Burning it All to the Ground and Starting Over

Oh, wow, there's a lot of dust on this newsletter. That's my bad, life has really been... an experience as of late.

Just to do a quick recap of what 2026 has been like thus far:

• I got a roommate
• She bought a house!! We moved in January!!
• I dedicated a lot of time to this new house, as we had disaster after disaster that led to us contracting $20k worth of pipe work to replace the collapsed terracotta pipes under the house that the home inspector missed
• My boss up and left the company with no notice, leaving me to fill his gap
• I failed two classes in my Master's, pushing graduation back to Spring 2027
• Oop! Actually! Someone else was brought in to fill the gap that doesn't know anything about the project 😃
• I'm nearing the end of my Master's program!
• Hmmm, things are kind of tense between me and my roommate and I don't like it, maybe I should ask for a lease since I still don't have one
• Columbus Book Fest time!!! A fantastic time spent with fantastic people! I can't wait to go again!
• Hooo boy,,, Master's program level homework,,,,,,, and having to draft a book not because I want to but because I'm being graded on it by someone who admittedly doesn't like horror,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
• Lavendercon!! Oh my god it was fun! Stressful, but fun!
• This new boss stressed me out so much that I am two month into requesting a transfer out of my project exclusively to get away from him
• What perfect timing! Right in the middle of a work emergency and generally feeling like shit about my job + post con funk, my roommate kicked me out 😃😃😃
• no need for a lease now, i suppose
• I hate that these words are about to leave my mouth but thankfully my grandma passed last year and my mom allotted part of the sale of her house to buy a house
• My Mama's last act, making sure I got a roof over my head
• it's a fixer upper for sure! But keys are obtained and movers just finished getting shit from the storage unit yesterday
• My transfer still has not been approved so I'm still working with the boss that's stressing me out

Anyways, that's the quick run down. Now for the real talk:

I'm not happy with how I'm doing things right now.

Being forced to stop and re-evaluate literally everything in my life after being kicked out on my ass during a particularly difficult time in my life made me realize a few things. The first one being: I miss Icarus. I miss telling his story and I want to do him justice.

Another thing being that I think I want to do more. I've been very enmeshed in the process of publishing my works, as any self-published author is. But I want to do more. I want to curate anthologies, I want to help other authors find homes for their stories, I want to design pretty editions of books. I just... want to do more.

And finally I realized that I am the one thing that's holding myself back. I could do anything I want to! Whether it will be successful or not is another story, but I don't necessary care if it is. I have a career, I have a home now, I want to write and create what I want to in the way that I want to.

I suppose I should re-introduce myself, now that I've said all that.

Hey y'all, my name's Andromeda Ruins and I am a queer horror author and the founder of Ruins Press.

So what does that mean? For right now, not much. I'm working on getting everything filed and prepared to hit the ground running by late 2027/early 2028. Fingers crossed I'll have publications before then, but honestly I am focusing on just... allowing myself to create what I want to create.

I'm starting with DESECRATE. This story has my blood, sweat, and tears and I have been promising it to y'all for literal years now. It will be the first thing I publish under this press, and I am really excited for y'all to see it!! It's changed over the years, as everything does, and I can't wait to re-introduce Kit to y'all.

My priority after that is the Call Me Icarus series. They're getting re-vamped! ΔΆΙΟΣ will stay mostly the same, at least enough that anyone who's read it an loved it won't have to read it again before diving into book 2. I am going to re-draft a few scenes, but they will not fundamentally change the story. Think of it like I'm just going back and polishing it a bit now that it's sat for a few years before I give you the shiny new book 2! This will come with new cover art, as well, and I cannot wait to tell y'all more about that 👀

Once those are complete, I will fully transition to what will be the focus of Ruins Press so I can start setting the foundations. I want to give a home to short form horror, especially of the queer and folk variety. Anthologies, chap books, novellas, novellettes, you name it and it will be here! (as long as it's under 40k words)

Notice that D'JEET? WIP isn't in this line up, and that's because it's going to be the template for the shorter form work that I'm doing. D'JEET? was always meant to be a collection of short stories that tell an overarching story, and I want to emphasize that. I have a cover for the collected story at the end of the tunnel, but I want to serialize it like a short story series, or maybe I'll even make them into zines or chapbooks! Who knows! But it will fall into this third phase of work for sure.

And hopefully y'all will stick with me through these transitions, as I actually build out what I always wanted to. I'm sorry it took me so long to get here, but two back-to-back years of being forcibly thrown to the wolves kept me away.

That's all I have to say for now. If you made it this far, I want to say that you're the best. I know life's tough for everyone at the moment, and I appreciate you listening to me while I try to re-frame this into a willful transformation for the good. I will make what I want to and it will be a damn good time!

Until the next newsletter,

Andi

P.S. Look at these pictures of my cats I love them so much 😭

P.P.S. (for those who are still here), a snippet of the New And Improved DESECRATE

“I’m not kidding!” Kit says, his voice just above a whisper as he records a voice note to sent to the group chat. “They changed the entire story, y’all. This used to be the bread and snack cake aisle but now there’s only salad dressings and sadness!”

His phone chimes as the voice note sends, two check marks appearing under the message before turning blue as Benny and Isaac listen to it. The wheels of the cart squeak when Kit pushes it forward, moving down the aisle and out into the mass of Thursday morning shoppers while he tries to find where they moved the bread to. Five rows back, apparently. Still with the snack cakes like he remembers, only much closer to the cleaning supplies than they ever were growing up.

Ding!

“Kitty, baby.” Benny’s voice comes through Kit’s headphones, an amused lilt graces the words. “We aren’t doubting you.”

“No, no, I know yous ain’t doubting me,” Kit interrupts her, starting a new voice note before hers finishes. “I, however, am doubting myself because why would they do that? Just to confuse me? Me, in particular, a kid they didn’t know back then and most certainly didn’t know was returning to town this year?”

Kit resumes Benny’s voice note just as his eyes lock on an elderly lady turning towards him. She’s much shorter than he remembers, her back hunched from age as she pushes her cart. Sharp eyes graze over the wall of loaves until they land on the one Kit’s reaching for. Country Potato, a preference he gained from spending years in her kitchen.

He can hear as Isaac joins Benny in the voice note, but misses what he says as recognition lights across the woman’s face.

“██████, is that you?” she asks. Her voice is rough, nearly a century of wear tearing her vocal chords until all that’s left is a bare, grating sound. “I didn’t know you were in town.”

“Hey Aunt Bee,” Kit responds. He grabs a second loaf, plopping it down in the top section of his aunt’s cart for her. “I just got here. I’m moving into Papa’s house until we can sell it.”

“What a good kid,” she says, patting Kit on the arm as she does. “Are you making sure that Ray’s ghost doesn’t cause mischief when no one’s watching?”

P.P.P.S. (and the final actually goodbye), make sure to check out Alex Harvey-Rivas' serialized story, From Under a Poisoned Bough! It's really good, and they're serializing it on their newsletter, which is also hosted on ghost.io like this newsletter is so you can read all the released chapters!! Check it out!!