"I wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it." ~ Toni Morrison

In Which I Review My Friend's Book!

Hello Reader!

I hope this email finds you well today 💖

I'm pretty excited because this is my first EVER author email. I'm still getting used to the system so the newsletter might look a bit different over the next few months.... I hope you'll bear with me as I figure everything out 😅 I'd love to know how you like it and any feedback you have!

Writing Updates ✒️

Recently I had the chance to be featured on my friend Maya Pawley's blog! I got to write a guest post with a review of her book Country Girl. It's a really sweet story about a 12-year-old girl growing up on a farm in the Midwest with her three sisters.

In my own writing I'm working on a middle-grade urban fantasy thriller called Mountain of Secrets. If you're one of my Grow Kids Christian Magazine subscribers, you might have read the prologue in the final edition.

Essentially, it's about a girl who hates magic, a boy who denies its existence, and a mysterious place beyond the maps that isn't supposed to exist. I'm having a lot of fun working on brainstorming and outlining 😄 Once it's finished, I'll be sure to share it for you guys to read!

Ydubs Happenings 🎉

As you have probably heard (or maybe you're also a member) I'm part of an online community and content library for writers called The Young Writer's Workshop! All of us learn so much there and it can also get really fun and chaotic sometimes 😂

First, the practical stuff. I have several prospects for mentors who can help me write better flash fiction and I've even talked to a couple which is pretty exciting.

I've also been going through courses on building a writing network and what to expect when you're getting published. I'm nowhere near that level yet...and I'm still deciding whether I want to indie publish or traditionally publish...but it's been great to learn more about it 😉

And now for the chaos...there's been a profile picture movement going on regarding Shakespeare which has been hilarious (I joined if you're curious).

Book Review 📚

I don't know if this will be regular...but talking about books is always fun 😂

I recently finished reading Shadow by Kara Swanson. It's the second book in the Heirs of Neverland duology and a hauntingly beautiful Peter Pan spinoff. Mrs. Kara is one of the instructors on Ydubs, so of course I HAD to check out her books.

Here's the summary:

Peter Pan has crash-landed back on Neverland. But this is not the island he remembers.
​
Desperate to rescue Claire and the fractured Lost Boys, Peter must unravel what truly tore his dreamland apart. But with each step, he is haunted by more of his own broken memories. Not even Pan himself is what he seems.
​
Claire Kenton is chained to a pirate ship, watching the wreckage of Neverland rocked by tempests. When she finally finds her brother, Connor is every bit as shattered as the island. Claire may have pixie dust flowing in her veins—but the light of Neverland is flickering dangerously close to going out forever.

I'm not sure whether I enjoyed this book better than the first one, Shadow. They are both so amazing in their own right.

I wanted to love the characters-especially Claire--to death after everything they've been through. The pacing seemed a bit slow near the middle of the book, but I was invested enough in the story to keep reading. While it is dark and more for older readers, the light really does shine through.

Content warnings: mention of suicide, romance, fighting, and death of a MC.

Overall, I'd give this book 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🎁 My Gift to You

In each email, I'll try to share at least a poem, a song, or a snippet of my writing. But today we have some flash fiction!

This is a story I submitted to a competition a few weeks back. It won first place in literary arts!! It's a bit darker than anything I've ever written so beware 😆 Here's the first line:

Now what are you waiting for? Go ahead and read 😉

That's all for today...I hope you enjoyed! I'll be back next month with more updates and mayyyybe some poetry to share💖

Bye special peeps!!

-Love, Sophia