Writer Rambles

Writer Ramble #1

I apologize in advance if this post has typos as I am writing it with what I think is the beginnings of a migraine, and my ability to coherently string together sentences is always what goes first.

I’m starting a new blog post type that I’m dubbing a writer ramble. This is going to be a sort of catch-all for what’s going on, author updates, things on my mind, etc. Basically, things that are not long enough by themselves to constitute a full blog post on their own.

The Indie Ink Awards

On Sunday, it was the awards ceremony for this year’s Indie Ink Awards, and I found out that The Reanimator’s Remains (TRM #3) won in the following categories: LGBTQ+ Representation, Mental Health Representation, and Neurodivergent Representation.

I am so thankful for the readers who nominated it and who voted in the opening round and for the judges that read all of the books for the second round. I am honored and grateful for any and all attention my books get, and in a world where people like RFK Jr. are demonizing autistic people, this feels like vindication for myself and for my readers who love Oliver and Felipe.

A Preorder Coming Soon

The preorder for The Reanimator’s Fate (TRM #4) will be up for preorder soon. I have been putting off setting up the preorder because I need to readjust the blurb a bit, but I’m thinking the release date will be January 27th, 2026. With the semester starting and there being personal life chaos, it has been hard to focus on fixing it. I swear, blurbs take far more brain power than actual writing.

I know it’s a ways off, but I think this book will be long and the wait will be worth it. I want to give Oliver and Felipe the best send-off I can. There will also be an epilogue #4.5 story published after, and at some point in 2026, I plan to publish a collection of the between short stories along with a few new short stories sprinkled in.

Personal Life Rambles

I have been grappling with my “the world is hateful and on fire” anxiety lately, which I think is understandable. At the same time, I think the internet is a giant part of that because it’s like negativity concentrate when trolls and awful people bombard you and get shared widely across your timeline. In reality, the world is not nearly as on fire as it appears online. It’s still bad, but the pace of the horrors is slower. I’ve been trying to be better about not staring directly into the void for too long, so I don’t utterly fry myself. I still want to be in the know and able to share resources and such, so I’m trying to look away from the chaos more often.

The nice thing is that despite all the transphobia in the world, I am watching my partner bloom into her true self, and I am so glad that I get to be along for the ride with her. I have thrown myself into being the most helpful and supportive partner I can as she feels out what she likes and grows into the person she sees in her mind. I’m so proud of her, and it gives me hope that one day I can find my optimal gender expression. I have been finding it difficult to triangulate gender vs autistic clothing tolerance vs cost of clothes. Being autistic and nonbinary makes everything feel like Goldilocks going this is too little, this is too much until you hate shopping for clothes. I know together we’ll figure things out and grow closer as we stumble through the same journey, even if the paths are slightly different.

Is the world on fire? Yes, but there are good things in the world that make life worth living and make every day so much more pleasant. Part of fascism is sucking the joy from everything, so take it where you can get it and lean into what makes you happiest in these times.

Monthly Review

December 2023 Wrap-Up Post

This month is going to be sort of a weird one for updates and wrap-ups because I tried to take it easy. Between the holidays and the end of the semester, I worried I would become very fried, so my December was spent mostly void-staring and trying not to fall into a pit of despair over Palestine (self-explanatory) and covid (if you’re immunosuppressed, you feel very left behind and left for dead at this point). Basically, I could feel the specter of depression looming at the end of November and tried to chill this month to avoid a total mental meltdown. Let’s review what my goals were for December before we get into it:

  • Finish the semester/my grading
  • Finish writing “An Unexpected Question”
  • Start editing “An Unexpected Question”
  • Finish all remaining Christmas stuff/prep
  • Prep for Q1 and get my new goals together
  • RELAX with my partner
  • Read 8 books
  • Blog weekly
  • Send out my December Newsletter

Books

My goal this month was to read 8 books, and I read 10 in December.

  1. Ennead Vol 1 by Mojito- 4 stars, an interesting twist on Ancient Egyptian mythology that is apparently queer (not in volume one, so we’ll see).
  2. Greywaren (#3) by Maggie Stiefvater- 4 stars, the epic conclusion to the Dreamer Trilogy. For a while, I was very confused and concerned as to how this series would wrap up, but it was quite satisfying and we even get a little cameo of some old favorites from the first series.
  3. My Pancreas Broke But My Life Got Better (#6) by Nagata Kabi- 4 stars, Nagata Kabi is back and talking about her health issues during the pandemic, her sobriety, relapses, and more.
  4. My Wandering Warrior Eating Disorder (#5.5) by Nagata Kabi- 4 stars, while Kabi usually talks about her alcoholism, this mini volume talking about her eating disorders was very humanizing and illuminating.
  5. Best Supporting Actor (#3) by Joanna Chambers and Sally Malcolm- 4 stars, a hate-to-love romance between an established actor and a rising star who get cast as the leads in a new play. There’s some great discussion of crappy relationships, anxiety, nepotism, and much more.
  6. Saga Vol 11 by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples- 4 stars, I love Saga so much. This was a significantly less traumatizing volume compared to the previous one.
  7. The Ancient Magus’s Bride Vol 19 by Kore Yamazaki- 4 stars, we finally finished the school arc, and I am looking forward to seeing where it goes next.
  8. On the Fox Roads by Nghi Vo- 4 stars, if Nghi Vo writes it, I will read it. This time, we have glamorous Asian bank robbers, a trans MC, and magic.
  9. The Garden (#1) by Tomi Adeyemi- 2 stars, this was my least favorite novella in the Into the Shadow series. It was too loosey-goosey in terms of prose and plot for my taste.
  10. Heartstopper Vol 5 by Alice Oseman- 4 stars, sacchrine but enjoyable. I thought this was the final volume, but there’s one more.

Admin/Behind-the-Scenes Stuff

  • The Reanimator’s Heart won third place in BBNYA 2023! Third place out of 252 entries is just mind blowing to me.
  • The Reanimator’s Heart and The Reanimator’s Soul were nominated for several categories in the Indie Ink Awards.
  • The Reanimator’s Heart was an Amazon sale item (picked by them) for a day.
  • Finished all of my grading for my fall classes in a timely manner.
  • Dissociated and did very little from Christmas Eve to New Years Eve- I needed this desperately. I was feeling very fried and a bit depressed by the time NYE rolled around, and this fills my goal of relaxing during December.
  • Made the syllabi and Blackboard accounts for my classes in the spring (this is an annoying bit of prep that I used for procrastination when I should have been writing, lol).
  • Setup all of my author/writer spreadsheets for 2024 (social media, sales, sales by book, etc.)
  • Made my Q1 2024 goals.
  • Set up my 2024 bullet journal spreads (various yearly ones and my Q1 weekly spreads).

Blogs


Writing

In December, I wrote about 10k words, which made me quite happy. It wasn’t as much as I intended or wanted to write, but I had to keep reminding myself that December was supposed to be a month where I could rest and recover from the end of the fall semester along with the holidays. I’m really enjoying writing “An Unexpected Question,” even if it has been a research-intensive story, despite being only ~20k words long. I’ve been neck-deep in learning about Coney Island in the 1890s, Steeplechase Park, hot dogs, and street vendors. For some reason, historical food research always ends up being a highlight for me. I’m really looking forward to diving into the third book in the Reanimator Mysteries series, but that will have to wait for January and February, though I have been jotting down some ideas for where Oliver, Felipe, and Gwen are going.


Hopes for January

  • Finish/edit “An Unexpected Question”
  • Format/upload/send out “An Unexpected Question”
  • Start brainstorming The Reanimator Mysteries #3 and doing research
  • Research selling books on my website/Etsy (and if I want to do it)
  • Start checking/proofing the audiobook of The Reanimator’s Soul as the chapters come in
  • Do Sarra Cannon’s 2-3 day class on long-term goal setting
  • Write more days than not (aka get into a better habit)
  • Read 8 books
  • Blog weekly
  • Send out my January newsletter with “An Unexpected Question”
Writing

My Books are in the Indie Ink Awards!

This is a semi unscheduled/unplanned post because I just found out that my books The Reanimator’s Heart and The Reanimator’s Soul are both in the Indie Ink Awards and voting has officially opened!

The Reanimator’s Heart was nominated for

  • Best audio narration
  • Best friendship
  • Best setting
  • Wittiest character
  • Writing the Future We Need: LGBTQ+ Representation
  • Writing the Future We Need: Neurodivergent Representation by a Neurodivergent author

The Reanimator’s Soul was nominated for

  • Best friendship
  • Best use of tropes
  • Writing the Future We Need: LGBTQ+ Representation
  • Writing the Future We Need: Mental Health Representation
  • Writing the Future We Need: Neurodivergent Representation by a Neurodivergent author

I am so grateful for everyone who nominated my books. If you’re willing, I would greatly appreciate it if you could visit the site and vote for my books, especially The Reanimator’s Heart in the “Neurodivergent Rep by a Neurodivergent Author” category as the autism rep in my books is very important to me.

To vote, you need to make an account on their site (this is done to avoid cheating/multiple votes or vote spamming). Then you would click into the categories, click the book cover, then scroll to the bottom and hit save. If you don’t hit save, the vote won’t count.

Once again, thank you all so much for nominating my books, and I hope you will vote for The Reanimator’s Heart, especially in the ND category and The Reanimator’s Soul in the mental health rep category! Voting is only open until the end of December