Hi Reader,

Happy New Year!

I try to keep these updates mostly positive, but 2025 was the worst year of my life. I'm very glad to have it in the rearview mirror.

Life

My little brother died suddenly and horribly just before the holidays started. So many people I care about have died lately. At this point, I feel like a combat soldier, shellshocked, traumatized, and constantly on guard for the next horrible thing to happen.

Friends and family have been giving me a lot of support, and I super appreciate that. Thank you all.

One good note is that my puppies are now officially grownup dogs. They turned one year old December first. They've been a tremendous source of comfort. And stolen hair ties.

Writing News

I'd hoped to spend December polishing the finished draft of the new humorous paranormal romance which was about 85% drafted at the beginning of November, and also make some forward progress on the fourth Liliana book. Instead, I had a hard time getting anything done at all in the last two months.

In the end, I managed to write over 3000 words the last two days of November to finish the draft of "A Wolf Burned Once." Only about 11K words written all month, not the 30 - 50K I planned, but at least one draft was finished.

MS Word decided not to save any of those 3000 words. Just didn't save anything I wrote for about a week. No version history, no autosaved file, nothing saved the many times I pushed the SAVE icon, nada. The work I finally managed to pull out of my beleaguered soul is just - gone.

After that, I discovered that SoftMaker Office is totally compatible with Word docs, Powerpoint and Excel files. And wonder of wonders, when you push the SAVE icon, it saves the file. Wow. What a concept.

Still, that setback on top of everything else was hard to recover from. I'm back writing again now, but still way behind where I want to be. It may be a while before I can announce a new book.

Free Story!

Since I won't have a new book out for a while, I'm going to send you some stories in the meantime. I just posted one on my blog: Helicopter Parents. My day job for the last 30 years has been in the area of data management and analysis software that enables AI, but I've been horrified to see how generative AI is being used to destroy the livelihoods of creative people.

Ironically, I heard the "Artificial General Intelligence can't be far now" rallying cry a few years back, as if that were a good thing. Let's just ignore Skynet and Ultron and a thousand other warnings about sentient AI deciding humans need to go. Even if AGI was perfect, IMHO it would still be terrible if we put it to the uses we're trying to put generative AI to now - namely replacing our own creativity.

So, I wrote a story about the unintended consequences of building a benevolent, wonderfully compassionate AGI. Flametree Press put it into the Learning to Be Human anthology along with a lot of brilliant stories from modern and historical authors that explore the edges of what it means to be human. But I wanted you guys to be able to read it, and realized I had the rights back now. So, enjoy!

WGW Writer Group

My writing crit group has been something of a lifeline, although I've skipped a lot of weekly meetings lately from lack of spoons.

In the last five years, this group has gone from nearly all unpublished members with a few exceptions to nearly all published. It's a great group of writers dedicated to improving their craft, and a great group of friends. From Elizabeth Moon who has published like 50 books over the last 40 years, to Tom Thompson who just sold his first story to Amazing.

Another member, my friend Shlomi (AKA Sol Sharp), created a group website where we can all post updates. I'll probably copy that blog post with Helicopter Parents in it over to the group site once you've had first crack at reading it. Check out the website to see what's up with a whole group of great writers. https://whitegoldwielders.com​

Laura Greenwood Cozy Fantasy

One thing I'd like to do in each of these newsletters from now on is trade promotions with other authors who write books similar to mine. Basically, I tell you about their books, and they tell their readers about mine. This means, while you're waiting for my slow butt to finish writing my next book, you get recommendations of other great authors with similar types of books. Laura's books have shifters, a bit of humor, and a bit of cozy comfort found family vibes, so it's highly likely that if you like my stuff, you'll like hers.

She posted about Precise Oaths to her readers back when it was on sale. I was meant to send out an email to let you know about her book, Heart of Jackals, in early November. I was already behind when my world went sideways. Laura has been incredibly understanding about letting me post about her books whenever I'm ready.

So, I'd take it as a personal favor if you'd check out her book, Heart of Jackals here: https://books.authorlauragreenwood.co.uk/heartofjackals​

Promoting

By the way, I'd appreciate it if you would follow Paige E. Ewing on Bookbub. It helps me with ads and such to spread the word, and I've been putting a bit more effort into that area.

In fact, new character art, and new book covers for my books are in progress now and coming soon. I'm tempted to put a draft or two here, but I'd rather show you the final. Don't be surprised if you get another newsletter very soon with cool pics in it.

And please, please, if you have read any of my stuff and haven't reviewed it on Amazon and Bookbub, write me a review! It doesn't have to be anything in-depth, just honest. Having a fair number of reviews helps boost visibility on bookseller websites and promo sites like Bookbub.

Hurling Pointy Things

I have been seeking mental peace in a pretty weird way, mainly throwing axes. At this point, my aim, even at 20 feet, is getting pretty decent. Petting my cat, playing with my dogs, and throwing sharp things have been immensely soul-soothing activities lately.

Now, I'm aiming to have a far better year in 2026.

Cheers,

Paige

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