NEWSLETTER SNIPPETS; Issue #6
The last newsletter of 2025 went out a couple of weeks ago. I can’t believe I’ve sent out six of these already and also started sending out short stories with alternate ones. It’s something I enjoy doing now though, and I hope you all get some enjoyment from it too.
If you’ve been receiving the newsletters, you know I lost a few family members in the first half of the year. There have also been losses in the extended family, of an old friend I lost touch with, and some friends and family of friends as well. That’s not to say it’s only been a year of grief though. There have been joyous moments amongst all the rest of it – a new nephew, more new members of the family to come next year, and on personal levels, a lot of health wins and writing wins.
Of course, some health scares in October in the span of five days too. My sisters and I have been joking with my dad that he didn’t need to have a heart attack to get us all to spend his 60th birthday with him.
It was also The Great British Bake Off season, and I found the Holiday season from last year on Netflix. Between that and Is It Cake? Holiday, it’s been a great baking show time. Besides that, I also watched both seasons Mistletoe Murders which was actually fantastic. I hope they don’t cancel this show. And then the kids have been home from holidays in the past weeks, so I’ve introduced them to movies I grew up with. We’ve seen The Santa Claus, Sister Act and Sister Act 2, and Home Alone. I’ve even got the 8yo watching me play Final Fantasy XIV as if she’s watching a movie. I do have to tell her to leave sometimes, because it gets violent.
At the start of the year, I’d told myself I would write a story for every AA prompt and an exclusive story for Ko‑fi Dedications members every month. I struggled along the way, I’ll admit, and I can’t say every story is absolutely great, but I managed to hit this goal. Now did I hit every writing goal I made at the start of the year? No, not at all – Facets remains unedited, I’ve not worked on Desi Persuasion as much as I thought I would, and my poetry compilation languishing without illustrations – but I hit new goals I hadn’t planned to.
A lot of my writing in the past few months has been for RP, I will admit though. I’ve been enjoying the collaborative experience of writing with other people, getting into the interiority of character’s heads and their points of view and playing off the way other people write their own characters. It’s been a lot of fun, and I’m definitely going to keep at it – it can only serve to make me a better writer in the long run and it has the added benefit of reminding me why I love writing in the first place.
The Ferryman’s Wife And The Black Fox which, if you’ve enjoyed, is on Goodreads as well as available on e-retailer platforms and Ko-fi. I would appreciate if you could share that. I’ll be adding it to Storygraph as well if you track your reading on that app.
I have been adding new things to my Ko‑fi shop – bingo sets and reading trackers – and I’m hoping to FINALLY add bookmarks once I figure out shipping costs. It should all be up by the end of the first quarter, and maybe my first novel will be out then too. Fingers crossed.
Happy New Year!
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Ara
I’m Ara, a Southeast Asian writer who someday hopes to have published a novel, and who is currently losing herself in the worlds created by others. I love books and food and television and blogging and I get distracted and sidetracked easily.