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Happy Winter Solstice!

It's a reflective time of year; both our thoughts and activities naturally turn inward as the weather turns colder. Fall and winter are actually my favorite seasons! Everything seems cozier and homier when it's cold out.

This photo of Laura and me is from the outdoor Christmas Market and craft fair in Williamsburg, VA!

Hope you're able to spend time someplace warm and surrounded by those you love this holiday season.
- Nalin

Writing Update

The Fall Fiction Studio at the Muse Writing Center concludes this week with our eighth and final session. I have very much enjoyed the experience, and learned so much from the instructor, Micheal Khandelwal, and from my fellow studio writers Jacob, Hollie, Mike, David, Samantha, Chris, and Jane. The drawback has been that I found almost all of my discretionary time available for writing was going towards the studio, and not to actually writing new prose -- so my actual production of content slowed down significantly this fall. That said, I feel that the studio more than made up for it in other ways.

Thanks to the insightful questions and thoughtful comments provided by the studio, I've had to do a lot of thinking, building, and honing the bones of Rassam's Eye -- the key aspects of the world, the characters' motivations and inner conflicts, and the core threads that early drafts of the story seemed to be trying to pull on. I think as I go into the new year, I'm in a much stronger position to write a more solid novel than before.

I've got two fantasy novel ideas that have been tugging at my brain for a few months and won't let me go... I'm trying very hard not to get distracted from Rassam's Eye and actually finish what I already have in progress, but sometimes you gotta work on what you're excited about... we'll see.

My latest short story, The Karma of Ponds, made it to the final round of consideration to be included in the anthology Mirror, Mirror: Modern Myths. Alas, it was rejected in the end, but I got what was by far the best rejection letter I've never received. Thanks to the encouragement of the editorial team, I did some polishing of the manuscript and resubmitted to another market.

Fiction Consumed This Month

Books:
  • Very excited to have just received Richard Powers' novel Bewilderment from Laura as part of our Winter Solstice gifts to each other. It's a novel by the same author that wrote The Overstory, which I'd have to say is probably my favorite novel -- both books received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, so... I guess this author will break out one of these days? Looking forward to the read.
Screen:
  • Does the plot of Overcooked 2 count as "story"?
What have you been reading or watching? Any recommendations for me?

Hope you're reading something great in a cozy place surrounded by food and family! Happy Winter Solstice and enjoy the winter holiday season!
I do love getting your feedback and comments, so please continue to reach out. Thanks for reading, and see you in the next issue!
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