Hello, dear friend. 'Tis me, your not-so-great blogger friend Deigan. I recently found out that it has been almost 5 months since I have even opened up my blog and taken a stroll through its posts. But, obviously, something happened - mainly, I kept getting email alerts letting me know that more wonderful people kept stumbling across my blog, liking what they saw, and subscribing to it.
And it made me feel guilty.
But then I started going back through my posts, and it made me feel even guiltier. My blog, dare I say, was pretty. It had a soft color palette and lots of curly fonts and complicated graphics. And as I looked more and more, I realized . . . it wasn't me. I chose the themes I did because they looked pretty and professional - not because it was a good reflection of me.
To speak in author lingo, I was acting like a contemporary coming-of-age romcom when I really want to be a YA fantasy novel. (Which, you may notice, is what my blog now looks like.)
Other than that, there are two main reasons that I decided to show back up and redesign my blog.
one || i found my genre
I really did - I found the genre I want to pursue writing in forever. You see, in the past, I've gone through so many different genres trying to find the one - historical fiction, contemporary romance, middle grade mystery. But as I started thinking about it, all the stories I loved writing the most, they all had one umbrella genre in common: s p e c u l a t i v e f i c t i o n.
Which leads me to say . . . that is my genre. Speculative fiction, specifically fantasy with a dark cottagecore twist. I am so very excited that the Lord revealed this to me through the best way possible: my stories themselves. One of them has even been sent to the editor . . . make of that what you will.😉
two || i'm getting published
🎉🎉🎉 You might have seen me hinting at this over on my newsletter, but it's official - I'm going to have a novella published in a fairytale retelling anthology put together by Madisyn Carlin of MapleBrook Press and Abigail Harris from Beyond the Bookery. My collection is going to come out some time around the end of summer/beginning of fall, and it's a retelling of The Ugly Duckling!
what has changed?
Well, some of you may have noticed that about half my published posts and their comments have ✨disappeared✨. Don't worry, this was done intentionally. The reason being that most of them were simply cringy. They were from three-and-four years ago when I first started my blog, and they don't fit with the vibe I want to bring now, do pfft off them go!
A few other things:
i will likely not be posting as often as i used to - i want time to write and pour into others, and when i do get content to you guys, i want it to be from the heart
i will, however still be sending my monthly (at least, they're supposed to be monthly) newsletters, which you can sign up for HERE.
if my new aesthetic isn't for you, then please don't feel like you need to stick around. not everyone will understand what i've done, and that's okay. <3
That's all for today, friends. I know not when I shall return, but until then,
"May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face; the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand."
Love this, girl!!