I can never decide whether I love fall or spring more – but since it’s fall now, it’s my current favorite! ;)
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Despite some obnoxious setbacks that have happened this month, autumn is probably my most productive season. The invigorating chill in the crisp air energizes me; the oppressive heat of summer has fled, but bone-chilling winter won’t make its unwanted appearance for a while. Fall (like spring) is a reprieve between extremes . . . and I, for one, am not fond of extremes in temperature or weather; they’re hard for my body to handle. It’s also the beginning of hygge season – and it doesn’t get much better than curling under a soft blanket in the evening with a hot drink, some chocolate, and a great book!

I wondered if I should really do a post on this topic . . . I mean, I don't have the most interesting life ever. Unlike that guy from the memes. ;)

But my life sure is a whole lot more interesting now, with Thinklings, than it was back when I worked in customer service (*wince, grimace, flinch, internal screaming*) or just as a proofreader - which was way better, but I still felt that I wanted more. I just didn't know what it was until becoming COO for Thinklings Books!

Ahem. Well, not really a flamethrower, sorry. I know - I want one too! ;)

Anyway, just a quick post to say that Thinklings has a Redbubble shop now! And we'll be adding more designs now and then, general book-lover/fantasy/sci-fi designs or specific ones for each of our books. My favorite so far is the Never Interrupt a Reading Dragon one, pictured above, which you can find here. It happens to be ON SALE right now too, for a limited time! Fellow nerds, rejoice!

Happy going-back-to-Hogwarts day, by the way! If Thinklings had a Potter-esque motto, it would be the one on the shirt above. :)

Here's the initial design for my book, one for mugs, and one for magnets and stickers. When I have time I will make more. (Yep, I put these in Redbubble myself! Obviously, I can't take credit for the beautiful book covers, which were all done by the awesome Nada Orlic. I can't take credit for any of the other lovely artwork, either, which is from Pixabay.com - and yes, I followed their guidelines carefully and the images are free for commercial use, no worries!)

Do you have any slogans or design ideas you'd like to see on a t-shirt or other product? Let me know in the comments, and I'll see what I can do!

P.S. - In case you don't understand the title of this post, it's a reference to Spaceballs...one of my favorite movies!

P.P.S. - Latin translation courtesy of my professor, not Google Translate (lol), so I'm 99% sure it's accurate.

You guys, you guys, you guys!!! My friend Katherine Vick's new book just came out today, and it is indeed EPIC!! The Merry Band (and the first book in the series, The Disposable) is absolutely HILARIOUS and reminiscent of Terry Pratchett books (which I keep meaning to reread) and The Princess Bride - which I did read in college, and the book's just as awesome as the movie!

Find both books here: ​https://www.thinklingsbooks.com/books.html

I recently came across this article about how a lot of authors don’t feel like they have much or any support from their family and friends, when it comes to their writing. It struck a big enough chord in me to write a blog post about it.

​If you follow me on Goodreads*, you may have noticed this year I’m kind of into fairy tale retellings (FTRs). Those are super popular right now, but I’ve never been terribly interested in them, myself. I never hated or opposed them, either, but I just never got swept up in the obsession. (At no point have I felt the urge to write one. Fanfiction? Yep. FTRs? Still nope, at least right now.)

Wasabi, guys? (Remember that commercial?? ;P) Just whipping up a quick update this month because:

May is typically pretty busy for me, because it's spring - meaning I'm out of hibernation and thinking about All The Things that I need to do this year!! Prepping books for publication is a HECK of a lot of work, more than you'd think - more than I realized at first! Whew!...Don't get me wrong; I love doing it. Not complaining. The books are fantastic and I'm in love with them all! It's just, well, you wouldn't know "wasabi" unless I told you, right? (:

Plus, I have a super-huge proofreading job right now on top of Thinklings work and a chronic illness keeping my energy levels low. So, send thoughts and prayers! (And chocolate/caffeine...LOL...)

Last month, I did a fun blog post for Thinklings in which I made a list of superlatives* for all our books and their characters. It was so much fun, the Thinklings authors seemed to love it, and I really enjoyed writing it, so I decided to do one for my own book here in my blog!

​(That's quite a superlative moon above, isn't it??)

My birthday's coming up in two days! :) Since hobbits give other people presents on their own birthday, I decided to do the same and give *you* the little gift of posting a short story I wrote, answering a prompt from The Writers' Collective back when Thinklings was doing that.

All right, here it is: the obligatory Valentine's-Day-or-love-related post you're probably expecting for the month of February. LOL!

I just got over being sick and am still catching up on work, so I decided to simply throw together a list of . . . well, you've read the title of the post. And, since it's not a leap year, there are 28 days this month, so that's 1 thing per day.