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Gabi Justice lives in Florida with her husband and children. She spent most of her adult life writing editorial copy for local magazines after graduating from the University of South Florida. Florida provides the settings for her coming-of-age stories that highlight bullying, misjudgment, acceptance, and teen anxiety. Her main characters are goal-oriented teenage girls with a drive that can be fierce and dangerous.
In honor of my birthday month (yes, month) I plan to donate all March proceeds for The Book of Good to Mosaic Counseling, specifically toward youth counseling and programming.
A former John Steinbeck Fellow in Creative Writing, Dallas Woodburn’s writing has been honored with the Cypress & Pine Short Fiction Award, the international Glass Woman Prize, and four Pushcart Prize nominations. When she’s not writing, Dallas hosts the podcast Overflowing Bookshelves, teaches writing classes for teens and adults, and unapologetically bakes pumpkin-spice everything all year round. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and daughter.
I recently started to journal again, and I’m kicking myself for not doing it sooner. The concept is simple enough—open a notebook or word doc or whatever device you prefer, then write down whatever’s on your mind—but there are a lot of reasons people might avoid journaling.
The momentum I felt at the end of the puzzle is the same thing that happens when I get to the end of a manuscript. In the months I’m writing the first draft, it can be a struggle to reach my daily word goals, but when I’m in the final chapters, it’s not uncommon for me to double or triple those goals. The words just fly out of me!
This year marks ten years since I became a published author, and I have accomplished a lot. But the discipline I once had has slipped. A lot of people tell me I’m prolific, dedicated, and a lot of other nice words. They say I inspire them to reach for their goals. It’s wonderful to hear, believe me, but I feel like a fraud. My writing time is every morning before work, but more often than not, by the time I let the dog out and get my tea and check my email and oh maybe check my social notifications, that turns into 30 minutes. Thirty minutes each day is not enough time to run a business as an author, and it’s definitely not enough time to elevate my career to where I want it to be. To where I almost was a few years ago.
J.R. Roper is the author of the Morus Chronicles, a fantasy series for middle grade readers. The Hunter Awakens, The Spirit of Steel, The Tower Below, and The Silver Spear are now available along with a collection of short stories titled Mel & the Black Rider. Roper’s work has appeared in ChildGood Magazine, Families First Monthly, and in anthologies by Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing, Horrified Press, and Thirteen O’Clock Press. His essay, Over The Edge, was published in Imagine This! An ArtPrize Anthology Volume 3, and nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
While I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo NINE times, over the past couple years I’ve decided it’s no longer useful for me. Well. Once again, my publishing schedule has led me to start writing a new book in November, so it seems silly to not at least attempt the international month-long challenge of writing a book in thirty days.
Joey is 39, disabled, a multi-award-winning indie author and a graduate with a BA (Hons) in Health & Social Care. She loves to write and is at the moment working on her next two books, as well as preparing her next two books for publication. She started writing when she was medically retired from her job at the age of 19. Her first book was released in 2005 and after a brief time away, her second one was released in 2011. In addition to writing books, she also enjoys reading them and can often be found resting in bed with a good book, with a cat or two on her lap.
The past few years have felt like a roller coaster that keeps going faster and faster until there’s no way to climb off, I just have to hold on tight and hope I’m not flung into the ether, never to be seen again. (Although some days, that seemed like a nice alternative.) Some things were within my control, others were not, but all of them culminated this summer and I’m really really glad to have it all behind me. I’ve alternated between feeling like I’m failing at everything, to not caring that I’m failing at everything, to wishing I could just press pause on life and catch my breath.