Friends, one of my biggest dreams is for my book to be in as many public libraries as possible. If you’ve got some time today, I’d be so grateful if you would request the book at your local library! It’s received glowing reviews from booklist and Kirkus, and is absolutely adorable:

I went on holiday and got a tan, and my mom is so stressed about it. Meanwhile my sun-bronzed skin has turned a rich, vibrant shade that is by all objective standards a beautiful way to look. I’ve brought the sun back with me to England. My holiday is inscribed on my skin

I got my first ever Kirkus review! Kirkus loves street puppy masjid cat 🥹 www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews...

🐾B&N pre-order sale!🐾 Street Puppy Masjid Cat is 25 percent off on Barnes and Noble! You have to be a premium member to be eligible, but membership is free. Once you sign up use pre-order code PREORDER25 If you were thinking of getting the book, this is the perfect time!

I’m writing a vampire YA romance right now and I’ve just realised that if you look at it from the right angle, consent is built into the concept of vampires. You have to choose to let the vampire in

Me telling people to read the book that made me cry so hard I was actually clinically dehydrated

I wonder if readers realise how much of writing is just writers realising they used the word jolt three times in two paragraphs, and then looking for jolt equivalents that are just as evocative

I think the single worst part about writing a novel with romance in it is sharing it with my writing friends. I feel so embarrassed every single time!

So annoyed about the fact that the flowers I would like to have picturesquely blooming in my novel only bloom in early spring, and not late august when the story is set

Absolutely exhausting have to deal with this on top of everything else

It’s so insane that meta just flat out stole 7.5 million books in broad daylight to train their ai model. Just took what they wanted, laws and morality be damned. If you’re still using AI, that’s the system you’re condoning.

It’s funny how Trump’s “America first” policies are proving disastrous for the American economy

My house was so much cleaner when I was on deadline

I sent out my first ever newsletter today! I set a form up ages ago because everyone says you have to do that, but I didn’t think anyone would actually sign up. But I checked today and I had 30 subscribers 🥹

It can be awkward promoting your own book online (am I supposed to be gushing about how great my work is?), but the wonderful thing about working with an illustrator is that I feel absolutely no qualms about gushing about his brilliant work on the book. Prettiest book ever!

I’m going to do a proper post about my pre-order goodies later, but I have received the laptop decals I’m giving away, and I am OBSESSED

I’m re-reading Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot, and found this beautiful ode to library books in his Author’s Note:

Guess who just finished her first ever developmental edits on a novel?

We always talk about how reading is important when you’re a writer. And it’s true for many reasons, but an underrated one is that reading helps add new and interesting words to your repertoire so that your writing is more varied.

Yet another wonderful writing rite of passage, having to explain to my friends and family (who don’t know anything about publishing) why I’m asking them to buy a book that won’t be out until October 🥲

I’m at the losing sleep because of plot holes stage of doing edits, in case anyone was wondering. Wouldn’t wish plotting a murder mystery on my worst enemy

Man who couldn’t even run a social media app is now trying to run the Us Government

Came to Bluesky to check if Twitter was down 😂

Me, with tears in my eyes: please just tell me what the book is about Writer, posting book promo: one bed, touch her and die, *arrow pointing to MC’s knee*: cinnamon roll

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I have been waiting for this moment for SO LONG. Friends, are you ready for my first ever cover reveal 😭😭🥰❤️??Working on this book with Haikal has been such a dream come true. I cannot wait for all of you to read it! Pre-order link in bio!

Friends, I need to print some pre-order swag. Does anyone know how and where I can print sheets of stickers where all the stickers are different

Every time I share excerpts from my MG horror with my writing groups I get people asking if it’s ok for a children’s book to be so scary, and I’m actually starting to get worried now. Visions of angry letters from parents about children having nightmares 😭

“I know what you are. Your skin is pale white, and ice cold. You don’t go out into the sunlight.” “Say it. Say it out loud.” “Writer.”

I’m looking at the final pass pages of my first ever published book and it’s absolutely surreal to see my surname on the spine. “Hossain” is the Bengali equivalent of Smith and the world is full of hossains, but it still feels very special!

The English major urge to start quoting Wordsworth when you see daffodils

I find it so irritating that writers just don’t pitch their books anymore. Cover reveals and all they’ll tell you are the tropes in the book. If you have a book coming out and nowhere in your social media is there anything resembling a blurb or a pitch, you’re doing your book a disservice

Must be so galling to be a war hero and to sit and talk to two cowardly bullies hiding behind the might of their nation to try and embarrass a better man

Writer friends who write middle grade horror, have you ever received angry letters from parents because your book was too scary?

Lol experienced the writing rite of passage today where I had to explain to my mom that all books get edited, not just my book because I didn’t do a good enough job of making it perfect before submitting it

One of the few perks of taking a century to get a book deal is that because I’ve been knocking around the outskirts of this industry for so long, I actually know a bunch of established authors whom I can beg for blurbs. Begging still sucks, but I have contacts!

My editor sent me the back flap text for Ritu in the Sun, my book about colorism that’s coming out next year, and even reading the flap text made me tear up. How am I going to get through reading this book out loud in public 😭

For almost a decade now I’ve been waiting for my career as an author to start and this is the year I publish my first book, and while I’m super excited, I’m starting to realise now my writing time has to also be divided with book promo stuff 🥲

RIP Jack Torrance from The Shining, you would have hated using Canva to create “assets” for promoting your book

I’m putting together a plan to promote my book that comes out this year and I opened up the folder for the book and was immediately hit with screen cap after screen cap of rejection letters for the manuscript. It only takes one yes!

If you’re the kind of person who forgets to eat, publishing is the worst industry for you because there are days where suddenly there’s a million things to do, and oops look who hasn’t eaten since breakfast and now has a migraine

I’ve been trying to make new writing friends, but most writing groups tend to be for literary fiction. Which is how I’ve ended up going to some very serious literary meetings and reading aloud scenes from my MG novel where a 12 year old gets chased by a ghost

I scrawled the word “breadcrumbs” on a post-it note as a reminder to myself about my edits because I was like yeah, I’ll remember what it means, of course I will! I do not remember what it means

Being an author is so funny because months go by and nothing happens and then suddenly on a random Thursday you’ve got a cover reveal for one thing, edits due for another, and final pages of something else in your inbox and you realise you haven’t eaten or gone to the bathroom all day

I had dinner with some of my husband’s colleagues and the waiter asked the table if anyone had any allergies, and one of them said he was vegan, and the waiter looked at him and said “that’s a choice not an allergy”

Writers who write emotional books, how do you not cry when you have to read your book out loud in bookshops and stuff?

My younger self would turn up in skinny jeans and a chunky necklace, a useless little purse clamped decoratively under her armpit. She’d order an iced tea because she can’t handle coffee and tell me about all the books she wants to write but can’t seem to finish #writingcommunity

Quick question for librarians on this app: what kind of horror stories do kids enjoy reading? Do they like their horror scary? Or more goofy?

It’s actually such a great learning exercise to read the 1 star reviews of books in your genre, because you can learn so much about what readers dislike

As we speak Azealia Banks is on Twitter attacking jk Rowling. That’s the kind of glorious thing that happens on Twitter. I’m not going to let some man take that from me