UPDATE: Well, I guess April’s newsletter is going out a few weeks early. Normally when I press “Publish” I’m given an option to schedule publication for a future date—didn’t happen this time!
UPDATE’S UPDATE: I think the post has been re-scheduled to go out on the correct date? I did my best to prevent email alerts from going out, and I apologize if you ended up receiving any mixed messaging or half-emails with dead links.
On with the show…
This newsletter has been weighed… it has been measured…
And it has been found wanting to be read.
If you want to keep up to date with future reviews and indie author news updates, please subscribe below! I’m at work on Halfwhisker part 5, after having finished Mouse Noir—and it won’t be getting published immediately, but you’re not going to want to miss it when it does come out!
Writing and Publishing
Looking Back
As seems to be the norm for me, it took longer than expected, but I finished Mouse Noir in March—previously titled Finewhisker & Greypaw, PI. I also got started on Halfwhisker part 5 again, and progress there is going fine.
Mouse Noir is so fun! I can’t wait until the time is right to share it. Speaking of…
Looking Forward
Last newsletter I mentioned that I wanted to experiment with Royal Road. After looking into the platform a bit, I feel there’s enough potential for discovery that I’m most likely going to start posting Halfwhisker there once I finish—as well as one or two other sites that function similarly. I’ll also set up an account on a platform like Patreon or Ream Stories, so readers who want bonus content (or want to read chapters before everyone else) can do so, and we’ll see whether this has the potential to be a method for me to transition writing from a hobby to a career, in time. Here’s hoping!
But first I need to finish Halfwhisker—and then probably write the first “season” of Mouse Noir. That should be enough writing that I will have a solid, solid buffer of weekly releases to give me time to write Blood Brothers, and then I’ll move on to the next project—probably a second “season” of Mouse Noir, but I might feel the need to jump right to The Burning of Whiskerroot. Goodness gracious! Unless I can find more writing and editing time somewhere in my schedule, I’ve got my next year or two, or three, planned out right there.
Don’t think I’m going to stick solely to Royal Road, even if things start popping off over there. I personally prefer to read physically, or at least e-ink, which means I need EPUB files to put on my Kindle—and I’m going to sell exactly that to anyone interested, as the parts of Halfwhisker finish up on Royal Road, and then I’ll sell an omnibus with a mini encyclopedia in the back as a bonus.
The Blog
March was a month of highs and lows. If you missed anything, I’ve linked the reviews below.
- The Way of Mortals: The first in author Blake Carpenter’s second series—and his debut novel, I think?—The Way of Mortals is set in an interesting, steampunk, India-inspired fantasy world. Parts of the novel had me sitting at the edge of my seat; other parts left a sour taste in my mouth.
- The Sea of Trolls: One of my favorite, and most-reread, novels, The Sea of Trolls tells the story of Jack, a fledgling apprentice to the Bard, who gets kidnapped by Northmen.
- Delicious in Dungeon: Okay, here me out—if you like fantasy, if you like adventures, and if you like getting lost with incredible characters, just give this show a try. Try not to go into it with any expectations. If the first few episodes don’t work for you, keep an open mind until the episode where Laios eats animated armor. If you’re not hooked by the end of that episode, this isn’t for you; but if you’re anything like me, something in your head will click and you will know that this is your next favorite thing no later than that episode.
- The Land of the Silver Apples: The sequel to the Sea of Trolls, The Land of the Silver Apples has a hard job of having to follow that book up and then provide more. I won’t tell you here if it succeeds, but I will tell you that this book has one of my favorite interpretations of elves in fiction.
My Reading List
I’m kind of reading A Princess of Mars?
I’m going to be honest, the beginning of this book hasn’t hooked me the way I had hoped it would. I definitely see potential, but… maybe it’s just an older style of writing, maybe Burroughs spends too much time explaining things in a manner that feels oddly out of order, but so far this is a book that I need to make myself read, rather than a book I feel compelled to read. We’ll see how far I get before I decide to make the jump to Tarzan.
Finding books that I want to read has been challenging of late. To be fair, there’s a lot out there that I want to try, but for most of them I can’t figure out a way to actually own them—meaning, I buy the ebook and I can download the file to my laptop, making it mine forever even if the vendor I bought it from disappears (or takes it down). I’m not interested in buying books using Amazon’s “this is a license to access the book, not actual ownership, because it has DRM” model. (I’ve got an article coming at the end of April where I talk about this, among other things, in more detail. This link won’t get you there unless April 20th, 2026, has come and gone already.)
I probably should start hitting up the library more, or finding ways to buy physical books at affordable prices. That does mean I’ll miss out on a lot of indie stuff, and more “current” novels, but c’est la vie.
There are a few things on Royal Road that have caught my interest. Maybe I’ll risk destroying my eyes reading on my phone’s tiny screen. (It would be fantastic if there were some way to send this stuff to my Kindle, but I’m not aware of anything at this moment.)
Finally—What Else do I Recommend This Month?
My wife is continuing to corrupt me with anime.
Spy X Family is pretty good, so far. As I’ve discovered is the case with all anime I’ve ever watched, it’s weird to the point that I find it off-putting at times, but—man. Maybe I’m so lacking for wholesome families being represented in modern stories that even this bizarre, mostly-fake-but-kind-real-at-least-developing-into-something-real family is tugging at my heart strings. Or maybe it’s just genuinely heartwarming and has powerful pro-family messages, in addition to cool spy action. I dunno.
When I give an anime a try, I give it a three-episode test run before making a decision on it, because I’ve found that almost every anime I’ve ever enjoyed… well, I would have never watched it had I decided whether or not the show was for me based on the first episode. Anime pilots suck, for me, I guess, and Spy X Family was no exception. If you give this a try, I recommend pushing through the third episode before deciding if it’s for you.
Boo Ludlow 
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