

A little blep for the new year. ❤

Do you want some cozy fantasy? I think you might want some cozy fantasy.

If your heart desires warmth and happiness, head on over here for a wonderful selection of fantastical tales that are sure to help you make it through the winter!

My book, A Sorceress and Scones, is included in the sale! Come join Korinne as a sorceress and her pals become far too invested in her love life.

All the listings include a handy-dandy list of keywords, making it easy to find something to suit your fancy!

Happy reading! 🙂

The mornings are dark and the snow has come. Winter is upon us. But that’s great for cozying up and reading and writing, right!?

My books will be part of the Smashwords End of Year sale! All of them will be available either very heavily discounted, or for ~free~. Get nice and cozy with A Sorceress and Scones or subject yourself to some emotional trauma with A Damsel and a Demon. The choice is yours!

You can access the sale (starting December 8th) here! 

Also just a reminder that I have a story featured in the latest issue of Indie Bites, which you can read for free here! I had way too much fun writing it, and would love for everyone to go read about Sophie in all of her disastrous, otamatone loving glory. The other stories in this issue are also very good!

After car troubles leave her stranded at the Hoddinott Hotel, Sophie meets Milo, an elderly man who has come to watch a former lover’s piano performance. As Sophie tries to prove herself to be the perfect wingman, the two bond over (questionably magical) drinks and tales of their past loves in a hotel that may be filled with more magic than anyone realizes. 

I have indeed started plotting the third book in the Of Mist and Magic series. My tentative goal is to have it all planned by the end of January. This felt pretty doable until I went and decided that I wanted to submit one short story a month in December, January, and February, two of which need to be planned and written. So…we’ll see how that goes!

So, according to my SpotifyWrapped, I have listened to the Clair Obscur soundtrack for longer than I have played the game.

This is not a concerning amount of Clair Obscur. Not at all.

I am a little disappointed that Un vie a t’aimer was not on my list of top songs, but this song is 11 minutes long. So, if you just go by the actual run time of the song, then I listened to it more than what my actual top song was. So. I mean.

(My actual top song was Her Song, by the Family Crest, apparently. Which is also very good.)

I promise I don’t always just take pictures of my dog while she’s sleeping. But it’s hard not to. ❤

Happy holidays!

This is what happens when you start the month with a week of migraines and then go on vacation… But uh, we’re back in business, so let’s get going!

This is a double publishing month!

First of all, A Damsel and a Demon released on November 1st! This is book #2 in the Of Mist and Magic series. It is a prequel to A Sorceress and Scones and focuses on Arycelle’s backstory. You could technically read it first, but I highly recommend reading A Sorceress and Scones before you dive in, because I put a lot of references in, and I think they hit better this way.

Second, I’m featured in IndieBite’s 20th issue: Potions and Paramours! The entire issue is available to read for free in either PDF or epub, or you can order a physical copy from Amazon, if you so desire!

A tiny blurb about my story, Time in a Bottle:

After car troubles leave her stranded at the Hoddinott Hotel, Sophie meets Milo, an elderly man who has come to watch a former lover’s piano performance. As Sophie tries to prove herself to be the perfect wingman, the two bond over (questionably magical) drinks and tales of their past loves in a hotel that may be filled with more magic than anyone realizes. 

In terms of writing updates, I’m currently working on another short story for submission at the end of the month. I also have (just barely) started planning A Warlock and a Wish, which is the third book in the Of Mist and Magic series (and takes place ~2 years after A Sorceress and Scones). I have basically gotten so far that I planned the prologue and snickered to myself over being somewhat evil (in a good way).

I expect those two things will keep me busy for the rest of the month!

This month we went on a mini vacation to Banff! This all came about because my friend and I wanted to go see Autoheart, but I could not justify spending money on plane tickets to Calgary just for the concert. But my husband loves Banff, so I was like, “Hey, what if we went to Banff for a bit and then to the concert?” And that’s what we did!

It was absolutely beautiful (obviously)

The concert was also extremely good. My friend had made a sign and we spent the whole concert trying to get the band to see it (the staff were also very nice and trying to help us by shining their flashlights on it). Then during the very last song of the encore (which happened to be my favourite), they looked over, saw the sign, and waved! Then after the show they came and talked to us and we got pictures. It was magical.

This is the face of someone who just got an hour long walk and like three cubes of beef. Her life is very hard, apparently.

Happy rest of the month!

Hope everyone is getting in some good spooky reads this October!

October is A Sorceress and Scones’ book birthday! It’s been out for a year now! Whoah! I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who has read this book over the past year. 🙂

If you haven’t, and you want to, you’ll have the chance to, soon! It’ll be part of the upcoming Cozy the Day Away Sale on October 11th and 12th (over two days this time!) and will be available for free! So check that out if you’re interested.

It’s the perfect time to pick it up, too, because A Damsel and a Demon (the prequel, featuring Arycelle!) releases in less than a month! eARC signups are still open if you’re interested! (and you can also get a free copy of A Sorceress and Scones by signing up for that as well!)

November will be spent working on final final edits for A Damsel and a Demon (just making sure there are no lingering typos/formatting issues and things), and then I’m going to actually start seriously plotting book 3! I am interested to see how this will go, because I’ve made myself some notes, but it became very evident very quickly that I need to figure out exactly how everything is going to fit together/in what order. I am thinking there will be lots of loose leaf and shuffling of pages around.

After my misadventures playing through Final Fantasy V, I was inspired to go back and play through Final Fantasy IV and see how it held up to my memory of it. I maintain that it is leaps and bounds better than Final Fantasy V, and I don’t know how they followed up with that hot mess. The plot definitely becomes significantly weaker once the idea of the dark crystals is introduced, since that comes out of left field and it just feels like there are fewer events that actually happen after that point, but everything in the upper world is solid, and the story still makes sense so, you know. That’s a plus.

Maybe eventually my friends will get around to playing VI, but right now everyone I know is obsessed with Silksong. I, on the other hand, am trying to figure out how I’m supposed to balance the fact that the universe has decided to give me the Tactics Remaster and the Tales of Xillia Remaster within a month of each other (as they are both games that I love dearly). There is an almost 0% chance I will be done with Tactics by the time Xillia comes out. RIP me.

I realized the other day that the clothes I was wearing sort of looked like a bumblebee, and that I have a bumblebee headband from my friend’s kid’s birthday party that I attended in the summer. Then I went to the dollar store and they had bumblebee dog costumes. So I decided that we are going to do family bumblebee costumes and I am now far too excited about this idea. But my dog is too cute and she doesn’t seem to totally hate it.

Have a great month!