First, I am already scheduling book events for this year. In June I will be attending a festival in Grove City. I will also do Applefest and Petfest again. I will not be doing the Oil City Library’s Author event. I have done it for two years, and it has not been very fruitful. When I have more information about the events I am attending, I will of course share it.
Quest for the magic is moving along. I still have beta reader issues, but I have the story nailed down now. There was an issue plot wise but after a bit of timeline outlining and a poll among fellow friend writers, it’s all now fixed. The map rough draft has now been submitted to the illustrator for it to become a real map. It was a rough job; I made a few errors and used up all my free credits for Adobe Express…sweat drop. Not one of my better art jobs… (sorry Erik). I also forgot how to use PhotoScape X. I opened it and went through it to retrain myself because I can’t use Paint anymore; it now has A.I. in it. Before you ask, I don’t mind A.I. if it’s going to be useful. It’s not most of the time. That’s all I’ll say about it for now. (especially the rant I could go into about Copilot giving me the wrong Pokémon exclusives, but I digress).
The cover is almost ready to go. I’ll drop the cover and back cover summary sometime next month. The release date will hopefully be August, but I can’t officially say that yet with any confidence only because of the lack of beta readers. If I have to, I will push it to November if I must, but only if needed.
Pop Culture Corner- 30 years of catching them alllll.
Pokémon’s big anniversary of 30 years of games is coming up on the 27th. I cannot wait.
I started with Pokémon about 27 years ago. My dad came across a channel that did test plays (hard to explain, it was back in the dinosaur days when satellite dishes were the size of a kid slide, okay, I’m old).
It said “Pokémon”. He asked me what that was. I did not know, so he left it on the channel. The theme came on, and my life changed forever, even though at the time I had no idea it would. The theme song stuck with me, and I fell in love with the 151 pocket monsters and all the things the show was about: friendship and being the very best like no one ever was.
I played Red first, that belonged to my distant cousin who lived down the street. I picked Squirtle because the squad and I fell in love with gaming. But I really didn’t play until my uncle gifted me the special edition Pokémon Game Boy Color and a copy of Gold. That is when my true journey into the world of Pokémon began with my Feraligatr named Bubble, then catching my dear Rapidash on my way to the league.
Now, in 2026, I have a vast card and game collection full of fond memories. Pokémon has its faults, but I love it just as much now as I did then. Helps I can shiny hunt without wasting too much of my life.
I cannot wait for Gale of Darkness to finally come to the Online subscription so I can play it again (my copy was bought secondhand, and it’s a little rough).
Just after I started writing the draft for this blog post, FireRed and Leafgreen were dropped!!!! Extreme fangirl genwunner screaming
I am tossing around doing a nuzlock (For non-Pokémon YouTube fans; you play through the game with set rules such as first mon you come across each route is the one you get, no healing, once the Pokémon faints it dies and you can’t use it anymore, etc. The rules can be customized to how much you want to cry). I would like to do it as just a fun love letter to my favorite games. If do it, I of course will post when the video goes up.
But I truly can’t wait just for the announcement for Gen 10.
Happy Birthday, Pokémon. I’m still working hard to catch them all and I still play with my favorites. And cheers to fellow trainers and favorite YouTubers like Mandjtv, HDvee, and PM7 for all the fun that you create.
Lots of Love,
Dragonninjawriter
Kathleen L Shay 