Writing
Balancing Family & Creativity: Night Writing Benefits
Balancing Family, Work, and Creative Life
When my family moved to a new city this summer, we learned the after-school program for my kids had already closed applications back in April. By July, we were too late. That left us juggling new routines, with my son in Transitional Kindergarten (TK) for just three hours each morning—then home for the rest of the day.
The Quiet Hustle: What It Really Feels Like to Market Your Own Book
The hardest part about being an author? Walking the tightrope between “please buy my book” and “I swear I’m not begging.” It’s a delicate dance—trying to share something you’re proud of without sounding desperate, hoping it lands with the right people without shouting into the void.
Recovering, Reading, and Revising
A few weeks ago, I was hospitalized for appendicitis and sepsis. The infection was so severe that they put me on a long course of antibiotics, and I’m hopefully having surgery soon to remove my appendix. But even now, I still don’t feel great. My side hurts, and some nights, it’s impossible to get comfortable.
Slowing Down, but Not Stopping
When you’re weak, tired, and not feeling like yourself, you have to listen to your body and do what you can with the energy you have. For me, that means reading. And thankfully, that’s something I can still do. I’ve been rereading my published books—not just because I love them, but because we’ve updated the covers and are tweaking the copy. If you’re with a small press like I am, you often have more flexibility to make small fixes post-publication. If you’re with a big traditional publisher, that’s a lot harder—but if you ever get the chance to refine your work, take it.
Publishing Gatekeepers Are Not Fortune Tellers—They Get It Wrong All the Time
The Illusion of Predicting a Bestseller
I don’t care what anyone says—no publisher, big or small, can guarantee who will be a bestseller. They get it wrong all the time. Sometimes it’s instinct, sometimes it’s a lucky guess, and sometimes they just think they know—but the truth? Readers decide.
The publishing industry likes to act as if it has a crystal ball, as if acquisitions editors and agents possess some supernatural ability to determine what will sell and what won’t. But they don’t.
Cover Reveal & the Reality of Indie Publishing: Why Your Support Matters
The journey has only begun. Check out the stunning covers for the first three books in The Serpent Series—The Serpent’s Bridge, The Serpent Woman, and Twilight of the Serpent. A gripping saga of justice, revenge, and morally gray criminals—some deserving, some justified. Order now and dive into the darkness.
It’s been a long, uphill battle these past few weeks. What should have been a routine appendicitis issue turned into something much worse—a punctured appendix, a severe infection, and sepsis that spread to my colon. The doctors were worried about complications like a colostomy bag, and for a while, even keeping liquids down was a challenge. The pain was excruciating, and recovery has been slow.
But despite everything, I kept moving forward. Because as a small press author, the work doesn’t stop—even when you’re sick.
Writing With Hope 