Full Moon Letter 🌝 A Book Announcement!
Sending newsletters with the moon phases is a thing now. Moon letters. Get with it.
November’s full moon is known as the Beaver Moon. 🦫 (I know they’re the symbol of Canada, but I’ve never even seen one IRL. Tragic.) Google also tells me this moon is “in Gemini,” and my Sagittarian friend recently told me that it is now “sag szn.”
Aside from relating to Scorpio memes, I’m not much for astrology. But I appreciate that the moon and stars still hold such mystery and magic for us down here on Earth. And, like the moon, people go through cycles throughout life, so why not embrace the moon’s cycle and use its phases to reflect on our own lives?
Full moons are a time of “culmination and anticipation” and the “realization of something inside you becoming concrete in the physical world.” So, it seems like a good time to announce that I’m writing a book!
I’m writing a book!
My book is a collection of short stories inspired by fairy tales titled Ebony, Blood, and Snow: New Stories from Old Tales.
I’ve been writing fairy tale stories for a few years, and this year, I got serious about writing 13 stories for my first book.
How did Snow White’s mother become so vain? What if Cinderella didn’t go to the ball? When does the maiden become the monster?
Inspired by familiar fairy tales, author Tish Black’s debut short story collection takes the tales in new directions and rewrites history. Little Red hunts wolves, Gretel helps the witch, and Bluebeard’s wife gets revenge. These unconventional heroines fight the patriarchy with no time for romance— unless it’s queer. Fans of Angela Carter’s radical feminist fairy tale retellings will find a kindred spirit in Black’s collection of transgressive stories.
I’m sure you’re intrigued and desperate to get your hands on it. I don’t have a release date for you yet. I’m deep in the messy rewriting/editing/writing-new-stories-to-replace-stories-I’ve-decided-don’t-fit phase. Since I’m self-publishing, I have no deadline master but myself. I’m tempted to have the release date on April 8, the date of the solar eclipse in North America. But I also hope I can release it much earlier than that! Whenever it happens, there will be a pre-order period during which I will sell signed copies!
If you’ve been following me on Instagram and/or TikTok, you may have caught me reading some of my original stories. Those stories are included in the book but are getting an overhaul in the editing process.
Here’s a sneak peek at the story titles (in no particular order)…
Ebony
Red
Ash
Plum
Indigo
Bone
Lapis
Thistle
Roan
Night
Pine
Amethyst
Lily
I bet you could guess the tales of some of them by their name…
Thanks for being subscribed to my newsletter! As I approach the end of book writing and move into book promotion, I plan to send out more moon letters with book updates and more. I’m also working on my next video essay, which I will release before my book. (It’s about Cinderella movies!)
Ever after,
.tish
P.S. The darkness is upon us, meaning Yuletide is approaching. I always end up down Wikipedia holes learning about Santa and his international alternatives and other winter solstice traditions. What’s your favourite winter solstice creature from around the world? (I’m partial to The Bleaken. Who can resist a Bob’s Burgers song?!)