There’s a great Instagram quote post that goes around #bookstagram regularly about no-cost ways to support your favorite authors:

• Review their book on Amazon & GoodReads (Reviews can be short. 1-2 sentences about why you liked it is plenty!)

• Follow them on social media

• Share their posts

• Recommend their work to your reading network (including, I might add, your local libraries)

Of course, if you feel like spending some money, you are always welcome to purchase books! Note: When you pre-order or buy on Release Day , you are doubly helping with those tricky rankings algorithms.

In a time where we’re all overwhelmed by the everything, everything going on in the world, taking a moment to thank a writer whose work educated, represented, connected, or comforted you is a way to breathe and give back. Maybe it was a sci-fi novel set in the future, or a historical fiction tale, or even a rom-com about a failing flower shop (wink). The writing community is widespread - there’s something for everyone.

If you are moved by a certain author’s work, please tell them. We need scribes more than ever to help us connect, process, and remember. The words they are writing right now will one day be the record of what it was like living through these (oh, this phrase) unprecedented times. Your support is what keeps them going. Let them know their work meant something to you.

What was the last book you 5-star reviewed? Comment below or drop me a line.

Xoxo, y’a'll!

February Successes:

Writing - I wrapped my second round of edits on WELCOME TO BLOOMS. (Shout out to Charlotte Rains Dixon, coach extraordinaire, who powered through huge swaths of pages with me weekly. Check her out at www.charlotterainsdixonauthor.com and follow her at @wordstrumpet on IG)

Education - I was lucky enough to win a space in a workshop with literary legend Donald Maas entitled “Amplifying the Inner Journey”

March Goals:

Writing - Enter round three of revisions for WELCOME TO BLOOMS

Querying - Prepare final round of queries for SOMETHING BETTER (pushed back due to editing and workshop)

Marketing - Shout out some of my favorite authors each week on #indiefeaturefriday

Books read: 5

I REMEMBER NOTHING by Nora Ephron (Oh, I wish Nora was still with us)
AUDACITY by Melanie Crowder (@melanieacrowder)
THE WOMAN WHO FELL TO EARTH, HELL’S BELLS, NIGHTINGALE all by the exemplary Jennifer Brasington-Crowley (@brasingtonbooks)

Next up:

MALICE by Heather Walter (@heatherwalter)
I AM MALALA by Malala Yousafzai (@malala)
THIS IS EAR HUSTLE by Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods (@earhustlesq)
TAKE ME WITH YOU WHEN YOU GO by David Levithan and Jennifer Niven (@davidlevithan & @jenniferniven)
KISSES & STONES by D. Allyson Howlett (@d.allysonhowlett)

Total Books Read in 2022: 10/52