Author's Note

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Hi, everyone!

I'm so excited to share with you my entry for the 2024 Open Novella Contest. I've entered something for the ONCs every year for the past three years (I think), but I've never successfully completed one. My first entry went from a novella to a full-length novel (that I promptly did not finish), and my second fell victim to this hectic part of the year that we find ourselves in now. I still have every intention of continuing this one, but you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men. 

So, this year, I'm not going to pressure myself. If I make it to 20,000+ words, great! If I don't, then life got in the way. Or a lack of creative energy. Or the million other factors that can drain all that writing energy that I hope to have. 

The prompt I've chosen this year is number 95: "I will become as monstrous as I must."

I tried to challenge myself with this one, so a few things are different than my usual writing style: for one, I wrote in the first person, which I haven't done in years. And for another, I wrote in the present-tense, which I don't think I've done, well... ever (and yes, I did just go back and check a bunch of my old writing to confirm).

So, anyway, welcome to the world of Iron & Ice! I hope you packed a jacket–or, you know, those clothes you bought for an arctic expedition–because it's cold out there. Brace yourselves, because the Great Freeze has come, witches are burning, and the world as it was known has been frozen for a long, long time.

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