Jun 144 minOn shelving a book when it was your lifelineI still remember the first time I spoke to someone about the idea percolating in the back of my mind that would eventually turn into...
Jun 102 minBook Review: "The Summer of Bitter and Sweet" by Jen FergusonJen Ferguson's debut YA, The Summer of Bitter and Sweet, released on my birthday and if that's not a sign of the publishing overlords...
Jun 74 minBecoming a better writer by reading 36 books in one semesterPhoto by Tom Hermans on Unsplash There are two types of people in the world: those to whom 36 books in four months is an obscenely large...
Jun 42 minBlog Tour: "Tokyo Dreaming" by Emiko Jean Earlier this year, I had the incredible joy of reading Emiko Jean's YA romance Tokyo Ever After, an utterly delightful story about Izumi,...
Apr 153 minAuthor Q&A with Katie and Kevin Tsang (Dragon Realm series)I'm so excited to be sharing this author Q&A with you today! Katie and Kevin Tsang are the authors of the Dragon Realm middle-grade...
Mar 293 minLillie Lainoff on her debut, "One For All"Lillie Lainoff released her debut, One For All, earlier this month. The YA novel is about a young disabled French girl, Tania de Batz,...
Mar 223 minTBR Book TagOkay, switching things up a smidge today — Lat from Latitude's Library tagged me in this super-fun tag/meme, and I have always always...
Mar 182 minSteven Salvatore's "And They Lived..." is queer, fairytale-like perfectionThere's a fairytale within the pages of Steven Salvatore's recent YA release And They Lived..., and I'm not talking about the queer...
Mar 112 min"Travelers Along the Way" by Aminah Mae Safi is adventure storytelling at its finestI read Travelers Along the Way: A Robin Hood Remix last December and let me tell you, the ride this book took me on! It was everything...
Mar 42 minLillie Lainoff's debut "One For All" puts disabled girls in the spotlight and lets them shineI've never read a book like One For All before. Well, I've read books similar to it — as a kid, I read a young reader's version of The...
Feb 223 minDusti Bowling writes layered stories for middle gradersDusti Bowling's latest, Across the Desert, is about 12-year-old Jolene who sets out into the Arizona desert to save the downed...
Feb 172 minI fell in love with Phil Stamper's "Golden Boys"I don't know where to start with Golden Boys! There's simply too much to say — from that delightful cover to the four main characters who...
Feb 112 minI freaking loved "These Witches Don't Burn" by Isabel SterlingThese Witches Don't Burn (affiliate link) is not just the first in a duology by Isabel Sterling — it's a queer contemporary witch story...
Feb 83 minThe muse is a fickle being: on creativity when inspiration isn't thereI've got a list of books to write at least 17 strong. They're all collected in a nice notion page with cute little sub-pages for each...
Feb 42 min"Tokyo Ever After" by Emiko Jean is a Masterful Modern Fairy TaleTokyo Ever After, a YA contemporary by Emiko Jean, takes all the best parts of The Princess Diaries, shifts them to Japan, throws in a...
Feb 13 minWatching "Dumplin'" reminded me to love myself firstI read Dumplin' in 2016 and the book was so beautiful, so revolutionary to me at the time, that I wrote about my feelings on the book for...
Jan 283 minBook Talk: "When You Get the Chance" by Emma Lord | Jan. 2022I've been obsessed with Emma Lord' writing since she bounded onto the YA scene in 2020 with her debut Tweet Cute. I loved her second...
Jan 213 minThe precarious magic of life & writingLast week I started my MFA program, and after six workshops on magic systems and real-life magic, it occurred to me that there's a magic...
Jan 82 minBook Talk: "When We Were Them" by Laura Taylor Namey | Jan. 2022Laura Taylor Namey, y'all. I have read two of her books so far and each of them was emotional and gorgeous in its own way. Today I need,...
Dec 31, 20214 minReading & Writing Goals for 2022!In 2021, I read close to 70 books, wrote two new novel-length stories, queried twice, applied (and got into) grad school for my MFA in...