July
Life and Flippity
The only sound in the woods is the rustle of green-coined aspen leaves, the Wind Lord pilfering through them as if considering how rich he is. Very, I wish to say. He who travels the world, touching lives, caressing tear-stained faces, stealing laughter from lungs, slipping along streams and stirring up waves, bringing cool relief to labor-worn brows and snatching dust in arid lands—flinging it up to himself like confetti. A Wind who sees every land. Who seizes the land. A touch of Other drifting in our midst, whispering of places I can only imagine, and some places so holy and untouched, I cannot.
My family and I recently took a trip back to Colorado for a wedding, and we were able to visit some of the places we loved when we lived there. The little snippet above was inspired by sitting outside of our Airbnb we rented for the week in Breckenridge. We are praying for those now affected by all of the fires there. My heart breaks for CO!
That paragraph is about all the writing I’ve done in the past couple of months. My creative energy has been spent on edits of Flippity Gilbert (and all the book prep things!), gardening, doing puzzles with my boys, putting in a new patio, reading, housework, watching some soccer, trips, and making the most of summer.
We are still on the hunt for a puppy (or two) for our boys, which will change the trajectory of our summer quite a bit if we find one that’s good for our family!
But I do have a few writing updates for you!
Maybe you remember my short story, THE TINKER, being turned into audio on the podcast “Finding Fantasy Reads” a while back? Well, there was a little competition and my story ended up winning “Listener’s Choice” :)
Thank you for being a part of my writing. It truly means so much!
I believe you can still listen to my twist on Peter Pan and Wendy if you missed it. Click the link above or search for the podcast on Spotify!
COTTAGE OF QUIRKS
Flippity Gilbert’s Cottage of Quirks releases in 3 months! THREE! I may have had a slight panic attack when realizing this. But things are still on schedule (even if my brain won’t believe it).
Endorsement copies have been sent out to a group of lovely authors who’ve agreed to help promote my story, and I’m grateful! I should be getting those early reviews back in a month or so, and I’ll begin sharing those with you all.
I recently finished up line edits by my sweet friend and editor, Samantha Mendell (she’s a genius!) and it’s now off to my proofreaders. Do you know how much editing goes into a story? Whatever you’re imagining, add five more drafts.
But that’s the collaborative beauty of stories, isn’t it?
I love that we can’t write stories on our own. I mean, we technically kind of do at first, but if you want it to be good then it must be shared and honed with the help of another human (not AI. Ahem. But that’s a subject for another post). We can’t leave our work in a bubble and expect to grow.
After publishing, our work becomes a partnership between the imagination of the author and the imagination of the reader. And we both come to the story with different perspectives and insights. Even if you read the same book as someone else, your experience might be completely different. What a cool gift that is.
All that to say, I can’t wait for you to read Flippity Gilbert, and to hear what kind of experience you have. If you haven’t yet, you can add the novella on goodreads! If I decide to do pre-orders, you will be the first to know, as for now, let’s look forward to October 9th!
That’s all for now!
Let me know how your summer is going. Are you gardening too? Have you gone on any fun trips? Did you get a dog? ;)
I hope you’re staying cool wherever you are!
Blessings,
Emily Barnett
Hope y’all find your puppy (or two) soon :) and SO excited for Flippity 😍
Looking forward to being able to have a physical version of Flippity Gilbert!