Horror: Marian didn't like the drownings. Fantasy: Marian knew it was a bad idea to make deals with certified necromancers, which is why she sought out an amateur. Contemporary/mystery: He was the type of person who put his suitcase in the wheelchair space. This alone was grounds for his murder.

As an author, I don't make a whole lot of money, but at the same time I need to read a lot of books to stay aware of trends and support my fellow authors. Obviously if I spend all my profits on other people's books, I'm not coming out ahead! So: ways to read lots of indie books for cheap.

On my first holiday in a year, and all I can do is look at videos of my cat and yearn. In my defense ... Look at her.

✨ICYMI✨ “Do you remember when I took you to ballet? Do you remember President Sister Bishop’s Wife who first taught you that your body was a stick of gum?” @freybytheway.bsky.social www.claudineliterary.net/freylylark

Love when I read an early draft from a friend and it's gorgeous and haunting and so very her. Rough drafts have this spark and potential that's so much fun and so different from the depth and polish of published writing.

If I had a nickel for every excellent horror I've read about fungus in unsettling isolated manors owned by European nobility who've lost their wealth, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's cool that it happened twice. Is there a third one I'm missing? I need a fungal horror trilogy.

Just got nominated for my first writing prize! I'm thrilled and incredibly grateful. This is my second ever published piece and to have so many opportunities as an early career is the stuff of dreams. I feel so lucky today.

I kind of hate the way people post about attacks on diversity as "a distraction". Yes, technically when the joker rigs a boat full of innocent civilians to explode, it's a distraction, but why do I get the sense some political commenters just want Batman to let the boat explode already?

Writing instructions for my cat sitter and my wife and I have officially become those lesbians. "She prefers a tasting menu, so just a bit of the cod, salmon, chicken, liver, and tuna and her medicine on top. Pet her back and sing Chappel, but not Good Luck Babe unless you can hit the high notes."

Besties

New micros by: Mileva Anastasiadou @happilander.bsky.social Zach Murphy Kleopatra Olympiou @kleopatraolympiou.bsky.social Majella Pinto Frey Lylark @freybytheway.bsky.social Enjoy, humans! 💚🐈‍⬛💚 Claudineliterary.com

One week from today, humans! 💚🐈‍⬛💚 @happilander.bsky.social @kleopatraolympiou.bsky.social @freybytheway.bsky.social

Introducing: The Ol' Razzle Dazzle (Razz for short) in her patented bun form (now with real bleps!)

She gets it

My wife and I just got approved to adopt a cat and I can't know how to wait now. We're potentially meeting our matched kitty the week after next, and if all goes well we will have her home in two weeks.

Reading The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry and how healing it is to see a character change from more feminine attire into men's clothes and become more attractive to her love interest after years of seeing only the opposite. Also, it's deeply funny. Long live funny bisexuals.

Rereading the Blood Trials by NE Davenport was such a good move. I remember not caring for the ending the first time, but I loved it this time around. Maybe it's just the right book right time.

Somebody help, I did the "Don't look at the first draft, just write a second" and now I am reading both drafts and I love them both, but they're two completely different stories and I don't know which one to lock in. I did not expect to have this problem.

With all due respect: comfort books? No. Clever books? No. Sexy books? No. I read books for one reason and one reason only and it's sad butches. Make the butches sad and then you can have all that other stuff, idk.

It's so interesting watching readers who talk about tropes when they clearly read very different sets of books. Like, I understand intellectually not liking the unexpected pregnancy trope but the last time I saw that was in Twilight.

I'm posting late today. I had a ton of errands to run this morning. I left the ranch in good paws 🐾 though while I was gone! 🐈‍⬛️ #CatsOfBlueSky

Hey, I know books are expensive and money is tight right now. But if there's a brand new book you really wanna read — including my own Lessons in Magic and Disaster — you can help get the book into way more hands by requesting it from your local library! It's easy! Check your library's website.

I wrote my upcoming verse novel Hekate inspired by ancient Greek poet and playwright Euripides’ structure. I loved writing this book and was bereft when I finished it. It’s one of those stories that lingers - an intimating goddess of necromancy telling us her origins.

Writing horror is so weird because sometimes "there are six apples in the basket and I thought there were five" is in fact scarier than murder.

Not sure which lesbian or ace woman needs to hear this, but if dating real life men doesn't bring you joy, you can say, "I'm not attracted to men". You don't have to be disgusted by men. You don't have to prove eternal lack of attraction to some hypothetical perfect man. Not feeling it is enough.

Sophie 🐈 was late this morning. 😺 #CatsOfBlueSky

Just so I have this straight: Keir Starmer when Palestine Action paints a plane: Label them a terror group, arrest anyone who puts those words on a sign. Keir Starmer when Reform racists spray paint the country for weeks, harass immigrants and attack cops: "Hey, guys, stop it. Stop it, guys."

Duology pet peeve: When you read the first book in a duology and it is genuinely half a story. Like, obviously loose ends and sequel hooks are fine, but when it ends on a cliff hanger with nothing resolved? Especially when the pace is slow? That's half a book. Just edit and give me one book.

cat loaf

Was at the library today and cried with the librarian while describing the subject of a specific book. Libraries are wonderful places. 📚

A leafy fern fox 🍃🦊

I bought this as a litter box from Chewy. Leia's been using it as a play house and a bed.

All I saw was cheesecake boat and ocean for at least 5 minutes

Imagining Gallifreyan relationship dynamics is fascinating. If your partner regenerated into a person with the same memories but a completely new face/gender/personality would you still be in love? Would relationships usually end at regeneration? How do you approach a partner who's mourning you?

Ahhh, Melissa's a fantastic writer and one of my favorite people and now she’s AGENTED. Can’t wait for y’all to read her books! 🎉

I've joined an IRL lesbian writing group, and I'm thinking I might share some writing next week. It's really hard for me to share, especially earlier drafts, so I'm working on that.

I do get rather tired of hearing about dudes "just sharing their opinion". If I say, "Fantasy books are boring" I'm sharing an opinion. If I devote my career to the cause of removing all fantasy from libraries and bookstores, that's pursuing policy. It's a different thing.

That moment where you read a story and it's so good and so inspiring, but the way it's written involves skills you're still developing so you're just kind of, "I want to write that... somehow."

A reminder there’s nothing wrong with setting up a one-day muted term via settings for a breather. I do this quite often when there’s a topic that’s just relentless and I know I’ll over-dwell. And, more to the point, you can do that for longer time periods, too, if that’s the right move for you.

A "book marketer" quoted me $4000 to improve my book's "discoverability" with .... Wait for it.... "40-80 reviews" So here's me walking into the sea and calling down the wrath of the Goddess of Storms instead!

Good night everyone

This also counts as political violence.

Recently finished commission for Sarah of her character Alys :)

I was an out trans college kid in Utah. I rarely went a day without someone screaming a slur at me from a moving car. Not a single semester went by without a funeral. UVU was the school trans and queer kids fled to when BYU was going to kill them. Charlie Kirk knew exactly what he was doing.

Is any amount of veg ever 5 of your 5 a day? Because I will see an influencer blend more veggies than I have ever seen in my life in one pasta sauce and go "It's 2 of your 5 a day".

Normally the first thing that gets me to put a book back on the shelf is when the summary starts with a date. But P Djéli Clark writing a Muslim dandy butch in 1912 Cairo has opened my eyes to historical fantasy in a way few writers could. I am seeing the vision.

Went to the local board game cafe with the primary goal of playing 7 Wonders Duel and found it 25 minutes before our time was up 😡 On the plus side, I discovered What Next which had great mechanics with the mini games and choose your own adventure play style.

Bolu Babalola is such a good romance writer because 1. Her character's nonromantic lives are deliberate and rich. Kiki Bango is passionate about her friends, her family, her career, her culture. 2. Bolu uses that passion to guide conflict. Struggles outside the relationship affect the love story.