January 4, 2025

Onward into 2025

Why do I write the stories I do?

There are no easy, glib, or simple answers to this question. I don’t write autobiographical fiction because, while I like myself just fine, I’m not interested in myself as a vector of storytelling. It’s rare for me to set out to deliberately examine personal (to me) internal conflict within the text of a story because, again, I truly am not interested in following my interior life and struggles with that kind of narrative camera.

Do psychological and emotional elements of my psyche emerge in my fiction as part of the storytelling process? Sure. I think that is true for most writers. We are what we write in the sense that it emerges from who we are, however circular that statement may seem. What we contain is what we have to work with, and one of the great beauties and challenges of art is that, as humans, we can work to expand what we contain. Curiosity is sustenance for art.

Mostly I would say that I use narrative to wrestle with my understanding of the world, to explore what excites or troubles me, to play pretend, and often simply for the joy of creating and transforming the assemblage of thoughts scattering through my head into some manner of coherent story on the page.

Every writer will approach writing through different filters, using different lenses and techniques, and that is as it should be. We are meant to be unique so that each piece of art will bring some new variation into the world.

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Before I offer a recap of 2024, a brief mention of my major forthcoming published work of 2025: The Witch Roads and The Nameless Land are a new fantasy duology being published by tordotcom in June/November 2025. You can pre-order now, and I will have more information in next month’s newsletter. In fact, you can expect to hear a fair bit about this project over this year, so brace yourselves!

A quick note: The Witch Roads is a single novel split into two volumes which (as per above) will be published a mere 5 months apart, so you can read both parts in 2025; no long wait period! It is also set in a new universe, and is not a reworking of an older project (as I saw someone speculate somewhere online).

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How about 2024?

Well, that was a tough year. I didn’t get as much done as I had hoped, but I did write. Here’s what I got done in writing terms.

First, and biggest, my short story collection THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BEGINS IN ICE was published by Fairwood Press in October 2024. This collection of (standalone) stories and essays from the world of Cold Magic also includes fantastic illustrations by a number of excellent illustrators. Copies of the trade paperback edition are available, and I have also learned that a few copies of the signed and numbered limited edition of the Deluxe hardcover edition (with bonus chapbook) remain available from the publisher. As well, a few over-print copies (the extras printed in case any of the regular copies don’t print properly) of the Deluxe HC edition are available, although these overs are not signed. There is also an ebook edition.

Throughout 2024 I worked on LADY CHAOS (the Sun Chronicles 3). This complex book is going slowly, but I am almost to the 60% mark and plugging away. There are a number of reasons why this particular book has been going so very slowly, including that it is the most complex and multilayered narrative I have ever written, and please be assured I am working on it. I appreciate your patience, and am sorry it is taking so long.

In 2024 I also revised both The Witch Roads and The Nameless Lands, and went through the copy edits and page proofs for The Witch Roads. The copy edit and proofs for The Nameless Land will arrive on my desk in the next few months, I presume.

On my Patreon, in addition to the weekly Finn photos, I completed a 24 part focus on world-building, as well as a few other posts on other (mostly writing) topics.

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But what are your goals for 2025, you may ask?

And I’ll answer!

1. Continue working on LADY CHAOS (Sun3). I am aiming to have a complete draft as soon as I can manage it, but think it safer not to give any tighter estimate than that very broad one.

2. Work on a project which I can’t yet discuss.

3. A small “letting off steam” project to be posted in installments as my 2025 Patreon theme. As I have written elsewhere, in 2022 (and much of 2023) I went through a period where I was simply unable to work on LADY CHAOS. I would have accomplished nothing of writing note in 2022 (beyond my weekly essays on my Patreon) if I had not decided to write the novel that became The Witch Roads duology purely and simply to see if I still loved writing. It turns out I did and do still love writing, and that it was other pressures that impeded my progress with Sun 3.

So, in the spirit of allowing myself a weekly “breather” from the hothouse of writing a very complex, very multi-layered, and very very delayed third book of a trilogy, I will use my Patreon in 2025 to noodle (on the weekends) on a project I am calling “dragonsea” (for no good reason except I like the word). You can read about it in this public post, and of course join if you wish, or ignore if that is your preference.

4. I am working on a short story for an anthology (not yet announced), and later in the year expect to be revising an already completed short story that will be published on Reactor Magazine in December 2025.

My large scale goal for 2025 is to focus on writing first draft and, if I can, complete a first draft of two book projects. A tall order, although LADY CHAOS is about 55% complete, so perhaps not impossible. We shall see.

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Recommendations.

I’m adding this as a feature for this year and will see how it goes.

Books: I finished FIRE WEATHER by John Vaillant in December 2024. This non fiction book examines, in specific and vivid detail, the Fort MacMurray Fire of 2016 in Canada. The author begins by describing the troubled rise of the oil industry in the region and follows that introduction with an in depth and often hour by hour description of the spread of the fire. In the course of this narrative he describes fire in a way that was both astonishing and illuminating for me. Fire can, in some ways, be described as a living creature, and this catastrophic fire was a devouring monster, to be sure. He finishes the book with several chapters detailing how we humans are changing the environment in ways that will lead to more and more and more (as we already know) of these monster fires and to extended fire weather. Highly recommended.

Games: I recently played WYRMSPAN for the first time, an adaptation of WINGSPAN (another good game). Gaming is not one of my main loves because I am too impatient to sit still for long periods, and also because I don’t much enjoy games that focus on direct conflict with other players. What makes WINGSPAN and now WYRMSPAN work for me is

1. the great art and clever game design, and

2. that while there are victory conditions and someone does win (and lose), the game is fun to play even without that in mind because the player has to think through how and when to play their various resources to get the best return for them, and that is enjoyable for me.

View: I am currently watching season 2 of THE LAW ACCORDING TO LIDIA POËT, an Italian show loosely based on the life of the first Italian woman to become a lawyer, although she was not allowed to practice so, in the storyworld of the show, takes up detective work instead. It takes place in 19th century Turino and has a great lead, interesting secondary characters who matter to the story, men with gorgeous eyes, and wonderful costuming. If you’re interested, start with season 1. It’s on Netflix.

Listen: These days my writing background is mostly chill/trance/dance compilations on You Tube. Also, I bought a cheap CD/DVD player so I can listen to my long-unplayed stock of CDs, which I have hauled out of storage. Possibly my favorite released-in-2024 song and video is “Who” by Jimin.

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Onward: In 2025 I intend and hope to send out a monthly newsletter, although I don’t always have enough news to fill out every month. As needed, I will send out alerts for new releases or important news. One of these “alert” newsletters will drop about midway through this month.

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Finn greets you in his hypebeast mode, modeling the latest from Costco (the hoodie was a gift):

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As always, thank you. I could not do this without you.

Kate Elliott