C. M. Rosens

It’s June, the sixth month of the year, and 2026 is half over already. Now we’re halfway, I thought I’d do a post that looks at my writing journey for the last six months! I’ll be doing a June Writing Round-up as well just for this month, as well as my usual Media Round-up.

Post Contents

Writing-Adjacent Mid-Year Achievements

These are the things I count as achievements, which aren’t publishing or writing related, but are definitely adjacent! I often find that I just don’t put my work out there, or I don’t put myself out there. I’m quite pleased with myself for doing some things this year so far.

1. Entered Yelen & Yelena into the Rubery Book Awards 2026.
2. Accepted for the WriteHive Conference – running the Writing Queernormative Worlds Workshop.
3. Sent Thirteenth to the British Fantasy Society for a review (no guarantees).

Publishing Round-Up

• Best Friends Bury Bodies (Jan 2026) – wide release.
• Birds of a Feather (Jan 2026) – wider release. Originally a Ko-Fi exclusive.
• Overexposure (Mar 2026) – sold to The Weird Library, produced for Women In Horror Month.
• “There’s Something Wrong With Sylvia’s Mother” (written in Jan 2026) – short story sold (English-language print rights only) to Dead Fox Publishing (royalties only) in June 2026, for their untitled undead-themed anthology coming 2027.

Writing Round-Up: The Big Fiction

To get previews of these, and to get other monthly fiction, join my Ko-Fi.

• FEED started the year at 57K words. I wanted this to be my main WIP this month, but then I got really into the Contemporary stuff, and sucked back into the characters for the AU. This is a tricky one to get right, and I’m not happy with the shape of this draft yet.
  • Genre: Horror-Fantasy
  • Series: Pagham-on-Sea Book 4
  • Current status: ~active~
  • Current word count: 63K words

• THE BUTTERFLY BRIDE is a Dark Fantasy novella I started and completed this year, as I want to submit it to Neon Hemlock’s open call for novellas in October. It is complete at 34.7K words. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it, so if it’s rejected, I might use it to query agents or something instead. In case I wanted to do that, I have already written:
  • 1 query letter – aimed at agents
  • 1 cover letter – aimed at small presses
  • 1 page synopsis – written for querying
  • 4 page full synopsis – written for querying

• THREE FOR A GIRL started the year at 14.2K of experimental writing but 0 words of a draft. I started writing this not long after Birds of a Feather (2022), but the experimental sections I have are all patchy and scrappy. I decided to use a couple of scenes from the experiments, but mostly started from scratch. This is the book where I introduce AU Katy.
  • Genre: Contemporary Suspense
  • Series: AU Carrie & Ricky Book 2
  • Current status: ~active~
  • Current word count: 25K words

• THE RELUCTANT HUSBAND (Audio Drama) – The original ~18K word prose text is currently an 11K word script with 7 characters, but can be played by 2 actors (a male voice for 4 characters, and a female voice for 3 characters). I’m enjoying the process. It has 13 scenes so far, and is nearly complete.

• UNTITLED VICTORIAN WIP was a new thing I played about with after re-reading/re-listening to Arthur Machen’s novel, The Three Imposters, and Algernon Blackwood’s The Willows and John Silence stories. It’s not something I think I’ll complete this year (or at all, maybe) but it’s a fun idea and I might cannibalise it for something else.
  • Genre: Historical Paranormal
  • Series: Standalone
  • Current status: ~experimental~
  • Current word count: 2.1K

Writing Round-Up: The Ko-Fi Fiction

• January 2026 Letter – Yule update from Carrie & local folklore

January Giveaway Draw – Eldritch Family only
BIRDS OF A FEATHER signed paperback winner announced.

• January 2026 Reward – Members of the Eldritch Seeker and Eldritch Family tiers can download the new release, BEST FRIENDS BURY BODIES, for free with their memberships. RRP £4.99.

• February 2026 Letter – Carrie updates on family arguments, and a little history project on The Mermaid pub.

February Giveaway Draw – Eldritch Family only
BEST FRIENDS BURY BODIES signed paperback winner announced.

• March 2026 Reward – Draft of Chapter 1 of FEED (Pagham-on-Sea Book 4).

March Giveaway Draw – Eldritch Family only
THE SUSSEX FRETSAW MASSACRE & OTHER STORIES signed paperback winner announced.

• April 2026 Reward – Draft of Chapter 2 of FEED (Pagham-on-Sea Book 4).

• May 2026 Reward – 5K of experimental writing of Carrie & Ricky in the non-supernatural AU of Birds of a Feather. Ricky buys a ring.

• June 2026 Reward – 950 word short Urban Gothic piece entitled, “On The Street Where You Live”. Not Pagham-on-Sea set, but it feels like the same universe…

Divination Hollow Reviews & Listicles Published

• LISTICLE: Holiday Horror: Dec 2025
• LISTICLE: 10 International Gothic Films Part 1: Jan 2026
• LISTICLE: 10 International Gothic Films Part 2: Jan 2026
• LISTICLE: Welsh Horror to Watch Out For in 2026: Mar 2026
• REVIEW: What the Fog Conceals by R.A. Marno: Dec 2025
• REVIEW: Linghun by Ai Jiang: Jan 2026
• REVIEW: The Lodgers (2017): Jan 2026
• REVIEW: Once Upon A Song by Nadine Bells: Mar 2026
• REVIEW: The Dreaming of Man by Nikoline Kaiser: Apr 2026
• SPECIAL FEATURE: Women In Horror Month (a list of WiH features on this website, not including ones added as the month went on!): Mar 2026
• SPECIAL FEATURE: Classic Short Horror Stories by Women (a cross-post with Part 1 of my classic short horror stories found here, in March): Apr 2026

Website Articles

Here are the articles I’ve written in the last six months (excluding updates, ads for bundles and published works, interviews, round-ups, and Author Spotlights).

Website Stats

Views To Date: 20K
Visitors To Date: 15.6K
Word Count: 102.1K