I am So Done with today and just want to skip forward to tomorrow, is that possible?

Local art festival this weekend! I am so hyped to spend hours at the park checking out all the cool things. Already warned the husband and kids that they may want to drive their own car there because they will undoubtedly be ready to leave way before I am.

Something fun about my business cards is that when kids go through my booth and end up disappointed (or in some cases, on the verge of a tantrum) because their parents don't want to buy anything, I can usually just hand them a business card and they're THRILLED to have a cute little dragon picture.

✨️STICKER COMMISSIONS OPEN! ✨️
I've had a few unexpected business expenses come up recently that I'm now trying to offset. Thiught it would be fun to do some stickers for people. If you have a design idea you'd like to see turned into a sticker, now's your chance!

Well, well, well. Look who's only 2 days behind on their notes for work instead of 2 weeks. 😏 Gotta admit that feels pretty good.

Getting the itch to start writing again after sending my book out to betas a few weeks ago, so I guess it's time to start drafting that badass grandma/derelict space ship book I've wanted to write for years.

Meet Zipper, the goodest boy in my cozy post-apocalyptic novel. He's a happy go lucky, forever loyal companion for my MC Lor.

My stuff is now live in the OFMD craft fair, where we're raising money for the American Immigration Council.
🏴‍☠️ A set of all my OFMD art prints
🏴‍☠️ A pack of all 43 of my OFMD stickers
🏴‍☠️ A nautical-themed trinket box/butterfly taxidermy thing

A poster for an art raffle hosted by Haven Social, where you can win a free commission from the YouTuber inkiio. To enter, follow Haven's account, and like and repost this post. The poster also says that if you are longing for a way to protect your art from AI scrapers, surveillance, and manipulation, you can make a way to do that real by supporting Haven's Kickstarter.

Want some free art, and to help us protect everyone from invasive AI? Enter our raffle to win a free commission from Inkiio! We'll pick a winner in 1 week. You can learn more about our project to make it easy to protect yourself from AI scrapers & surveillance by watching our interview linked below.

a woman is sitting at a desk in front of a computer with a toy motorcycle on the desk ALT: a woman is sitting at a desk in front of a computer with a toy motorcycle on the desk

The new documentation system we're using at work just erased my entire new client mental health assessment, so that's how my Tuesday is going. 🤬🤬🤬

Absolutely! I have an Etsy shop here: inkeddragondesigns.etsy.com
Some of the OFMD designs have been retired, but I still have the capability to print and stock them if there's one you see in the auction photo but not in my Etsy store. Just message me. :)

There are SO many cool things here and I'm so proud of our fandom for banding together for this cause. Here's a little preview of my contributions, which aren't up yet but will be dropping later on in the auction.

I'm gathering up my items to photograph for this, one of which is a sticker pack containing one each of every single OFMD sticker I've designed over the last several years.

Anyone want to guess how many that it? Because it sure was surprising even to me 😅😁

Holy shit, I think I may actually have a query letter put together. Definitely need some feedback on it, but I feel pretty good about this as a base and I'm definitely relieved to have it (mostly) finished.

I did squeeze in some creative time to make these this week though, so that was fun.

I've been perpetually behind on paperwork and some annual trainings the last couple weeks and I'm finally catching up, but I just feel so behind still. Maybe it's because all I want to do is have time for reading and art and writing my query letter and all the fun things. TGIF. I need a weekend.

Book covers for 4 books: Shoeshine Boy and Cigarette Girl by P.A. Cornell showing the man and woman of the title drawn in a retro 50s style with a futuristic looking city in the background; Girl Out of Water by Winifred Burton showing the front of a Victorian style mansion distorted by a wave like pattern; Tethered Spirits by T.A. Hernandez showing the dark outline of a lotus bloom against a teal background with shapes suggesting flames, smoke, and lightning; Maryneal 1962 by Abigail F. Taylor showing a panicked-looking person running toward the viewer with bloody hand outstretched below a movie theater marquee with the title of the book on it.

Here's my monthly round up of book reviews! Slower reading month for me, but some good ones here by @cornellwriter.bsky.social, @authorwinifred.blacksky.app, @tahernandez.bsky.social, and @abigailtaylor.bsky.social

You can read full reviews at www.helenwhistberry.com/blog

Very proud of myself for having a mature, assertive, reasonable converstation where I made some valid points and didn't get flustered or visibly lose my shit.
The person I was talking to? An aspiring author who told me he plans to USE CHAT GPT TO WRITE HIS BOOK 🤬
Hopefully he will reconsider? 🙃

Just finished my workday and between Thanksgiving and the time off I took, I have 11 days off starting now. Whoo! It's very needed, I have been starting to feel the burnout a lot more, so I'm excited for some downtime.

Baguette, anyone? I roped my spouse into dressing up with me this year too, and he was a good sport about it. Happy Halloween!
#halloween #happyhalloween🎃 #expedition33 #clairobscur #clairobscurexpedition33

Hey look, it's another AI-generated author marketing spam email. Only this time, they sent it to the wrong person because this is not even my book.
(Though you really should read Survival Kit by A. H. Haga because it's great.)

Lor has a sister, Savanah, who she was very close to. She's referred to throughout the story but died during the global pandemic and societal collapse that happened before the story starts.

"Our goal as writers should be extreme empathy." -Leigh Bardugo
I had the BEST time last night at this panel/discussion with Leigh Bardugo and Brandon Sanderson for the 10th anniversary of Six of Crows.

I just finished beta reading this, and I loved it. If you like vampire stories, don't miss out on this one! Check out that epic cover!

Since many of us are cancelling streaming services, now might also be a good time to support writers and artists. Times are extremely tough for creatives, so why not buy a book, commission an art piece, sign up for a Patreon, tip your favorite creators. Everything helps.

This is so freaking cuuuuuuute! *grabby hands* I absolutely must have it!

I still have such a fondness for Mitul and Kamaal's romance in my Curse of Shavhalla series. Second chance romance between two middle-aged men, an artist and a musician. We see it all play out through the eyes of the traumatized teen they take under their wing and basically adopt. 🥺💙

Sign me up to help!

What an interesting day to be in the OFMD fandom and online writing/bookish spaces.

I will say this for the OFMD fandom: we are NOT cool with this, and if they thought they were going to be making money appealing to us, they were mistaken.

My current random creative obsession is altering old t-shirts, and then I also want to try bleach painting. Anyways, I just left the thrift store with a sack full of clothes to play around with and I am very excited.