A 2026 Reintroduction

Greetings.

Wow, this is interesting. I have a slight influx of new readers. I kind of live in the rural area of Substack. That’s intentional because I’ve developed a shudder when I see communities and neighborhoods of the more suburban areas of Substack. And I don’t want to touch the urban areas.

However, you found me, and I get the impression you subscribed to me for a reason I have yet to fathom, but here I am.

I am, for all intents and purposes, L.J., Lady, or just McEachern if you want to dare pronounce that last name.

Hint: It isn’t pronounced how it’s spelled.

I am an alt fantasy writer. I’ve picked up that label, given I write what I want to see in fantasy. And what I want to read isn’t what the masses want. In fact, I’m a minority in a minority. My writing is downright niche at times. I have a habit of writing nonhuman characters and it goes downhill from there.

I believe that fantasy is a vast genre that shouldn’t be restricted into narrowing subgenre lanes and shackled entirely by monoliths. So most of what I write isn’t pure escapist fantasy. Basically, I had a unique experience in my formative years as a writer.

I didn’t come from fan-fic communities. I stopped writing fan-fics before I started writing online. I’ve always hard-focused on original fiction because even my fan-fics were too OC. So I joined a very mixed and small community that focused on improving and growing as a writer. Not all those writers were fantasy writers. And the fantasy writers didn’t always write high fantasy. This was old DeviantArt.

Now, I have an allergy when it comes to poetry. In fact, I have a visceral reaction to it because, let’s be real, like the thought of poetry, but I utterly hate writing it. Same with essays. Those are the two things I struggled the most to write in English classes, and that is what every single English teacher asked students to write. So don’t expect a whole lot of that. Or any of it. If I write an essay, I must really have a point that needs to be expressed. Poetry might as well be a foreign language I don’t speak.

I will post the occasional doodle because I am a hobby artist. I have been a hobby artist for nearly as long as I’ve been a writer. I do both digital and traditional media.

I have a terrible addiction to cute lil’ notebooks that I’ve curbed. So there is hope. I like fountain pens. I’ve three cheap ones, so don’t think you need to spend $1000's on a fountain pen. But I do stare at $1000+ fountain pens because there is a part of my brain that is like a raven’s. All I see is shiny, sparkly, and pretty.

I am married. I don’t often talk about the huzby. It’s for privacy reasons. But he is the most awesome superman out there, losing basically like nearly 100lbs last year, and now I’ve realized that I’ve married a vampire. No, seriously. He doesn’t like the sun and has always been a night owl. He shaved his beard and looks like he did when I met him now. Very sus. At least his hair is turning gray like a normal person. Or, it might be strategically placed dye.

Also, he’s inspires certain pieces of my male main characters.

I do have two dogs. A camera-shy big boy cane corso/golden doodle who is the “poodle bear” or “noodle boy.” His name is Oliver. I also have a corgi who thinks the best way to deal with everything in life is to battle it. She’s Scarlett or ”pipi.”

This year in writing, I’m going to be working on many things behind the scenes. Last year I finished serializing my fantasy romance novel Claws of Ice Wings of Fire. It’s about a woman who is turning to ice and runs into a savior who has the knowledge to save her. Problem: he’s a telepath, and she finds that terrifying.

It was a fun but exhausting experience. It was my first completed fantasy romance. My last one, years ago, didn’t make it out of the 1st draft, as I hated it. This one is currently on the “It needs to be less words” table because it’s a 140K+ monster.

And you might be thinking, “Gosh, woman, how did you end up with a fantasy romance that long?”

Because I’m a fantasy writer before a romance writer, that’s how. Not to mention mountains of dialogue, redundancy, and me being needlessly wordy. Did I mention mountains of dialogue? The story relies heavily on emotional intimacy than physical. T’was purposely written in that manner. It works for both the characters. But that means a lot of words.

There is a follow-up I’m working on slowly.

For this year’s “new” project, I’m working on a novella with the working title of The House of Leigh, and it’s a contemporary fantasy. A bit more traditional in the sense that there is good mage and there is bad mage. Good mage, fights bad mage. Something something about history repeating itself. I’m going to post pieces of this story, and I think I can post the opening and a following chapter soon.

And there is The Brotherhood Archive. A passion project that is on hiatus. Not indefinite, as I’m examining what I’m currently working on. It’s a high fantasy novel that’s not epic with elves…who are part of a religious order who kill monsters. But it’s not about them killing monsters. It’s not an easy series to describe. I just need a break from it.

I’m doing book reviews this year because I wanted to write book reviews for every book I read this year because I like stupid self-challenges. I already have a stack of books picked out for reading material this year. I will add to it at will. I’m currently reading To Clutch a Razor by Veronica Roth. I need to hunker down to finish it.

And that’s it other than I’m dyslexic, and if I write gibberish, it’s because of that.

So, thanks for reading.

God bless.