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. :)