Crashing waves, gull calls, and a fog horn beckon you to Devils Island because I've signed an audio deal! A FATE WORSE THAN DROWNING is officially getting an audiobook! It was an exciting 5-way auction and I'm so happy it's found its home 🌊💙😈

What no one is gonna tell you but critical to know is that I am actually fantastic at explaining board games, don't listen to my friends and family ❤️ Yes I double check the instructions, unless the spirit moves me to make a better house rule due to my whimsy mixed into my need for control!!!

Shubenacadie Sam's Groundhog Day event is cancelled due to a huge snow storm tonight/tomorrow and it's wonderfully optimistic for the powers that be to interpret this as him not seeing his shadow, thus an early spring coming. I'd like to bring this kind of hope into the rest of February myself!

what I read what I'm reading in January in February

Publishing for Minnesota is up and running! Please check out the items and bid! There were 500 slots and they filled incredibly fast - I know I'll be bidding on some amazing items/services up for auction. www.32auctions.com/publishingfo...

A burst of positivity: I am so thankful to write about where I'm from and talk to people about my book! I go to the nail salon, start yapping, it becomes the whole room buzzing about my book! I go to the museum for photos, end up having a wonderful historical lighthouses chat with an interpreter!

I can't stop staring at my book-inspired nails - specifically inspired by my own debut novel, A FATE WORSE THAN DROWNING, coming out in July!!! Anh did an absolutely amazing job 🥰 I also learned the Vietnamese word for lighthouse, hải đăng, which means "sea light" - arguably a cooler name!

LIGHTHOUSE EMOJI YESSSSSSSSSS they heard it was A FATE WORSE THAN DROWNING's debut year 😌😌😌

Small joys are where it's at. Do you know how excited I am for the maple breakfast sausages we're having tomorrow?? Making my iced coffee with exactly how much ice I like?? Meeting up with a friend after for a walk?? Too often I remove the small joys to chase the big wins. Unwise, to say the least.

Over 10,000 people have added A FATE WORSE THAN DROWNING on Goodreads!! If you heard screaming it wasn't a banshee, it was me!! 😭 Thank you to everyone who has been so kind. I had no idea if I'd reach 10k period, let alone while still in January!! I'm going to celebrate with some tiramisu later!!

... this is exactly what my post was talking about. AI is everywhere, even replying to a "how to spot AI" list because of course it is. You can spot the sentence style from a mile away when you know what to look for!! Go write a poem about oranges you water sucking, brain rot inducing bag of bolts.

These AI marketing emails are wild. It used to be easy to tell a generic "your <WRITING> is so <GOOD>" attempt but now takes a few sentences before I know for sure it's AI. One tell for my book: The B plot love interest isn't mentioned by name in the marketing, so the name is never in these emails.

It's the final day to enter the Goodreads giveaway for 15 print ARCs of A FATE WORSE THAN DROWNING!! They're pretty cool if I say so myself 😎 (U.S. only!) www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho... ✍️📚

Haul after my first silent reading club!! Yes I left with more books than I went in with what do you take me for

I'm finally using Scrivener after maybe 3+ years of an "I'll get around to learning it" cycle please clap 😌

Explain to me how I can enter mail dot google dot com every day of my life for the last.....?? decade?? and yet ONE visit to m&m food market has usurped it in the autocomplete, as though an overnight coup has erupted under my nose within my own castle walls

!!!??? What a way to ring in the New Year!!! Thank you SO MUCH for 5,000 adds on Goodreads 😭❤️❤️❤️ (and if you're in the US, make sure you join the GR giveaway!!) Thank you so much for starting this year with me and my haunted girls ❤️

I was making a video for instagram on canva and didn't realize what the title would be--

Happy New Year!!! ✨ Some fun things I'm getting up to in 2026: - Trying out some free MIT online courses (excited for "21L.488: Contemporary Literature: Street Haunting in the Global City"!) - More swimming! - Reading before bed instead of scrolling - UM MY BOOK COMES OUT THIS YEAR????????????????

[End of the year sappiness alert] If you've reached out to an author and told them how much their work means to you, or how excited for their next book you are, or just that you think of their writing journey and wish them the best? You're keeping the fires burning against some cold, harsh nights.

Pre-order saaaale!! 🌊🌊👻🌊🌊 (Wild that I get to make this post now!) If you have a B&N Rewards or B&N Premium Membership you can save 25% when you pre-order A FATE WORSE THAN DROWNING from today until January 1! Rewards membership is free. Use the code PREORDER25 at checkout ❤️🌊🔥👻💙

💞 AN ARCANE INHERITANCE IS OUT NOW 💞 This book has been mine for so long. Now it's yours. Thank you to @emilykaitlin.bsky.social and @poisonedpenpress.bsky.social for believing in me and this story. You can find An Arcane Inheritance wherever books are sold. Purchase: linktr.ee/kamilahcole

Definitely a relaxing end of the year read and not desperately clawing my way to my Goodreads challenge last minute !!! 📚📖✍️

I hope the end of 2025 is gentle to you. 2026 is, for me, the start of a whole new book in my life. A literal book as in my debut coming out, but also the last 5-10 years worth of work coming together with my supportive friends, family, and a talented publishing team. Hazel for luck ✨🧡🤍🖤

Quote this with what you have accomplished in 2025 no matter how small - Got through all my dev and copy edits for AFWTD!! - Performed at my first reading event! - Started therapy and switched to better meds! - Kept up with my skincare all year💅 - [secret publishing thing I can't say yet but yay!!]

Yesterday at a holiday get together a family member asked me, "Is the publishing industry friendly, peer-to-peer, or hostile?" All I said was, "if you're smart, you're nice." Hasn't steered me wrong yet!!

Such a lovely time last night with talented people I feel privileged to know! ❤️

So I have a signature pose at horror author reading events now 😈 2024 Halloween panel vs 2025 Haunted Holidays reading! Also just realized I'm wearing the same necklace in both 🥺

Check out the cover reveal for Sarah's book below! A FATE WORSE THAN DROWNING is about deals with the devil, spooky folklore, and complicated sisterly relationships. The story is every bit as gorgeous as this stunning cover!

My cover reveal is LIVE for my debut novel, A FATE WORSE THAN DROWNING!!! Check out the amazing animated reveal here: www.instagram.com/reel/DScu5db...

Check out the cover for @slhawthorn.bsky.social's fast-approaching novel, A Fate Worse Than Drowning! www.instagram.com/p/DScu5dbjdAg/

But consider: I'm obsessed.

My cover reveal is LIVE for my debut novel, A FATE WORSE THAN DROWNING!!! Check out the amazing animated reveal here: www.instagram.com/reel/DScu5db...

Had a really great chat today with my therapist about misplaced perfectionism in my creative process, and how it's like taking an office printer and putting it in the middle of a meadow, as if it'll work in that environment the exact same way as in an office.

New Frog Pond!! Solar cycles, the Carrington Event of 1859, and 👀👀👀 thefrogpond.cloverlore.com/the-frog-pon...

Happy book birthday to The Writhing, Verdant End! I’m so honoured to share these pages with brilliant writers @coreyfarrenkopf.bsky.social and @ericraglin1992.bsky.social! Have some ecohorror to end the year 🌿 🩸

Heard from the other room (amid many demanding meows): "It's not cat food! It's chocolate chips! Poison!! Poison, Hazel!!" So my SO's cookie-making is going well

SO excited to be able to share the US cover of THE SEA HIDES ITS DEAD! Coming July 2026, from @orbitbooks.bsky.social Trapped in an underwater cave, a group of academics searching for the cult of the mythical Leviathan learn that the only way out of her ever-changing cloister… is further in. 👀🌊🔪

Thinking about how sometime in Fall when I was 16 and at a family gathering, I went up to my grandmother and told her I'd decided to be a writer. I don't know what it was specifically about that day that made me want to announce it, but it's now been another 16 years and I'm debuting next year 🥹

(in the same tone as a proud parent after a particularly good christmas concert): my cat not only got a gold star sticker at the vet & was told she was the best cat they'd seen all day, but she ALSO let them touch her belly AND they said we were lucky to have such a perfect cat AND THEY WERE RIGHT

HAPPY GOTCHA DAY TO THE BEST GIRL HAZEL BASIL !!!

The Palestinian Children's Relief - TTRPG Bundle for PCRF is live! Come support Palestinian children and get a ton of TTRPG and Pring/Play titles for $10! itch.io/b/3299/pales... Free Palestine!

how am I supposed to write under these conditions???

IT'S IMPERFECT CREATURES DAYYYYYY 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 Congratulations to Joe on a truly stellar, mind-bending book. It's been such a pleasure witnessing this book turn into something so multi-layered and heart wrenching!!

RELEASE DAY!!! Imperfect Creatures is OUT NOW! My weird, Twin Peaks X House of Leaves novel is finally out in the world and wants to take up space in your brain. You can get it here: diachroneitybooks.com/Imperfect-Cr...

Cozy brie bake Sunday 🩷

I can be your angle (eepy baby) or your debil (ferocious toy hunter)

Convincing you to read my novel by the first sentence. Share yours if you want. 👀👻🐟 (A FATE WORSE THAN DROWNING, 2026)

Piiiiiiiiiink!!!!!!!!!!!!?!!!!! 🩷🌸🩷 It's been 3 years since I last dyed it and I love it so much 🩷

Hazel is here to tell you to shoot for your dreams, especially if the dream is to sit directly in front of whatever work "needs" to get done given you are much more important than words on a monitor ❤️