November 2025 Newsletter

Hello, everyone! How was your month? I’d love to hear what’s been going on with you!

The winners of my Two-Year Anniversary Giveaway are:

Jola
and
Haniah

Congratulations! 🥳 I’ll be sending an email with the details later this week.

Thank you to everyone who filled out last month’s survey! I really appreciate your feedback, and I’m excited to share that I’ll be implementing some of your suggestions. Starting next month, I’m adding a Personal section to the newsletter, alongside the existing Writing, Reading, and Spotlight sections, to give you a little more insight into what’s going on behind the scenes.

Writing: Working with an Editor

As some of you may remember from a previous newsletter, a short story I wrote was accepted for publication in a small online magazine. Since The Treaty of Vengeance was accepted in mid-May, I’ve been working on and off with a content editor to bring it up to the publication’s standards. I thought I’d share a little about my first experience working with an editor—hopefully, it won’t be my last!

The Pearl Magazine is volunteer-run, so my edits came back irregularly, and the process was fairly casual. Because of that, I probably didn’t get the full experience, but there were still moments that gave me a taste of what it might be like to work more closely with a professional editor on a larger project.

First, I found it incredibly validating to work with an editor. I’ve had people read my writing and tell me it’s good, but I’ve never had someone like it enough to want to share it with others. It felt really good to know that an editor thought my work was worth investing time and effort into improving.

On a less positive note, even within the nine-page short story, I ran into a few suggestions from my editor that I didn’t fully agree with. They weren’t major—mostly sentence-level changes—but it was good practice in learning how to politely push back on feedback that didn’t feel right for the story. I imagine that skill will come in handy when I’m facing more significant edits in the future.

Overall, it was a amazing experience, and I hope I get the chance to do it again someday!

I’m also happy to share that The Treaty of Vengeance will be coming out very soon. I don’t have an exact date yet, but it sounds like there will be a quick proofread, and then it’ll be ready for publication. I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as it’s out!

Reading: A Door in the Dark

A Door in the Dark by Scott Reintgen

This book made me both laugh out loud and want to cry.

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Age rating: 14+

Ren Monroe has spent four years proving she’s one of the best wizards in her generation. But top marks at Balmerick University will mean nothing if she fails to get recruited into one of the major houses. Enter Theo Brood. If being rich were a sin, he’d already be halfway to hell. After a failed and disastrous party trick, fate has the two of them crossing paths at the public waxway portal the day before holidays—Theo’s punishment is to travel home with the scholarship kids. Which doesn’t sit well with any of them.

A fight breaks out. In the chaos, the portal spell malfunctions. All six students are snatched from the safety of the school’s campus and set down in the middle of nowhere. And one of them is dead on arrival. (Blurb taken from Goodreads.com)

This was one of those books that sat on my to-read list for years. When I finally picked it up, I wished I’d read it sooner. I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump these past few months, and this book pulled me right out of it.

From the very first page, I was hooked. The worldbuilding is fascinating and unique—it leans more steampunk than the average fantasy. I especially loved the magic system, where everyone receives different allotments of magic each month stored in special magic-holding vessels.

When the five characters were thrown through the malfunctioning portal, my intrigue only grew. I quickly became attached to them and loved watching their relationships develop as they worked together to find a way home. And don’t even get me started on the plot twist at the end! I won’t spoil anything, but it’s absolutely worth reading all the way through.

Spotlight: Life Update

I just wanted to give you a quick update on what’s been going on in my life lately!

1. This month, I took on a writing challenge to write 30,000 words in October. I didn’t quite reach my goal—I finished with 26,000 words, too tired to quite make it to the finish line on the 31st—but it’s still the most I’ve written in months, and I’m really proud of the progress I made!

2. I’ve also been getting more involved in my church, volunteering with the kids on Sundays, playing more frequently on the youth group worship team, and getting to know the girls my age there. It’s been amazing!

3. On the writing front, I joined a small writing group a little while ago with three other girls, and we’ve started working on a story together. That’s been super fun and really inspiring.

4. Finally, I’m excited to be going down to Arizona for Thanksgiving with my dad’s side of the family—it’s going to be a great trip!

Quick Writing Update

• Did final content edits on Treaty of Vengeance

• Wrote 26,000 words in Project:Sci-Fi

What did you think about my review of A Door in the Dark? What’s one of your favorite books you’ve read recently? Let me know by replying directly to this email or leaving me a comment of the website that corresponds to The Introverted Writer. I’d love to hear from you!

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

Abby Henderson

P.S. I’m hoping to line up some more author interview in the next couple of months! Who would you like to hear from?