Just a few moments later…

What? More like a few years, you say?

Well, I suppose that’s what happens when you attempt to launch a new project right before a pandemic hits. Things have changed just a bit since then!

I initially began looking for community after a writing group I’d recently joined enacted a pretty heavy-handed word count requirement. Being able to write about once a week at that time, I dejectedly tweeted about it (what’s that called now, X-ing?), and it went semi-viral, with some of the world’s most talented writers offering comments and advice (including Beverly Jenkins, Cherie Priest, John Scalzi, Neil Gaiman, Rachel Caine, and Ursula Vernon!—plus Rhianna Pratchett even weighed in about her father’s writing process which I so appreciated). The Twitter/X #WritingCommunity is amazingly supportive and helpful. But there is also something extra and important about meeting your “people” in person.

Due to the events of 2020, my plans changed, but I took much of the advice I gleaned from that off-the-cuff tweet and things have taken off since then. Thanks to the Des Moines Writers’ Workshop, I fell in with an amazing critique group, and spent the next couple of years workshopping and growing my craft. I finished a Young Adult speculative/SFF novel, then wrote a Middle Grade fantasy novel in a few months, joined SCBWI where I’ve met so many wonderful new friends and learned a ton, received an unsolicited blue check from X, and am now emerging from the MG revision trenches.

All this to say, I’m back, and excited to move things forward. Thanks for checking in…and for sticking around. :)

Birth of a blog

It’s a blog, being birthed!

If you want to be a professional author, “they” say, then you need to have a website. Even if it’s just a placeholder for your (extremely interesting, no doubt) personal musings, you MUST increase your online presence.

“But I have so little time to spare already,” I answer, hovering my finger over the self-delete button. “Any scant personal time I have must be reserved for writing.”

Then a couple of things happen in short order: one of my #WritingCommunity tweets about losing a local writing group receives hundreds of amazing responses, making it clear that I’m not the only one with little personal time and a desire for camaraderie with my fellow writers. And now, much of the world, including myself, has gone into self-quarantine due to COVID-19, the coronavirus pandemic currently sweeping the globe.

Several years ago, or a lifetime ago, or both, I was heavily involved in a political role playing game, so geekily embedded in that life that I went on to become admin of another, similar game. I ran a lot of forums, and miss that community very much.

When has there been a better time for such a community for writers, if not now? So, I’m trying my hand at building this website first, will see about sticking a forum on it, and we’ll go from there.

Because we’re always better when we’re in things together than we are facing it all alone.