I'd had my eye on Story Engineering by Larry Brooks for a while before I came across it in a second hand shop. My copy is covered in pencil underlining the most random words and phrases, but it's clear where the previous owner stopped reading, as the pencil disappears. A bit tragic that this other author never finished, but it was a win for me, because I got to have this book at last.

Overview
Story Engineering: Mastering the 6 Core Competencies of Successful Writing is 278 pages (paperback) of explanations of what a story needs, why it needs that, and tips on execution. The six competencies themselves aren't shocking to seasoned writers, but each section discuss a competency in depth, offering examples or exercises. The book ages itself with references to the Da Vinci Code often and a joke about Bill Clinton, but otherwise the advice is fairly timeless. 

My Experience
I highlighted something in most chapters, but the section I've returned to is about character. This book explained one, two, and three dimensional characters in a very practical manner that I'd never seen anywhere before. It changed how I'll see character dimensions forever, and will hopefully help me write deeper ones. A lot of the rest of the information, though useful, was information I've seen before. Story beats and what's happening in them, what is an idea vs a concept, voice, etc. All great reminders, but not exclusive to this text.
My only complaint is that the book hyped itself a lot. It often repeated how the six competencies would make me a better writer--and then not explain what they were, and would go on about how important they were with no other explanation. It happened often enough at the end of chapters that I'd just skip ahead to the next one.

Is It Worth It?
I paid $8 for my used copy from a locally owned independent bookstore. That alone is worth it. If you're looking for a book that gives an overview of what makes a solid story and guides you on how to get there, this is a great option. It's not too in depth on any one topic, so it feels more introductory than I'd hoped, but there were still valuable ideas that helped me as a writer. Overall, I'd say this is worth the read to improve your writing craft.

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Have you read Story Engineering? What about the sequel, which is on my TBR, Story Physics? Let's discuss in the comments!

There's another version of the cover with different colors which is also fabulous. Shout out to the cover designer!

The Phoenix Keeper by S.A. MacLean debuted this past August, and I found it on a list of new books on Instagram. From the moment I read the concept I knew I had to read it: a zookeeper for Phoenixes is determined to restore her zoo's breeding program but the last zoo to make the attempt had their phoenixes stolen. It's cozy fantasy with a queer romance subplot. I'm using it as a comp for the book I'm currently querying because my book also involves fantasy zookeeping, flirting while working at said zoo, and the theme of letting go of the fear of failure.

Aila is the zookeeper in question, a very shy and anxious animal lover who has her dream job of being the phoenix keeper at her hometown zoo. She's great with her BFF, but with anyone else from guests to crushes, she's not as capable. When the phoenix chicks at another zoo are stolen, Aila's program has the chance to step up and become the next breeding facility. However, Aila can't do it all alone, and must learn to ask for help, including from attractive griffin keepers, if she's going to achieve her dream, and protect her phoenixes.

As a former zookeeper, I enjoyed the zookeeping parts of this book, which were realistic despite the animals being fantasy. I really liked the grounded nature of it. I thought the plot was enough to keep be entertained and had specific, achievable stakes. (If you've listened to the podcast, you know I don't always find that the case for things described as cozy.) As a side note, one of my random favorite parts of this book was Aila's family's restaurant. It was a fantasy world fusion as nonsensical as Carlos O'Kelly's, the very real Irish/Mexican midwestern restaurant. If that's not what S.A. MacLean based Aila's family's restaurant on, then I will be blown away. Another thing I liked about this book was that Aila was a really high achiever in school, and was terrified of failing as an adult. (Oh look, it's me!) Her whole character arc, and the theme of the book, was letting go of that fear, figuring out that asking for help is not fear, and realizing you can be successful without that fear.

There were some things that didn't always work for me. I'm a person who suffers from second hand embarrassment, so when characters are too cringy (which the author is doing on purpose because the character is supposed to grow, I know!) then I really struggle and have to skip ahead. Since Aila's social anxiety was so bad, I had to skim some of the more painful interactions. I also knew who was helping the smugglers immediately, so there was no tension there, so I experienced less tension than most readers will. There were also a lot of place and animal names, so I admit I didn't keep track of some after a while.

This book is for you if you love zookeeping/zoos/wildlife breeding programs, fantasy animals, queer romance, or lower tension (cozy) fantasy. This book is not for you if you have social anxiety that can be heightened by reading about others' social anxiety, if you need higher external stakes, or if you're not interested in a romance subplot.


Have you read The Phoenix Keeper? Which was your favorite animal? Let's discuss in the comments!

As part of winning the Dark and Stormy short story contest with BARN this year, I got to read five minutes of my short horror story, Waxing Fame, at the annual BARN Dark and Stormy party. It was a fun and full event with amazing published authors from the area who read stories and excerpts of their work. There was also a great liaison from a local museum who talked about a serial killer in Bainbridge's history. Everyone who shared did a fabulous job, and it was a very entertaining night. My reading went well, partially because I'm used to public speaking, but I'm sure many other writers aren't. If you are preparing for your first public reading (or your 100th public reading) and are looking for tips, here are mine!

1. Practice practice practice
Read your story aloud at home alone over and over again. You want to make sure you aren't tripping over names, phrases, scene breaks, etc. The more of your story you memorize, the easier it will be to follow my next pieces of advice.

2. Look up!
Every now and then as you read (every 3-5 sentences, at most) look up from your paper and in the direction of the audience. Some readings you'll have lights pointed at you so you won't be able to see anyone specific, and other times you'll be able to see each and every face. If eye contact while public speaking makes you nervous, just look at people's eyebrows. Do a sweep, don't just focus on one person. This is most effective when done during dialog, especially anything you want to emphasize, like a prophecy, threat, or joke.

3. Stick to the time
Whether you're in a line up with other writers, or you're doing a solo reading, your venue will probably ask you to read for a certain amount of time. Stick to it! Even if you have to stop in the middle of your story, it's fine to leave readers wanting more. They may buy your book or look up your short story to find out what happens. It also builds a good relationship between you and the venue if you're respectful of their request. If you're one of several people reading, sticking to the time is essential to make sure everyone gets a chance to share.

4. Fake It Til You Make It
Nervous? The audience will notice. Even if you have jitters in your seat, when you get up to read, put on a smile and pretend you're the most comfortable pubic speaker of all time. Play act as someone else, a you from a parallel universe who doesn't fear public speaking. That can give you a level of distance from your performance so you can say "well it wasn't me the audience was judging, it was the character I was playing." You can also pretend the audience already knows and loves you and your writing. Whatever method of pretending you need to do, give it a shot. Deep breaths, smiling, and standing up straight can even trick your brain into calming down, so by the end of your reading you're not pretending to be confident anymore, you actually are.

5. Roll with the Punches
Sometimes chaos ensures, such as something balanced on the podium falling while you read, or a disturbance occurring in the audience. You can pause to make sure everything's okay (certainly don't read through someone having a heart attack, for example), but if all's well, it's fine to laugh off little things or make a comment acknowledging a little chaos, and then dive right back in to the story. No need to point out small things like someone leaving, because maybe they're just going to the bathroom or taking an important call. Don't let interruptions, major or minor, derail you. If you've lost your place on the page, buy a little time with the classic "where was I?" until you find it, then repeat the last sentence before the interruption and chug right along.


I hope those tips help you prepare for you next live reading. Have more questions or tips you want to share? Drop them in the comments!

What's an Agent's Guide?
For anyone not aware, there's a trend going around the writing community, specifically among querying writers. The trend is to create a set of images to post on social media about the novel they're querying and calling those images an agent's guide. It's an overview of the book to give a sense of the vibes, concept, and aesthetic along with some basic facts like genre, word count, and a pitch. These are generally pinned on Twitter (X) to be on the top of the writer's profile so any agents who click on their profile for any reason can see the concept right away. I have a guide on my Twitter and Instagram, but thought it was also be good to have on my website. 

​My agent's guide is below, with alt text descriptions between each image, for accessibility.

Alt text: Image 1: An agent's guide to THAW. 102, 000 words, adult fantasy

Alt text image 2: Pitch: Famka, an unlicensed magic user, must that her frozen father without being caught illegally wielding magic, or she'll be conscripted and shipped to the border, from which no soldiers have returned.

Alt text image 3: Comps and vibes: Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross, The Phoenix Keeper by S.A. MacLean, Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett, Jade City by Fonda Lee, Eyes Closed by Ed Sheeran, The Good Witch by Maisie Peters, Cold as You by Taylor Swift, Sailor Moon, Frozen (how could I not?)

Alt text image 4: Tropes and Themes: cozier fantasy, Dutch secondary world, 1950s aesthetic, messy family, secret workplace romance, fighting evil by moonlight/winning love my daylight, murder mystery, revenge on an abuser (no abuse on page!), burnt out former gifted kid.

Note about the creation of this guide: This guide was made using the free version of Canva. AI was not involved.

The Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network (BARN) had their first annual Dark and Stormy short story contest this year with a theme of uncanny valley. I entered because I enjoy short horror writing, and I won! I'm so excited to share my story Waxing Fame at the BARN Dark and Stormy party later this month!

Air Awakens by Elise Kova came across my Instagram in a list of books to read after finishing A Court of Thorns and Roses series (ACOTAR.) It was pitched as Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA) meets ACOTAR, and since ATLA is my favorite show of all time, that comparison was all I needed. Air Awakens is the first of a five book series that came out in 2015-2016 and were indie published by the author. She has seven series total, some indie and some traditional, and she's hit best sellers lists.

Air Awakens follows librarian-in-training Vhalla. When asked to find a cure for a prince injured by a magical weapon, Vhalla surprises herself by unlocking her own buried magic to find the information. The healed prince delves into her powers only to discover she has an affinity for air magic, a power thought lost over 100 years ago. His affinity is fire, but he still attempts to tutor her, despite her protests that she doesn't want to do magic. But when other power players begin making moves, Vhalla has little choice but to embrace magic and the dangers it brings.

There was some really cool worldbuilding in this book, for example someone with an affinity for one of the elements can also do other things within that element's category, like word magic along with air magic. Vhalla and the prince had decent banter that made for some enjoyable chemistry.

I struggled sometimes with how overly similar it was to ATLA, like the air affinity people having been all (or nearly all) killed 100 years ago. The fire prince with daddy issues. A large war going on. The air user needing training. I kept picturing the woman who plays Aang in the Ember Island Players episode as Vhalla and Zuko as the prince. Is that fair to the author or book? No. Did it decrease my enjoyment of this book? Yes. However, a more book-related critique is that the prince's personality felt wildly different in his POV vs her POV. Not in a he's so mysterious and private kind of way but in a is this the same man way.

This book is for you if you enjoy elemental magic systems, bad boy prince love interests, or if you were a Zaang shipper when you watched ATLA. It's not for you if you love ATLA so much that you won't be able to unsee the similarities, if you are not a fan of morally gray/bad boy love interests, or if you're not in a headspace to read about genocide, war, or city bombings.


Have you read Air Awakens? The entire series? Do you recommend any of Kova's other series? Let's discuss in the comments!

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa was recommended by my writing group. It's very popular in Japan where it was published in 2012 and has been translated into many languages, including English (2017). If you're worried that the cat will die, rest easy. The main character, Nana, is not in danger.

Nana begins life as a stray, but is adopted by his owner, Satoru, who takes him in after Nana is hit by a car. Satoru begins travelling around Japan meeting with people from throughout his life and Nana learns about his owner's past as well as the friends'. Often, Nana is a comfort and some sort of emotional wound is healed with each stop. However, Nana soon realizes that Satoru must have a reason for all this travelling, and it is perhaps in Nana's best interest to not get close to Satoru's many friends.

This was a very cute book told from the POV of Nana, which I thought would get old but stayed cute. The way it built our understanding of Satoru was well done. The ending was so beautiful that I ugly cried.

On the downside, I ugly cried. Thankfully, I saw it coming and finished the book at home and not on my commute.

This book is for you if you love cats or pets in general (remember: Nana does not die!), bittersweet endings, contemporary Japan, or if you have something in your eye and need to cry to get it out. This book is not for you if you'll be reading in public or away from tissues, if you hate cats or pet ownership, or if you are not in the headspace to read about death (this is not a spoiler: Satoru's parents died, when he was a child, which is discussed when he visits his friends). 


Have you read The Travelling Cat Chronicles? Did it make you sob too? Let's discuss in the comments!

I was recently scrolling on Instagram and was shown an add for a barrette with little books on it. I liked the concept, but the books had plain leather covers without titles. I've seen tiny books in other places; some people make tiny books of every book they read for the year, there's a mindfulness toy where you put tiny books on a tiny bookshelf, etc. So I thought, why not make tiny books of books I love and put those on barrettes instead. I made them and I LOVE them! I didn't take many photos during the process, but here's how I did it:

I followed this guide initially, but ended up having to make lots of adjustments.

Materials: 
2 ~4inch long barrettes with a nice wide surface area for gluing
​Several sheets of plain paper
Scissors and/or a paper slicer
Needle and thread (color doesn't matter)
Glue (I used both rubber cement and super glue for different portions)
Printer
Microsoft Word
Measuring tape (ideally with inches and cm)

Step 1: Make the Pages
You don't necessarily need to have real pages in your books, you can replace them with a little rectangle (2cm wide, 3cm tall, 1cm deep) of foam or cardboard. However, if you want pages, here's how:

• Cut 3cm by 4cm rectangles from plain paper. You'll need 10 for every book you make, and 4 books per barrette. 
• Fold each rectangle in half so they look 2cm by 3cm (aka hamburger style) and really press that seam with whatever you have handy. I used the flat butt of a pen and it did fine. 
• Nest five of these folded pages together.
• Sew along the fold. Keep the knots on the outside edge, rather than the inside of the book, to allow the pages to close better. This will take 2-3 stitches, so don't feel intimidated if you aren't into sewing.
• Do this until you have two bundles for every book you plan to make.

Step 2: Make the Covers

• Select the books you want to recreate. 
• Use Google images, Amazon, Goodreads, etc. to find images of the front cover, back cover, and spine. (The spines were trouble for me, see below to help if this plagues you too.)
• Copy the image and paste into Microsoft Word. In Word, change the size of the images (and deselect the option to maintain the current aspect ratio):
  • Front/back covers: 1.33 inches tall, 0.95 inches wide
  • Spine: 1.33 inches tall, 0.19 inches wide. 
• Arrange the images to that the back cover is on the left, then the spine, then the front cover, and all are touching.
• If you struggle to find an image of the spine alone, crop an image of the book from a bookstack. If no images of the spine exist (maybe it's a super new book) just crop the title from the cover image. These will end up tiny, so imperfections aren't a huge deal. 
• Print your images. 

My barrettes turned out so cute and I cannot wait to wear them to the conference I'm attending later this month. I think they're great conversation starters. One features comps for the book I'll be pitching and the other features books I love to chat about. Because I owned all of the supplies except for the barrettes, this project only cost me $3.

If you try this craft, let me know how it goes! 

Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May came up in my search for 20th century secondary worlds, even though it technically takes place in our world, just on a fictional island off the coast of England.

The 1920s prohibition in this book isn't against alcohol, but magic. Annie comes to Crow Island to take care of her late father's estate, and doesn't care much for the illegal magic parties at the house next door. However, the witch in residence, Emmeline, catches her eye. As Annie uncovers her father's surprises, she also reconnects with a friend who moved to the island, who happens to owe Emmeline a lot: the life of the husband she enchanted into loving her. However, the debt is costing Emmeline's life, bit by bit, and the husband is not just unwilling to pay, he's willing to fight over it. Annie makes choices that continue to wrap her up in the whole business, and eventually she must come to terms with not only who she's become, but who her father was. 

This book's twist with prohibition was cool, and I liked that the location was confined to the island to limit the amount of worldbuilding required. The story kept a good momentum and never really languished anywhere. It gave Practical Magic vibes in terms of the magic system, very herbal and soft.

Hurdle number one is that I dislike The Great Gatsby, and only after buying this did I learn it's a Gatsby retelling. I thought it was just the 1920s. (Let me have the 20s without Jay Gatsby barging in PLEASE!) I wasn't a fan of the flashbacks purposefully hiding who the flashbacks were about, then resolving that with a character being forced to change her name. I felt the author messing me with there, and I never like to notice the author while reading.

This book is for you if you like The Great Gatsby, if you want a sapphic romance in the 20s, or if you enjoy Practical Magic. It's not for you if you dislike The Great Gatsby or if you aren't in the headspace to read about fertility problems or abusive partners.

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Have you read Wild and Wicked Things? Let's discuss in the comments!

The Reckoning of Roku by Randy Ribay is the latest novel in the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe. This is the first novel about Avatar Roku, Aang's predecessor, and also the first avatar novel by Randy Ribay. As a longtime fan of the avatar series, I knew I'd be reading this book the moment it came out.

The Reckoning of Roku follows a young Roku as he leaves for the air temple to begin his avatar training and his first adventures there. If you think you know Roku from the flashback episode (Season 3, episode 6 "The Avatar and the Firelord") think again. Roku is thrust into his first major conflict, but nothing is what it seems on a mysterious island, and with his new friend Gyatso, Roku must learn how to trust himself, and how to let go of the past.

I liked learning more about Roku, though I didn't expect to. Some of his deeper past added depth to his relationship with Sozin, though also explained how it broke down so easily. The new location and new angles on bending were also interesting, especially considering how much I know about the avatar world.

No major complaints about this book, honestly. I could have used a little bit of a clearer picture about the island, and there were a few minor mistakes, but nothing to put me off the next one. 

This book is for you if you enjoy Avatar: The Last Airbender, elemental fantasy, or the Kyoshi and Yangchen novels in the same series. It's not for you if you are wildly unfamiliar with the TV show, because the book doesn't stop to explain things like what is an avatar and what the world is like for new audiences.


Have you read the Reckoning of Roku? What did you think of that new character from Roku's past?! Let's discuss in the comments.