#forestvibeswip

[elizmanderson]

today on Bluesky I did a title reveal for my upcoming cozy horror, but instead of revealing the title (which was pointless anyway, technically, since I'd forgotten my own plan to do so and just like. stuck the title right on my website after revealing it to newsletter subscribers two months ago), I had people guess by playing hangman

but instead of playing hangman (which feels too high-stakes and stressful for me in our current times, even if I'm It instead of a guesser), I decided I'd doodle part of a flower in MS Paint every time someone guessed a wrong letter

so here is the title of my upcoming cozy horror, THE LORD OF THE WOOD, releasing in July 2026 from Hanover Square Press, but MORE IMPORTANTLY here's the beautiful garden we started growing from people's wrong guesses

[elizmanderson]

very intrigued by both fake deathgagement and salt & leaf!

helllooooooooo and excellent bc I love those ones*!

*okay fine I love all of them actually

FakeDeathgagement

adult contemporary fantasy romance starring a disaster bi twentysomething human and the less disaster bi twentysomething human personification of Death, plus fake engagement

inspiration:

a tweet about a mortal accepting Death's proposal. I said, "this but fake engagement please." everyone else said, "so that's your next book, right?" I said, "um actually I wanted someone else to write it," but predictably it grabbed me and wouldn't let go, although currently it's stalled bc something about it isn't working. possibly the fake engagement angle might have to be a marriage of convenience instead. unclear. but I'll finish it eventually

Salt & Leaf

I'm slightly hush-hush about this one bc I'm not ready to write it yet and don't want to scare it off. BUT

it's vaguely Stede x Ed if they were running around a spooky forest instead of the ocean, Stede lived with his bi sister and her kids instead of a wife, and Ed were an eldritch forest god (or something, still figuring that bit out)

thanks for the ask!

[elizmanderson]

me planning this next novel like

[elizmanderson]

what if I did this here on account of I'm starting edits tomorrow

I was going to email my editor first after taking the weekend to go over her notes but I have no chill so. tomorrow

anyway

when a lonely clockmaker loses his way in an enchanted forest, he meets the hero of his childhood bedtime stories: the Lord of the Wood. but instead of the mythical figure of his dreams, the Lord of the Wood is a grim man turning slowly into a beast—and dying alongside his forest.

it's cozy horror, it's called The Lord of the Wood, and you can add it on TheStoryGraph and even preorder it now, hell yeah, and it releases in July 2026

also you can give me a number from 1 to 487 and I'll give you a line from the book as I dive back into edits

click to add on TheStoryGraph: link to The Lord of the Wood on TheStoryGraph

click to preorder: link to The Lord of the Wood at Gathering Volumes, my local indie bookstore*

*expecting to do signed preorders at Gathering Volumes!

[elizmanderson]

love getting a friend's comments on the latest draft of my manuscript EXCEPT that it reminds me how much I love this cozy horror and how much I want to get back to it, aaaaaaaaaaaaaand I can't actually touch it again until I get my editor's next round of comments back and I just !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[elizmanderson]

it's been A Week so instead of writing last night I did this

particularly pleased with this portrait bc I used references a lot less than usual. not that using references is bad, it's just that even though I can Do Art I'm very terrible at visualizing things that aren't already in front of me. as you can imagine, that makes it really hard to do character portraits without face claims or something, but guess what! I don't usually have face claims either! so I just dick around online trying to find a stock photo that's close enough to what I want to get me going

for this one I just sat down and got going despite the lack of a really clear image. I still used references, but to a much lesser extent than I usually need them, so that was just kind of exciting

of course his glasses don't have ear pieces bc despite the fact that I literally wear glasses at all waking hours, I always forget to draw ear pieces, but whatever. he's got special glasses that just Perch on His Nose Like That, it's fine

used some "multimedia gel sticks" to color him in, it was my first time using them and honestly I was 82% certain they were just oil pastels with grips until I noticed the box said they're water soluble. so I'll have to experiment further. but for purposes of this portrait, I just used them like oil pastels

[elizmanderson]

I'm getting to the part of the story with this latest WIP where it's like lol how would any of this even happen, which is mostly bc the worldbuilding in this draft is. not lmao

but it's been fun leaning hard into the 1980s bodice-ripper of it all. like it's supposed to be a cozy fantasy, it's turning into a fantasy that may not be cozy bc it's a tad on the darker side, and it's really a thinly disguised bodice-ripper bc despite the MC not even realizing he's gay yet, he keeps stumbling into scenes right out of his favorite romance novels

no fun for his LI who is tearing his hair out and about to have an aneurysm, but tons of fun for me

[elizmanderson]

WIP Game!

rules: write the latest line from your WIP (or post where you last left off in your art) and tag as many people as there are words in the line. make a new post, don’t reblog.

okay well once again I'm feeling lazy so once again I'm not tagging as many people as there are in the line, but @victoriacbooks and @lucymason217 if you wanna play

the last line I wrote of the admittedly little that exists so far of ForestVibesWIP:

“But unless we can ever afford to leave, there’s no use crying for it,” she said, and the conversation was over.