I’m glad the late night vulnerability exercise went as well as it did but it did a big Ouch to my nervous system 🫠

It’s such a bummer. I so rarely get emails from readers as a tiny plankton in the indie sea but spammers ain’t it

Right?? Clearly they CAN email me so why do I need to do anything more??

Head’s up, I got an email from London Seasonal Book Club.

While very complimentary about What the Sea Brings, it was also very AI-written and suspicious because of the “reply with next steps for more info!”

Hi #SpoonieAuthChat! My name is Bev and I am an indie author publishing whimsical and heartfelt middle grade fantasy. MG is a hard sell these days and even more so in the indie spaces but my big claim to fame is that Kirkus has positively reviewed both of my books!

bookshop.org/lists/bev-s-...

Screenshot of the author’s own instagram story featuring a black and white tuxedo cat with green eyes and a black goatee staring at the camera in the sun

Please behold my Handsome Son

Normally, I would go back and actually add the words as I go. This inevitably means MULTIPLE drafts and a lot of resentment about having to go back to fix chapters that I "finished" for that round.

No such resentment here. Instead I know exactly how they all tie together

Because while I had the bones (heh) and all the plot pieces set up, I now get to step back and see the story as a whole. I get to gather up my little threads and weave them in by adding easter eggs in earlier chapters, clarifying in others, etc. I AM SO PLEASED

It's pretty spectacular how well this read through has been answering SO many questions. Since I'm focusing on adding brackets of [add this here, do this there] instead of actual prose, I can hop back and forth as much as I want

Have I *finally* cracked the code on avoiding excess drafting?!

Life is out here giving metaphorical lemons, meanwhile I am grumbling about buying them for a recipe 🍋

Finished. AN ABSOLUTE DELIGHT!
I love the World of the White Rat so very much 🐀

Very thankful for my absurd pain tolerance today as I was due for bloodwork and my veins said, “No.”

It is so unbearably hot in my apartment with these 80F+ days. I really didn’t want to bust out my AC unit in SPRING but here we are

I’m very nervous about the summer

I’m resisting every urge to live react to Daggerbound but I’m only 5% of the way through my ARC and having a fabulous time 🥳 ⚔️

I’m in Act 3 now! 7ish chapters left! Wrote notes about adding more “rabbity thoughts” and emotional damage 😎

Full length claymation motion picture

It's a Writing Day!

I'm nearly to Act 3 of my read through for the Necromancer sequel. Goal today is at least 3 chapters. Stretch goal? 5 😤

This might be intriguing to some of my readers 😂

Image of ANARCHIST ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS Special Hardcover Edition by Suzannah Rowntree surrounded by a list of tropes, namely: - "when is a monster not a monster? oh, when you love it" - "Dracula x Enola Holmes" - "intrepid lady's maid" - "female friendship" - "locked up with the hungry vampire" - "zombie policemen" - "mad science"

Are you here for a bonkers gaslamp fantasy romp set in a version of 1890s Europe where all the ruling families are monsters?

The ANARCHIST ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS Special Edition Kickstarter campaign is live now...and it fully funded before I could make this post!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/suz...

The entire thing just feels like a money grab and gives me the ick. I want to be excited, I want to see more people get a chance to explore Tolkien!

But HfG gives off the AI vibes of just constantly recycling the same material through a machine

CAN I JUST SAY - I find it incredibly tone deaf to continue having an All White Cast for new WB Tolkien projects.

It's me. I'm girlies 😂

Not me constantly forgetting that my desk is in fact a standing desk and has a built in option to alleviate my back pain

A successful and inspiring mission to the Moon and now Hungarian’s own fascist conceding?! - finally some good news

Once the read-through is done, it's FULL SPEED AHEAD with actual revisions 😤

10 chapters left of this read through! I'm very pleased with how easy it has been to point out areas that need Emotional Check-Ins for the characters.

I'm also devastated that my [put this here] brackets do not actually fix the book haha

This is also important for traditionally published books of course, but they usually -stares at publishers- have a budget and marketing department for that type of thing

Evergreen reminder: If you've enjoyed an indie book, a simple review across platforms can really do wonders for it. It helps provide legitimacy and helps other readers! It doesn't have to be a multi-paragraph essay, just a simple, "I liked this for these reasons!" is great.

Don't get me wrong, it's really nice to be lingering at uncomfortable versus 'literally cannot move more than what is necessary' pain wise.

But the brain fog. UGH! It makes doing anything mildly productive like reading impossible

Good news: Regular Turmeric + Ginger supplements do in fact help with my overall endo / adneo pain!

Bad News: The brain fog persists