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I haven’t written a blog much since I switched over to the new site, and I am considering getting back into this. If nothing else, it’ll give me things I can add to the newsletter! I know a lot of writers have found my blog posts helpful over the many years I’ve been doing this, and I regularly have to dig out links to send them to writers when I do my various and sundry presentations and talks, so I think perhaps this is a good time to get back to it.

While I am uncertain what the frequency will be (maybe once a week?) I think I want to start utilizing this space again as well as bringing my blog archive back online for writers to peruse since there’s a lot of content here. Some of my posts may or may not be helpful since I have very much updated my writing style and my viewpoints over the last decade plus, but since I have this archive I may as well use it for something!

Part of the reason I stopped writing a weekly blog was because I wasn’t getting much traffic over here, so it felt sort of like wasted time with me also working on my newsletter. However, looking at this as an opportunity to create some newsletter content and also have a longer form space to get my thoughts out seems like it might be a benefit to me again. Though I think I am going to focus less on exclusively content for authors and also talk about other things that matter to me like disability, ADHD, autism, gender issues and so on. This blog is going to be a little parking spot for me on the internet. Sort of like my TikTok account is.

While I do intend on having some spaces that are me in my most polished, professional form, I am not that person most of the time. When I’m not “on” I’m just another human being. A human being who spends most of their time wrapped up in a fuzzy bathrobe coiled up in my gaming chair like a goblin thing either writing, playing video games, or drawing D&D maps.

My reason for this is that recently there was a post by famous author Terry Brooks that circulated around my various writing groups where he talked about how sometimes books just don’t happen and things don’t work. And so many writers were talking about how relieving it was to see someone talking about how these experiences are universal. So perhaps me taking back to the keyboard saddle to talk about things will help other writers (and my readers) know that writers really are just people. Stephen King is just a dude. As excellent a writer as he is, he’s still a human who wakes up and eats breakfast. Or I’d hope he eats breakfast. Mr. King, you eat breakfast, right? It’s the most important meal of the day.

Another thing I want to do with this blog is talk about some of the things that drive my writing. While there are going to be people who talk down about some of this content, they aren’t my readers. I’m not trying to reach anyone who thinks that non-binary people or gay people are evil. Also, as a disabled person, I have characters who are disabled. It’s just a reality. Why? Because so often we’re brushed aside or treated as lesser somehow.

On the subject of gender, I received a comment from someone that they were a little disappointed that there weren’t more female characters in Fallen who talked to one another or who were plot drivers. While I understand there aren’t enough good, strong women in fiction a lot of the time, this book was mostly focused on Cassiel (who is non-binary because plenty of angels are agender since sexual reproduction isn’t a thing for them in the heavens). I wasn’t upset with the person for the comment, of course. I love that individual to pieces, so I’m not going to be salty because she had a gentle critique for my book. However, please do know that there are badass female characters coming.

I also have some POC characters who will be coming in the series. One is briefly mentioned in the first book, though not by name (it’s foreshadowing). As a white person, myself, I am always hesitant to write about POC because it’s not an experience I have. I don’t want to write someone in a way that inadvertently hurts someone. Which is why I’m limiting my discussion of race issues to fantasy races because with orcs and elves hating each other and having major racism issues, I don’t need to worry about missing nuances of real world groups. I’m creating those racial interactions out of whole cloth in my series.

I’m not sure how often I’m going to be posting. Maybe once a week or so, but the content type is going to be changing from what it was. For those who look to me as a writing teacher or coach, I still do that though the format has changed. Most of my writing advice is dispensed through my writing Discord community where I do weekly lectures on writing. I also am working on putting together a lesson series for authors that will be available to purchase through my site.

Eventually, once I have the space for it, I’m going to be doing some YouTube videos for authors and readers as well, though at this point the only space I have isn’t photogenic enough for me to want to share it on YouTube. While I no longer care if TikTok sees me in my bathrobe with my space a mess, I don’t think it would be wise for me to dispense professional advice from my computer chair with my DVD doomboxes behind me and the pizza box I keep for my cats to sleep on visible in frame. While I do have a green screen, I need to sort out my lighting to make it more effective and make my videos better. That’s a work in progress, but it is coming.

I also have plans to do a podcast, which likely will be from the same space. The only downside is that it’s basically my living room, so my husband is usually in the space with me, and I can’t prevent him from doing things like… breathing… while I’m podcasting. It’s probably a matter of extreme perfectionism on my end, which I’m prone to (being autistic, it’s definitely a facet of my life), but it makes me twitchy.

These projects are in the works, though, and are slowly coming along as I upgrade and modify and improve my setup and space over time.

For those who are still with me on this crazy journey, I appreciate you and am glad to have you here. I’m also excited to see where we go in the future. I have a lot of folks who support me and are excited about my writing career, and I am so grateful for all of you.

Have a meme.

About the author

E. is a long-time fantasy enthusiast who writes urban fantasy. They knew from a young age that they wanted to be a writer and has worked toward that end with a slow, steady pace their entire life. They have been working as an editor for over a decade while learning the many skills needed to forge their own writing career. Currently, they serve as Insomnia Publishing's creative director.

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