Here’s to a Year

This website—and my “career” as a real life, grown up author—is just about a year old! And I’m using it, well, just about as much as I thought. Which is to say, not much. Between IG and SubStack and me screaming into various social-voids, good ol’ fashion email newsletters aren’t really cutting it for me.

Is that gonna stop me from yapping here every so often? Hahahaha……no.

To quote one of my favorite musical performers and songs:

Meine Damen und Herren, mesdames et messieurs, Ladies and Gentlemen!
Guten Abend, bonsoir, good evening!
Wie geht’s? Comment ça va? Do you feel good? Yeah, I bet you do.

Time is crawling towards one of my favorite seasons (yes, I’m a fall girlie. I live in jeans and would rather be buried in blankets than rack up an AC bill), which means a busy season for me, but lots of good things coming! The anniversary of this website, the anniversary of my first published story, another published story, a convention, an aerial show, Halloween!

Like I said, good stuff.

Most of you already know from my IG, but one of my stories will be in another Tender & Tempting Tales anthology! Presale is available now for e-book, and September 14th is the official publish and print date. Readers, I want a shelf trophy of this book. It’s so dang PRETTY.

My romantasy story, “Chilltouch Thrall,” is smackdab in the middle of this anthology. It’s chockabock full of cozy fall vibes (including in space and places far, far away), magic (literal and figurative), and, of course, spice. Not pumpkin spice, though I am pretty sure someone did use pumpkin, I mean literary spice. We’ve got returning authors, new authors, and some fabulous established authors filling the ranks bringing you some sweet treats to cozy up with by the fire. Or, if you live in SoCal like me, the streaming fireplace video while you sip your PSL and refuse to admit it’s over 80 degrees out.

It’s up for presale right now, and we’re looking for ARC readers! Never been an ARC reader before? No worries! I’m going through this newbie journey myself. We’re managing it through Booksprout this time around, and reviews collected before September 21st will help us out the most. Review the anthology as a whole: you don’t have to write a mini-review of every story. Talk about the overall collection, highlight a few standouts or favorite stories and characters. Maybe there was a new-to-you trope or subgenre you really liked? Maybe a certain romantasy story about a changeling and an archfey caught your eye?

*coughcough* yes that’s mine, please go say nice things, I’ll make you brownies *coughcough*

Please keep the review honest and in your own words (we do not stand for AI in this house). When appropriate, please disclose that you received an advance review copy, because that’s a thing we have to do. Your review should auto-post to Amazon, but if you want to post to Goodreads or on social media as well, I’m not gonna stop you. Hell, I’ll ask you to share that bad boy everywhere you can.

What else is going on?

One year into the start of this crazy author journey and I’ve got:

• Three short stories in anthologies
• Two short stories in ‘zines
• One rejection email (baby’s first rejection! And I didn’t even cry)
• Over a hundred followers and posts on IG
• About a dozen posts and followers on Substack
• Author swag
• Imposter syndrome
• A newfound hatred of the algorithm

SubStack has been a fun journey as well. It’s a great outlet for me to force myself into a habit of writing and posting. I get to be creative with relative consistency. AND I get an idea for what people actually like about my writing? So far, it’s a lot of silliness in an urban fantasy world I made up in late high-school/early college about a Paranormal Investigative group. I knew I loved the characters and concepts, but never knew what I wanted to do with it. Now, I get to let them play in my MOTE responses and random posts there. I’m also hoping to serialize what was supposed to be the first novel in West Coast Wyrd. Seeing as how the series has gone more romantic, the first book doesn’t really tick those boxes anymore, but I’m proud of the story, and I have fellow authors doing something similar, so maybe it can live there.

I’m still slogging my way through a draft of a novel that’s so close to finished it feels physically painful, but it feels more… achievable? I can point out my last year and go, “See? They liked me, so you should too!” I can also point out my multiple wins of Most Valuable Promoter and all my AuthorApril/August posts with, “See? I’ll definitely promote it! I’m not a marketing liability at all, I swear!”

Being a Published Author is something I wanted for so long, and it took a loving kick in the pants by a fellow author and unending support from my wonderful spouse to really get going, but here I am. I’ve learned a lot, and I’ve got wishes and goals for what’s ahead. For now, I think I’ll try to remember to bask in my achievements. For a little while at least (still got a novel to finish and blog posts to write).

Here’s to one year down, and many more to follow.

How’s Life Otherwise?

• Reading: an ARC copy of Hearth Witch’s Guide to Spite & Spellwork, a fabulous sequel to the first book in the Hemlock Saga. Sapphic Urban Fantasy Sherlock Holmes, need I say more?
• Drinking: I went to play among the fairies at the Labyrinth Masquerade this year, and a brilliant costumer and friend introduced me to iced chais spiked with rum. You best believe that’s how I celebrated the weekend being over.
• Playing: I picked up Dragon Age: Veilguard for the first time in MONTHS…and almost immediately died having forgotten the combat mechanics. Whoops. I have specific save files just to go back and listen to the pretty, coffee-obsessed Italo-Spanglo-coded man or sweetheart, older necromancer man say nice things to me. I am not ashamed of this.
• Watching: The Dressrosa arc of One Piece. I read the manga of it a while ago, and it’s definitely one of my favorite arcs in the series. Not just because two of my favorite characters get to flex a lot. It’s simultaneously heartbreaking and so uplifting.
• Listening: As the World Falls Down by Maeve Alexander. This specific version of the Bowie classic from Labyrinth plays in the An’havia ballroom at the Labyrinth Masquerade, where fae and dreaming folk alike invite the patrons to dance with them. It’s dreamy, it’s synthy, it’s such fun.
• Crafting: I’m helping crochet a dragon army for a dear friend, but I finished a brand new outfit (and promptly did not get ANY full body photos) and made a 2.0 version of a cosplay for the Masquerade. My Gale of Waterdeep cosplay may get a lot of recognition at the ball, but it’s too hot for comfort, so I made a sleeveless tailcoat version instead.