The Wyngraf Valentines Edition is available now!

I can’t say I’ve been working towards a day like today for 50 years, because I’m 50 right now. However, considering the first “book” I wrote (and illustrated) was when I was 3, I can say it’s been 47 years in progress.

The character who became Ashar showed up in my head in 2018, and Rahat showed up in 2019, and I had 80% of the first draft done in 2020, and then I put it on the shelf with the rest of my scribbles because the notion of cozy fantasy as a publishable genre outside some corners of fanfic wasn’t really a glint in anyone’s eye, especially not back in 2018.

And then between the global pandemic and billion dollar climate catastrophes and Trump, suddenly a lot of people decided they’d lived enough apocalyptic horror and would really not mind reading some fantasy that wasn’t grimdark anymore. But I still had no idea any of my scribbling might be publishable until I saw one of Nathaniel’s posts in the Cozy Fantasy Reddit last summer. I remember fighting with writing an ending around the 4th of July and being absolutely mortified that an autocorrect had autocorrected the last word of the last edit wrong!

And Nathaniel very patiently did not laugh at me when I sent a frantic “what have I done, I know you wanted it to be well edited before I hit submit, I’m so sorry” email, assuring me that one typo would not make or break the acceptance of the story.

Gmail gives preview of messages, and I knew writers got a lot of rejections, so when a few weeks later I got an email starting out like “we couldn’t fit your story into the summer edition,” I thought I knew the rest. And then I opened it, and if I hadn’t been sitting down I’d have fallen over when Nathaniel went on to say that he’d like to buy it for the Valentines Edition.

He’s been absolutely fantastic to work with, kind and cheerful and infinitely patient with editing exchanges that occasionally went like:

Nathaniel: “Rahat’s actual name can’t start with H for very good structural reasons.”

Me: (12 hours of historical research on the lineages of both the Mughal and Safavid dynasties to come up with name and title patterns that were plausible followed by writing 15,000 words of sequel in order to find out how Kamil thinks of Rahat inside his own head and realizing the syllable he’d have started with that Ashar needed to interrupt was the first syllable of the title ‘shahzada’)

Nathaniel (probably not used to someone writing 15,000 words of sequel to figure out how to change one letter of manuscript): “Sure, shahzada works!”

I wish I was better at short story ideas as opposed to ridiculously long story ideas, because 15,000 words is way outside Wyngraf’s limit, but I’d absolutely love to write for Wyngraf again!

In the meantime, in honor of Discount Chocolate Eve, here’s the Has Spoons edition of the hot chocolate recipe I mentioned in Priye’s preview. (True confession, today I did not have the spoons to make it. But tomorrow is Discount Chocolate Day, so maybe I can make it then.)

Spoonful Hot Chocolate of Decadence

(Occasionally called Secret Ninja Master Hot Chocolate by my friends, except no longer quite so secret.)

Equipment:

• 16 oz. microwave-safe mug
• Small whisk or hand held milk frother

Ingredients:

• 12-14 oz. milk (or your preferred alternative)
• 2-4 Tbsp semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips (depending on your preferred richness level)
• Optional 1-2 Tbsp sugar or honey (if you have bittersweet or bakers chocolate)
• Tiny pinch of salt (don’t forget this!)
• 1/8 tsp-ish vanilla
• Flavor twists as desired:
  • 1/8 tsp-ish rose water or orange blossom water and/or
  • 1/4 tsp-ish cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and/or chai masala
  • Optional shot of liqueur of your choice if it has been One of Those Days

Step 1:

Half-fill the mug with milk and add the chocolate chips, any desired sugar/honey, and the pinch of salt.

If your additional flavor notes involve any dried spices like chai masala, add them here so they meld in with the hot liquid and aren’t raw at the end. (Liquid flavors are more volatile, so save vanilla or rosewater for the final step.)

Step 2:

Microwave for 30-45 seconds, then whisk or froth a little with the little frother. (Don’t worry if the chips are still hard.)

Step 3:

Microwave for another 30-45 seconds, then whisk or froth again. (At this point the chips should be melty enough to blend through nicely and turn the milk a lovely light chocolate color.)

Step 4:

At this point you’ll know about how much volume the frothed milk and hot chocolate are taking up.

Add more milk to better fill the mug (but leave half an inch or so for final frothing).

Microwave another 30-45 seconds to heat the new addition of milk, then froth. (Adjust time to suit your own tongue.)

Step 5:

Add any liquid flavor notes like vanilla/rosewater after the chocolate is warm enough to drink, so the vanilla flavor doesn’t evaporate during the heating and frothing. (Taste testing is handy.)

Add any other liquid flavor notes desired at this point and stir through with the frother.

Step 6:

Drink. Purr. Repeat.