My short story is published!

Also: Charcoal portraits, perfectionism, and thoughts on using a pen name.

Ughhhh, August... It's been a an unbearable week. The humidity and the suffocating heat has kept me up at night and prevented my brain from working properly. Today is hot as well, but it looks to be passing tonight, with rain and thunder on the forecast. And after that, I pray to the weather gods that summer is over.

I long for autumn so bad. I long for the cool, crisp air. For hot cups of tea and warm baths. For mosquito-free walks in the woods. For quiet evenings and long, dark nights. For reading horror novels under a blanket.

And speaking of horror: My short story is published now! The one I told you about in last week's letter. It's called Child Of The Sea. It's live on Amazon, Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and my website. And it's totally free to download. 😊

One thing you might notice right away is that it's not my name on the cover. Elvira Dahl is my pen name. (Elvira also happens to be my middle name - a name I share with my maternal great-grandmother. And her maiden name was Dahl. So it’s a pretty personal pen name. 😌)

Why do I write under a pen name? For a few reasons.

When I decided to get serious about fiction writing a few years ago, I had already been working as a writer for many years. I had written magazine articles, blogs, and a non-fiction book. And I was primarily known as a freelance copywriter, helping other creative business owners write stuff for their websites, that kind of thing. So putting my real name on a horror story just felt...weird. Out of place.

Not only would it possibly confuse people googling my name. But it also felt weird emotionally. My “work writing” had absolutely nothing in common with my fiction writing. And writing stories feels a lot more intimate than writing sales copy or blog posts. I felt vulnerable putting my fiction out into the world (still do). Creating a blank slate, a new persona, really helped. Under this new name, I was free to do and be anything I wanted. And that allowed me to let loose in a way I probably wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.

I don't feel like I have to keep my real name secret or anything like that. I'm open about Elvira Dahl being my pen name. But it simply helps to keep the fiction writing part of my business separate from my other projects. Many authors work that way. Some use a pen name to keep their real identity secret, (erotica writers in particular). Others have one pen name for each genre they write in, to make it easier for readers to find and follow just the types of stories they're interested in. A pen name has many uses, and I love the artistic freedom it can provide. If you want to write stories, but feel kind of uncomfortable and weird doing it: try taking a secret pen name. No one has to ever know it's you behind the words. 😉

If you like dark fantasy, nordic folklore, or mystery stories, I think you might enjoy Child of the Sea. It's an hour-long read, and you can download it for free, in epub-format here. If you do end up enjoying it, consider leaving a rating or revew on Amazon or Goodreads. That really helps me out, because you know... the algorithms.

Art wise, I'm dabbling with charcoal portrait sketches right now. Trying to improve and feel confident enough with them to create a Skillshare class.

References from @earthsworld

Even though I ended up liking the look of these sketches, I did not like the process of drawing them. Do you ever feel that way? Like you're kind of happy with the result, but not with the way you arrived at it?

Maybe it's just a weird kind of perfectionism for me, but I want it to feel good as I'm drawing or painting something. I want to feel like I know exactly what I'm doing, like I'm following a process. I want it to feel elegant and effortless. And if it doesn't, then I feel like I haven't really earned the result.

This is especially true in watercolor painting, because you can kind of see when a painting has been overworked. So if you struggled throughout the process, it's probably going to affect the final painting. But in a medium like pencil or charcoal, you can erase and re-draw almost as much as you like and it won't show.

Reference from @earthsworld

I know I can arrive at a decent-looking charcoal portrait, eventually. But I don't yet feel confident and efficient doing it. So that's what I'm working on now. This weekend, I'll try my hand at some more techniques and processes. While trying to not get worked up over how messy and smudgy everything gets... 😅

Before I go: I've been toying with the idea of having an advice column on my Substack. I want anyone of you who's subscribed to me to be able to submit a question, a personal (or hypothetical) problem or stuggle. Something related to art, creativity, creative business building, mindset, mental health, or any of the topics you've seen me talk about in videos or in essays. Something you would like my advice and support in. And I could tackle that question in an advice column that can hopefully be of use to someone else here as well.

What do you say? Sounds like a good idea?

If you want to submit something for the advice column, simply email me at louise@louisestigell.com (or reply to one of these newsletters) and put "advice column" in the subject line. You can of course request to be anonymous.

I would really love to support you this way, and I'm going to explore more ways of doing that on Substack as well. There are many functions that I haven't yet tried, like discussion threads for example.

For now though, I hope you'll have a great weekend. I'm off to do some weight lifting, take a cold shower, go sit in our one and only air-conditioned room and play Mass Effect 2 for the rest of the evening... And probably drink a beer or two.

I'll see you again next week!

With love,

Louise

---

My recent things:

Short story: Child of the Sea

Essay: No, Artists Don't Need Social Media

---

Reading:

Simon K Jones: Leaving the algorithm behind

Leaving the algorithm behind

I recommend Simon's Substack as a whole, but this piece especially resonated with me lately.

Also: Cal Newport: New study confirms the value of solitude. I mean, we all know the value of solitude. But some concrete science sure helps motivate at least me to make an effort to be bored sometimes. Because it is an effort. Distraction is the norm nowadays.

Book wise, I recently finished A Court of Wings And Ruin, by Sarah J. Maas. Did not enjoy this one as much as the second in the trilogy. Found it unnecessarily long. But still an entertaining read.

Up next are Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself, which I've started reading three times before but am now commited to for real, and loving the crap out of.

And to balance it out: Secrets of a Summer Night by Lisa Kleypas. Because you can love both violent, grimdark fantasy AND historical romance. 😌

Watching:

A great video from Kelsey Rodriguez, on the pitfalls of social media for artists:

Listening:

Music is a big part of my writing process, and I create playlists for every story I'm writing. If you're curious, you can find the Spotify playlist for Child of the Sea here.