I released “Shiver,” the Halloween-themed third Grace & Maya story, four days ago at the writing of this post. (It’s on the Works page, or you can jump straight to Amazon to buy it.) I’ve had a draft page open to write this post for almost as long. I’ve been trying to find a balance, and I don’t think I have, but I might never, so I’m just going to go tilting onward at this point.
I’ve actually been wanting to write a Halloween story for these girls for a long time. (There’s a winter-holidays story in the works, too. Maybe it won’t take me four years to finish it.) Last year, I was trying to write “Shiver” in time for an October release, but Halloween came and went without me, and I lamented on Twitter that I’d failed at my goal. A mutual follower expressed that they had also failed to write a Halloween story that year, and we lightly promised each other we’d both make it happen this year and promote each other’s. Unfortunately, that person passed away a few weeks ago and so was not able to complete their Halloween story this year, either. Many other people were closer to them than I was, so I haven’t felt it was my place to express any of this, but I did want to honor them, because it was their memory and the promise I made that made me buckle down and keep writing this one even when I was tired, even when I was wallowing in impostor syndrome and anxiety and ADHD.
This story still isn’t perfect, and it isn’t everything I wanted to make it, but it did get done — because I promised Corey that I would. Anyway. Corey may not have gotten to write their Halloween story this year, but if you’d like to read some of their other stories, there are lots on Amazon, and they’re worth it. Here’s a link to Corey’s author page (penname Xan West), and you can explore from there.
Happy Halloween.