It occurs to me as I am writing this that my first blog post was exactly a month ago. Where has this past month gone?! Oh, I'll tell you. I've been SO busy. You could probably look in the dictionary at the word 'busy' or 'tired' and probably see my name lol. 

As an introvert starting a full time job, in order to make my author dreams come true in the way I envision it, as well as part timin' the author-ly goodness, on top of being a fur momma, a wife, and a human being is exhausting. Obviously this is not me comparing anyone's journey to my own, or negating anyone else's plate, or energy levels but it has been a bit of a struggle bus over here. Happy! Very happy. But busy and a little stress-y at the same time.

During this past month I was able to finish my developmental edits, and send the book back to my editor. Which is such a monumental achievement I feel so proud and just... shocked? I don't know. There have been several moments during my publishing journey where I've had to stop and be like: "Wait a minute. I'm actually doing this. I'm publishing  book!". It feels so surreal to realize that my book is in it's second draft era and I am about to send it to betas. Actually I reached out to my betas today and on the day my next newsletter goes out they will receive Grounders! I absolutely cannot wait to get back their feedback and I'm so happy with the five beta readers that have agreed to work with me and make my debut as incredible as it can be.

I was also lucky enough to be in Virginia at the same time that the book festival Imaginarium was happening, and got to meet some really incredible authors and readers. It was so much fun and I can't wait for the day I can have a booth at an event such as Imaginarium for my own books. The experience of getting to meet friends I've made on TikTok as well as meet so many like minded people was so incredible and affirming for me. Even if all the socializing exhausted me and caused me to sleep thirteen hours that night.

Some other things I've been up to lately is trying to figure out how to batch make content (so my socials don't fall to the wayside in all of this busyness), alpha reading for a friend of mine who has an enemies to lovers mafia romance drafted *wink, wink*, and I just tuned in to a 'Native Representation in Literature' panel from Salt and Sage. 

Basically, my author journey is looking like a whole lot of working one job, then coming home and working my other job haha. But I wouldn't change a lick of it because I love both of my jobs and have so much support it's been very encouraging. I can't wait until my book is out in the world. We are less than a year out!? Can you even believe it? I can't!

Anyways, I'll wrap this up because I have to get back to alpha reading BUT I hope you all have the best day and sign up for my newsletter if you haven't already. I post my newsletter on the first of every month (although there will be an extra one or two if something really exciting happens that deserves its own newsletter lol)

Thanks for reading!