I hope those who celebrated had a nice Thanksgiving!
So because "The
Advocate" took so long, I didn't get to a lot of what I
wanted to do this year. So in 2024, I will be playing
catch up! But first I need to finish out 2023 so here's
what to expect...
JABB 664- Likely I'll do my typical year-end, "here's what's
going on with the assorted characters" synopses just to kinda
fill-in-the-blanks because a lot of them did have big milestones
in late 2022/throughout 2023.
JABB 665- This will be the annual Christmas story which will be
a bit different this year... or rather more like last
year's. It will be fairly short and more of a
rom-com. This one will actually be set the weekend of Dec.
16th/17th. The gist of it is that JenniAnn's parents
desperately want a Christmas weekend with their daughter and
grandkids staying at their place... which means Andrew gets to
experience the weirdness of staying with JenniAnn in her teenage
era bedroom.
JABB 666- This will be the first newsletter of 2024 and with an
ominous number like that, it felt like I should do something
with it. So "The Advocate" originally had a subplot
in which word of Ed's redemption started making its way around
Hell. And this following Yehuda's return to Joshua and
Crowley's later literal come-to-Jesus moment. But because
demons are not known for their allegiance to truth or their
attention to detail, the story gets a bit skewed. So what
ends up going around is that the dreaded Andrew's anam cara has
the power to restore demons to their angelic status. So
regretful demons begin to seek out JenniAnn for this help.
She, obviously, does not actually have that power but realizes
she can use the story to her advantage. It draws demons in
and then she and her angelic helpers can tell them "Yeah,
actually you just needed to call for His mercy. It's as
simple as that. So... do that." Anyway, I'm glad now
that I cut it from "The Advocate" because by making it its own
story, I can bring in some characters that I really miss.
Because I don't think JenniAnn would undertake such a mission
without running it by Andrew, of course, but also her
family. So that means consulting with the extended
Wells-Chandler-Al-Mitra clan... with an assist from the Sayer
Kostan family since they have a lot of experience with the
aftermath of trauma. I definitely will NOT have time to
finish the story before JABB 666 is due but will hopefully be
able to share the first scene or two there. If not, I do
have some pre-written random snippets to share.
February 2024 will bring the annual Valentine's Vignettes... the
subjects of which are yet to be determined.
Another story later into 2024 will be a sort of sequel to "The
Lost Sheep" which will feature Ed and Steve getting
married. It's going to be a frame story beginning around
2028 and then covering the early years of their marriage via
flashbacks. It'll also answer some of the questions from
TLS and "The Advocate" including who the other pair of
angel/human anam caras in Aotearoa is and why Karl has a
portal-hopping bird. We'll also learn how Ed and Steve
ended up with Anahera, their daughter. And we'll get to
see Joshua give a father of the grooms speech.
I also have another story that I'd been working on concurrently
with "The Advocate." It's set in early 2023 and is about
Andrew dealing with JenniAnn getting COVID. Whenever TA
got too heavy and I felt overwhelmed, I'd go work on that for a
bit. But then when I really got going with TA, I never got
around to finishing this one. So hopefully I will in
2024. It is largely fluff.
Beyond that, pages like the Dyeland
Map, Characters'
Birth Dates & More List, and Characters'
Name Meanings are woefully out-of-date. So I'd like
to spend a little time getting those updated.
Anyway, that's the plan! We'll see how it works out.
I am, frankly, exhausted between the writing and getting ready
for Christmas so I was going to end the newsletter here.
But I also want new puzzles. So below I present three new
puzzles related to Dyeland/Asteriana characters! I hope
you, like me, can take a few quiet moments with coffee or tea or
something to quietly do a puzzle or something you enjoy.
God bless,
Jenni
Dyeland/Asteriana Animal
Puzzles
A bat for JenniAnn who adores them...
Some sheep
for Violeta with a turkey for Adam...
And my dog,
Leo, who is the model for Andrew's Ichabod...
This newsletter is dedicated to John Dye for
inspiring so many of my winter/Christmas traditions.
JABB
Portal
JABB TOC
JABB
664
(Photo
Credits: The photograph used on this page is from Touched
by an Angel and owned by CBS Productions, Caroline
Productions, and Moon Water Productions. It is not
being used to seek profit.)
