You've heard it before: Write what you know. Well, as a girl who never grew out of her ancient Egyptian phase, has strong justice sensitivity, and who worked at the CIA as a political analyst on Iraq right after the US invasion...

If you love stories about righteous feminine rage, ancient Egyptian mythology, and coming of age struggles, you'll LOVE my Daughter of Sekhmet series. I'm looking for *volunteer* beta readers for Book 2. Head to the link in my bio to apply!

If you're not working on your book because you're just trying to survive... I've been there. And you're not alone. Your book will be there when you're ready to return. I promise. 💖

Every time I craft a new course, I'm always a little nervous. Do I have enough material? Will it be valuable for participants? Well, I'm working on the material for CIA Secrets to Kickstart Your Book, and y'all: I'm so excited!

There is no "correct" timeline for writing and finishing your novel. But having experienced support like a book coach can help you finish your draft faster. And the sooner you finish, the sooner you can hold your book in your hands and share it with your readers.

This weekend is all about working on my slides for my "CIA nonfiction writing secrets" class. There's going to be some real talk, and a lot of my pet peeves, all so you can get to the point and keep your reader's needs at the forefront.

Hey writer! It's perfectly fine to edit while you write. Personally, I like to read what I've written previously, and sometimes I'll *gasp quelle horreur!* edit that writing before continuing on.👇

We're already at 11 people for my upcoming FREE class where you'll learn the CIA's secrets to writing for some of the busiest and toughest readers. You'll serve your target readers with clarity, accuracy, and precision—two qualities we definitely want in our nonfiction books!

🕵🏻 (Almost) everything I needed to know about writing nonfiction I learned at the CIA. So I'm giving a FREE class to share the most invaluable writing skills I developed as an analyst so YOU can write more effective nonfiction. 👉April 15th @ 2pm Pacific Time. Replay available. Link in bio.

Avoid these 6 nonfiction writing mistakes and write your book faster! And, TBH, some of these mistakes are good problems to have... like having too much to say for one book. Read more at my Substack, Inside the Inkhorn. You know where the link is. 😉

I spent most of yesterday afternoon mapping out my upcoming free class: CIA secrets for writing effective nonfiction. Unlike some our top policy makers today, however, I won't be divulging *actual* classified secrets. 1/2

Nonfiction authors! Save lots of time and avoid unnecessary frustration in your writing process by addressing a common mistake I see again and again. Check it out on my Substack, Inside the Inkhorn. Subscribe and share! http://inkhorn.substack.com

Nonfiction authors! Are you writing your first chapters before you've really determined who your book is for? Make sure to define your target reader before you start drafting. Why? Read my article on Inside the Inkhorn. inkhorn.substack.com/p/your-ideal-nonfiction-reader

Hot take: Asking people in the US "Why aren't you doing more?" is a bit like asking an abused partner why they don't just leave. 1/

Any book coaches or editors out there who specialize in comics? I've got a potential referral for you!

Why, yes, I will sound the alarm while we continue to practice passive eugenics against disabled people, while we ignore the cumulative damage from multiple infections, while we ignore the pleas of vulnerable people to care about them. It's alarming. You should be alarmed.

Would be a shame if we flooded this Heritage Foundation survey on what's happening in the USG. Beware the propagandistic questions about where US aid money should go. Full name and email address required, so use a burner and an alias.

Look at my little book baby out in the world! I wish I could tell 16-year-old me that we did it. We finished it, and it's published! ...and now we're writing the sequels.

Villains are having a moment right now. For this blog post on writing villains, I pull from fiction and real life in this time of bro-llionaires and broligarchs. Read on my website or at Inside the Inkhorn on Substack. More below!

Basically this. Covid-cautious people are tired, y’all.

movies you've watched more than 6 times, gifs only

Are you bored tonight? Send your five accomplishments, maybe your shopping list, or your five thoughts on Elon from the past week to OPM at [email protected].

Does anyone else feel a little sense of smug satisfaction every time they successfully complete a CAPTCHA? Like, ha! That's right: I'm NOT a robot!

This right here. I wrote about how we must reduce our consumption of animal products in my recent Substack post (on there for now until I can find an alternative) cassandrasquill.substack.com

For real though. I need to finish my blog post about "sympathetic" fictional villains.

It's a really rough time to have strong analytical intuition, a broad knowledge of social history, and high pattern recognition.

We all know that fax machines are some of the most annoying office equipment in existence. And our elected officials still have fax machines. So...Fax the crap out of your legislators.

It's mind boggling that people are shooketh that 🍊 is so friendly with Pooty Poo. Welcome to reality.

I hope America is as lucky as the delta jet - everyone survives but the right wing explodes

I scheduled three—count 'em, three—newsletters to go out to my lists today. We may be in the middle of a coup, but I'm still going to pester you to write your book.

If new authors figured out their POV character before they wrote a scene, I swear they'd be able to avoid so many other common writing pitfalls. Check out how in my new post on Inside the Inkhorn.

This is why my mom and I can't speak fluent Spanish. We never learned, because my Lopez side spoke only English to protect themselves over 100 years ago. 1/

Industrial animal agriculture is a scourge. It's cruel to both animals and people and hastens the spread of deadly zoonotic disease. Beans never started a pandemic. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/chicken-waste-fed-to-cattle-may-be-behind-bird-flu-outbreak/

Look, I know I'm just a Doomer who's been obsessed with epidemics since I was 13, but now would be a great time to make sure you're up to date with your vaccines and to wear a well-fitting mask/respirator in indoor public spaces.

Looks like I need to ditch Google Calendar. Has anyone out there made the switch from GCal to Apple's iCal?

Like AOC suggested, I'm leaning into the things that I do well, and that's writing and educating. Right now, I'm focusing on a series of blog posts that address some of the biggest structural issues I see in draft manuscripts. 1/

Well, shit. We lost a good one today. Thank you for the words, Tom Robbins. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/o...

I blame dystopian fiction for the expectations I am seeing. Ironically, those books largely come after 50 years (or more) for a reason. You think the revolution is immediate because that's when you're brought into the story. But if the fall took decades, the revolution also took decades.

I will never EVER forgive my deceased grandfather for the hundreds of thousands of dollars (you read that right) he donated to the Heritage Foundation before he shuffled off this mortal coil.

It is not too late. Do not give in to fatalism! Fight back and keep fighting in whatever way you can.

Please please PLEASE keep your cats INSIDE. H5N1 is not only a risk to them, but also to YOU.

In plain sight. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Hold the line, federal workers! HOLD. THE. LINE.

Basically this. Industrial animal agriculture promotes the development of dangerous infectious diseases that develop in animals, then transmit to humans. One of many reasons I eat a plant-based diet.

There really is nothing like making my little social media carousels about writing while a South African billionaire/tech-douche takes over the US government and steals all of our financial information.

Imagine if we just listened to Black women?

Today's writing and editing wins: 🌟Book tour with Kate Rock is ON for Daughter of Sekhmet! 🌟Newsletter scheduled to go out to my mailing list. 🌟New blog post scheduled for Substack and my personal website. 🌟Homework for EFA line editing class nearly complete.

Do yourself a favor and watch this!

If you're protesting tomorrow: "I invoke my rights to silence and counsel and will not answer questions without my attorney present." MEMORIZE THAT, because aside from asking if you're free to leave (or providing ID if you're in a stop and ID state), that's the ONLY thing you ever say to cops.

Many readings of Cassandra focus on the curse & ignore how & why it was cast: She refused to fuck a God who retaliated by using his power to cloud minds against her. Rather than a metaphor of society ignoring warnings, it's the powerful malicously supressing wisdom, particularly from women.