Anytime I panic that I'm not being creative enough with my marketing or spending enough time on it, I remember that these are the kind of posts that get the most sales and traction for me, and they take about 0.3 seconds of thought before I post them.

Just found out that both my girls won a teacher-nominated dance scholarship that will pay for their first few months of ballet tuition this fall and I am in tears.

I am currently prepping for homeschooling four kids next week, shifting one kid over to an online charter school (so paperwork, transcripts, evaluation reports, etc.), while also trying to keep the house from falling into chaos, take care of myself, etc. Every word written in there is a win.

Me: I am a paragon of homeschooling moms. My children are little geniuses! They are going to conquer the world with the skills and intelligence they gained under my tutelage! My 14yo: Do rats lay eggs?

I have no where I HAVE to be today, for the first day in weeks. I think some coffee shop writing might be in order.

Yes, this is the rom-com that I speed-wrote something like 30k words of in a few weeks, and have already added several more thousand words in the last few days. You might be getting a rom-com from me next year!

Reading over an unfinished wip I set aside in June because I thought it was terrible, and it's actually decent? Like, maybe even good? What is this sorcery?

My 14yo and my 12yo have begged their dad to teach them how to play bass, and this fills me with so much glee.

Mildly frustrated by the fact that I put aside the story I wanted to write because I thought it wasn't the story that I should be writing (the sequel to a book currently on submission) and opened up the first story today and wrote over 4k words. Dagnabbit, I guess I have to finish it now.

And it's finished! 1773 words. The most I've written in a day in weeks and weeks!

Woke up to a short story idea, and it feels wonderful. I've had trouble getting some words on the page lately, but this feels cozy and fun!

Started listening to the Series of Unfortunate Events audiobooks with my kids and WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THEY ARE NARRATED BY TIM CURRY??? THE Tim Curry. They are fabulous and I HIGHLY recommend!!!

I think one of the harder parts of having a book out on submission - having come from self-publishing - is the wait. If I had decided to publish this book on my own (and I still might if there aren't any bites) it would likely be up for pre-order already. There'd be a cover. It would be ready to go.

So we're still working our rears off to make sure my kids keep up with their ballet training. We're not as behind as we were! But fall classes are starting soon and pointe shoes are being run through faster than ever. IN RELATED NEWS I have an Etsy shop with cute dragons and books.

The hardest part about being an author is figuring out how to market your books in a social media post with a character limit. Cake. Baby Dragons. Found Family. Middle-aged main characters. Bonnets. And... done!

A soft start to our school year today. Fitting, then, that the temperature dropped twenty degrees from yesterday, giving the day a cool, cloudy vibe. News, read alouds (picking up Inkheart where we left off) and math and spelling, just to get our brains ticking before we go full force in September.

Headline: Cold case cracked after nearly 60 years! My brain: Oh, so like from the 1930s? Or the '40s? Article: Person missing since 1967... My brain: RUDE.

It's interesting how I class myself as a pantser because I rarely put any notes or outlines down to paper. But I've spent the last couple weeks letting my new story kind of... percolate in my head, moving pieces around without really thinking about it, and that is a kind of outlining, really.

The good thing about our hot water heater dying is that I'm spending more time hand washing dishes and heating up water for baths and less time thinking about the horrors.

"Is there language teaching that we can do via chatgpt?" is one of the most awful sentences I have read lately (and that's without touching the whole other can of worms of people potentially taking on the burden of crippling student loan debt in exchange for being taught by chatgpt.)

A reminder - while we fudge around with a hot water heater that may or may not need to be replaced - that I have an Etsy store! Cozy fantasy, crocheted dragons and dragon-related things, historical romance, and more! And all of it shipped directly from me!

A day may come when I remember my Scandinavian ancestry, when I forsake all distractions and properly apply liberal amounts of sunscreen, but it is not this day. This day, we (sun)burn!

And sometimes writing a new story is writing the wrong story for a chapter or two before your brain figures out what the real first chapter should be.

Being an adult is realizing I can just eat a half dozen deviled eggs and call it dinner.

Whatcha all been reading folks? My latest #SciFi #fantasy & #horror recs are The Ministry of Time, Tender is the Flesh, Rivers of London, Mickey7, and The Half Killed, the last a tight, haunting, eerie little indie beauty by @quenbyolson.bsky.social that I've only just discovered #BookSky 💙📚🪐🩸⚔️

#booksky 📚💙 Read @quenbyolson.bsky.social ‘s The Half Killed - excellent Victorian horror with writing perfect to the period and the tone.

I WILL HAVE YOU KNOW that one of my most excited and constantly-messaging-me-with-their-excitement early readers of my cozy/horror with vampires and cake and bonnets novel is a man and maybe you're just making up problems that don't exist.

Three dragons and a pair of gloves are already snapped up!

Anyway, today is my 16th wedding anniversary and I just could not be happier to be married to this man. (Make his day! Look up Full Custom Music Repair and give his custom-made amps and pedals a follow!)

I'll be at Cupboard Maker Books in Enola, PA on Sunday, August 10th (THIS SUNDAY!) from 3pm-5pm as part of Bookstore Romance Weekend! Stop in and say hi! Buy some books! Pet some cats! Enjoy the beautiful day!

Miss Percy's Guide by @quenbyolson.bsky.social is another wonderful cozy tale featuring a BABY DRAGON in a slow burn regency romance. What's not to love?? Every time Fitz gets brought up in casual conversation, my wife makes a face. That scrunched one, where something's too cute. Yeah, that one.

DRAGONS! Bigger dragons! More dragons! (And some gloves, yes.) I love these new patterns so much! They're all fitted out with a loop for riding on the back of your hand, and they're just so fun to make! (And they're all in my Etsy shop!) (More below...)

I honestly can’t believe there are still any AI skeptics out there. This tech is obviously revolutionary

We heard you like indie sales! The Epic Sale of Beloved SFF Books 2025 is taking place between 7th-11th August featuring books recommended by other indie authors at 0.99 or FREE!! Here are 5 books I've read from the sale and 5 books I want to read: www.readindiefantasy.com/epic-sale-of...

Absolutely delighted to see Brightwash on the list of books recommended! Thanks so much @blog.readindiefantasy.com for putting this together 😍

Saw a Clinton/Gore bumper sticker on an older car today and the sight of it threw me back in time so hard I think I have whiplash.

The Beloved SFF Sale is on! 🥳 So many books here, and all of them have been loved and recommended by someone. I'm really happy to have 3 of my books included 😁: Fortune's Fool 🦾 Dragonmeat 🐉 Smuggler's Fortune 💰 talesfromthecircle.com/epicsale2025... 💙🪐📚 #BookSky #indiebooks #indieauthors

Say three positive things about your writing! *silent scream* Okay, we're back! 1. I write good dialogue. 2. I'm a pretty clean writer, so revisions usually aren't too bad. 3. I know how to write characters that people feel a burning hatred towards.

Every time I play yarn chicken, I get a new grey hair.

I haven’t shared this here but my sister is leaving an emotionally abusive husband. Please help her legal fund. www.gofundme.com/f/legal-aid-...

🍄 EBOOK SALE 🍄 The Mushroom Blues eBook is ON SALE for $0.99 as part of the #BelovedSFFBooks Sale, alongside 100+ other indie books. $0.99 sale runs Aug. 7-11 (discount available WORLDWIDE on Amazon): amzn.to/3VoOBNF Check out ALL of the books on sale here: talesfromthecircle.com/epicsale2025...

We at the Asylum are excited to host the cover reveal for @trudieskies.readindiefantasy.com's upcoming new adult gaslamp fantasy novel, THE CHOSEN ONE CON, the first book in the Lost in the Aether duology! The expected publication is in 2026. #CoverReveal queensbookasylum.com/2025/08/06/c...

That womp-womp moment when you're partway through a crochet project and you realize you do not have enough yarn to finish said crochet project...

Wait, wait, wait. There are beaded fidget dragons? Okay, okay. I'm doing it.

"You've been quiet lately, Quen. Whatcha been up to?" Writing, reading, crocheting, and touching grass. My life's work.

Tried out the larger pocket dragon pattern this morning and I think I am going to be obsessed with matching up dragon colors with spike colors. (There'll be more this weekend!)

Anyway, thanks to everyone who rushed to buy the pocket dragons (along with a few other things!) You all just paid for a new pair of pointe shoes for my 15yo and a couple of extra ballet classes we wouldn't have been able to budget in otherwise! And more dragons are on the way!

And the second batch is over half gone (along with another pair of gloves!) I have a few special orders to start working on/finish up, and new ones will be coming, PLUS some newer, bigger pocket dragons with a little bit more detail. Woo-hoo!

Anyway, I just purchased the pattern for the large pocket dragon, and I blame all of you.

Second Batch is up! More pocket dragons! I love the variations in colors in this batch. And I'm already working on more to add in a few days (hopefully by the weekend). Find them on my etsy! (More in comments.)