Considering Impact
Reflecting on my impact as a storyteller, sharing resources, celebrating writing wins, & recommending reads!
November 2025
Hey Friend!
October was a busy month and we’re moving like a freight train toward the end of the year. As I’m writing this I’m thinking a lot about The Parable of the Sower by the incredible Octavia E. Butler. We’re in the midst of so much madness as a country here in the US and yet, its all the same historical behavior, repackaged for modern consumption.
I am not a prophet, have nowhere near the talent and foresight and just…badassness of Octavia, but I wonder about my own work. I wonder about whether it does enough in the world we live in today to question, to open eyes, to push people’s thinking. The question of why this is the burden of the marginalized to consider and not our white counterparts also comes to mind but that’s not a topic for today.
For today, I think about myself. About my ability to tell stories that can be a respite to the marginalized and a mirror to the oppressor. Those two goals feel like they are in contradiction with each other and yet necessary.
And then of course I think about the fact that none of this is helpful right now. What would be helpful right now is food, fellowship and support. So I’m going to end this random little musing with some resources. Pass them along if they aren’t useful to you, they might be to someone you know:
I spent this month working on WSMS developmental edits. I think I like what I’ve added and I think the adjustments I’ve made added a little tension too. Now begins the fun part of line edits.
I’m looking forward to it lol. The work at the moment is a balance of cleaning up language and ensuring we don’t lose anything valuable to the narrative. It’s delicate work. Or maybe I’ll just be going at it with a machete. Unclear honestly.
Goals Review:
Write Shorts/Novelettes: 5/5 ✅
Write novels: 1/1 ✅
Edit shorts/Novelettes: 5/5 ✅
Edit Novel: 1/1 ✅
Beta Novel: 1/1 ✅
I had a fantastic time at Flights of Foundry this year! Here’s a list of the panels/chats I had.
Creating Community (will eventually be released by F.o.F but will be a while)
What’s Great in Fantasy Right Now? (this won’t be released but was a great conversation!)
Friends of FIYAH Meet and Greet (no release)
Chill-n-Chat: Eboni Dunbar(no release)
No plans for the remainder of the year! I’m staying open to opportunities, but I also met my goal for doing events this year, so I’m feeling pretty good. I’m starting to get focused on 2026 planning.
Reading
 | Mermaids and queer romance and magic and sideshows? These things are for me. Benny, an orphaned Puerto Rician blacksmith, gets a special job making a beautiful water tank. Little does he know that this one little job will impact the rest of his life. He’s dragged into the world of a Coney Island sideshow, assisting them with collecting their newest attraction: A merman. As Benny tries to handle his feelings about what he’s done, he also has to come to terms with who he is, what he wants and all he’s endured. |
 | You all know I love vampires (read back through basically every month of this newsletter and that will become clear) and Sapphic vampires? Yeah, I’m sold. The book follows two love stories: Favre and her lover Thana who Favre sacrifices everything for and a thousand years later, Najja, a seer and her charge turned love interest, Leyla. Najja and Leyla are doing everything they can to save Leyla’s best friend and over the course of their adventure they begin to realize the stories they’ve been told may not be the whole truth. This book is YA. |
 | This might be my favorite thing I finished this month. It’s a young adult read but a concept I personally haven’t read a lot of. Our FMC Evan Wilde is from a special class of people, often hunted for their presumed proximity to devils. When someone attempts kill her, she makes a contract with an unknown devil for revenge. As she seeks her revenge against the class responsible, she also finds complication: love, friendship and the true motives of the devil she’s working with. What exactly will Evan do? Will she get her revenge? Read it and find out! |
Are you on StoryGraph? That’s where I’m doing all my tracking. Come find me.
Looking for a new audiobook platform that’s not going to support B*zos? Check out Libro.fm (this is a referral link).
Watching
I’ll be honest, I’m still down a YouTube/Housewives hole just like last month! I did start Deep Space Nine for the first time as well as Grantchester but I don’t have big thoughts yet. More to come.
Listening
It’s fall and you know what that means, time for my fall playlist. You’ll notice it gets bigger as time goes on so keep coming back to enjoy over and over again! Stay tuned because the winter list is incoming!!
