Greetings, fellow humans. I’m Caroline and I write fantasy and horror—my debut epic fantasy novel, The Obsidian Druid was released in April 2024. I also have a mild obsession with Web 1.0-era websites. This is my newsletter.
I didn’t mean to take a two-week break from the newsletter, but I did and here we are. This time of year always gets stupidly busy for me, so I’m hoping a new edition of SwampWitch is better late than never. Oh, and I actually have some news…
News
In an effort to get more eyeballs on my work, I’ve signed The Obsidian Druid up for a free Kindle promotion. I had a lot of success with free downloads when I did this for one of those cringey vampire books I wrote years ago, but everything is so different now in Self-Published Land that it will be interesting to see the results. The book is set to free right now and will remain free through Sunday. If you’d like to pick up a copy, here’s the link: https://books2read.com/u/4XNRAL
Speaking of vampires, have you noticed they seem to be having a bit of a comeback? I’m almost tempted to rewrite the cringey vampire books and re-release them. Almost.
If sci-fi is more your thing, Midnight Metropolis, my serialised horror sci-fi novel, is now up to Chapter Three. If you haven’t given it a try yet, but you’re in the mood for a weird story about the misfits living in a city devoid of sunlight, you can find all the chapters here: Arcanoforge: Midnight Metropolis
Okay, I’ll shut up talking about my writing now and talk about someone else’s.
Micro-SPFNO - Week Two
Shining a light on some excellent indie fantasy novels that weren’t chosen to compete in the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off by reviewing their first chapters.
Hunt for the Maji: The Blue Guitar by Greblåks New
The Blue Guitar is “an adult urban fantasy novel set in a broken, dystopian future of SF and magic” and looks to be the first in a series. Here’s the blurb:
It's the eve of an election. America is broken and the world is on the brink. A small-town shrink encounters a mysterious boy with an incredible gift. A last-chance lawyer tries to hold on to love. A group of teens in a dystopian city search for the only one who can save them from their nightmares. And a beautiful but troubled sheriff's deputy finds herself pursued by the law and something much more horrifying. Together, their fates are intertwined as they become part of the hunt for the Maji.
...
America has seen better days. Unemployment is at historic levels, roaming caravans of climate refugees huddle together for safety, and the Escape drug pandemic has claimed millions of lives with no sign of slowing down. It's the eve of an election that threatens to change the country forever. If the Security party wins, it will implement a secretive AI that will be able to monitor every aspect of life.
Alan Smith, a psychologist from small-town Montana, has seen it all—hell, he's no different from anyone else. So when he reluctantly agrees to do an evaluation of a troubled teen accused of a terrible crime, he expects another lost cause. What he finds instead is the enigmatic Francis Builds A Fire, a mysterious kid with an incredible gift and a terrifying secret.
Now Alan must fight for his life and that of the boy who holds the key to what is to come. But is he strong enough to survive the hunt for the Maji?
The book’s first chapter is actually a prologue titled Episode 1, and it sucks you in immediately with this killer first line: “He opened his eyes to find himself standing naked, surrounded by a bundle of Gretas.”
The scene is set well, and the description of a dilapidated parking lot is eerily bleak. The mysterious naked man is the Viking, an ancient traveller who turns up in this world as though dropped from the sky with nothing but a glowing guitar and an orb he greets as a “friend” he cannot escape. You need to read on, right? Who the hell is this guy? Why are veiled women there to meet him, and why doesn’t he know what year it is?
The first chapter moves fast, carrying you along with a slew of questions and intriguing images. I particularly enjoyed this deft descriptive line: “Down the tunnel a hunched figure emerged, forging ahead, picking up speed through the lights, slowing in the shadows.” It turns out the hunched figure is a witch, and she’s about to do some questionable things to a baby. This book looks to be a very dark read, but the carefully crafted sense of urgency pulls you in. Before you know where you are, you’re standing behind a security door in a train tunnel, surrounded by complicated enchantments and staring down an eldritch horror threatening to tear “the very flesh of Heaven.”
I enjoyed the brief sample I read. It was original and displayed the sort of descriptive prose that makes me unreasonably excited, but the novel does dive into dark themes. I took a quick look at Episode 2 and saw explicit swearing and alcohol consumption, followed by a graphic description of purging said alcohol. I live for sinister stuff like this, but not everyone does, so you might want to keep that in mind if you’re interested in checking out the book.
The Blue Guitar is available in paperback and as an ebook.
This Week, I’ve Been Mostly Obsessed With…
Some weeks, I find it really hard to write. The muse kicks off her shoes, puts her hairy feet up on my desk (yes, my muse has hairy feet), and refuses to do any work. When this happens, I try to use the time I would usually spend writing doing something else that might help my writing projects along. Sometimes it’s researching marketing, sometimes it’s creating graphics, and this week it was dedicating a section of my website to The Age of Aikana, my fantasy trilogy in progress.
It became this week’s obsession because I hand-code my website myself, even though my scant grasp of CSS means this takes forever. I do this partly out of stubbornness, and partly because I’m obviously unable to let go of the old internet (my weekly reviews of ancient websites are a testament to that). Of course, the site now looks like a slightly wonky, graphics-heavy mishmash that I’m sure many writers would say does nothing for my online portfolio. But I love doing it (and I'm stubborn, remember?).
I created a new design for the Age of Aikana section and included segments from past newsletters that discussed the world and the characters. I’m secretly quite proud of it, and if you’re curious, you can check it out.
Current Favourite Website
Aaron's Blink 182/Britney Spears Fan Site - First Created 2001 - Last Updated 2002
There’s not really much to see here, but I had to add it to the list because it’s so strange. Who in their wildest dreams would consider making a joint Blink 182 and Britney Spears fan page? You might as well create a site for Limp Bizkit and The Teletubbies, or Marilyn Manson and Pokemon. I’m not one to yuck on someone else’s yum though (I apologise, that phrase is truly horrible), so let’s see what this early noughties time capsule has for us, shall we?
I’m rather obsessed with Britney’s sparkly trousers. Surely they’re dry-clean only?
If you’re after pixellated, potato-quality photos of Blink 182 or Britney Spears circa 2002, you’re in luck. There’s also news (“Britney Spears is now engaged to Justin Timberlake of that dreaded manufactured boyband Nsync” and the Blink 182 “show in Portland was absolutly awsome!”), a brief history of Blink 182, Blink 182 lyrics, and an entire page devoted to Travis, Tom & Mark's Significant Others.
If I’m honest, I think the Britney information is lacking, though she was granted her very own secret page (which is displayed right in the list of links, so you can’t miss it).
If you want to see the complete list of Web 1.0-era Websites of the Week, you can find it on my website.
Stalk me across the interwebs: Website - Dreamwidth - Bluesky - Read Stories Online
That’s it for now.