BRAND NEW: Super SWEET Cozy Fantasy Short Story - Neli + Grey's Solstice (don't miss the deets inside the show notes!)

This sweet stand-alone short story features Neli, Grey, Teliador, and Beldion from ELENTARI: A Cosmic Fairytale. You can listen even if you haven't read that book yet, it will make sense. It's the result of the story dropping in to me the other day and then my decision this morning to experiment with my own writing process by speaking the story aloud extemporaneously versus writing it first and then narrating the written story. I wanted to see what it would be like to dictate it (but without dictation punctuation). I found I did need some notes of a basic outline before I could comfortably start but that was all. I notice a few differences from the transcript of this and my actual writing style so in the future I'm likely to do this only as an initial step when I feel more like speaking initial scenes than writing them. Most notably in a written version of this story, I would have way more actual dialogue which I love writing but oddly didn't come out in my speaking. I didn't notice this until listening through to it. I also recording a location more conducive to my storytelling than my own ad hoc sound studio (which is basically a utility closet I've draped with heavy blankets and plopped a small table and chair into, ha ha ha!)Let me know what you think please! If you like it... Guess what? I’m readying to make the audiobook of ELENTARI: A Cosmic Fairytale available in early 2025!!! This will be properly recorded of course so the sound quality will be excellent!EPIC right? But wait! You know what’s even more epic? Here is a way that you can get it FOR FREE!!AND ALL WHILE SPREADING HOLIDAY JOY AND MAGIC!! Purchase one or more copies of ELENTARI to give as a gift this holiday season (yes you can be the recipient of this gift!) and leave a written review of it and I will give you the audiobook for free!!!(PS: to my early buyers and reviewers, you can get credit for that, just do the same! I would never leave you out of this! Your support has meant the ABSOLUTE WORLD TO MY WRITERLY HEART!Here’s the deal:Just email a screenshot of your purchase and review to support @ melaniegillespie.com with the subject “AUDIOBOOK GIFT” and you’ll be added to the list!You can get more than one copy of this, so if you are gifting the book to several people - and let’s be real what could be a better holiday gift than the elevation of joy and magic and the activation of inner star maps, amiright??? - and you think they’d also like the audiobook, please note this in your email. Reviews are the fastest and best way to spread and share the story and increase its visibility. So if you believe in the idea of a movement of stories that increase the JOY and access to magic around the world, the mission of the entire Melanie Gillespie - Author Big Stories in The Wild project, then please join me in getting the first of many out there!!...