{"id":4471,"date":"2025-10-22T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/?p=4471"},"modified":"2025-10-21T21:10:34","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T13:10:34","slug":"cosy-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/?p=4471","title":{"rendered":"Cosy Season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I\u2019ve been reading for almost 30 years now – god, I feel old – and growing up, when I realised I wanted to write, I always thought the first novel I\u2019d ever finish would be a fantasy one. It was my favourite genre, it was an escape, it was just fun<\/em> in so many ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yeah, over the years I grew more aware of internal biases and representation and the lack of it. I grew more aware of all of that in my own writing (and reframing some of that made something click<\/em> in my writing that it hadn\u2019t before), and I still<\/strong> thought I\u2019d write a fantasy novel of the ages. Or maybe science-fiction. You know, attempt something with an abundance of world-building and plot twists and the like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet here we are, all these years later with life changing around me. Changing me<\/em>. I still love those genres, don\u2019t get me wrong. I still enjoy a good fantasy or science-fiction story (or a mix of both). It may take me a little longer to get into it because of brain fog and just life in general, but it still holds a big part of my heart. And yet – the cosy<\/em>. The soft, the warm, the kind<\/em> and gentle stories are the ones that captivate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s safe to say I’ve fallen in love with the cosy.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019re the ones I find myself writing a little more these days. The ones that are easier to read, if only because the world tends to be a dumpster fire (and my health has it’s ups and downs, and saw me in isolation for months a few years ago) and it is just – nice. You know you\u2019re getting a happy ending. You know you\u2019re getting characters that will find themselves and their hearts by the end of the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There can still be some amazing world-building and plot twists, but there is a gentleness – a cosiness – to it that warms me something fierce. Sometimes it\u2019s a little bittersweet, sometimes it\u2019s just soft, but always, always<\/em> it warms the heart and soul. I\u2019ve enjoyed reading it, watching it (welcome back, Hallmark movie obsession!) and writing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll find a lot more of those kinds of stories in my TBR and \u2018read\u2019 lists, a lot more of them written by me – and I hope you enjoy the ones I\u2019m currently working on. And hey, maybe this year or early next year, I\u2019ll do another Hallmark movie recommendation list?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We\u2019ll see how it goes. In the meantime, what’s your current favourite cosy read, watch or game? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you like my content, consider leaving me a tip on\u00a0Ko-fi<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been reading for almost 30 years now – god, I feel old – and growing up, when I realised I wanted to write, I always thought the first novel I\u2019d ever finish would be a fantasy one. It was my favourite genre, it was an escape, it was just fun in so many ways. And yeah, over the years I grew more aware of internal biases and representation and the lack of it. I grew more aware of all of that in my own writing (and reframing some of that made something click in my writing that it hadn\u2019t before), and I still thought I\u2019d write a fantasy novel of the ages. Or maybe science-fiction. You know, attempt something with an abundance of world-building and plot twists and the like. And yet here we are, all these years later with life changing around me. Changing me. I still love those genres, don\u2019t get me wrong. I still enjoy a good fantasy or science-fiction story (or a mix of both). It may take me a little longer to get into it because of brain fog and just life in general, but it still holds a big part of my heart. And yet – the cosy. The soft, the warm, the kind and gentle stories are the ones that captivate. It’s safe to say I’ve fallen in love with the cosy. They\u2019re the ones I find myself writing a little more these days. The ones that are easier to read, if only because the world tends to be a dumpster fire (and my health has it’s ups and downs, and saw me in isolation for months a few years ago) and it is just – nice. You know you\u2019re getting a happy ending. You know you\u2019re getting characters that will find themselves and their hearts by the end of the story. There can still be some amazing world-building and plot twists, but there is a gentleness – a cosiness – to it that warms me something fierce. Sometimes it\u2019s a little bittersweet, sometimes it\u2019s just soft, but always, always it warms the heart and soul. I\u2019ve enjoyed reading it, watching it (welcome back, Hallmark movie obsession!) and writing it. You\u2019ll find a lot more of those kinds of stories in my TBR and \u2018read\u2019 lists, a lot more of them written by me – and I hope you enjoy the ones I\u2019m currently working on. And hey, maybe this year or early next year, I\u2019ll do another Hallmark movie recommendation list? We\u2019ll see how it goes. In the meantime, what’s your current favourite cosy read, watch or game? If you like my content, consider leaving me a tip on\u00a0Ko-fi!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[876,59],"class_list":["post-4471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discussion-post","tag-cosy-season","tag-writings"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4474,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4471\/revisions\/4474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}