ANOTHER YEAR OVER AND A NEW ONE'S ABOUT TO... -

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Between you and me, I am not a fan of Christmas, but there’s a certain sense of belonging and pure Nordic magic that always seems to sneak up on me somewhere between the first of Advent and St Lucia Day.

Even though I often sound like the Grinch this time of the year, I do love the Yuletide and the old pagan beliefs it represents. To the human eye, Sól (the sun) appears to stop for a while and the natural world holds a collective breath while Earth pivots on its axle. Will the darkness prevail this time or will the Goddess of Light return and lead us back to spring and renewed life? We can’t be sure, but we call it the season of perpetual hope for a reason.

As we enter the darkest weeks of the year, we’re all holding on to that hope. We need this break. We need some time to recharge our spirits, renew the goals we have set for ourselves and redecorate the ship, both in spirit and physical space.

This year brought unforeseen struggles to our crew, more so than anyone could have anticipated, and – on top of that – the entire world seems to be ablaze. As the Captain of this ship, I must confess that I’ve not been able to perform my duties as well as I would have liked under the circumstances. The reasons for this are personal. I’m not ready to share them just yet, but come February I hope to sit down for another raw heart-to-heart and lay bare both the wins and challenges of this blasted year and how we dealt with them.

It’s not been all doom and gloom though – there’s been glimmers of light amidst the shadows and a few fireworks moments too. We have a couple of surprises in the pipeline, and some exciting changes are on the horizon as we sail into the New Year.

Sir Bear, aka the Quartermaster of this mighty ship, and I are gearing up to kick off 2024 as one. We’ve been a formidable collab team for a couple of years now and going forward we will be sharing everything from our Ship’s Logs to websites, social media, and books. This is a big win for both of us and we believe it will be an even bigger win for our readers who get a proper BOGOF deal in the bargain. Extra everything – what’s not to like about that? 💃

And a New One’s Almost Begun

In the spirit of meeting the new and embracing the unknown, I like to spend some time in December embracing the age-old tradition of New Year’s resolutions.

Whether you are here as a reader or a writer (or both!), the turning of the calendar often brings a surge of inspiration. What goals shall we chart for the coming year? What literary shores would we like to visit? And, more importantly, how do we navigate these uncharted waters to propel our fleeting wishes into real, achievable milestones? We will explore this in-depth, but before we dive into it let’s start with a few things for you to consider.

-> DIVERSIFY: Is it time to spice up your reading list and explore genres and/or authors you haven’t delved into before? Even if you’re an avid reader, I’d highly suggest you open the door to new perspectives and narratives.

-> CONQUER: I believe reading and buying books are two different hobbies, but maybe the time has come to claim that TBR Mountain? How about setting a realistic daily, weekly or monthly reading goal and finding a good way to keep tabs on what you’ve actually read?

-> ENGAGE: Join the conversation! This may be the best suggestion for readers and writers alike. Find a place where you can share insights, recommendations, and the occasional bookish meme with people who love stories as much as you do. Technically speaking, it doesn’t really matter whether it’s a local club or an online community, but I would of course love to see you aboard the Resilience so we can have fika and talk books and bookish things.

-> WRITE: Do you have a story lingering in the recesses of your mind? A collection of poems waiting to be woven? Whatever it may be – write these ideas down and let drafting them, so they can finally be brought to life, be one of your goals.

-> EDIT: Yes, editing can be hard work, but fear not! It’s a skill like any other and there’s help to be had. If you have work that needs editing – maybe 2024 is the year to do it. Or maybe it would be a good idea to set yourself some goals to improve your editing skills? Note down some editing milestones to strive for and let me know if you want some samples to practice on.

-> PUBLISH: Would you like to see (more of) your work in print or share it with a broader audience? Whether it’s blogging, submitting to literary magazines, querying agents, or exploring self-publishing, now’s a good time to make it happen.

Aboard the Resilience, we have a Monthly Roll Call that helps us keep our literary compasses true. It’s a time to share our goals, dreams, and works in progress and a chance to ask for accountability partners if we need them. From January you are welcome to join the call and tell us about your hopes and dreams for the new year, so this may be a good time to top up the inkpot and sharpen your quill.

Let’s band together and make some waves in the vast unchartered sea of stories untold and books unread that we’ll be conquering next year.

//Linnea 🖤

ABOUT LINNEA LUCIFER

Linnea Lucifer is the Captain of the imaginary, yet very real, pirate ship Resilience and her merry crew of indie authors and omnivorous readers. But that is not all – amateur liar, weaver of stories, peddler of merch, lifelong spoonie, ancient dragon lady and Maddox Rhinehart’s irreverent pet are a few more words often used to describe the bearer of many names.

The Captain was named after a delicate little flower that grows in mossy, Swedish pine forests, and a certain fiery fallen angel. She spends most of her days daydreaming and writing fantasy, smut and painfully crappy poems. A diva of delight, she takes great pleasure in everything that tickles the senses and adds a sprinkle of magic and spice to our world.

Linnea writes fantasy rooted in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore under the pen name Saga Linnea Söderberg. She also writes Sweet’n’Spicy Spoonie romance together with Leto Armitage under their joint pen name Linn Rhinehart.