Sherry D. Ramsey's Blog

Here’s last month’s reading wrap-up–it was a great reading month again! You can check out all the titles by finding me on The Storygraph here: https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/sdramsey. Let’s be reading friends!

This weekend I got to type my two favourite words: “The End.”

Some writers don’t bother typing this when they finish a story or novel, but for me, it’s a rite of passage. Sure, it’s only a draft; a messy, sparse, sometimes incoherent draft that will need a lot more work. But that draft is done, and I’m going to put the stamp on the end of that stage of the writing.

It feels great.

And I just started the sequel.

I know, I know–it’s almost the middle of February. Look, with everything going on in *waves vaguely at the world*, I only just changed my kitchen calendar over to this month. AND I only just discovered these cool graphics from StoryGraph.

Now, audiobooks seem to be the clear winner here, but I should say I’m also reading a couple of ebooks. They just take me longer because I tend to read on my e-reader at bedtime, and lately, there are often only a couple of paragraphs in between turning it on and dropping it because I’m falling asleep. I’ll try to do better, I promise! And to all the print books languishing in my TBR pile…I’ll get to you, too, I promise. Just as soon as I’m not trying to do a zillion other things every day.

I have to say I’m having fun with all the different ways to see your stats on StoryGraph. I’m very glad I made the switch! Now I just need a few more friends there…(hint, hint).

I don’t tend to write many reviews any more, but I do always give star ratings. This month I had three 5-stars, three 4.5-stars, and only one 3-star, so it was a good reading month! (Oh, you want to know which books got which rating? I guess you’ll have to click over to my profile and see!)

As older social media continues to crash and burn around us, it occurred to me that maybe I should show this site some love, and start updating it more often (more on the social media thing soon). For now, I’m at least going to start sharing the “At My Desk” section of my monthly newsletter here as a little update. So here’s the most recent one, from my January 18th newsletter. :)

At My Desk – Jan 18, 2025
The new term has started and we have some snow on the ground (although not much!), and the weather is chilly (but not too bad). So although I’m not a winter gal at all, I don’t have too much to complain about in that department.

Yes, I’m sure it will get worse. But I’m trying not to think about it.

Progress is slow but steady on my cozy fantasy, which is unfortunately NOT titled “I Never Met an Orc Who Chewed Bubble Gum,” as newsletter subscriber Michael suggested. :) However, I’ve tucked it away for future consideration…

The slow but steady progress is due in large part to the 100 Days Writing Challenge, which I’m happy to say is keeping my fingers on the keyboard at least a little bit each day. This is good for me at a time of year when motivation tends to sag with the arrival of long grey days and a serving of seasonal affective disorder. If I had my choice, I’d probably curl up most nights with a mug of tea and Animal Crossing on my Switch, but that wouldn’t be good for me in the long run! Most days I’ve managed to write a good deal more than the minimum goal, which is making me happy.

Have you set any reading goals for 2025? For now I’m mostly tracking mine in StoryGraph, so if you use it, too, let’s be friends!

Several years ago, I released an RPG gaming supplement called Hooks & Histories, offering backstory starters for player characters, NPCs, or even fictional characters. Along with a customizable backstory, each character type comes with a “Qualities & Quirks” section that can add another layer to the character and may be incorporated into gameplay if the player and GM wish. It’s been fairly popular, so I’m pleased to announce that I’ve re-released it with new cover art, and also released a Volume 2 with even more backstories to choose from.

The new cover art is by my talented daughter Emily, whom you can follow on Instagram @may.bringer, or visit her Etsy shop here for original and fan art, stickers, charms and more.

If you’re a gamer, writer, or know someone who is, you can find the system-agnostic game supplements at DriveThruRPG (along with a fun one-shot adventure module I wrote a few years back as well). They’re all at this link.

After a bit of much-needed mental recovery time, I’m back at my desk a bit more this week. Although NaNoWriMo has imploded to some extent for me, the intense writing months of April, July, and November are very much ingrained for me at this point, so I’m tackling another unfinished manuscript to see if I can revive it. I think I’ll keep the specifics quiet until I have a better idea of how it’s going to go, but I might be able to see a path through the murk of half-forgotten plotlines. I’ll update later in the month.

The gardens have been taking up a lot of my attention…to the point where I think I re-activated an old carpal tunnel issue. So it’s back to wrist braces and trying not to overdo it for a couple of weeks. However, the results are worth it, as you can see if you follow me on Instagram! (where I post a lot of garden pics!)

I caught a cool video of a great blue heron fishing the other day, which you can see over on my Facebook page. He’s very patient and persistent, just like writers have to be. ;)

And The Fifth Force is out in the wild in both ebook and print formats. If you love any of the things mentioned below, you should check it out!

As you might have noticed from the first page banner, The Fifth Force is up for pre-order! I’ve set the release date tentatively as June 1st, but it’s very likely to be out before that. I have to wrap it up for my Patreon followers first, of course! They’ve been enjoying (I hope!) early access to the serialized version since last year. You can find all the pre-order links as they come online at my Books2Read page for the book. The pre-order price is only $2.99.

And of course, just today I thought of a fun pre-order bonus idea, which I’m about to try to put together if life and my brain cooperate. Stay tuned!

“The next nearest inhabited planet had just been blown into its constituent particles…In response, the thaumic force of that world—colloquially known as magic—had mere seconds ago fled the planet like the proverbial rat from a sinking ship, and was in search of a likely place to relocate.”

Sometimes magic manifests early in a planet’s life, sometimes late. Sometimes it never appears at all.

Sometimes it appears at exactly the wrong time, and in exactly the wrong way.

Now Ulric has a head full of words he doesn’t understand, and the results can be explosive. Heline has discovered a talking hat that’s helping her write songs. Nerlim thinks his staunch belief in the existence of a mysterious fifth force will finally be vindicated, if he can escape from the nursing home and track it down. Gammy just wants to see her moon launch succeed…and Wint would rather go home and lie down, if it’s all the same to everyone.

And in this ultimate power struggle between magic and technology, the trans-dimensional beings of the Convocation also want a piece of the action.

There’s no way this could go badly…

Now that my website is (finally!) working again, I really should post about my latest novel, shouldn’t I? Even if it’s not exactly shiny-new any more. :)

When a legally blind woman asks Olympia Investigations to investigate the murder of an apparent shapeshifter, Acacia pays attention, even if the local police won’t. Following the scent of the murderer, Acacia becomes deeply involved with the shifter community of Turnabout Landing–which is nothing like what she expects. The trail of accusations and networks leads to vampires, a missing lighthouse keeper, a deadly shifter virus, and the echoes of a past case.

With her assistant Oliver keeping secrets, her relationship with Detective Ellis Ames turning rocky, and Acacia finding herself a target of an unknown foe, she’s barely keeping ahead of a pack of troubles in The Shifter Plague, the first full-length novel in the Olympia Investigations series.

This novel actually started life as a novella, but the more I wrote, the longer it got. ;) Funny how that happens sometimes, isn’t it?

Anyway, The Shifter Plague is on sale right now until March 16th across platforms, for just $2.99. And the Olympia Investigations novella, Toil and Trouble, is just 1.99 during the same period. It’s a great time to get to know Acacia and Oliver!

Whew! Most of the website renovations are complete and the dust is swept up. I’m still freshening up the paint here and there, but everything should be working pretty well now. I’ve tied my Payhip store in to the site for a reasonably seamless experience…check it out! And let me know if you find anything very broken, so I can add it to my to-do list!

My mother and I had a tradition over a number of years that we called “art night.” We would get together one night a week, sometimes with other family members, and “do” art. We might draw, sketch, colour, paint, create digital art…whatever we felt like. There are many levels of ability among us–some of our number could possibly be professional artists, but mostly we’re just hobbyists. Occasionally we turned out something we were proud of. Our ability and talent, for the most part, waxes and wanes according to how much practice we give it.

A bit of digital map art in Inkarnate

It also made for a nice social evening, as long as we weren’t concentrating too hard on what we were doing, so there’s lots of chatting and conversation. A time to unwind and relax.

Many people claim to have absolutely no talent for art of any kind–“can’t draw a straight line” sort of thinking, but I often wonder if they’ve ever really tried. I think that although inborn artistic talent is not run-of-the-mill common, I’ve seen how much a person can learn and improve with some instruction (like getting a good learn-to-draw book) and practice. Practice, practice. Fortunately, this type of practice is also fun.

I’m a big proponent of creative endeavours in just about any form. I think it’s good for our brains to be creative. Learning to work out solutions to creativity problems aids in solving other life problems, too. Creating is also a great way to work through or alleviate stress and emotional turbulence. Time slows down and expands when we focus on something creative, whether it’s painting, drawing, scuplture, crafting, sewing, woodworking, or something else entirely. I think it’s good for writers, too, to have other creative outlets in addition to writing. Exercising all your creative muscles leads to greater overall creative health than simply concentrating on one or two.

And speaking of health, there’s an interesting article here (http://jamesclear.com/make-more-art) on the health benefits of art, music, and other creative endeavours.

If you haven’t done anything creative lately, why not give it a try? You might end up less stressed, more happy, and healthier. Sounds like a worthwhile time investment to me.