August 2025 Newsletter

Hello, everyone!

Here we are—the last month of summer.

Soon it’ll be time for fresh school supplies, pumpkin spice lattes, and cozy sweaters. Some of us might be dreading the arrival of fall, others couldn’t be more excited, and most of us are probably somewhere in between.

No matter where you land on the spectrum, there are likely things you're looking forward to and others you’re not. Change is hard, and that’s exactly what fall represents: a season of change. Leaves turn brilliant colors before dropping to the ground, and students return to school with new teachers, classes, and routines. It’s hard not to notice how quickly life shifts and evolves—exciting, yes, but also slightly terrifying.

However you're feeling as we head toward fall, I’m wishing you the very best. I’ll be praying for you. You got this! ❤️

Note: Some of you may have noticed—this newsletter is late for the first time in nearly two years. I was actually working on it last Saturday evening when I realized, “Wait… wasn’t this supposed to go out at 9 a.m.?” And then I did the same thing today…. I guess the streak had to break eventually!

Writing: Burnout and Breaks

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been someone who likes to stay busy. I’ve always had projects going, always been working on something. Over the past few years, one of my biggest projects has been my writing.

Up until last fall, I was pretty free to write whenever I wanted. I was the only thing standing in my way. I rarely felt burned out, and for a while, I was making consistent, meaningful progress.

But since then, I’ve watched my progress steadily decline. Writing started to feel less exciting, less fun, as more and more things piled onto my plate. I kept pushing through, frustrated with myself for not keeping up the same pace I used to—and I ended up burning out completely.

I thought about taking a break, but the idea of “wasting” time made me feel guilty. It wasn’t until I was talking with someone about how drained I’d been feeling that they said, “That sounds like burnout. You should take a break.”

As much as I hated to admit it, they were right. If I really want to make progress again, stepping away for a while might be the best thing I can do. Even if that means a few weeks of no writing, it could lead to months of better, more energized progress down the line.

It’s only been a week since I officially gave myself permission to take a break—and already, I can feel the excitement to write coming back.

Reading: My Not-So-“Currently Reading” Stack

Does anyone else have way too many books on their nightstand? Books they’re “reading”... but haven’t actually picked up in at least a month? I definitely do. Today, I’m going to give you a tour of my currently reading stack that’s starting to get ridiculously tall.

Disclaimer: I haven’t finished any of these, so my opinions are totally subject to change! And if you loved one of these books and I didn’t, please don’t be offended—we all enjoy different books!

Here’s my stack, from top to bottom:

Glorious Rivals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
I love Jennifer Lynn Barnes!! I will read anything she writes. Glorious Rivals came out a week ago and I ordered it right away. This is the only book I’m really reading out of my stack right now—and I’m loving it!

My Sister’s Big Fat Indian Wedding by Sajni Patel
Oh my goodness! The protagonist in My Sister’s Big Fat Indian Wedding instantly had me drawn in with her snarky, sassy voice. The only reason I’m not reading this right now is because I got sidetracked by Glorious Rivals.

Lore by Alexandra Bracken
I started this book late at night and the prologue was too much for my brain at the time. I’m actually really excited to get into it, but by now, it’s a couple books deep in the stack.

Powerless by Lauren Roberts
I’m only a chapter and a page into this one, and so far, I’m not super impressed. I tend to avoid really popular and hyped books because, while they usually have amazing premises, they often feel poorly written. So far, this book is reinforcing that habit. (Unpopular opinion, I know!)

I See London I See France by Sarah Mlynowski
This one really disappointed me. I was so excited for a fun, cute romance set on a trip to Europe—especially since I’m writing something similar. But right from the first page, the dialogue and writing just felt super “tell-ie” (writers, you know what I mean). I can’t tell if I’m just extra sensitive to it because I write, or if it’s genuinely clunky. Either way, I haven’t officially DNF’d it... but I’ve definitely been avoiding picking it back up.

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas
I’ve been reading this book for months, and the Throne of Glass series as a whole for nearly six months. I’ve liked what I’ve read so far, but it’s a big book with a deep magic system and tons of world building, so I’ve been taking my time.

Progress on my reading challenge: 6/16

• Multigenerational Family Drama: Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay

(Curious about this challenge? Click the link to find out more.)

Spotlight: Interview with Josiah DeGraaf

I’m so excited to share an interview with someone I deeply admire as both a writer and a teacher: Josiah DeGraaf, instructor and program director at the Young Writer’s Workshop and author of the soon-to-be-released A Study of Shattered Spells.

Can you tell me about your debut, A Study of Shattered Spells, and a little bit of what the experience of writing/publishing it has been like for you?

A Study of Shattered Spells explores the traditional magic school setting from the teacher's perspective. In the book, Kalina is given eight months to train a prophesied hero. If he isn’t ready by the school year’s end, she’ll lose her country and her husband. I started writing this book five years ago during the turmoil of COVID-19 as I was reflecting on my experience as a classroom teacher and what kind of stories that could inspire. And I worked on it off-and-on alongside another writing project before deciding to move toward publication at the beginning of 2024. I'd always loved novels that have plenty of illustrations in it--even if they're works targeting adults. So earlier this year, I ran a Kickstarter for the book to see how many interior illustrations we could fund for it. We ended up raising $25,000+ for the project, which allowed me to include twelve interior illustrations and two maps in the book. :)

What’s one non-writing book that majorly impacted your understanding of storytelling or writing craft?

Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky has probably had one of the largest impacts on my vision for storytelling and what it ought to look like. The depth and complexity of the book and its themes has profoundly shaped what I think good storytelling should look like and how these kinds of stories are crafted.

I really respect your patience and strategy while waiting to publish. How did you know when the moment was right to share your work—especially in a world where many writers rush and risk publishing too soon? Any advice for young writers eager to publish but who might benefit from waiting?

This is a great question and one that I thought through really carefully before pulling the trigger to publish this book. I had written four novels before A Study of Shattered Spells. Most of them really weren't ready--and I knew that. But back from 2017-2019, there was one novel I felt fairly good about that I tried to find a traditional publisher for. But my hopes didn't end up panning out.

At that point, I didn't want to try to indie publish that book for two reasons. First, the feedback I was getting from industry professionals was generally positive but with warning signs that the concept wasn't strong enough (even if the writing was good). Second, at the time I didn't feel like I was well-versed enough in indie publishing to do it successfully.

With A Study of Shattered Spells, several things were different. First, I had multiple industry professionals who had reviewed the book and were giving me the green light on it. Second, I had talked about the book with a lot of other writers and seen how much more gripping this premise was than anything I'd written before. Finally, I had the connections within the industry to learn what I needed to learn about indie publishing and how to do it at the level I wanted. All of that helped me come to the conclusion that it was the right time to publish my first novel.

What have your experiences as an English teacher and an instructor at the Young Writer’s Workshop taught you about the writing process that you might not have realized before?

One of the funny things about teaching is that you don't really master a skill (in my experience) until you've also had experience teaching and helping others do it well. The process of teaching writing to others (and helping other writers refine their writing) has helped me better grasp certain skills in a way that I simply wouldn't have without the process of thinking through how to guide someone else to do this. So I would say that teaching has helped me better finesse many of the skills I already practiced, but in a less polished way.

Enjoy the interview with Josiah? Make sure to check out his website and consider preordering his debut novel A Study of Shattered Spells—I know I can’t wait for my copy!

Quick Writing Update

• Wrote 8,000 words in The Phoenix Pendant

• Wrote 2,700 words in Project:Sci-Fi

• Edited my short story in preparation for publication

Curious what these stories are about? Click here to find out.

What books are piled on your nightstand? I’d love to hear about them! Let me know by replying directly to this email or leaving me a comment of the website that corresponds to The Introverted Writer!

Thank you so much for reading! Have a great rest of your day!

Abby Henderson

P.S. Next month, I’m excited to share about the Young Writer’s Retreat hosted by the Young Writer’s Workshop!