September Sizzles: Monthly Missives from The Dream Pedlar
Announcing a new book release, sharing my story on a public art sign, and feeling thoroughly happy at resuming our usual monthly correspondence
Oh, what joy it gives me to type those two words of salutation to you after a brief hiatus over the summer!
Of course, I had pre-scheduled a short tale to reach you in end-August, but nothing compares to opening up a draft in the days leading up to the last Sunday of the month and starting to compose a missive to you.
I hope your summer was good and that autumn is bringing you bright blue skies, leaves in all shades of red and gold, and a refreshing nip in the air to make your warm cuppa even more comforting.
I had a grand summer with family visiting. Many interesting writing-related things also happened in this time. Plus, this newsletter also comes bearing lots of gifts. So let's get started with all the news, updates and reflections!
On Writing
A new book of mine is out!
If you're surprised, I totally get it. I too had no idea until a few days ago that I had a completed manuscript — edited and proofread with a cover designed too — lurking in one my folders.
All I needed to do was to put all the pieces together and publish it for the world to see. Took me only three years to finally do it. Yes! It's been 3 years since I finished writing Blue-Skinned Mystics!
Magic saved his village. Now, magic wants his soul.
The blue-skinned mystics descend on the village of Hanish, a land ravaged by drought and famine, and transform it into an oasis.
All it takes to heal the barren village is a single drop of tear that rolls down the cheek of eight-year-old Ari.
Or so it seems, until Ari begins to turn blue. Evidently, the saviours of his land intend to take more than they have given.
Sacrifices must be made for the greater good. And an innocent drop of tear is not enough.
Blue-Skinned Mystics is a literary fantasy tale, a coming-of-age story steeped in magic and mysticism, and a reminder that growing up entails its fair share of loss — of innocence, of simple-minded faith, and of the uncomplicated wonders of childhood.
This one's for you, dear Dreamer!
If you're a reader who wants something more than wishful thinking from your fantasy reads, and if you're brave enough to follow a child into the heart of transformation and sacrifice, get your copy of Blue-Skinned Mystics.
*Available in ebook and paperback. Ebook is free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers.
Meanwhile, I've also been making slow and steady progress on my current WIP —Book 2 of a fantasy duology. I've come to trust the process, so I know the story will unfold in its own time.
I also find it hard to talk about a work in progress, because of how it shape-shifts and morphs as it evolves. So I suppose I won't have much more to say on this duology until it's actually done. But when I write The End, you will be the first to know. As always.
Tales For Dreamers
Tales For Dreamers is back! Since the beginning of this month, I've been back to posting stories weekly — both in written form on my website and in narrated form on my YouTube channel! Fridays are when the magic happens!
Two of these tales — 'startling rewards for the brave', and 'more stairs to explore' — are based on images taken in Halifax. The other two — 'don't feed the hungry goslings' and 'the trains are waiting' — are inspired by local scenes.
All four are utterly whimsical. More droll and wry than my usual fare, I suspect. Read them and let me know what you think!
And over on my YouTube channel, I have some gems up this month. I usually don't pick favourites, but this month there's a special place in my heart for The Piano Man!
It is a story of music and of the end of summer. I wrote this tale exactly 10 years ago, inspired by the sight of a man playing a piano outdoors on a sidewalk in the beautiful city of Montréal.
Give it a listen! You will be transported to a musical, long-ago summer afternoon; worth it, even if only for a few, precious minutes.
And since I really, really can't pick favourites, let me also point you to The Clandestine Meeting of Gods to Discuss the Growing Wish-Lists of Human Beings.
This is set to a tune with disco beats! Intrigued? Give it a listen and tell me what you think.
Life, Unadulterated
In more exciting news this month, a flash fiction piece of mine is up as a public art sign as part of the ongoing nationwide Culture Days celebration in Canada!
My short tale, titled Alternative Uses For Public Art Signs, was one among 20 written and illustrative works chosen for display by the city of Burlington this year!
If you're in town, this is up at the Beachway Park playground (further down from Joseph Brant hospital on Lakeshore Road). The installations are up until 12 October!
Meanwhile, life has been chugging along. KrA (my husband) turned a year older this month. To celebrate his birthday, we went and checked out a Virtual Reality Escape Room for the very first time!
It was a super surreal experience to simply put on those headsets and step into another world that looked and felt uncannily real.
So much so that I was terrified to cross a narrow beam, falling from which would have hurtled me down an abyss in the VR world but would have had zero consequences in the real world!
Funny how our minds — and bodies, perhaps — can fail to distinguish between illusion and reality even when faced with irrefutable evidence!
Later that evening, KrA and I were scrolling through the pictures and videos the manager was kind enough to take while we were immersed in the VR world.
They were hilarious! The kind of gestures we were making and the actions we were doing made no sense whatsoever looking from the outside in.
Without the bubble of that illusory world, the context was gone and we looked rather insane, seeing and talking about things that didn't really exist.
Now I get why the world is so commonly referred to as Maya, or illusion, in Indian constructs.
I often used to wonder how things that feel so real — chai so hot it can scald my tongue, the fragrance of my little one's freshly shampooed hair, the cosy warmth of a blanket on a cool autumn night — could be dismissed as illusory. The pain we feel when we stub our toes is very real indeed!
What if the illusion is not those external things per se?
Perhaps the illusion is the result of the filter through which we see the outside world.
It's what we perceive through the lens of our beliefs and opinions.
It's the filter of our judgements and interpretations that distorts reality and presents a version of it that reinforces our beliefs.
It's the voice in our head that keeps screaming 'this is good' or 'that is bad' and refuses to entertain any other perspective whatsoever.
For instance, until not too long ago I was stubbornly of the belief that if the sky was blue and the sunshine warm, then my time was best spent outdoors.
I believed this so strongly that on those occasions if I had to stay indoors, I'd think I was doing something wrong. I'd be gasping in the clutches of FOMO. I'd feel terrible thinking I was letting this opportunity slip, that I wasn't carpe diem-ing enough.
Needless to say, that was a perfect way of ruining an otherwise perfect day.
Because when I told myself that sitting by the window or in the yard and reading a Charles Todd book was a perfectly valid way of enjoying a warm summer afternoon, that turned out to be true as well.
Your turn now! What kind of beliefs are you clinging to that do nothing but distort your reality? What would it take to drop them? Write to me and let me know!
Books You May Love
Reading had taken a bit of a backseat in the beginning of summer. I went back to books for comfort in the slump that ensued after my family's visit came to an end.
I first picked up Charles Todds' The Red Door, an Inspector Ian Rutledge mystery, in which the Scotland Yard detective gets entangled in a missing persons case. This tale is set in the post-WWI era; after-war life was just as harrowing as war had been, even if in starkly different ways.
The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave was an easy-to-read mystery. Two step-siblings get together to investigate the death of their father, which has been ruled an accident. They suspect it was murder. It's a love story and a mystery and family drama all rolled into one, yet reading it felt light and airy and not at all heavy. The coastal California setting may have also contributed to that breezy feeling.
Listen For The Lie by Amy Tintera was an excellent and thrilling small-town murder mystery. Lucy was accused of murdering her best friend, Savvy, several years ago. But she was never arrested owing to lack of evidence. Now, a true-crime podcast host is intent on investigating this mystery. And thus the can of worms is opened. It was definitely an entertaining read and I enjoyed how it all ended.
King Of Envy by Ana Huang is the first steamy, billionaire bad-boy romance I've read. I rarely read romance, so this was a very entertaining and eye-opening read for me. A supermodel, Ayana, is set to enter a marriage of mutual convenience with her close friend, but finds herself falling for the best man instead. What could possibly go wrong?!
That brings us to the end of another edition of Monthly Missives, dear Dreamer!
Thank you for giving me space in your inbox; writing these letters to you and hearing back from you are some of the things I cherish the most about this writing life.
The rest of the year already looks busier than I had anticipated, so I look forward to sharing more fun updates and musings with you in October!
~ Anitha