Jenn Neal

Happy New Year!

End of year and new year have always been a bit odd to me. Maybe it’s my neurodivergence talking but I’ve never felt much difference between December and January, other than that January is my birthday month and therefore superior. However, this year feels different because 2026 is when I become a published Author. THIS YEAR. It’s when you all get to meet my extremely imperfect cast of antiheroes who also make me want to squeeze their cheeks and give them warm blankets and hot cocoa.

I cannot wait for you to meet them! And I am so utterly grateful that you are here!

Writing Updates:

I just finished nitpicking through Vicious Miscreations and have turned my book into my AMAZING line editor. I still living in a state of terror and excitement and I need there to be a word for that feeling.

Not only am I working on my book, but I’m also drawing my own title page, chapter headers, map, and page break art and my word I hope it all works out because I actually have no idea what I’m doing.

As for what I will be doing while I wait for line edits? I am going to finally try to finish Project Bone Thieves, which, I anticipate will be my second book even though I am currently also writing VM2 because I am soooooo much farther (further?) on Bone Thieves. I started Project Bone Thieves while I was querying VM because ‘they’ said I shouldn’t write book two, so I started on Bone Thieves. I am utterly enamored with it, and I just can’t wait until the VM series is done to share it with you guys. Hope that’s cool with all of you.

I am so excited to get back into it. I am 80k into my draft and I may be delusional, but my goal is to finish 20k of writing in 6 weeks. I can do that? Right? Right? I will probably be the last to know.

Self-Pub Funsies

I am trying to adult right now, and it is a real event in our household. I am researching LLCs and sole proprieters and feeling overwhelmed because I know I have to do it, and do all the research into how I need to maintain it, but my ADHD brain is like…that is so boring, please do literally anything else. So I am sure you can all imagine how that is going. HA! But it’s got to happen and it’s got to happen soon.

Next steps are to start working with my cover artist and get my ISBN numbers so I can upload my book into existence on Goodreads and Storygraph so I can start pestering everyone about adding my book to their ‘Want to Read.’ Then everything will finally feel super duper real. Also, here is some art I did!

We are halfway through the SFF Writer Challenge right now, and it has been so fun, and I continue to be bamboozled by the number of participants. When I created this last year I thought no one would want to do it, so I guess you guys showed me. I am eternally grateful to Sam, Kestral, and Jen for being my co-hosts. They are, quite literally, the best.

Plus, the challenge challenged me (I know, don’t make fun. It is very early in the morning) to do a bunch more art and I am so excited to share it bit by bit this week. But at the bottom of this page there is a piece of art that I probably spent like 50 hours on, and I am sharing it later this week, so you get it first, as promised!!!

Vicious Miscreations – Book Blurb!!

One treacherous conspiracy.

Five reckless outcasts.

Survival will make monsters of them all.

On the surface, Topensi is a bustling hub of interworld trade, but a cesspool of crime and desperation boils underneath. Trapped by an indenture to the brutal Ripper Gang, Lux does whatever he must to claw his way free. When he discovers a mutated monster controlled by the city guard, he plans to capture the creature and exchange it for his freedom.

Lux assembles a volatile team: a naïve Earthborn mage whose violent magic festers under his skin, a fugitive with a score to settle, a revolutionary who has lost his way, a criminal princess who leaves a trail of ruin in her wake, and a troublemaking tabby cat.

Lux’s crew may be the only ones who can defeat the terrifying power that threatens to devour their world, if they don’t betray each other first.

Bonus: CHARACTER ART by me!

Thank you for being you, and for being here on my publishing journey! I deeply appreciate each of you!

Happy Mischief making,

Jenn