From the quill of Kelsey Ann

Hello there Inklings, 

Welcome to the first newsletter from Hook & Quill Press! My name is Kelsey, and I’m taking over this month. It’s currently pretty chilly where I live so I’m thriving in my element. The dogs seem thrilled about the cooler weather too, and we’ve spent a lot of afternoons walking around the neighborhood taking in the colorful leaves.  

I’m currently enjoying a slow Saturday morning at my local coffee shop with a peppermint mocha latte (iced, of course) in hand . The laptop is out as I prepare to interview longtime friend and author Eliwood S. Gheist which you’ll be able to read below. 

Updates from the Crew: 

Things have been very busy here at Hook & Quill Press as we’ve spent most of October and November preparing to launch ourselves into the indie publishing world. Working with such a lovely crew has truly been an honor and privilege . They even got me appearing in videos on social media – so that’s a testament to how much I love them. 

Turns out that starting a publishing company mostly involves a lot of paperwork and meetings so I’ll spare you the details on that and let you in on some of our first projects to be released in early 2026! 

The first project will be the book Bludeye Beach by Eliwood S. Gheist with a release set for January of 2026! Bludeye Beach follows a teenage girl named Edie Grayson as she travels to a small seaside town to reconnect with her estranged father and spends the summer navigating friendship, romance, and the discovery that there might be more to the town than meets the eye. 

We’ll also be releasing the Hook & Quill Zine in February of 2026! The zine is set to feature short works ranging from poetry to short stories in a digital format. In addition to being available for purchase, the Hook & Quill Zine will also be included as a reward for our Patreon and Ko-fi subscribers.
Last, but not least, we have a project in the From Tree to Book Writers Group! This is a podcast welcoming writers at any stage in their writing journey. Come hang out with Anna, Sam, and Eliwood as they discuss the craft and struggles of writing, and then join in on a group writing sprint. No matter where you are, as long as you’re writing, you’re not writing it wrong.

I also have some super secret inside information that we’ll have some very interesting rewards in the upcoming months for our patreon and ko-fi subscribers so now would be a great time to subscribe if you haven’t already. 

Personal Updates

Singing has always been a passion of mine, and about a year ago I decided to join a local choir. It’s been a lot of fun singing with them and we’ve been rehearsing for a winter concert. My favorite song in the line up is the choral version of Crazy Train we’re going to be performing. There’s about eighty of us in the choir so it sounds AMAZING when we get going. We’re also doing a mash-up of Rumour Has It and Someone Like You by Adele and that song is just plain fun to sing. 

Since everyone likes to get rec’d once in a while – I recently finished the book The Devil She Knows by Alexandria Bellefleur and the best way I can describe it is if you took the early 2000’s movie Bedazzled and threw in some lesbians. So, if you want a heartfelt sapphic romance with some devilish fun give it a read. You should also listen to the album Plans by Death Cab for Cutie, but I tell that to everyone I meet. 

Where in the World is Quillbert 

Quillbert made it to Buffalo, NY and had so much fun reading up on local history and food at the library while he was there. It was also very exciting because Quillbert told me this was the first time he got to see snow! 

Another exciting thing Quillbert did while in Buffalo was learn to make Wing Dip – or Buffalo Chicken Wing Dip if you’re not local, and he wanted to share the recipe. 

Author Interview – Eliwood S. Gheist 

As I mentioned earlier, I got to sit down and have a virtual interview with Eliwood S. Gheist. As one of the authors behind Hook & Quill Press, Eliwood has been very busy these past few months getting the company ready for launch as well as getting her first book,  Bludeye Beach ready for publication this January. We spent the afternoon talking about her book, her writing process, and her journey as a writer. 

Kelsey: Thank you for taking the time to chat with me. Before we get into talking about the book, can you tell us a little about you and your journey as a  writer? 

Eliwood: Thank you so much for having me! I have always loved telling stories and wanted to be a writer. I had a very imaginative childhood, and was fortunate to have a family that encouraged it. I wound up going to college to get a degree in writing, but I often struggled with completing long term projects. I never got anything to the point where I wanted to try to get it published until two years ago, in my mid thirties. It took me a while to get here, but I’m glad I did!

Kelsey: That’s such an inspirational journey, and this isn’t flattery, but as someone who has gotten to read your work – I’m certainly glad you did, too. What are some of the inspirations behind Bludeye Beach? Are there any personal experiences of yours that shaped the book?

Eliwood: Thank you! Bludeye Beach came about as a purely self indulgent idea. I had been playing a lot of Stardew Valley, I grew up watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I love a fun, subversive horror story as much as I love a cute romance.

I hadn’t been writing much for a while at that point, and I just sort of thought – what if I write something that’s just for fun? If I put enough of my favorite things into it, will it keep me invested long enough to finish it? As it turns out, complete self indulgence definitely helped me out – and maybe it’s less about self indulgence, and more about being able to accept myself as an artist as I am, instead of an artist as I think I should be. 

As for the town of Bludeye Beach, there’s a lot of influence from Bar Harbor, Maine – one of my favorite places. The town layout was fun to put together, as I love worldbuilding. I wanted to create a place that felt both welcoming and a little creepy; fun touristy vibes surrounded by a mysterious forest. 

The romance in this book isn’t a direct copy of my own, but there is quite a bit influenced from my husband. When we first started dating, I jokingly told him one of my fears was getting supernaturally trapped in a room by an angry ghost, like in horror movies. With all seriousness, he just said he would come rescue me if that happened. I wanted my main character Edie to have a love interest who would help her with that same sincerity; someone who would accept her fears, and help her face them.

Kelsey: I’m honestly touched at how much this book means to you and how much of yourself went into it. You mention that Bar Harbor, Buffy, and your own relationship as large inspirations for the town and story. Would you mind telling a little more about how you went about creating and writing Bludeye Beach? Were there any surprising discoveries you made during this process?

Eliwood: I had just finished running a D&D campaign where I spent a lot of time homebrewing the playable world within. For that campaign, I started to find that the more I thought of interactive parts of cities and landmarks, the more I found ways to tie in plot points – and as I created plot points, I found reasons to add more worldbuilding details to support them. In a way, I had accidentally discovered the best way for me to outline and plan a book; if I knew enough about the world involved, I could much more easily and fluidly find ways to build character interactions, plot beats, and story moments. One of my struggles as a writer is figuring out the “where”s and “what”s of a story – so by basically frontloading all of that work, the actual drafting goes much more quickly and smoothly.

All that to say, when I decided to use this little creepy horror love story for a November writing challenge story in 2023 (when NaNoWriMo was still alive and kicking), I spent October thinking of all the things I would want in that town. Obviously a gorgeous library. A pizza shop. A night club. But who runs that library? Where do the locals hang out? If they need to get groceries, where do they go? Where do they live? If these two characters grow up down the street from each other, would that make them closer than others in the friend group? Bludeye Beach informed the characters, just as the characters informed the town. That led to one of the core tenets of this book: the characters love their town, and they’ll do whatever they can to protect it.

Kelsey: Oh, I’m so glad you mentioned your characters, because I love the way you write them. Without spoiling anything, can you tell us a little about the inhabitants of Bludeye Beach? Is there a particular character who resonates the most with you or that’s your favorite?

Eliwood: It’s hard to talk about most of the Bludeye Beach locals without spoilers, because it is a town full of secrets! Milo Vance is the male love interest for our main character Edie Grayson. He and his friends & family make up the main group; Manny Torres, Viola Vance, and Alexandra & Cat Novikov. They’re roughly the same age, 13-16 years old when the book starts, and while they all accept Edie into their group pretty quickly, there is a sense of something they’re not being fully honest about. There are plenty of locals not directly involved with the core group; Aisling Cunning the librarian, Madam Morgan the bar owner, Annie Siegel the small town Sheriff, Mac the owner of the laundry shop, and Edie’s estranged father, Teddy Coltsworth. The story kicks off with Edie going to stay with Teddy for the summer, and the relationship between the two of them has been really satisfying for me to write. I want to illustrate in the book that you can be a good person, but still make some wrong choices; ultimately, what matters is where you go from there, and how you try to make things right. As for a favorite, that would have to be Edie’s older cousin, Kelly Thorne. She’s just fun!

Kelsey: I know I’m biased, but having read the book I can say that Kelly deserves that hype. You mention that Edie and Teddy’s relationship with that beautiful theme behind it was very satisfying to write, but now I’m curious what part of the book you are most proud of.

Eliwood: If I’m being very honest – just the fact that I’ve come this far with it! Before Bludeye, I wrote a big pile of first draft manuscripts; it wasn’t until this book that I was able to dive into the editing and refining process. It’s the furthest I’ve ever been able to take a book. If I have to pick one specific part – I really like Edie and Milo’s romantic reunion when she returns to Bludeye Beach 10 years after they initially meet. I’m very biased, but I think it’s a very good kiss.

Kelsey: Both of those things are definitely something to be proud of, and kudos to reaching that milestone. As for that kiss, you’re definitely not biased. Aside from being the farthest you’ve taken a manuscript, how else has writing Bludeye Beach changed you?

Eliwood: Bludeye Beach has made me a lot more confident as a writer, and because I wanted to take it as far as I could go, I had to get more confident as a person. I also had to learn how to advocate for myself in order to advocate for my book, which is always something I’ve struggled with; but when you let yourself care about something you’ve created, I think it becomes easier to be willing to stand up for it and yourself. On top of all that, trying to take myself more seriously as a writer on behalf of this book led me to pushing myself into online writing communities, which helped me fall into a group of some truly kind, talented, and wonderful writers. If it weren’t for that group, there wouldn’t be a Hook & Quill Press. I owe everyone at HQP so much, yourself included!

Kelsey: It’s truly amazing what art and community can give to us. It’s so nice that Bludeye could give back to you as much as you put into it. I also have to admit that the group and Hook & Quill Press are both amazing communities I’m so happy to be involved in. Speaking of Hook & Quill Press, are there any projects, future or current, that you’d like to mention before the last question?

Eliwood: We’ve got a ton of ideas and a ton of talent behind them! There’s a Zine in progress, a podcast of writers for writers, this newsletter, and more wonderful books to come after Bludeye Beach. Our website and socials will keep you updated, and I promise, you are not gonna wanna miss what this group gets up to!

Kelsey: I can confirm that we’ve been very hard at work on some very fun projects that will be coming next year. Last question, are there any words of encouragement you’d like to share for other writers out there? 

Eliwood: Write for yourself first. It’s easy to say, but it can be a lot harder to actually do. It means being honest with yourself about what you want, and about your own feelings. That’s okay. The best thing you can give yourself is a chance to be your own authentic you. And the world is better with your true voice in it.

Kelsey: That’s truly some very good advice, and can apply to much of life in addition to writing. 

Thank you so much for sitting down with me Eliwood, and I hope to receive my copy of Bludeye Beach soon! 

Eliwood: Thank you so much for this opportunity, Kelsey!

If you’d like to learn more about Eliwood you can check out her website (https://eliwoodsgheist.com)  and her Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/eliwoodsgheist.com). 

If you’d like to learn more about Hook & Quill Press and the other authors behind the publisher please visit (https://hookandquillpress.com) and follow @hookandquillpress on Instagram and Bluesky. 

Closing thoughts:

Thank you for reading and sticking with me, Inklings. Your support is truly appreciated by all of us here at Hook & Quill Press and we’re happy to keep bringing you content for many years to come. I hope you all have a wonderful December and don’t forget to be kind to each other. 

Best wishes and happy reading, 

Kelsey