Well, well, well

would you look at the time

Feb 08, 2026

Here’s what happened:

I was on a research trip to Ramsfeldshire (for no particular reason), and as I was walking down the lane between Upper Splott and Splott Superior (or it may have been Splott the Fourth?) a tragically beautiful young creature appeared (it definitely didn’t look suspicious) and offered me a piece of cheese (how could I say no?!) and as soon as I took the merest nibble (I definitely wasn’t scarfing) the creature transformed into a tragically hideous old creature (or perhaps just middle-aged?) and whisked me away to the Land of the Folk (it has another name but I forgot how to spell it), there to serve in dreadful misery until such a time as I was released (that’s a whole ‘nother story, but yes, it involves even more cheese).

And that is why I have abandoned this substack for several months.1

Now that I have most fortuitously been released, here is a poorly-edited newsletter for you.

Lady Agatha Is On the Way!

With the Kickstarter ebooks officially delivered & physical copies in production, I’ve moved the general release to April 24! You can preorder the ebook on Amazon now, or pick up a paperback or hardcover on release day.

I have not stopped staring at these since I got them in the mail

Early reviews are also beginning to roll in & although I do try to avoid Goodreads, I had to take a peak. Publishing a second book is much more intimidating than publishing a debut, especially since people liked WCOATCB much more than I thought they would. So I’m thrilled that readers are enjoying Lady Agatha—it’s such a delight to share stories with you.

whoops I need to go

perhaps the Folk are calling again or perhaps I just need to go set up my church’s new handbells for practice tonight. Either way, I’ve procrastinated on sending this email for long enough so I’m calling this good for now, and I will do my utmost to Get Back Into the Swing of Things and not neglect this substack for the next five months.2

my friend (and *Lady Agatha* endorser!) Christina’s delightful novel, *Wormwood Abbey*, is only $0.99 today! Snatch it up!

May you never know the horrors of Folk-cursed cheese,

Elisabeth

this is obviously not a fictional excuse at all and I am shocked!—shocked, I say!—that you would dare to even think such things about my veracity.

And An Apology Which I Am Hiding in the Footnotes

In my last newsletter, I promised a birthday party kit.

If you’d forgotten all about it, please continue to forget all about it, and if you haven’t—um, sorry. Obviously I don’t need an excuse as to why I didn’t get it sent, because as we’ve just established, I was slaving away for a dreadful Folk lord with so many teeth that they kept falling out of his mouth every time he opened it and it was my job to retrieve them from wherever they bounced (did you know Folk teeth are bouncy?) and then sanitize them, because of course he couldn’t put them back in after my slimy human hands had touched them. You understand, therefore, why I couldn’t get everything else together.

Anyhow, my sincere apologies for missing WCOATCB’s birthday party. I keep thinking that if I announce a deadline, I will rise to meet it, but that is not the case. I do have a party kit three-quarters put together, so we shall party at some other time which I am not committing to right now, because the surest way for me to not do something is to say I am certainly, definitely, undoubtedly going to do it.