Hello everyone! I hope you're all doing great. 

Today, I wanted to share a little bit about how the KickStarter for the Bound Trilogy Grand Finale Book Launch went, where I am with filling orders (and prepping for launch) and what else is in the works.

Last Tuesday, I went to bed pretty bummed out, and I was very much in backup-plan making mode. First, I wanted to figure out how to do all the things I planned to do (or at least the most important things I wanted to do) for Fated's book launch if the KickStarter was not successful. How was I going to thank the people who put their faith in the project if it didn't reach its goal?

On Wednesday, thanks to a few of my wonderful, supportive family members spreading the word like it was their job, we met our funding goal, and then some. I cannot express how grateful I am for these amazing people who took the project from 62% funded to 108% funded in 24 hours. I will write a post in the near future breaking down what I did for this KickStarter, what was helpful, and what was not, but for now, my focus is on getting ready for launch, and getting rewards out to those who paid for them.

Through this KickStarter, folks ordered a total of 57 books (and Fated doesn't come out until the 30th!). I've got orders for 30 ebooks and 27 physical books. I'm so happy about this! 

So here's what's happened since Wednesday last week.

1. We met our funding goal! Yay!
2. I made a BookFunnel account to distribute ebooks to those who ordered them.
3. Rewards have been sifted through and organized so I can keep track of what all needs to be made (and who it will go to).
4. Bookmarks and stickers have been ordered!
5. All art has been printed.
6. Backer survey was sent to gather item preferences and shipping info.
7. Bound Trilogy puzzles were ordered.
8. Ebook design for Fated is about 70% complete. I'm hoping to finish it today, then I'll go back and make some tweaks to Bound and Severed's ebooks so they're all the same.
9. I added Fated to my website and made some graphics that I'll print for my table setups that allow people to sign up for my email list via QR code and see the pricing for the art I've made.
10. I've been working on my outline for my next book. Very slowly. But still working on it.

Next, I will be...

• Ordering more books to fulfill the orders.
• Tweaking my measurements for the book box sets just a little bit and getting those started. 
• Spraying page edges (once books arrive). 
• Finishing my outline (hopefully this week) so I can start drafting my next book by June 1st. 
• Contacting all the bookstores I've made a connection with this last year to let them know the new book is almost out (and hopefully setting up an event with them). 
• Attending the 4 events I have scheduled between now and May 31st. 

Thank you all for being with me on this wild journey. If you have any ideas for how to make the book launch for the FINAL book in the Bound Trilogy even better, please comment or send me an email! I'd love to hear your ideas. 

For now, keep writing. Keep reading. Stay awesome. I'll write again soon. 

One thing that I always struggle with as an author is "selling" myself. I've always struggled with asking people to invest in my work, and therefore, in me. It's awkward. It's uncomfortable. 

But as my writing has taken off and my books have gotten better and better, I realize... if I don't try and put myself out there, I'll stay invisible. So here I go, trying. 

As many of you who follow this blog know, I'm currently running a KickStarter to help launch the final book in the Bound Trilogy. I'm so excited for this last book to come out, and I'm unspeakably grateful to everyone who has supported the project so far. I've been surprised again and again by the amazing people who support my writing dreams. 

Now here we are, at the final 24 hours of the KickStarter campaign. If you don't know, KickStarters are all-or-nothing. This is great for backers, because it means that if the project doesn't reach its funding goal, zero dollars leave your bank account for the project. However, it also means that zero funding will go toward the production of the project. 

We have done an awesome job raising over 60% of our $2,500 funding goal. We're in the home stretch now, with a bit more to cover. 

So here I am, doing the awkward thing as best I can. Because while it's uncomfortable for me to talk about myself, to sell myself, I truly believe in these books, and I want so badly to give readers more.

So here are 10 reasons you should back the Bound Trilogy Grand Finale KickStarter Campaign. 
1. The Bound Trilogy has exponentially improved my writing, my motivation, and my valuable connections with readers and other writers.

2. Everything in the Bound Trilogy is human made (no generative AI here, folks).

3. Items listed within the Bound Trilogy are hand-crafted or author-designed. (With the exception of things I have to order out to be printed, everything will be hand-crafted by yours truly).

4. This trilogy has a world that expands (and maps that expand with it) across books.

5. This trilogy has magic, action, romance (clean, fade-to), darkness, creatures, family, and stakes that raise with each book.

6. These books are written, formatted and designed by me (even the cover art and graphics). 

7. These books explore themes of loss, love, fate vs freewill, light vs darkness, responsibility, freedom, and family.

8. I created a dice gambling game to go with the books (the same game that the characters play within the books), and you can get this game for yourself with instructions for how to play through the KickStarter Campaign.

9. You can get digital or physical products ranging in price.

10. You can get art, books, the Fates dice game, a puzzle, posters, and book box sets.

If you found any of these reasons of interest to you, I implore you, check out the campaign. Back the project. It closes tomorrow (Wednesday, May 6th) at 8:48 PM. 

Thank you to everyone who has gotten me, and this project, this far. I appreciate you more than you'll probably ever know.

Hello, readers, writers, and story lovers!

Today, I wanted to share a little bit about what progress we've made with the Bound Trilogy Grand Finale Book Launch KickStarter, as well as share why I'm running this KickStarter campaign. 

First, what is the KickStarter for?
Well, the final book in the Bound Trilogy releases in just over a month. With it being the last book in the trilogy that moved me from being "the kid in the family who writes books" to an author, I really want to do more with this book launch. I want to provide some things I haven't been able to offer in the past (like book box sets, for example), and share other book related things that I created through my passion for the trilogy (like the art or the Fates Dice Game), with readers. 

​I want my readers to nerd out with me. To get a t-shirt or a piece of art and say, "This is from this book I read," or "I got this from an author I like." I want to give something tangible, something more, to the community who helped me get these books off the ground. 

The KickStarter will allow me to fund some of these extra things I want to do while allowing me the opportunity to give this trilogy the grand finale release I have been hoping for.

So, what progress have we made with the KickStarter?

• Thanks to the amazing folks who have already backed the project, we are at $400 of our $2500 funding goal. (THANK YOU!) 
• I have made a prototype book box for the hardcovers, and I've got TWO different designs I'm playing with. If you're signed up for my email list or are following the project on KickStarter, I'll be sharing these options and asking your opinion today!
• I have also finished my first wood-burning art piece for the trilogy. This was super fun, and it was nice to be creative in an artsy way. 
• The final book in the trilogy has finished its final round of proofing, physical proofs look good, and I've officially ordered my first batch for printing. Yay!

How does the KickStarter work? 
We have 15 days left to reach our funding goal. If we do, I'll be able to make book box sets, print art, create puzzles, and put together all sorts of other cool sets for you guys! If we do reach our funding goal, then the money from all of the pledges will go through on the day the campaign closes, and then I can start putting your orders together and sending them out. 

Thank you again to everyone who has supported the project and the trilogy so far. I am so grateful, and I will keep updating you as this campaign progresses. For now, stay awesome. Keep reading. Keep writing. 

When I was a little girl, a fire lit in my soul. It was a small flame, at first, kindled by the magic within stories. Then, as I fed the flame pages and words, it grew, until it was a full-fledged passion. It started with reading and listening to the various stories of my early youth, but, as flames do, this flame desired more content to consume. 

So I did the only thing I could do: I fed it. Over time, worlds opened to me. I traveled through time periods, loved and lost, battled and befriended characters of all varieties. 

I read more and more stories, and the flame grew larger still, until simply reading and listening was not enough. Now, the flame required creation. 

And I thought… what if?

What if I could create stories? Did I have stories to tell?

I started thinking up all kinds of stories, some better than others, and the more I wrote, something strange happened with this flame. It began to cling to the details. I gained a love and appreciation for different words, literary devices, metaphors especially. I paid attention to the rise and fall, the ebb and flow of language, and I found it beautiful. I loved the idea that I could add to the corpus of literary works out there, even if I had no idea how to do so. 

I knew even at such an early age, that I wanted to do so. To contribute my words to the whole world I had discovered.

When I was in high school, the flame grew large enough that I could no longer contain it. I began writing. Songs, poems, short stories. Even essays were these beautiful opportunities. And then, at fifteen, I began writing the story that would stick. The one that started me down the path that would form my world. 

I wrote of a world which did not contain light, and a reluctant princess who took her best friend on a wild journey to find the light and bring it back to her people, with twists and turns and creatures along the way.  This story was the first of many that I would write to completion, the first story that I would dare to publish. 

Azure Light gave me the inspiration, the motivation, the direction I needed to publish, and after that, I couldn’t stop. 

After that initial release, I made a habit of writing, editing, and releasing a new book every year. This one book turned into two, then three, and so on.

…. and then I released my eighth book. The one that turned my fire from a lantern in a window to a bonfire that would continue to grow and spread exponentially. Bound.

​Bound, the story of a girl who finds that the mysterious injuries she’s always gotten were caused by a magical connection she had with another person, provided me with the courage to experience a lot of firsts. 

I got in contact with my first paid developmental editor. 

I ran my first KickStarter.

I had my first readers outside of the country. 

I had my first book signing event (which very quickly turned to MULTIPLE book signing events).

I had my first real restless nights, where I couldn’t sleep a wink (and actually had to wake my husband up so I could tell him my ideas) because I was so unbelievably excited about my story. 

I started writing Bound in 2023. I released it in September of 2024, and since then, my literary world has opened further still. I’ve made connections with wonderful people. I’ve sold books all over the world. I’ve made more book sales than I ever thought would be possible for me. I’ve expanded my goals. I’ve gone from releasing one book every year to releasing 2-4 books every year.

I’ve gone from being afraid to talk about my writing to saying aloud, “I am an author.” I went from being afraid to even invest in author copies of my books, afraid to invest in myself, to calling around and asking bookstores to take a chance on my work, to regularly investing in business cards, bookmarks, stickers, and more so that I can share my passion, my fire, with others. 

Bound - now the Bound Trilogy - has done that for me. 

Having the trilogy completed, with the final book coming out in just over a month… well, it’s more than just a book release. It’s a celebration of the book that made me believe in myself like I never had before. It’s a celebration of the book that made me realize that I can do this. I can share my stories with other people, share my passion with them. That I didn’t have to feel embarrassed or ashamed about my “little writing thing.” That I could implement my passion for art as well as literature into a work that I have created.

To me, that matters. It’s more than ink on paper. It’s more than hours and hours of work. It’s life. It’s light. And I’m so grateful to each and every one of you who has been here and supported me on this journey as I feed this fire. Thank you, for being here. Genuinely. 

If you would like to support the release of the final book in the Bound Trilogy, reach out. Check out my KickStarter. Share the books with someone you think would enjoy them. And if you’re a writer, or you have that little flame inside you, too, know you’re not alone. It’s not silly. And you’re always welcome to share here.

Hi everyone! I hope your week is off to a great start!

Between Saturday, March 21st and Saturday, March 28th, I had three book signing events. In the span of that week, I had my record high number of book sales, and my record low number of book sales. Today, I wanted to break down my experience at each book event, the sales I made (or didn’t make), and what information I’ve gathered from all of it.

Saturday, March 21st - Smutty Book Bash

This was an event that included bookish vendors and romance authors of all kinds. I had my own table, took my own payments, and got to chat with an absolute amazing bunch of people.

This event was five hours (11AM - 4PM), and rather than bringing my entire list of published works, I brought Bound, Severed, and Twice in a Lifetime, as they would be the best to appeal to the audience in attendance. I also had my book banner for the Bound Trilogy, which really drew some eyes. 

This was an amazing event, and I got so close to selling out of Bound that I actually had my husband bring me more books halfway through. 

I sold a total of 36 books at this event (with my prior record high being 29) and got a whopping 20 new folks sign up for my email list. It was incredible.

Thursday, March 26th - Literacy Night at Venture Academy

For this book event, because it took place at a school and was targeted toward young readers, I brought all my children’s books, as well as Azure Light, Emerald Shadow, and Clairvoyance. All books that are appropriate for kiddos between the ages of 5 and 15.

I got to talk with lots of kids and parents, got a couple new sign ups for my email list, and even got so attention from older readers for the Bound Trilogy, even though I didn’t bring the books with me. 

I sold a total of six books at this event.

Saturday, March 28th - Book signing event at Park City Barnes & Noble

This was the tricky one. If you’re not new to this blog, you’ll know that I have done several book signings at Barnes and Noble, and I particularly love this location. The customers are kind of hit or miss, but the staff are absolutely amazing, supportive, and so friendly. 

At this event, the store was slow for a Saturday, and most customers who came in actively avoided talking with me. I did bring all of my books, which I know can look kind of overwhelming or intimidating to folks just coming in to browse, but I thought it was strange that I didn’t sell a single book. This is actually my first event EVER where this has happened.

Perhaps I used up all of my luck earlier on in the week, but there are some things that I think I’d like to do to tweak my system a bit. 

1. Less options (at least at first). I think from now on, I’ll promote my most recent or most popular books by displaying them on the table, then if I get other kinds of readers who aren’t interested in what I have displayed, I’ll pull out a portfolio they can flip through with the other books. I do think it’s still valuable to have some of my other stuff available to buy, but maybe I just don’t put it all out on the table.
2. Nicer display. I’ve seen a lot of really great table displays, and I know this is an area I can improve. Some things I’ve thought of are…

• Lighting. Whether it’s candles or twinkle lights, I need something to illuminate the table.
• Shelving. I’ve actually found that (at least for me) the tables that are most frequented are those that have a taller display. Not clear up to the ceiling tall, but something at about eye level.
• Author banner. I’ve got the book banner, and it doesn’t an AMAZING job of catching eyes, but I do know that it’s helpful for readers if they can see my information as well.
• Other things that I’m considering… 
• Having a digital email list sign up rather than a paper one (my husband tells me it’s too scary to ask people for their “signature”)
• Having some greenery on the table (plants, fake vines, something)

Do you have any thoughts, ideas, or recommendations? Let me know by leaving a comment or emailing me at [email protected]​

I hope you all are staying safe, and that if you’re traveling, your travels go smoothly.

This last week, my husband, kiddo and I took a trip to Pennsylvania. Every year, we try to take a trip to somewhere we’ve never been before. And… while I HAVE driven through parts of Pennsylvania before and even stopped to see the city that’s still burning, I haven’t seen much of anything else the state has to offer.

You guys, this is one of the weirdest states I’ve ever been in, and we didn’t even see it all! We did see central to the far east, and let me tell you, Pennsylvania has a setting for everyone. We could see inner city scenery, rolling green hills, and Amish buggies and farms all in one short drive.  There was also no shortage of fun things for us to do!

On this trip, the only real writing related task I’ve had for myself was to get as much proof reading as possible done for myself next book. My goal was to finish it before I got back home. I’m so close (and writing this on the airplane, so perhaps I’ll be able to meet my goal). 

That being said, because I’m kiiiind of obsessed with writing, it’s never far from my mind, and this trip has gotten me thinking a lot about setting. Particularly, how a well crafted setting can do a ton for any given scene and even set the mood for your story as a whole. And, like Pennsylvania, the setting in most stories will likely change drastically.

I wanted to share just a couple of tips that I find helpful when considering the setting of a story or scene.

1. Make it significant. The setting your characters are in should have some relevance to the moment of the story they’re finding themselves in. You can do a lot to build your settings around what your characters are experiencing, and that will allow your readers just another chance to get entrenched in the story you’re telling in a really emotional way. This is also great because, as characters ourselves, we often notice things differently depending on what we’re going through. Our perspectives change, as does the focus we give to certain details. If my character is having a great day, they’ll likely notice the budding leaves on the trees, or the fresh scent of the spring breeze as they walk down the garden path. If they’re not doing so well, they’ll likely notice may ponder why the cold hasn’t subsided yet, or why there are still so many dark clouds in the sky, or perhaps how the ivy looks as if it’s choked the life out of the plants it climbs. 
   
   
2. Make the details count. I talk about imagery quite a bit, because I think it’s one of the best tools we have as writers to really paint the picture for our readers, but imagery can really bring a setting to life and give it depth. In addition to making your setting connect with what your character is going through, connect it also to the five senses. What can be seen? Heard? Smelled? Felt? Tasted? I wouldn’t go overboard with this descriptive imagery with every setting, but asking yourself these questions is a great way to really ground your readers in your setting.

That's it for this week's post! If you're interested in getting one of my books and you'd like it signed, I have some events this week and next!
1. The Smutty Book Bash (Even though my books aren't spicy, I was allowed to attend and share Bound, Severed, and Twice in a Lifetime because they are romantic stories in nature). This event takes place on Saturday, March 21st from 11 AM to 4 PM (by RSVP only, though it is free to attend) at 3333 S Decker Lake Dr., West Valley City, UT, 84119.

2. If your student attends Venture Academy, I will be attending their Literacy Night on Thursday next week, and I will be bringing all of my books that are appropriate for ages K-8th grade.

3. I also have an event scheduled on Saturday, March 28th at the Park City Barnes & Noble, where I will be bringing all of my books! 

4. You can purchase any of my books at a discount and request a signature through my website. 

​Have a wonderful rest of your week!

Hello everyone! Before we get into today's blog post, I just wanted to share that, thanks to our February sales of The Little Red Fergie, the amazing folks who donated to the cause, and illustrator and author donated royalties, we were able to send $187 to the Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City this week, in addition to the books, stickers, and bookmarks we were able to donate earlier in the month. Thank you so much to everyone who supported this promotion, and for all of you who gave extra! You're helping us make a difference for these kids, even if it's a small one. 
​
Now for the subject of today's blog post: My key takeaways from attending StoryCon last weekend. 

Writing about this has honestly been a lot more of a challenge than I thought it would be, because I learned so many amazing little tidbits of information that are all... well, not super related to one another in a way that would make for a tidy blog post. So bear with me; this one is going to be a bit messy. I also won't be sharing everything I learned from this conference, as that would take much more than just one blog post, but I highly recommend that if you're interested in learning a wide variety of information related to writing that you check out the event next year.

Now, without further adieu, here are the key things I took away from this conference to improve my writing and publishing practices.

1. Content creation doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be consistent, and it has to be you. This was very helpful to hear from some panelists that manage social media marketing and content creation for their livelihood. I've definitely improved with my content creation over the years, but attending this panel really changed the way I think about making stuff for my marketing. Things I will be considering and trying to implement as I move forward with this year (and into the future):

• ​Whatever you're already doing, make it consistent. Find ways to include your audience in things you're already doing for your book. Start there, and you can increase your consistency and quality as you go.
• Have a logo (and a background, if you can) that can go on all of your stuff.
• Have interviews with the people you're already talking to about your books (or theirs) and share that as content for viewers and readers to enjoy.

2. Building dramatic tension in your story. The speaker for this presentation framed building dramatic tension in a simple yet beautiful way that I've never thought about before. He said, "Tell your readers what should be (in world building, dialogue, situation, etc), and then build tension by having what actually is not match that." He went into ways to incorporate this at a scene level or at a whole plot level, and I am so excited for when I can get drafting my next novel to be that much more intentional about the tension I put on the page.

3. Little ways to build your following and be more visible. 

• Run some kind of ads on your book on Amazon. The algorithm will make it so much harder to find if there is no ad for it.
• Have a short story or chapter that readers can read for FREE if they're signed up for your email list. This is one I've known about for a long time now, but I still have not incorporated it! Thankfully, I have a plan for how to make it so.
• Run a Meta ad for your newsletter signup. I thought this was a very cool idea!
• Push sales through your author website. Market to schools and bookstores directly.

4. Ways to run an effective Kickstarter... because you guessed it... I'll be running a Kickstarter for the Bound Trilogy Grand Finale Launch very soon! Stay tuned for more information about goodies you can get through this Kickstarter. (If you're not signed up for my email list, now might be a good time to sign up!)

• Pair the launch of your Kickstarter with an event where you're out and talking with people to help you spread the word.
• Be "that guy." Contact everyone you can about your Kickstarter. (The lady presenting said, "You wouldn't be upset if they were doing it to you..." and that really resonated with me! The worst thing that can happen is people can't back the project or feel a little irked about me asking. The best thing that can happen is they help support a project I'm so crazy passionate about creating!)
• The rest of what I learned about Kickstarter was kind of already something I figured out when I launched Bound, though it was still lovely to have a refresher. 

There are my major takeaways! Thank you for reading, and have a wonderful rest of your week!

As many of you know, I am currently working with author Gary R. Motte to promote the book that he wrote (and I illustrated and published) called "The Little Red Fergie." This is a children's book about a red Ferguson tractor that goes through various owners and situations and perseveres through the good and the bad. Basically, this little tractor goes through life. 

The promotion we are running (now through Saturday of this week) is that 10% of every sale we make for the Little Red Fergie will be donated to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City. We were also able to donate 10 signed copies of the book, and 50 related bookmarks and stickers.

We chose Primary Children's Hospital because the author of this book and his family have received care through Primary Children's for years and years, starting when Gary was very young due to a heart condition. Primary Children's Hospital has also played many roles for my own friends and family throughout my life so far, and we both wanted to give back. We thought it would be especially appropriate to run this promotion during Heart Health Awareness Month.

Thanks to this promotion we're running, we had the awesome opportunity of visiting Primary Children's Hospital late last week for a tour of the hospital. This was... truly an incredible experience. Most often, when someone visits a hospital, it's because they or someone they care for is sick or injured, and because of that, their focus is planted on the person receiving hospital care. To be able to visit the hospital outside of these circumstances and really learn some of the things the hospital has to offer its patients was a phenomenal and unique experience. In today's blog post, I want to highlight some of the incredible things I learned (that I did not know, but absolutely loved) about Primary Children's Hospital. 

​#1. Primary Children's Hospital offers multiple services outside of the regular scope of care to its patients, including...

• A school zone where kids can go to learn and grow during their stay at the hospital as a part of the Family Support Services Department. This is so important! There are a handful of professionals who work in the School Zone to provide educational support to these kiddos who have to be out of school, sometimes for long periods of time. I also learned that they connect with schools around the state to provide support and help facilitate an easier transition back to a regular school environment. As someone who has taught in the classroom and now supports teachers and students with their reading, I cannot stress how valuable this kind of support can be. I also learned that they give books to kids for free while they're staying at the hospital. 
•  Sophie's Place - a music therapy space that opens up to kid centers where kids can go to learn music, record things, and heal in a whole different way. I learned that the professionals in this area provide support like music classes, holding little concerts for patients, inviting celebrities to come and visit, and even allowing families space and opportunity to record messages for their loved ones staying at the hospital... 
• Seacrest Studios, which broadcasts various activities and things to the rooms throughout the hospital so kids can engage and be connected even from the confines of their hospital rooms.
• Ronald McDonald Foundation Family Rooms, which provides a space for families to stay and even eat while their children are at the hospital.
• Kids Clubhouse, which is a space where siblings of patients can receive care from child life specialists while their siblings stay at the hospital.
• Financial assistance to families.
• ... and a host of other support services.

#2. When we met with the director of cardiology, I also learned that Primary Children's Hospital has around 500 heart care providers dedicated to their patients across disciplines, and that they have a multi-disciplinary team that sits together to analyze data to ensure their practices and procedures are as effective as possible. I learned that the hospital is nationally ranked, currently sitting at number 12 on the list, and that technological advancements have allowed the professionals here to increase procedure effectiveness while reducing stay time, risk, and invasiveness of their surgeries. 

#3. Much of the services that the hospital offers, like the School Zone, Sophie's Place, and financial assistance (just to name a few) are made possible because of philanthropic donations. All these amazing things they are able to do and supports they are able to provide patients and families are due to donations from regular people, just like me. I did not know that before I visited!

Needless to say, I was incredibly impressed, grateful, and humbled to have been able to take a tour of the hospital and learn more about the services and supports they have available for their patients and families. 

Thank you for reading this blog post! I know I usually share writing-related content on this blog, and this post is not directly related to writing. But I was able to learn all of this because of my connection to writing and this promotion we're running. 

If you would like to help us make a difference for these kiddos, you can still purchase your copy of The Little Red Fergie for the rest of this week. This promotion will close on February 28th, 2026. If you would also like to look into donating directly to the hospital, I would recommend visiting this link: https://intermountainhealthcare.org/locations/primary-childrens-salt-lake-city/give 

​Reach out if you have any questions, and have a wonderful rest of your February! Happy Heart Health Awareness Month!

This morning, my three year old son was playing in my office, and he called out, “Mom, this is a scary book!”

Curious as to what he was talking about, I joined him in the office to find him holding a copy of my YA fantasy novel, Emerald Shadow. When I followed up with, “That book is scary?” he replied, “Yeah. It’s scary. It has monsters and zombies in it and it’s so cool.”
​
​Now, I was surprised by this statement. Emerald Shadow is the sequel to the first book I ever released (Azure Light) and was the fourth book I ever published. Because it is one of my older works, I don’t talk about it often, especially around my kiddo. But everything he was saying (except for the zombies, though he wasn’t far off with that statement either) was true about this particular book. 

It is a bit scary at times. It does have monsters in it, and in a way, it kind of has zombies in it too. 

So I asked him, “How do you know that?” 

He sat up straight and held the book high into the air and said, “Because it’s dark.”

Also true. I don’t know if he actually knows anything about that story - he’s only now starting to be able to read simple words - but even that statement is true. The story takes place in a world that is almost all dark, and completely devoid of sunlight.


And that got me thinking. Do I portray all that in my cover? No, I don’t think so, though I try to convey some of it. 

So how did he know all this?

My best guess is that he’s been paying attention when I have book signing events. Paying attention to what I say to readers when they ask what my books are about. 

And if that’s the case, then maybe I am marketing my books (at least in person) better than I thought. 

So I set a goal, because I’m all about that. For the next few videos or posts I make about my books, I’m going to try to word it in a way that mirrors what I do at my book signings (as best I can without the flowing conversation with a reader) and simplify things so that even my three year old who can barely read will be able to grasp the themes. 

Have you had any revelations like this lately? Any interactions with family, friends or even strangers that made you pause snd think differently about something you do? I’d love to know!