Welcome!
To the Newsletter, to 2025, to the latest edition to the fam
Long Overdue I know
In true 2024 fashion, things didn’t go to plan and the year ended before I could get this newsletter out. Here’s to 2025 being an improvement, but I feel a bit like this meme
Thanks for being here!
Many of you are here probably from the facebook event I participated in, the T.A.L.E.S reader appreciation event. I’m so happy you’re here! For those who are new—which, honestly is everyone as this is a fairly new pen name!— allow me to introduce myself.
I use the name Emma Jo taken from family names. Emma was a great-grandmother (and also a great character I created early 2000s back in my fanfiction days—eek!) and Jo is a family name. Apparently I did so well when I posted on my personal facebook page all my cousins were like ‘are we related to her?’
I use a pen name to separate from my professional work. I publish in academia under my government name.
My first short story appeared in T.A.L.E.S of Wondrously Wicked Witches. Meet Violet!
Violet begins a new series, DEMON Daughters. Five sisters in every sense of the word except blood. Raised together with world-shaking powers that come as easy as breathing. The problem? A generational curse for the last 300 years since their ancestors were killed in a witch-trial in Swampscott a decade after Salem. In “Violet”, we meet our titular character: artist, second daughter, and sent on a quest by her prophetess sister to where everything began (Massachusetts) to find a lock. The series straddles Urban Fantasy and Magical Realism. It doesn’t have the noir of Urban Fantasy but the magic is more in-your-face than magical realism (I jokingly call it Urban Fantasy lite).
I’m so proud of how this turned out considering the word limit! I have been thinking of this story for years, and it felt magical to finally start putting words on paper.
Meet Violet
Fun fact: I have aphantasia. I thought it was common, didn’t think too much about that until tiktok. Never heard of it? It means the inability to form mental pictures while reading (weird for an author, I know!). It varies from person to person, for me it is like ghostly images running across my mental screen as I read; never fully formed and missing a lot of detail (so all those pages dedicated to description in Tolkien are loss on me). One thing I have started to do is use ai to generate the images of key characters and places. It helps me to visualize but also to give me an idea if I’m missing key description pieces (or locations for physical things like buildings).
quick disclaimer: I don’t use AI in my work. This is purely for my own help and amusement (and hopefully yours!). If you are an artist (especially an indigenous artist!) please reach out! I have need of artists for a few projects!
This is one of my favorites of Violet. Inspired by the scene of her painting on the beach in the back of their Swampscott home. A little homage to Phillip as he is totally a golden retriever type 😉
For 2025:
Violet’s story will be expanded. To at least a short story length (so plus 20k words, minimum). I have plans already for the next sister in the series (#Spoilers) but want to give more time to Violet and Phillip before we do. Especially since it ends with a bang 😉
first look
To that end, look at this gorgeous cover by Natasha Arts! I’m in love!
Again, thank you for being here! For more frequent interactions you can follow me over on facebook at www.facebook.com/EmmaJoGregory
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