The Month I Rediscovered Some Missing Pieces

 July writing update: rediscovering my creative ecosystem through fantasy writing, serial fiction, essays, and the launch of Dear Past Me. 

Hey Besties!

The UK is still in the middle of a heatwave—or perhaps temperatures above 25°C are just our new normal?!

Either way, I think I'm finally getting used to it... even if I still spend half my day camped out in front of the fan! 😂

The hot weather in July hasn’t slowed me down one bit. In fact, this month, I feel as though I’ve rediscovered some missing pieces of myself.

With that being said, let’s get on with my July wrap-up post…

Writing Update

Writing progress is ticking along nicely. Kiss Me After the Kill is with my editor while I weigh up publishing options—more on that in a moment. Tea Leaves, Pages & Starlight is also having a well-earned rest before heading to my editor in September.

In June’s wrap-up post, I mentioned my new project, The Arcanium, and how I had written around 8,000 words on a version in which an ordinary young woman from a small English village receives three university acceptance letters. Two are expected. The third is from a mysterious institution that teaches the arcane arts.

Well, as I paused to deal with the heatwave, I found myself looking back at the previous version of The Arcanium I wrote in 2023, which was set in a pseudo-medieval world, and I realised I liked that setting much more.

I loved the fantasy, almost RPG-style world-building I had created, and the setting allowed me to explore one of the novel’s key themes—who gets to belong, and who doesn’t—far more naturally. By creating a divide between humans and elves, with elves being the magically prominent race and only a small percentage of humans manifesting magical abilities, the story immediately felt richer and more compelling.

Since making that decision and using my 2023 draft as a jumping-off point, the story has now grown to over 20,000 words, and I’m incredibly happy with the direction it’s taking.

While thinking about the future of The Arcanium, I also started thinking about my creative ecosystem.

As I’ve mentioned before, my long-term goal is to become a hybrid author, pursuing both traditional publishing and indie publishing.

One part of the indie side that I still hadn't quite figured out was serial fiction.

Halfway through serialising Kiss Me After the Kill, I started feeling a little burned out. At first, I thought that meant serial fiction simply wasn't for me.

But after taking a month-long break from social media, I realised something important.

I wasn't burned out from serial storytelling.

I was burned out from posting about serials three times a week.

Without that constant pressure, I realised I actually love telling stories one chapter at a time, and that serial fiction is an important part of my creative ecosystem.

With only four (!!) chapters of Kiss Me After the Kill left to publish on Inkitt, I naturally started thinking about what comes next, and where The Arcanium fits into that future.

One thing I’ve become increasingly aware of is that different serial platforms favour different genres. I want to give The Arcanium the best opportunity to find its readers. Around the same time, I also discovered that Ream Stories is introducing new features, including the option for single-payment stories.

Taking all of that into consideration, I’ve decided that The Arcanium will be serialised on Inkitt, Royal Road, and Ream Stories.

As I revive my Ream account, I’ll also be adding Kiss Me After the Kill and The Starbound Lovers Duo there too.

The only decision I’m still weighing up is whether Kiss Me After the Kill will remain on Ream long-term, or whether I’ll also publish it on Amazon in October as originally planned.

Once I’ve made that decision, I’ll let you all know.

As I continue developing my creative ecosystem, I’ve also reorganised my website into clearer categories.

Books – all novels, novellas, and short stories available to purchase on Amazon.

Ongoing Stories – my serial fiction, published one chapter at a time on a regular schedule.

But fiction isn't the only form of storytelling I've rediscovered this month.

Essays

I’ve been writing these monthly wrap-up posts for over a year now, and they’re definitely not going anywhere. I genuinely enjoy writing them, and I hope you enjoy reading them too.

Earlier this month, though, I felt inspired to write something a little different—an evergreen piece that wasn’t simply an update, but an essay exploring a topic that's deeply personal to me.

If that sounds like something you'd enjoy, you can read it here:

Despite Everything, It's Still You – How a Trip Down Memory Lane Led to Some Important Writing and Personal Realisations

This isn’t the first essay of its kind that I’ve written. Previously, I’ve shared my experiences of living with PMDD, as well as my experiences navigating medical misinformation as a woman.

Going forward, all of my essays will be published on my website, as well as on Medium and Substack.

To make them easier to find, I’ve also added a dedicated Essays page to my website.

Personal essays are something I’m incredibly excited to make part of my creative ecosystem.

In fact, the response to Despite Everything, It's Still You inspired me to revive another project...

Dear Past Me Relaunch

Earlier this year, I made the difficult decision to close The Kindred Creativity Club, but one idea never quite let go of me.

One of the projects I’d planned for KCC in 2026 was a charity anthology called Dear Past Me—a collection of letters to our younger selves, sharing the words we wish we'd heard during our hardest moments. My hope was that those letters might offer comfort, encouragement, or hope to someone walking a similar path.

After publishing my essay—and seeing the response it received—I decided it was finally time to bring Dear Past Me to life.

Rather than publishing a single anthology, it will now become an ever-growing collection of letters—stories of resilience, hope, healing, and self-discovery.

If there's something you wish you could tell your younger self, I'd love to invite you to add your voice to Dear Past Me.

Health

In my June blog post, I mentioned that my PMDD has become mild enough that seeking treatment was actually causing me more stress than the condition itself.

That still remains true.

However, I’d still prefer not to have periods if I can avoid them, so I decided to book an appointment for the Depo-Provera injection.

I had it before I became pregnant with Youngest in 2008 and never experienced any problems, so I’m hopeful it’ll suit me just as well this time around.

And if it doesn’t? Well, it only lasts 13 weeks, so it isn’t something I’ll be stuck with forever.

Overall, my PMDD continues to be much milder, and my only particularly difficult day this month was the day before my period began.

I honestly think learning more about myself, PMDD, autism, and ADHD—and how those three things interact—has made a huge difference.

It also helps that I’m fortunate enough to receive incapacity benefit, rather than being forced to work in an environment that would make managing those conditions even harder.

Family

Unfortunately, it hasn’t all been good news on the medical front.

Last month, I mentioned that my mum had surgery to remove bowel cancer. At her follow-up appointment, her consultant confirmed that cancer cells had been found in her blood, meaning she’ll now need chemotherapy, which is due to begin in August.

Naturally, she was upset, as it wasn’t the outcome she’d been expecting.

Even so, she’s handling it remarkably well. Her faith continues to be a huge source of comfort, and when I spoke to her recently, she seemed far more concerned with home renovations and planning a holiday for after she’s finished chemotherapy.

We’re meeting up this Friday, and she wants to go designer handbag shopping—which, honestly, I think she completely deserves.

I was also over at her house recently helping her set up her new laptop. (Currys wanted to charge her £70 for that. I only charge tea and biscuits.)

While I was there, she gave me her old Samsung tablet and told me I could do whatever I liked with it.

So I passed it on to Hubby, who wanted a smaller tablet for reading. He then traded in his iPad at CEX, and we split the money.

What did I spend my share on, I hear you ask?

A copy of Sakurai Atsushi AND READ, a collection of Atsushi’s Rock and Read interviews over the years.

It shipped from Japan today, and I cannot wait to get my hands on it—even if I do have to use Google Lens to understand most of it!

If that’s not devotion, I don’t know what is. 😛

Looking back over July, I think the biggest thing I rediscovered wasn’t a particular project, platform, or publishing plan.

It was the reminder that I’m happiest when I allow myself to be a storyteller in lots of different ways.

Novels. Serials. Essays. Community projects.

They’re not competing with one another—they’re all different pieces of the same creative life.

And honestly, rediscovering those missing pieces has made this one of my favourite months of the year.

I’ll be back in mid-August with another personal essay and, of course, at the end of the month with my usual wrap-up post.

Until then, take care, and stay creative.

T.T.F.N.