Welcome to my writing round-up for June, where I share my latest news and updates. Check out everything I’ve been working on this month and what I’ve got coming up below. I’ve actually finished a longer project this month, and I’ve been accepted into another anthology, so I have lots to share!
Table of Contents
Summer Sales
I have a 50% off Itch Summer Sale going on if you want to shop via Itch.io. Get individual books for 50% off, or grab the bundle for $18.00 ~ Regularly $36.89 Save 51%!
The books are all DRM free, so you can purchase them for yourself, or gift them to someone else in a bundle or individually!
Link (copy, paste, share): https://itch.io/s/192676/summer-sale-2026 – offer ends 07 July 2026.
Also, I’m excited to say that 9 of my books will be reduced by 75% or be completely free on Smashwords, 01 July-31 July, for their Summer/Winter Sale! Especially good for my Southern Hemisphere friends celebrating Christmas in July…
Save the main link: smashwords.com/sale
My books on Smashwords: smashwords.com/profile/view/C._M._Rosens
Please share this promo with the avid readers in your life!
Publishing News!
Really excited to let you know my short story, “There’s Something Wrong with Sylvia’s Mother”, has been accepted into Dead Fox Publishing‘s latest anthology, which has a revenant/undead theme.
Ko-Fi members of all tiers, including the lowest, will receive the audio version of this story, (posted on Ko-Fi) as a bonus reward.
“There’s Something Wrong With Sylvia’s Mother” is a bleak Urban Gothic tale of difficult mother-daughter relationships, domestic drama, and the undead co-existing with the living in a fog-shrouded town. Sylvia is a 40-something woman looking after her elderly mother at home, but Sylvia’s Mother is not all she seems… and the shadows that gather in her gloomy bedroom are waiting to attach themselves to Sylvia herself.
Short Stories still on submission:
– A Dark Place of One’s Own (Quiet Horror, 2K words)
– Early Retirement (Off-World Sci-Fi, 7.8K words)
– The Punch & Judy Man, aka Sh! What’s That? from the Folklore of Pagham-on-Sea (REPRINT, Flash Fic, Folk Horror prose poem, 350 words)
Worldbuilding Workshop
I’ve recorded my Writing Queernormative Worlds workshop for the WriteHive conference in July, tickets are now on sale. My workshop is running on Sunday 12 July at 18:00 (06:00PM) British Summer Time – do your own time conversions, as I’m in the UK!
Latest Work
Short Fiction Available
Ko-Fi members got this short story for June – “On the Street Where You Live”. I don’t think this one is set in Pagham-on-Sea, but it feels like it’s set in the same universe.
It’s a short Urban Gothic piece that subverts the ‘creepy old house reflects the psyche of its inhabitants’ trope, and turns it into ‘renovated houses dreaming of ruination infect their inhabitants with this desire’. It’s only about 950 words, but it’s based on a real street, and I thought it would be fun to share. I think I want to do a lot more with it, but this is its initial form, the kernel of what I think might be a good concept to expand on.
Join me on Ko-Fi if you want to see sneak peeks, get monthly fiction, download my back catalogue at no additional cost, and listen to ad-free audio versions of my work… or just support me!
For all Ko-Fi posts, see the Master List.
Completed Projects
This month I finished two of my works in progress. I’m pretty pleased about that! One is the novella I’m working on for the October call for Neon Hemlock. I want it to be as good as it can get, and then if that doesn’t get accepted in that call, I’ve got other ideas for it, and if they don’t work out, I’ll take another look at it and see if I want to keep trying or self pub it.
The other is the audio drama script I’ve been working on. I don’t really know much about audio dramas, so I think this script needs a lot more work, but the adaptation is finally complete for a first pass.
Novella Update: First Draft Complete
THE BUTTERFLY BRIDE – I’ve been finishing off this novella this month, and I’m not at all sure what it has turned into. I’m not sure what I expected any novella based on Arthur Machen’s The Shining Pyramid would become, but this has a lot of mind-bending hallucinatory stuff, body horror, and messed-up gods and trickery. It’s also explicitly an ace4ace book (m/f).
The first draft is now complete at ~35,500 words, but I really don’t know if I like it. There’s some good stuff in there, but it needs someone unafraid of first drafts to rip into it and get that good stuff out, so I will likely be throwing it at a developmental editor in the near future. It’s currently with a few alpha readers until mid-July for initial impressions, and then I’ll get back to tidying it up and making it better.
I suspect the title will change yet again. It was a very bleak ending, but I added an epilogue that un-bleaked it a bit and explicitly connected it to the Yelen & Yelena universe.
Audio Drama: First Draft Complete
I’ve completed the adaptation of The Reluctant Husband now, it’s 15.1K words as an audio drama, and if we assume a rough average of 150 words per minute, that would be around 100min runtime, or 1hr 40min. I think that would make a good 3-part series, if I can work out how to cleanly divide it up and make each episode end on a hook into the next part.
I do want to get more experienced opinions on the audio script, and it’s nowhere near “done” or ready to produce yet.
After revisions and edits, I’ve got to work out what I want to do with it and how I want to produce it. I think if I have 2 male-voiced actors and 1 versatile female-voiced actor, it would work really well. As it’s under 2hrs runtime I might be able to afford to do this properly.
Previous Writing Round-Ups
Mid-Year Writing Round-Up: Progress and Projects
I can’t believe 2026 is half over?? Here’s my writing progress for the first 6 months of the year.
May 2026 Writing Round-Up
May Writing Round-up! I haven’t done a lot of this, but that’s ok. Here’s what I’ve been working on.
April 2026 Writing Round-Up
A round-up of all my words in April 2026! This includes new distribution channels, publishing stats/news, and what I’m writing.
March 2026 Writing Round-Up
A round-up of all my words for March, plus what’s new, book awards, and other updates!
February Writing Round-Up
Read on for the stats, the updates, and the forthcoming news! I’ve got a few books in Itch bundles coming up, there’s the Smashwords eBook sale 01-07Mar to look out for, and I’ve set out a round-up of all my writing this month.
January 2026: Writing Round-Up
Read on for a round-up of my writing this month, the WIPs I’ve been working on, and my published works!
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