Ever read a story whose imagery and characters were so vividly captured you HAD to show them off to everyone? Yeah, us too.
Dear potential reader(s),
Meet Erissa! Our beautifully flawed daughter of Emberhold.
#darkfantasy
#spicyromance
#dragons
#fae
#bloodmagic
My ex-fiance ended our nine-year relationship a week ago today, and I am struggling so much as I pack and figure out next steps. But I see all my fellow Conquest authors doing amazing things this weekend, and I hope that you know I'm thinking all the best things for you even
My query feedback and beta feedback are total opposites. I'm leaning heavily toward trusting my audience and self-publishing. The agents seem more trend-based than story-based, while the betas are focusing on the heart of the story. It's a wild position to be.
#WritingCommunity
My mom mentioned the title of my book to her high school students, and several of them had already heard about and are so excited for its release! One of them even had screenshots of my promos. They made me a little video about it, and I cried lol. It was such a surreal moment!
I'm still getting rejections from outstanding queries, and with each one that continues to come in, I know that without a doubt that I've found my people at
@PublishConquest
. Speaking with Brittany about my story was an amazing experience, and she never tried to limit my vision
Thank you so much to everyone who engaged with my
#unhingedpit
stick figure drawings. I don't expect agent likes as I wrote all of these to make my daughter laugh, but her seeing y'all enjoy those ridiculous drawings of ours lit up her world tonight. It's been a tough transition
One year ago today, I queried
@PublishConquest
. And today, my first book signing was announced with a local bookstore as we prep for my Dec. 12th release. I'm forever grateful I decided to send out one more query because I wouldn't be here with such amazing people if I hadn't💗
After Gage joins his late father's pirate crew to investigate his death, his father's ghost appears with a blade carved from Scylla's tooth and a plea to kill the god who took his life and free him. The gods are at war, the sea is rising, and Scylla is out for blood.
Hercules
I signed my publishing contract with
@PublishConquest
for The Kingdom of the Veil, the sequel to The Daughter of the Veil 💗. So much has changed in the last year, and I couldn't be more excited to see what happens over the course of this next one!!!
Conquest and Wild Ink are adding new people all the time, and I want to make sure I'm supporting y'all as much as you're supporting me. Could you please comment on this post if you're with them so I can make a list? Y'all are getting lost in my feed!
It's cover reveal day! I'm beyond excited to share the cover for 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓓𝓪𝓾𝓰𝓱𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓥𝓮𝓲𝓵, which will be released on December 12th, 2024, through
@PublishConquest
.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀
Sign up for the Conquest newsletter, where you can receive an email
We're still waiting for news, hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. Family is missing in Burnsville, Ashville, and Black Mountain, where the devastation is biblical. Report anyone missing in NC by texting "person" to 40403
#WesternNC
Let me introduce you to some of the tropes in my upcoming romantasy debut, The Daughter of the Veil! Because someone recently told me they didn't know anything about it from what I post 😅.
And we made another
#unhingedpit
drawing.
Pirates of the Caribbean but Will is being haunted by ghost Captain Jack, and Elizabeth keeps trying to kill him all because of a tooth stolen by a god and a murder she wants nothing to do with. And Will probably can't swim.
#wip
#f
I present my
#unhingedpit
stick figures 🤣.
She's a mythological monster shifter trapped at the bottom of the ocean who had her tooth yanked out by a god. He's a pirate being haunted by his ghost daddy who gave him the missing tooth. Will she get her tooth back and find
It's been a privilege to read so many outstanding
#PitDark
pitches. I'm blown away by how talented so many of you are! And I'm even more blown away by how much support I received. Thank you so much 💗.
#writingcommunity
Hey
#writing
community, if anyone needs a boost for
#unhingedpit
let me know!
P.S. If you want to share mine, they're in my highlights. My daughter's home after being hospitalized for over a year, and she is LOVING my stick figure drawings. Y'all would make her day sharing!
I'm so unbelievably excited to announce that I've signed with
@PublishConquest
and can't wait to see all that we accomplish in 2024! I couldn't ask for a better team to work with, and I know without a doubt that my writing has found its perfect home ❤️.
I can't even begin to say how much everyone's support has meant to me today. I've been packing and moving what I can't immediately take with me into storage, and it's just fucking hard. This meant everything to me. Thank you 💗.
My ex-fiance ended our nine-year relationship a week ago today, and I am struggling so much as I pack and figure out next steps. But I see all my fellow Conquest authors doing amazing things this weekend, and I hope that you know I'm thinking all the best things for you even
Let's try this again. So here's my next round of
#unhingedpit
stick figures.
Hercules, but he's a pirate being haunted by the ghost that stole his mythological monster girlfriend's tooth as she tries to drown him in a whirlpool. Oh, and he can't swim.
#wip
#a
#f
#r
#spec
Why are people such assholes in workshops? If the writing isn't for you, it isn't for you, and that's okay! I didn't like her writing. There's no need to call something a "badly overdone cliche" because it uses a trope or call characters "ridiculously silly" and "stupid."
I'm so excited to share that I'll be doing an author signing at The Lazy Daisy Bookshop December 21st! So if you're in the Jacksonville, NC area around then, I would be thrilled to see you there. This is such a dream come true, and I can't wait to meet everyone!
I can't believe we've reached the point of pre-orders, but here we are!!!! Seeing my book on Amazon is cool, but that little girl in me is all about that Barnes & Noble listing 🥹.
The links are in my bio.
This morning's query blackout poem 😂. Not sure that being encouraged to query out of spite is a good thing, but it gave me a laugh.
#amquerying
#WritingCommunity
I'm more nervous waiting for these small publishing houses to get back to me than I am for my dream agents. Every email notification has me like... 👀🫣🤞.
#amquerying
#WritingCommunity
After Gage joins his late father's pirate crew to investigate his death, his father's ghost appears with a blade carved from Scylla's tooth and a plea to kill the god who took his life and free him. The gods are at war, the sea is rising, and Scylla is out for blood.
#questpit
Prepping for
#pitdark
and
#moodpitch
. I learned a lot during
#DVpit
, mostly thanks to the agent who posted the PitDark spreadsheet from last year. Seeing what others did well and how pitches can be so different has been so helpful. Who else is participating?
#writingcommunity
Last
#unhingedpit
drawing of the night.
When the ghost of a pirate begs a god to steal a tooth from Scylla to make a mythical blade to avenge his murder, he scares the living fuck out of his son when he appears to him in the crow's nest begging for his help to solve the
Nothing hits better than soup and sourdough in the middle of the night to keep you company while writing. My brain won't let me sleep until I get this dialogue on the page.
#WritingCommunity
#amwriting
For scar awareness day, mine runs from just under my breasts to my public bone. It's a reminder that there's more to life. Without this scar and the depression that followed it, I never would have started writing again. The surgery saved my life, and the scar saved my heart.
Today is scar awareness day. I have a nice 2 inch scar along the top of my right thumb. It's a reminder to never cut toward myself.
Do you have a scar story?
#scars
#WritingCommunity
A Fae blessed—or cursed—with the powers of the Creator, Erissa sees souls about to die. When ancient wickedness rips the Veil between life and death, Erissa must choose between her freedom, saving the world, or sacrificing the man she loves.
#SFFpit
#A
#EF
#FR
#MH
People are actually sending me messages about my writing process tiktoks and asking questions. That feels nice 😊. Because I don't know what I'm doing, but at least people like it so far!
I went from a writer working on only a single story for several years to someone with multiple projects in the works. It's utter chaos, and I'm in love with it.
I'm beyond thrilled to be an honorable mention in The Dark Poets Prize competition. I write about the darker thoughts haunting my lived experiences, and I'm so grateful for those at
@darkpoetsclub
giving room for voices like mine. My little toaster bath submission found a home!
I'm going to make
@authorbrittmack
regret telling me to do what I want with the word count. I couldn't ask for a more supportive publisher. She never limits her authors.
(And she should be very afraid for a main character and one of the major side ones, but shh! Don't tell her!)
My
#unhingedpit
stick figures have become a story all on their own.
The Cruel Prince only Jude is a haunted pirate Hercules and Cardan's a mythological monster with a tail that bites. Can the monster find love and freedom at the bottom of the ocean before pirate Hercules runs
There's a line in my debut novel where the FMC says that she wants to go home but can't because she doesn't have one. I feel that so much today. Fingers crossed I can get Hendy into a rental soon. So many anti pittie places.
@AntWritesStuff
A better question is how many times is an acceptable amount for a happy couple to prioritize weekly intimacy in whatever form that takes 🥰. Everything from stress to obligations and physical to mental health can alter sex, but intimacy should be the focus even when sex isn't.
My daughter has been going around telling everyone she can all about my book. That kid got me 10 new subscribers to my website in one day when I haven't done that in a year 😂. She's always my biggest cheerleader, and I could love her more!
#WritingCommunity
Love my fiance so much. We just deep dived into my new idea for the series, and it's so good and integrates seamlessly into my established world. I'm so excited to get back to writing!
All of my character art commissions have been coming in over the last week, and I'm so excited to start sharing them. It's amazing to see how different artists view the characters, and they're so talented!! I love how each one has brought the characters to life in their own way.
There are so many writers struggling today with the feedback they receive from agents after having a developmental edit, and I often see that many of the issues agents find are not just developmental but line and copy editing issues. That's why I don't do individual services
Had the most amazing idea for my series and scrambled out of bed for my laptop only to get a cramp in my urostomy pouch, fall off my super high bed, and have my phone smack me in the face. I rebroke my glasses, and my dog is looking at me with so much scorn. Writing is hazardous.
On a totally not Imposter Syndrome related note, my debut romantasy, The Daughter of the Veil, will have an audiobook option 🥰. I have so many friends who read audiobooks for disability reasons, and offering an accessible option means everything in the world to me.
I started my writing journey 5 years ago after dreaming of doing so since I was a teen. Now:
1 scrapped romance novel that's a hot mess. I'll never return to it.
1 romantasy publishing deal being published in December after so, so many rejects solely based on word count.
For 15 years: Poetry published. Manuscripts? Ghosted. Rejection. Silence. Rejection.
Now:
A dozen award winning short stories published -more on the way.
3 book deals with 2 Publishers.
Still no agent.
Everyone has their path. Never surrender!
Really enjoying the indie pub query process and will be giving it some more time. I've had some fulls and some rejections, but the engagement has been amazing. It's night and day from querying agents, and I'm so grateful for the encouragement!
#amquerying
#WritingCommunity
Thank you so much to everyone who submitted for the free edit. Everyone has received a personal response, and the winners notified. I had such a massive interest that I ended up doing two free edits, and I can't tell everyone enough how much I appreciate you trusting me with your
Alright, it's after 10 pm where I am, so
#questpit
is over for me. Y'all are so amazing with how everyone has supported each other. I'm so proud to be a part of this supportive
#WritingCommunity
!
You ever just stop and think, wow, I'm actually doing this whole writing thing? Can't sleep to save my life, so opened up Scrivener and saw the notes I made a few nights ago, and damn are they good! Erissa and Rhazien should be so very afraid of what's in store for the second
I've been reading an ARC copy of The Bone Below, and I'm hooked! I DNF'd another book so I could deep dive into this one 😅. I can't wait to get a physical copy. I'm dying to annotate it.
Here’s a quote from The Bone Below that I feel like captures Nelka’s journey!
If you didn’t know, my book is available for preorder. So if you’re interested, please check the 🔗 in bio!
#indiebooks
#indieauthor
To stop a war w/ the gods, Erissa places her trust in a disembodied soul and a blacksmith who tricked her into marriage. When trust & love challenge her desire for freedom, who will she save when secrets change everything and the Keeper threatens their lives?
#Pitdark
#A
#DF
#EF
My new office is getting closer to being finished every day, and I love how this man supports my bougie library 🥰. I can't wait to start getting shelves up. I have 3k+ book waiting in storage and all the new ones I bought during the move! What do your shelves look like? 👀
I'm sad to hear that
#MoodPitch
has been canceled for November, but I completely understand why. At least it gives me more time to practice my mood board skills. Here's one of my drafts, but it feels...not quite there.
I needed to take a break from everything to focus on my family and myself. So tell me why I decided to jump back into things with some hardcore psychotic plotting for book 2 that I know I'm just going to plants my way through despite the detailed, color-coded chapter outline I'm
I have turned into one fo those writers with multiple story ideas, and it won't be long until I have multiple WIPs...oh damn. I already have five as of this weekend. How did it take me that long to realize I fell into the rabbit hole?!? My brain is in too many places🤣.
I heartily apologize for how annoying I'm going to be today 😂. But it's time for
#Pitdark
, and I'm going to be sharing all the things for everyone. We're in this together ❤️.
Did I start and finish reading five books off my TBR yesterday? Yes, I did. And did I add well more than five more to the same TBR thanks to Fantasy Stuff Your Kindle Day? Yes, I did. I added them all and then some. It's death by TBR today.
Student: "I don't understand the assignment. It's asking me to do citations. What does that mean?"
Me: "Have you done any of the readings? We're in Module 5, and this has been covered every week..."
Student: "Well, no..."
And repeat 15 times.
I wrote this in several comments today, but it seems worth its own post. At some point, I strongly believe we need to prioritize our audience, which goes against everything we are taught about the querying process. Trad Pub trends are always changing, and every rejction...🧵
I'm supposed to be writing book 2, not outlining book 3! But I got the best idea! And it might have killed someone off. Nothing like murder after midnight.
#amwriting
I love her commitment to honesty, but it raised serious questions for me about whether or not this process is for me. It's not an argument against Trad Pub, but instead, it's me finding out what will work best for my voice and my audience, not to mention my own mental health.
Y'all...I could cry 😭. The response to my free edit has been so much more than I ever could have expected, and I'm humbled that so many of you are willing to trust me with your manuscripts. I'll be using a random drawing method to keep things fair and will announce the winner
Before jr prom, my friends and I went to Dick's (idk why😂). This guy from another school was there and begged me to let him be my date. He was cute, but my school would not let him in. I always wondered what would have happened if they had...maybe that's the story idea I've been
I’ve been tasked with an amazing opportunity to be the guest anthologist for a YA project! 👑🪩
I’m seeking everything from beauty&grace to wild&crazy or even a little scary! 😱
Micro up to 250 words
Flash up to 1,000 words
Short Stories up to 5,000 words
SUB LINK in comments
Sometimes, I forget how far I've come, and then I get that little "Oh, that's impressive" from someone I look up to when I tell them what I'm doing, and it all hits me. Twenty-six-year-old Brittany would be sobbing if she saw who she became.
Well, I didn't write last night, but I opened my draft and rearranged some chapters. Baby steps. Let's see if I can take one more today and get a few words down. I want to get back to doing what I love most.
This wait for my December release is teaching me that I'm anything but a patient person 😭. How do people do this with every book?!? (My daughter just walked in and told me that this counts as procrastination and to get back to writing 🤣.)
We're doing post
#questpit
introductions? Alright,
#WritingCommunity
, I'm in.
My name is Brittany, I'm a 34 year old chronically ill and queer mom of two teenagers and one incredibly spoiled Pittie with an amazing, supportive fiance.
By day, I'm a freelance editor, college
Nothing like writing a violent scene in your book and having the doorbell startle you when it's midnight 😱! There's a flog that's decided to play with it. Little guy has been ringing it for the last 10 minutes.
Loving the query poetry! Here's one of mine. In all seriousness, I love that I'm in a position right now where I can recognize that a rejection doesn't reflect on me or my writing. Makes this process so much easier to go through. It's all objective.
#WritingCommunity
#amquerying
I live for my writing room nights. They're always exactly what I need to get in the right headpsace. Plot holes fixed, major plot point decided, and 3k words so far.
#amwriting
The Kingdom of the Veil is going to be SO GOOD with these flashback chapters. I wrote one tonight that has me sobbing for these characters. Absolutely sobbing.
...I've received has the same line about the agent's opinion being objective. But is the agent--and Trad Pub in general--necessarily our target audience? One agent even told me that I was "unpublishable" at my current word count, and she raved over the story on a full request...