If you love feel-good fantasy with talking dogs, don’t miss my new Kickstarter: THE POOCH SALUTE!

Posted on24/04/202523/04/2025Leave a comment

Woohoo! Fashion Frenchies #2: The Pooch Salute! is now live on Kickstarter!

It’s a cozy contemporary fantasy featuring talking dogs, a stubborn dogwear designer, and a Fourth of July parade no one’s quite ready for. Think Bewitched meets A Dog’s Purpose (BUT NOT SO SAD), with a little Crock-Pot magic and a lot of heart. 🐾

Here’s the official blurb:

Vivian Feng can talk to animals—a secret she uses to rehabilitate tough foster dogs while running an online dogwear business. But when a mishap leaves her with a broken arm just weeks before a big Fourth of July parade, she’s convinced she can still pull it all off—one-handed and dangerously determined—with a healing potion that’s brewing way too slow.

Meanwhile, her grandniece Alanna Lu has a secret riding on the parade’s success, and the newest foster dog, August—a melancholy German shepherd—is carrying invisible scars he’s not ready to share.

It’ll take teamwork, trust, and a little Frenchie flair to stitch together a miracle—and remind everyone that love is the real magic. 💖

Backers get:

📚 Early access to the ebook
🎨 Exclusive digital extras (coloring pages, posters, wallpapers)
📦 Paperback copies + Frenchie-themed add-ons (STICKERRRRRS!!!!!!)

Preorder with Perks on Kickstarter!

Even if cozy fantasy isn’t your usual thing, you’ll probably like some of the extras (STICKERRRRRS!!!!!!). Either way, every pledge helps support a hardworking indie author (hullo! 👋).

If you like light magical realism, talking dogs, or stories that feel like a warm hug, you’re gonna LOVE The Pooch Salute!

If you click through, thanks for checking out my campaign—and DOUBLE THANKS for sharing the link with a dog-loving friend. You da best. —Danielle Williams

5 Favorites for March 2025: Balatrocational, Penmanshipperific, Silly, Action-packed, and Fiery

Posted on28/03/202528/03/2025

“5 Favorites” is a recurring feature here at Pixelvania Publishing. On the last Friday of every month, I post 5 FAVORITE THINGS I’ve recently (or not-so-recently) enjoyed, in case you’re looking for something neat to experience. Visit the 5 Favorites archive for more recommendations. https://pixelvaniapublishing.com/category/5-favorites/

🃏 ▶️ Balatro University: Beginner’s Guide to High Scores and High Antes (Part 1/2)

by YouTube channel Balatro University

I’ve beaten some of Balatro, but I’ve been wanting to learn how to get the insane “e” scores (“e21”, for example, means “move the decimal point *21 times* to the right”). This two-part video series (which I watched at 1.25x speed) made me completely rethink how the game is played.

🖋️ Write Now, by Barbara Getty

Penmanship Book

I read this book a jillion years ago, applied it, and it helped up my penmanship game. I hadn’t thought about penmanship for a while, but if there’s anyone out there looking for help, this is one to study!

▶️ Reno 911: Drunk Catwalk

Funny video clip

Okay, from I’ve heard of it, Reno 911 is probably not a family-friendly show, but this clip is clean and delights me to no end.

🎥 👊💥 First Strike

PG-13, Jackie Chan comedy-action film

Pure entertainment. Stick around for an awesome finale setpiece!

📕 🐉 Dragon Slippers, by Jessica Day George

Children’s novel with talking dragons

Okay, so I haven’t read this in a while, but I came across it again and remembered enjoying all three books in the series. So, here you go! I loved the idea of dragons who hoard things other than money.

That’s all for this month!

Surreal Sound-based Short Story turns Six!

Posted on14/01/2025

Today, my surreal short story Day of Silence, Day of Sound turns 6!

It’s a short one for when you’re in a dreamy mood.

Get this ebook direct from me today!

Click here to buy the ebook from other digital retailers; paperback available on Amazon

WIP Wednesday Book Cover Art Sketch – Fashion Frenchies Cover Makeover

Posted on08/01/2025

As you may remember, I’m looking to release FASHION FRENCHIES 2: THE POOCH SALUTE! in Spring 2025. I figured while I was at it, I’d redo the cover to FASHION FRENCHIES 1: LOVE POTION COMMOTION!

So here’s a working sketch of the main human character, Vivian Feng. She’s like Iris Apfel (RIP), but Chinese and for dog fashion.

Yes, I went full BEWITCHED on this. She’ll have some thicc Edna Mode-style glasses, but I thought I’d add those digitally. This will be inked by hand and then scanned in. Then I have to come up with some outfits!

Happy 6th birthday to this magical mashup of the legend of Santa Claus!

Posted on20/12/202418/12/2024

Cover for MIDWINTER MAGIC: A stylized glowing reindeer leaps against the blue Northern Lights

Swooshy glowy reindeer, whee!

Six years ago on this date, I published MIDWINTER MAGIC: THREE ORIGINAL CHRISTMAS FAIRY TALES. It’s one of my favorites, but (I think) kinda underappreciated. From the back cover:

Reindeer sisters determined to remain free…

An elf prince seeking a cure for his dying mother…

A humble toymaker entrusted with an impossible task…

These unlikely heroes come together in Midwinter Magic, three lyrical fairy tales that weave together and reimagine these timeless legends of Christmas.

Midwinter Magic is an enchanting, evocative treat for fairy tale lovers ages 7 to 107.

If you appreciated that Santa’s reindeer in Red One were females, ever wondered how they got those names, or if you like the fairy tale work of Jane Yolen or Ursula Vernon, I hope you’ll take a chance on reading Midwinter Magic.

Get your ebook copy of MIDWINTER MAGIC direct from me

Click here to buy the ebook from other digital retailers

Paperback available on Amazon

August’s Book Birthdays feat. a vampire and a spy

Posted on13/08/2024

Out Where the Sun Always Shines (Cover) - A man in the shadows smokes a cigarette, whose smoke swirls around a woman looking wistfully off into the sunset.

The smoky cover to OUT WHERE THE SUN ALWAYS SHINES. Illustration by Danielle Williams.

First, let me share today’s actual book birthday with you: Out Where the Sun Always Shines.

This noir spy love story was my first-ever published story, put up on Amazon long before Pixelvania Publishing existed! Without any magic spells, horror scenes, or sci-fi scenery, it’s become the odd man out of my body of work. I mean, maybe if you stretch, you could say it’s alternate history. But it’s really in the background.

It’s definitely refreshingly different, especially if you’re looking for something short, hardboiled, and dramatic. And, being set in Europe, reading it is kind of like going on holiday. (I also had a lot of fun illustrating its second cover.)

Get your copy of OUT WHERE THE SUN ALWAYS SHINES

GROWING SHADOWS IN THE DESERT COVER: A dark bat flies over the desert, its head silhouette by a red sun. Text reads GROWING SHADOWS IN THE DESERT. Author name: DANIELLE WILLIAMS

The bat-focused cover to GROWING SHADOWS IN THE DESERT. Photo illustration by Danielle Williams.

Next, we have Growing Shadows in the Desert. Its book birthday was actually last Tuesday, the 6th, but my day was really busy and I didn’t get around to posting about it.

But I wanted to talk about this short story because it’s becoming another oddball in my library, starring a vampire who, in my world, has, like, over 100,000 words of a three-part origin epic completed. And it’s not just words, right? I mean, in those words, I discovered he’s got a dragon mom and sister, a bunch of magical people he must learn to lead, a crush on this pretty doctor faerie, and a really dangerous world to live in.

But to readers, he’s only been seen in a handful of scenes in Steel City, Veiled Kingdom. If you backed SCVK’s sequel The Guests of Crooked Neck, you’ve maybe seen his name once during that adventure (CN will be releasing wide in November). So that’s a big, like, perceptual gap, between what readers know about him and what I know about him. Just one of those things about being an author, I guess.

It probably needs a new cover, but that’s way down on the priority list.

Anyway, if you’re in the mood for a short, weird west one-off with a fashion-forward vampire, you might like this piece!

Get GROWING SHADOWS IN THE DESERT today

Book Birthday: Disturbing-yet-uplifting Christian horror short story THE ACCUSER is turning 1 today??!

Posted on13/06/202413/06/2024

The Accuser (cover) - A shadowy monster has its hands on a tough looking man in tattoos, seated in front of a bed. A cat sits besides the man.

Can you spot the kitty?

I think the long Crooked Neck Kickstarter and even longer work writing the second Fashion Frenchies novel has distorted my sense of time, because when my records showed this short story was only a year old I did a double-take.

Just a year ago(!), I published The Accuser, which is both an R-rated horror story and an uplifting Christian tale at the same time.

There’s also a kitty in it named Dozer. I based him a little off our cat, Pixel, in that they both have a history of frightening large dogs with a mere look. Dozer, however, is built like a bulldozer (hence the name), whereas Pixel (at 80-odd cat years old) looks at this point more like a furry orange basketball.

I digress.

This story hasn’t gotten much love since its release (probably because Amazon will NOT pull up this story if you use their search bar UNLESS you select the category “Kindle Store” first. Does that mean it’s shadowbanned? Heck if I know!).

If you’re a horror fan, don’t let the Christian stuff scare you, this is basically a biker dude and tough cat buddy story cranked to 11, with a little humor mixed in.

If you’re a Christian, don’t let the R-rating scare you, I promise it’s not just shock for the sake of being transgressive. It ends with warm fuzzies and might even build your testimony!

Get this short story and show a tough biker man and his little kitty buddy some love!

Stormy science fantasy novel THE GUESTS OF CROOKED NECK just funded on Kickstarter

Posted on08/03/2024

Cover painted by the author

THE GUESTS OF CROOKED NECK, my latest novel and sequel to Steel City, Veiled Kingdom, just funded today on Kickstarter!!

Whoopee!

Thank you, backers!

If this story interested you, now’s a great time to back.

Here’s just 3 benefits you’ll get if you back Crooked Neck:

You’ll get to read the book months before the general
public.
You’ll get discounts on other ebooks in this series.
You’ll get the chance to actually OWN the original illustrations I drew for the book cover. I’m not offering these drawings anywhere else ever again! If they’re not spoken for by the end of the campaign, they’re going back in my archives!

Visit CROOKED NECK’S Kickstarter page

Thanks also to anyone who shares this link–it helps me out A TON!

Science fantasy fans craving compelling characters will love my new Kickstarter project!

Posted on07/03/2024

Cover painted by the author

THE GUESTS OF CROOKED NECK, my latest novel and sequel to Steel City, Veiled Kingdom, launched Tuesday on Kickstarter!!

Meet a struggling holdout, a fearsome hivemind, and a SUPREMELY PUNCHABLE hustler in this imaginative dramedy set on a tropical world.

Back it now to read the ebook early, at a discount, PLUS get a bunch of digital goodies.

Not into sci-fi/fantasy? There are also cool add-ons, like tropical productivity printables, tutorials for aspiring artists and authors, and digital wildlife art featuring adorable jungle animals so you can still support the project and get something useful.

You can find out more about those add-ons, the story, and pledge levels over at Kickstarter.

Visit CROOKED NECK’S Kickstarter page

If you could pledge, I would love that (just $2 to get those printables!).

And it’d be FANTASTIC! if you could share the link to social media–that’d help me reach more potential readers, which is currently my biggest career challenge.

A stellar sci-fi book turns 4 today (Plus: a thrilling announcement!)

Posted on11/01/202411/01/2024

Wow! Today is the 4th birthday of my epic sci-fi novel Steel City, Veiled Kingdom! (Better known round these parts by its nickname, SCVK.) Hoo, BOY that went fast. Seems like I just released it yesterday!

This is one of my most popular books. If you like your sci-fi novels heavy on the wonder with a little horror stirred in and peppered with humor, you might like it, too! Click the cover to find out more.

Find out more about SCVK

But what’s even MORE exciting is that this book’s little brother is on the way! That’s right, SCVK’s sequel is launching soon! It’s a stormy sci-fi drama called The Guests of Crooked Neck. It’ll be releasing first to Kickstarter in 2024. Check out the cover!

The Guests Of Crooked Neck is a moving science fantasy about grief, pride, and being seen. This standalone novel set in the Worlds of Everlush universe takes place soon after the events of Steel City, Veiled Kingdom–but you can read it as a standalone novel just fine.

As a story, Crooked Neck is the inverse of SCVK: where SCVK was an epic adventure spanning a few in-story years, exploring all corners of the galaxy through the eyes of a single character, Crooked Neck is an intimate drama switching between three main characters that stays put in one small town for a single weekend. But both books contain colorful characters and engrossing worlds.

If that sounds like it’s up your alley, I hope you’ll click the button below and join me on the journey of launching the second Worlds of Everlush novel!

Click here to be notified when The Guests of Crooked Neck launches!