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Archive for the ‘Steampunk’ Category

The Prudential Light-launches tomorrow

Posted in A writer's life, blurb, new release, Steampunk, strong female lead, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 15, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The ebook is loaded on all the platforms.

I’ve started the process for print production. Just in time because Frauke, the cover designer is taking off on holidays! There will be a paper back version, a hardback version and a large print accessible version (mostly for libraries).

We have updated the blurb. I saw ‘we’ because Matthew Farrer did the hard yards. I send him my thoughts and he turns them into blurbs.

New and updated blurb

A book of manners, magic and mayhem

Aunt Prudence Wainwright, famously daunting dragon lady of the Hardcastle family, has set herself to writing her memoirs. But which Prudence will have her story come out?  

Will it be the maiden aunt who lived quietly in a small village, bringing up her niece Milly and sewing and embroidering to her heart’s content? Maybe it will be the outrageously-dressed, old busybody whose battle of wills with her niece, Jemima, unfolded in Ruby Heart? Better yet, the doughty old warrior hidden under the lace and brocade, who fought off villains with her hatpins and umbrella in Emerald Fire?  Perhaps it will be the family matriarch featured in Amber Rose, prim, dependable, astute at procuring baked goods and deft at baby wrangling, who is at times a tad flirtatious with the older gentry?  Or will these memoirs reveal yet another side of Prudence that the rest of the Hardcastles have yet to see?

With the family’s magical gifts running through her veins, there will be plenty to astonish her relations: adventures, abandonment, heartbreak, secret loves, and dangers. But with new babies on the scene, marriage proposals, battles with rogue magicians, and the very past she is recalling bursting back into her life in startling ways, how will she ever find the time to finish writing!

I’m very excited to see it out there in the world. I can’t wait for feedback, truly. It might be a bit different from the other books in the series.

I’ve started work on The Gentleman Magician but I’m getting lots of ideas for Book 5 so much so that I found it hard to sleep last night. I’m going to be playing around with tropes and cliches. I’m currently contemplating a title too.

Some pre order links but it is also listed on Google Play Books, Barnes and Noble.

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Surgery day

Posted in A writer's life, Romance, RWA Conference, Steampunk, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 19, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The day has come. I have surgery, a vitrectomy, this afternoon. To say I’m not looking forward to it is an understatement. I have a few fears. One that the surgery won’t happen. Two that I will lose the plot while having it. (Shit scared might cover it) I’ll be awake you see (Holy moley!). That it won’t work and I’ll have to have another surgery and you know loss of vision. That I’ll have to have a cataract surgery in about a year, if the predicted rapid growth of cataract after surgery happens. That I might have other eye issues in future or with the other eye. The macular hole was totally unexpected. I get checked annually for macular degeneration and glaucoma.

I will be missing the RWA in Hobart! I will have EMO (experiencing missing out) as Matthew told me as FOMO is fear of missing out and I’ll be definitely missing out.

I only got half of my conference fee back and I was lucky to get that. The committee’s advice is to take out travel insurance. A bit late for me though. However, in future I will consider it as I usually don’t take out insurance when I travel domestically. Recall how Matthew and I got COVID when we were heading to the Terror Australis Writing Retreat? That was a lot of bucks and luckily we were able to stay and do the workshops via phone. Not ideal but the best outcome in the circumstances.

A win though for me. I have been able to massage my draft of The Prudential Light into something beta readers can wade through. I sent that off to four of them so it will be interesting to see the feedback. My take on it that I will need to really hone the structure down. I thought I had been introduced to a good editor but they did not answer my email about a quote and timing and I’m afraid a non-responsive editor is a horror story I don’t need. I even texted them and they said I’m in holiday mode will respond tomorrow and they didn’t. Oh well. Time to look for another. Not that I have issues with editors I use at the moment, but as this is a complicated structure for me and has memoir elements I thought I needed to find a specialist and someone who can suggest things, rather than a copy edit, if you get my drift. In the worse case scenario I can do it myself. I did study editing and considered hiring myself out but that’s a lot of creative energy that I can use for my own work.

Anyhow, time to go write a newsletter and send that out.

Cheers!

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The Prudential Light Cover Reveal

Posted in A writer's life, cover reveal, Creative passion, Steampunk, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Frauke, the fantastic designer from Crocobooks, has outdone herself with this wonderful cover for The Prudential Light, Cry Havoc Book Four.

I love this so much. Originally I wanted a silhouette of an older woman but once I saw this one, I realised that was how Prudence sees herself and how she would want to be remembered. The skinny, pretty young thing. You might notice so Chinese influences in the cover and that’s part of the story as is the magnolia.

Originally this was going to be a novella, but as you know from previous posts, lots of story came out while I was in Singapore and in the pool and there was also a front story of what was happening with Jemima and crew and then the memoir component. Now it’s going to be a novel, if a bit shorter than the earlier ones.

Now I might have mentioned I was also going to do a story about Edward, Fulton and Dr Heaton. It is sort of a prequel, but isn’t. This story is about how they met, how they fixed Fulton etc. Well guess what kiddos!!! Another cover reveal.

I have not started this one yet. But look! I love it. I realise it says novel right now. However, I do think it is a novella or shorter novel. However, when the time comes I’ll adjust the cover if necessary. Fingers crossed I get this written by the end of the year. Next blog post will reveal some health issues that might impact my writing for a bit.

Originally the title was going to be Edward Huntington Esquire: Gentleman Magician but that was way too many words if I was to stick to the style of the other books. So I trimmed it to Gentleman Magician. I also went for a younger model. The first iteration had a bowler and didn’t look right. The joys of self publishing.

Remember if you like any of my books, please leave a review or rating as it really helps.

Also if you haven’t read any Cry Havoc books, Ruby Heart, book one is currently free until August 15.

Apple

Google Play

Kobo

Barnes & Noble

Amazon

And on my bookstore.

Appearances

My partner Matthew Farrer (Black Library) and I will be guesting at Ozcomicon in Canberra this weekend. Fingers crossed.

I’ll be at Gamacon on 6 September in Canberra. That sounded so far away before but is coming in hot.

I’m also scheduled for Books and Beyond in Newcastle on 27 September.

I’ll have a table at Conflux in Canberra on 4-5 October.

On 18 October I will have a table at the Steampunk Faire in Goulburn. Hopefully I would have sewn my bustle gown by then.

And Newcastle Book Boyfriend on 22 November.

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Procrastawriting or taking care of business

Posted in A writer's life, Australian author, author appearances, Author signing event, Book cover, book signing, Conflux, Creative passion, fantasy, Geeking out, research, revision, Science fiction conventions, Steampunk, Victorian, tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Yesterday, I did zero work on my current WIP, The Prudential Light. I did not have the excuse of the previous couple of days of recovering from my shingles vaccination, which really did knock me about. I did procrastawriting.

I wrote and sent a newsletter, and prior to that I signed up to Benventi for preorders for Books and Beyond 28 September. That took time. Here is a link to that preorder form. This is evidence and also if you are in the Central Coast and want to check out the event, please do. I’d love to say hi. It’s a first time, small writer event, which I think is free for the public.

I’ll be at the Geekmarkets on the CSFG table in the morning of 19 July with some of my books on offer. Also, free and fun.

I’ve signed up to Gamacon 6 September and I will have another appearance in August to announce soon.

Early October, it’s Conflux in Canberra, where I’ll have a table too. Not sure if I’ll make it onto any panels yet. That’s 3-5 October over the long weekend. A great SF con and a real experience if you have never been. I am hoping to launch The Prudential Light there but if so I need to get cracking.

I have other events later in the year as well but that’s the next few.

I have ordered book covers for The Prudential Light and Edward Huntington Esquire: Gentleman Magician so keep your eye out for those. I’m super excited about those.

While I have mucked about for two days, I actually did do some work this morning on The Prudential Light. It requires some additional structure so I had to write some new bits and one section needs a bit of research. The word count is now 53,000 word and I am not sure if this will reach 70,000 by the time I’m done.

I am in the ‘this is a mess, everyone will hate it, I can’t make it good’ stage. Or trending that way. I am still having fun with Jemima and Aunt Prudence.

Now as you can see I am writing a blog post. Is this procrastawriting? Or a heavy dose of writerly admin? I find it a bit of a diversion and I like blogging. Often I think of things I want to blog about and then don’t get around to it and then forget.

Have I told you I have started a TikTok? I am very much a Noob and the platform has amazing potential but being time poor I don’t have time to explore it and I’m also distracted by all those TikToks. My lastest talk about how hard I find revision. I love drafting novels. The hard work is shaping them into something you can read. Hence, my angst over is it good enough, can I make it better and so on.

I also owe the blog some posts from China, which I will get to.

Now it is time to get another cuppa.

PS my daughter just made me tea, put the heater on, brought me slippers, my hoodie and a cookie. I’m so spoilt.

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Just a quick note from Guangzhou

Posted in A writer's life, China, Creative passion, Free book, revision, Steampunk, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Hi there

We arrived last night via train from Xi’an. We went Business Class, which was a godsend because we could lay the seat flat and we had space with just five chair and food. Great food. It was expensive and took 9 hours but an enjoyable ride.

(This post never got posted so it’s not last night!) So I’ll cut straight to photos.

On the platform

Below are the business class seats.

The gang!

Writing on the train

A shot of the view

Another bullet train

Railway food!

The hotel lobby

The view from the hotel room

Urgent yum cha!

These prawn dumplings are coloured and different flavours

This is my son’s favourite type of yumcha. They were so good, crunchy!

I’ve been back in Australia for a few days now. I’m still in Sydney and there are perks. I get to spend time with my daughter and it’s warmer than Canberra. However, my partner misses me. I really miss my Singapore life and the China trip was awesome. However, it’s back to real life.

On the writing side, I have a draft of The Prudential Light and now have to edit/revise and restructure it as well as find an editor. Today I have written to the cover designer for a cover. I’m very excited about this book. There was so much more to Aunt Prudence than I first thought.

Don’t forget

Ruby Heart is currently free and it’s been getting a good lot of downloads. It is soon to be promoted on Apple Books. The link to my store is here. So if you don’t have your copy get it now.

Or check out My books with buy links here.

I’m so excited about The Prudential Light, which I am going to call Book 4 because I have two layers of story, one is Aunt Prudence’s memoir and the other is what is going on in Aunt Prudence’s now with Jemima, Milly, Fulton and Edward.

There will be another book, Edward Huntington Esquire: Gentleman Magician, covering Edward’s story between sending Jemima to school and meeting her again at Primrose Manor. Basically, the story of Heaton and Edward meeting and then healing Fulton. No romance I think in this one. This may just been a series novel rather than a numbered book in the series. It’s a not quite sequel.

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Saying goodbye to Singapore and hello China

Posted in A writer's life, China, Creative passion, Cry Havoc series, research, Singapore, Steampunk, The Prudential Light, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 21, 2025| Leave a Comment »

We leave for China today. First stop Beijing. I think I can allow myself to get excited. I know the cats certainly are because they are bouncing around the place.

I have really enjoyed my time here. It has been a positive experience sharing space with my son, his wife Ferdi and their robobvac which is even now harassing my feet. I’ve made it to the pool every morning, with additional visits with the family on hot nights now and then when time permitted.

I’ve eaten way too much food and I was hoping the heat would lower my appetite but air con baby, that keeps me going. We had dinner at The Coconut Hut last night in Beach Road. It is high end Malaysian cuisine. The lamb was amazing and the beef cheek rendang rich. However, we did not linger and we were home fairly early. There was packing to do and so on.

I have been debating whether I should take my laptop to China. I think we will be so tired after sightseeing that I won’t have energy to write etc but I will on the flight there and back.

On the writing front, The Prudential Light draft is now at 50,000 words and I estimate it will be between 60,000 and 70,000 words. I am debating whether to call it book 4 in the cry havoc series because there is some now action that moves things along as well as the memoir/Aunt Prudence’s story. I have also been playing around with taglines.

Do tell me what you think…

The Prudential Light: A Gentlewoman’s Memoir

Manners, Magic, a little spot of mayhem and not enough scones.

However, some people have commented that I should leave ‘a little spot of” out.

Compared to Amber Rose baked goods do not feature as much as they ought to. However, I am revising and I might get hungry. I have managed to fit in some pork pie.

This morning as I was waking up I thought it could be something like…

The Prudential Light: A Gentlewoman’s Imperfect Memoir… as you might have guessed Jemima does scribble in Prudence’s notes on occasion and event critiques her work.

You might be able to tell that I had fun with this story. Aunt Prudence proved much more interesting than I expected. People have skeletons in the closet and she has her fair share.

Singapore has been a perfect inspiration for this story. From the hot, humid weather, to the time in the pool letting my mind wander and characters telling me what’s next and the two museums that helped me with setting and so on. Being out of my normal environment, I had time to focus on writing as well as do some outings.

I’ll always treasure this time. I will be back but just for a day before I head home. The good news is I have an invite back just need to figure out when that might be. I will have to make sure Matthew comes too then.

Oh by way, Ruby Heart is now free. If Amazon want to charge you ask for a price match. I’ve submitted links so I’m hoping they will come to the party.

Check out Ruby Heart and meet Jemima Hardcastle, brave, intrepid and game for anything.

Links.

My store.

Apple.

Barnes & Noble.

Kobo

Google

Amazon

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Singapore Sojourn Part 5

Posted in A writer's life, am wrinting, China, Creative passion, Cry Havoc series, research, Singapore, Steampunk, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 19, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I have been here three weeks and one day. Wow, time has flown. And on Saturday we fly out to Beijing for 12 days in China. What I thought might be a short side trip has become the big China trip and I feel the excitement building.

I made a few goals for my time in Singapore. Pool walking every morning. I have done this, sometimes with more enthusiasm and a few days with less. I am sleeping a bit longer than those initial days where I woke up at 5am. However, I can’t seem to sleep in past 7.30am. But I am reaching sleep goals according to my Apple watch. I’ve also road tested these two last days taking my Apple watch into the pool. It is a much better way of keeping track than lap counting. When I count laps I lose count because I starting thinking about Aunt Prudence.

My other goal was writing 30,000 words of the novella The Prudential Light, which is Aunt Prudence’s memoir in the Cry Havoc series. Well I am at 44,000 words so I should at least make 45,000 words today but you know there’s a lot going on in this story and it may be a novel after all. I blame the condo’s swimming pool for that because many of my ideas came to me while pool walking and losing track of how many laps I did. The reason I think this is that I have written so many scenes and I think the plot might come together at 50,000 words but all the restructuring, back filling skipped scenes etc is going to bring it up in word count. Anyway, I’m very happy about that.

Next steps is to commission a cover and also a cover for the next installment, Edward Huntington Esquire, Gentleman Magician. This will cover the period of Edward finding out he was a magician and his meeting with Dr Heaton and Fulton. I probably have another story in the series, which would be a novella (god I hope so!) about Wilbur Hardcastle and Jemima’s mother. It will be a love story but not a romance because we all know that Jemima’s mother died young.

Then I might start on my spin off series.

Meanwhile in Singapore I have caught up with my mate Dev and we have hung out. Yesterday, we had a marathon Orchard Road experience yesterday from 12pm to about 7pm, including most importantly a trip to Kinokuniya. We started at Pizza Express which is fine dining in Singapore. Then we had tea and something naughty in Paul’s, which is outside Kinokuniya and then later I had a kind of Hawker Centre experience in the Food Republic, which is sort of the same thing except in a mall and airconditioned. I had some fried prawn noodles and oyster omelette. I’m not keen on oysters, I can eat them, but I really liked the egg part, which was crispy and tasty. Dev tells me it is eggs with water and tapioca starch.

Me and Dev and Kinokuniya

Lychee Fanta and Cream Soda flavoured Fanta. They were a $1 each and interesting.

To get back on the research track on Monday we went to the National Museum of Singapore to see their Once Upon a Tide special exhibition, about the history of Singapore. Well worth the visit. We also did a quick walk through of the permanent exhibition on level one. Lucky I did because I found out Rickshaws were invented in Japan later than I thought and where popular from 1880s until 1930s.

Below is an early map of Singapore in the period that I’m interested in.

I also got some good photos of things that will help in my story of Aunt Prudence and that’s the main focus of my visit to the museum.

I have really enjoyed hanging out with my son and daughter-in-law. On Tuesday we went to the island of Sentosa to check it out. We mostly did things like the free shuttle bus to check out the beaches and we did a skylift up and back to look around and at at the Shake Shack. We don’t have Shake Shack in Australia. The chips are good but this time they weren’t as hot as they should have been. The Shake Shack in Gardens By the Bay were so good! The cheese burger I had was real and yummy.

On the skyride

Today is going to be an at home day. I need to do some writer admin, hang out my washing so I can pack for the trip and write. I really need to do something with my hair but that remains to be seen if I have the energy. I thought a pink rinse would go down well in China, except I didn’t bring any with me so my hair is very blonde and curly. However, apparently Beijing will be hot but not as humid so my hair could remain straight.

My Kinokuniya purchases. Thea Guanzon is from the Philippines and Sue Lynn Tan is Chinese from Hong Kong.

Above is the emotionally needy Siumoguai who had snuck into my room and perched next to my swimmers.

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Singapore Sojourn Part 4

Posted in A writer's life, am wrinting, Creative passion, research, Steampunk, Travel, Trying to focus, tagged , , , , , , , , , on June 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Time flies when you are having fun. Cliche I know. Today is June 13. Black Friday.

I’m about to head out to find a post office with my daughter-in -law. We have been out a little bit. We were going to go to the botanical gardens but it was too hot for me so we ate a late lunch in a cafe after a head/hair spa, which was simply amazing.

Me after the head/hair spa.

The day before we walked around the Gardens By the Bay and the highlight was Shake Shack where we had some lemonade with chips and cheese. So naughty and so yummy.

We met up with my son at Marina Sands mall where we checked out the Apple store and had dumplings. I am still keeping up with the pool walking in the morning. Be it rain or shine or cloudy. I wait for storms to stop though. The other day I saw this tiny yellow bird eating nectar from the flowers. When I looked it up I discovered it was a sunbird. Imagine nature thriving in amongst all these tall buildings.

Marina Bay Sands, a city scape and the round building is the top floor of the Apple Store.

Writing wise, I have had to revise my word count goal. I thought 30,000 words was reasonable for my time here and I was writing a novella. Well it is now 40,000 words and I’m currently at 36,000 words and I still have a week before we leave for China.

The story is still coming on strong, with new scenes popping in all the time. Yesterday I spent way longer in the pool than intended as I use my lap count to gauge my time. However, I lose count all the time because I start thinking about the story and characters start talking to me and then I come to and forget how many. Was that lap five or six? Over an hour later I’m upstairs realising I did about 20 minutes more than I wanted to.

The story is coming in different time periods so I know there will be a lot of restructuring and tying things together. I usually write in a linear fashion but this memoir is different and how things are popping up in my imagination are too. Weird but fun. Writing in Singapore is great. I found this great book and it has been really useful. There’s more research to do as well. National Library and the National Museum but I’m getting a picture of the layout. I also have to research a bit about 1840s Calcutta as some of the story takes place there.

I’m also learning a lot about Aunt Prudence as well. She is way more interesting than I thought she’d be, with some hidden talents.

Guess what! I think I may have a new character and spin off series in the offing but no spoilers.

On today’s agenda I think we are making homemade dumplings for dinner after we to to the post office. We have a bbq planned on Sunday, which will be nice.

I’m off to China for 12 days next Friday.

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Singapore Sojourn Part 2

Posted in A writer's life, Creative passion, Cry Havoc series, research, Singapore, Steampunk, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , , on June 3, 2025| Leave a Comment »

On Sunday we went to Raffles for high tea and it was fab. The building is elegant and the food was delicious. Expensive yes but for me worth it.

The Grand Lobby

We got there a little bit early so amused ourselves outside.

This is an historic fountain made of cast iron.

This is the view from the courtyard looking up to the main building.

My food tray. There were also three different scones after this. My daughter-in-law took the photo of me below.

And lastly, from the front of the hotel, you can see the little stained glass motif of Raffles.

Otherwise, I’ve been researching and have started working on The Prudential Light. Aunt Prudence has been in my head and fighting to get out. The story just started pouring out of me, faster than I can write. However, I’ve put the brakes on and have gone back to revise the beginning because I think I finally have Aunt Prudence’s voice and that’s such a joy and a better idea how to structure it going forward. Hopefully that will save a massive rewrite and restructure at the end.

I’m currently at 11000 words and at this rate it may be a short novel rather than a novella. Because you know I’m fleshing out scenes and I haven’t got to the good bits yet. I need to visit the library and the museum in the city. However, I am able to set part of the story here in Singapore as it is not too early as I thought when I calculated how old Aunt Prudence was and key events in her life.

Overall, I think, I hope at least, that The Prudential Light will be a heartwarming, beautiful story. Let’s see if I can land this one.

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The Eve of Ages of Pages

Posted in A writer's life, book signing, Steampunk, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on April 25, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I have had an enjoyable time in Auckland in the run up to Ages of Pages. The weather has been interesting. Wind, rain and some sun, but compared to nights in Canberra warmish. I associate visiting New Zealand with cold so I packed warm things. Unfortunately I had to buy some summery things to get through. Poor me! I now possess a very pretty blouse and a blue floaty dress.

I spent a windy night up in Warkworth, not in a caravan (see previous post). However, I did get a night in a caravan but the wind had died back by then. Also a nice walk along Martins Bay. It was a really interesting experience in the caravan park. I think it might be my first time and I found it fascinating. I’m sure there is a story idea in there. We did a walk to Whangapaparaoa Pennisula, along Orewa Beach and around Mitre 10 in Silverdale. Interesting that I was in Silverdale when I have a Silverdale in Argenterra! The steps from walking around malls and hardware stores are shopping steps. These can really mount up. My mate Wendy helped me out by taking me on walks, which helped to counteract the food and the wine. (what happened to your diet Donna? Well you see I went to New Zealand and …um..).

Whangapakaraoa Pennisula view

Martins Bay view

Martins Bay view

This is a view from near Manly Beach

This delightful, sprawling Pohutukawa Tree. They have red flowers and look amazing end December and early January, so my friend Wendy tells me. I’ve seen amazing displays driving to Thames.

View from Orewa near the caravan park.

Even with clouds, New Zealand is beautiful and there are so many harbours and bays around Auckland, particularly north that there is wonder for the eye no matter which way you look. I’m very grateful for my long term bestie, Wendy and her hubby Paul for showing me all these beautiful spots.

This sign cracked me up and had my imagination running hot.

This is a locally made cider in Warkworth. It has citrus in it so quick fresh and bitey.

Last night I met up with Keri at Auckland airport and she drove us to Hamilton and we are both in our beds in a hotel on our laptops. Hahaha. And drinking tea. Today is ANZAC day where Australia and New Zealand commemorate the lost lives in two world wars and everything is shut until 1pm.

Liar liar pants on fire! I found a cafe open today so we can have breakfast after all!.

Tomorrow we attend the Ages of Pages book fair. It’s my first time and I am excited. I believe there is going to be about 90 authors and vendors, mostly from NZ but a few of us Aussies there as well. For readers the event is free so come along and check it out. Venue information here.

I’ll have a very limited number of books available so please come say hi.

I cannot see any reviews for Amber Rose yet, but there is a four star rating on Kobo so that’s a relief. Us authors are always keen to see how our book is received. I have most of the plot in my head for A Prudential Light, a novella come memoir of Aunt Prudence. It’s going to be fab.

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