vampires, spaceships, and fantastical worlds—the tales of L.E. Teetzel

Welcome!

Welcome to my first newsletter-type post! I think this is the template I’m going to go with for these things, and I’m aiming to do one a month, at the end of the month, to wrap stuff up. These posts will be focused mainly on my books and everything surrounding them, what I’m listening to/watching/reading, and thoughts about the creative process and my own journey through it. The formatting could, of course, change as we go, but hey, gotta start somewhere, right?

January in the Rearview

Well, it sure has been a month.

What is it about January that makes it seem about twice as long as it actually is, even in “normal” times? And, of course, the last couple weeks of this January in particular felt like we’d stepped into an alternate reality or something because how the hell is this happening in 2025? That’s rhetorical, I know how it happened, but like, still—HOW.

BUT I am not here to talk about the utterly terrifying state of things right now because I don’t want to send myself into an anxiety spiral. I’m here to talk about how January was for me.

And it was fine. January and February are historically the toughest months for me next to August. We had some bitterly cold weather and a lot more snow than we’ve had in a long time, but thankfully, since I work from home, I didn’t have to go out into it much.

I don’t do resolutions, but I set some pretty ambitious writing goals: I want to publish two books and draft three (one of which will have to be finished to publish later this year). Will it happen? I hope so, and I’m trying to get back into the habit of writing/editing/world-building/outlining every day to make a real go of it, but I’m also still focusing on being kinder to myself without letting myself completely off the hook. It’s hard to find a good balance, but I think since writing is something I’m so passionate about and publishing my stuff is something I really want to do, that focusing my tracking and self-improvement goals around it will be the best way to build better habits.

Does that make sense? I guess we’ll find out.

I came into January feeling pretty confident that I can do these things, and I’m determined to not give up chasing that goal. So far it’s going okay, but it is taking me longer to edit An Errant Ray of Sunlight and get it ready to go to proofreading than I wanted, so… *shrug*

Like most creative people, I have struggled a lot with the mentality that I have to just sit here and write my little book while the world is falling apart (we have lots of problems up here in Canada too and we’re so close to the States), but, really, it’s important to make art, especially when books are being banned and media is being censored.

It’s also important to find things to look forward to when everything feels so dark, and to balance your resistance with breaks to keep yourself in shape to stand up for what you believe in. In that regard, my friend and I scored some tickets to Ninja Sex Party and TWRP’s Pure Elegance Tour show in Toronto (for free; sometimes people are unexpectedly generous and kind and it refreshes your love for humans), and I scored a ticket to Djo’s Toronto show. In the first week of February, I’m going to try to get a ticket to Hozier’s Toronto show in September; he’s been on my list of artists I’d love to see live for years, so cross your fingers for me and I’ll cross my fingers for you in all your ticket-hunting endeavours.

From the Story Files

Icarus is back on Kobo! You can buy it here! It’s also still available at all the other buy links on my Books page, but it’s been off Kobo for a while, so that’s the big announcement for my sci-fi novella this month.

When it comes to An Errant Ray of Sunlight, I’m deep in the editing trenches. I wanted to finish my final edit by the middle of this month, and then it was the end of the month, and now it’s the end of the first week of February. I’ve learned a lot and will be making adjustments to the process for my next book, the sequel to An Errant Ray of Sunlight. I need to save money so I can have help editing going forward—there is no value you can place on another set of eyes on your work, to be completely honest—but for now, it’s just more personal development. 😂 But the end is in sight and I’m very happy with how the book is evolving. And I’ve got a proofreader line up, which I’m excited about.

I’ve also hired a very talented artist friend to do some chapter header and scene break art and the book is going to be so pretty I cannot wait to get it into people’s hands!

Even though there’s still so much to do.

If you missed it, here’s an introduction to the three POV characters in An Errant Ray of Sunlight:

In My Eyeballs and Earholes

Books

I read a lot this month, but I’m determined to reach my goal of 150 books this year—however, I’m also tracking the books I read for work this year which I’ve never done before, so we’ll see what number I actually end up on. You can follow my reading adventures on Goodreads and Storygraph, and my project to read all the books I own and haven’t read yet on Bluesky.

My favourite books from this month are: Dungeons & Drama by Kristy Boyce (a sweet YA romance centred around Dungeons & Dragons, chasing your dreams, finding yourself, and reconnecting with your family), Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match by Sally Thorne (a romantic twist on Frankenstein, where Victor’s sister learns and grows while dealing with the consequences of her actions), and This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (a lyrical, twisting, beautiful semi-epistolary tale of two soldiers falling in love across timelines and worlds).

Movies

I kicked off this month, and this year, the way I have since 2012: in the movie theatre. I love going to the movie theatre and it makes me incredibly sad to have them in a decline post-pandemic. Sitting in the dark, surrounded by people you’re about to share an experience with, just can’t be beat. It’s somehow a solitary activity (when you go alone) and a social one at at the same time, and I’ve had some truly memorable experiences in theatres. I hope they bounce back, I really do. When I was little, I used to love sitting in the back beneath the projectionist’s booth so I could hear the film wheels turning (yeah, I guess I’m old now), but now I like to sit behind the bars marking the accessible seating so I can prop up my feet if my knee starts to bug me (yeah, I know, old.). I’ve always loved movie theatre popcorn and the only thing that can beat a fountain pop is a fountain pop from McDonald’s.

But before I turn into the old lady on the porch yelling in my day, let me actually talk about this year’s day-one outing. I saw Nosferatu and Gladiator II, two movies I was cautiously excited about, but for very different reasons. Nosferatu because I love vampires and I’m always a little nervous to see a different depiction of them on the big screen, and Gladiator II because Gladiator is one of my favourite movies of all time and not a movie that needed a sequel. I needn’t have worried; both movies were excellent and I enjoyed the hell out of both.

Outside of New Year’s day, I watched Gladiator with my brother, who’d never seen it before, and was happy to find it hit me just as hard as it did the first time. I also revisited some movies I watched frequently like Crazy Rich Asians. I didn’t do any watching for my Three-Thoughts Retrospective project this month, but there is so much going on.

If you’d like to keep up with my movie watching, my “Watched in 2025” list is on Letterboxd.

Video Games

Because I’m trying to take my writing more seriously and I have way too many hobbies, I don’t play videos games as much as I used to (or would like to), but excepting new releases of games I’ve been waiting for (like Dragon Age: The Veilguard in October of last year), I usually keep a few cozier games going for when I need to take my mind off things. I play Disney Dreamlight Valley a lot, because I can just putter around in my valley while listening to My Favourite Murder, other podcast, or a nonfiction audiobook and just like, tune out for a while. I also play The Sims 4 pretty regularly (I’m actually working on building some stuff from An Errant Ray of Sunlight that I hope to be able to share before the book comes out in May), and I rotate between other non-narrative games. I just got Supermarket Simulator which is so fun for some reason and really lets me check out, Mini Motorways is way more fun than it has any right to be, and I’m a big fan of all the search-and-find games from Devcats.

I’m hoping to find some more time to go back to Dragon Age: Origins and play my way through the series again (after which, I’ll replay Mass Effect for the umpteenth time), and I have Caravan SandWitch, Planet Crafter, and Pacific Drive that I want to dig in to. I also may or may not still have to finish Tears of the Kingdom…

If you want to follow my video game exploits, I’m batchild on Playstation, the.batchild on Steam, and my friend code on Switch is SW-4132-1055-1838. I don’t play games with people, but I don’t mind if people add me. 😁

Music

I need to get back into the habit of listening to music while I’m writing so I get more stuff done, but that’s neither here nor there.

I haven’t listened to anything new this month. Instead, I’ve been trying to get back to my foolproof combo of Rainymood.com and soundtracks. Forever on the soundtrack rotation is Journey by Austin Wintory, Memoirs of a Geisha by John Williams, all the Last of Us soundtracks by Gustavo Santaolalla, Gladiator, Inception, and Interstellar by Hans Zimmer, Dragon Age: Inquisition and it’s DLCs by Trevor Morris, Dragon Age: The Veilguard by Lorne Balfs & Hans Zimmer, Assassin’s Creed II by Jesper Kyd, and all The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit soundtracks by Howard Shore. I ADORE soundtracks and have literal playlists of them all on Spotify so I can easily find the movie, franchise, or series that I want the mood from. I’ve only listed the ones I keep going back to here, but I listen to so, SO many.

I’m The Batchild on Spotify.

Also, I’ll take this opportunity to say: if you love an artist or band, support them elsewhere than streaming if you can—no streaming service pays them enough. Check out if they have a Bandcamp to buy their music on, buy merch and concert tickets, and share and interact with their social media posts.

Parting Thoughts

I don’t have much to leave you with, other than I hope you have people and things in your life that can give you a break from the hellscape of social media and the awful things in the world. I hope you have the love of friends, family, pets, and/or a partner to keep you afloat. I hope you have things to look forward to, and I hope February is not a hard month for you.

That’s it for this month! Take it easy, hot dogs! 💙

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