Writer Friends Challenge, June 2025

Photo by Vincent Péré on Unsplash.

This is an Instagram challenge created by @susanleighneedham. While I need to do exciting things on my own Instagram, and this daily challenge would be perfect for it, I also need material that's easy to do for my blog while I'm busy writing my books and writing for The Beat. So, I've taken the plunge and have done the whole thing. Read on, friends!

‧₊˚❀༉‧₊˚.

Introduce yourself with five facts or five favorites

Hello, everyone! I'm a writer of YA fantasy and a writer for The Beat, which was just nominated for an Eisner Award. When I'm not reviewing manga and anime for The Beat, I'm working on my three-book deal with Oliver Heber Books--The Name and the Key, The Step and the Walk, and The Fear and the Flame. Here are five things about me:

• I lived in Japan for six years teaching English

• I've ridden an elephant

• I'm afraid of fire, drowning, heights, airplanes, and many different kinds of bugs

• I used to be a ballet dancer and I really miss it

• I have an obsessive love for BL (boys love) manga

Your summer reading style or habits

When I'm not reading BL, I tend to gravitate towards reading a lot of horror, from short stories to novels. While horror is usually affiliated with autumn, thanks to Halloween, for some reason I jump into it headfirst in the summer months.

If your MC (main character) was on Instagram, what would their bio be?

"Lily Bellamy, she/her, creator of Lily's Artisan Soaps and assistant manager of Bellamy Mercantile. Terrible cook. Devoted to my family. Can't style my hair."

What real-life situation have you used in a story?

It's not exactly a situation, but personal knowledge and experience. I used ballet to choreograph the Fire Dance that Andresh and Lily do in The Name and the Key. I don't mention the steps by name because I think their sudden introduction (and the fact that it's in French) would likely pull the reader out of the world that I've built. But I've used steps such as failli assemblé and relevé in the dance, among others.

Share some 5-star reads.

• The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

• Blanks by Grady Hendrix

• Six Deaths of the Saint by Alix E. Harrow

• Daisy Jealousy by Ogeretsu Tanaka

• Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

What do you do outside of writing, for work or play?

For work I'm an adjunct instructor at community college teaching English Composition. For play I read, stream anime, watch true crime documentaries (I call them my "murder shows"), cosplay, and collect figurines of Japanese characters and deluxe editions of books.

Helpful tips for revising and editing

Ultimately it's your call on how to revise and edit, but I like breaking the cardinal rule of don't edit as you write. My brain cannot physically handle writing out of order and if I'm in the middle of a scene, I am unable to move on without the problem being solved. This is because 1) my memory sucks and I might forget how to fix the problem if I come back to it later 2) it might create inconsistencies, plot holes, or continuity issues that will be harder to go back and fix 3) it might snowball if not handled quickly. Also, cut liberally. Trust your gut and cut away the fat or cut what isn't working. When I was drafting Son of the Siren, in the middle of drafting I eliminated 78 pages of writing because it wasn't working and I was digging myself into a hole. It was one of the best decisions I ever made with a draft.

WFC Writer Rest

I guess I'm supposed to take a break from answering questions?

Beach or mountains?

As much as I enjoy beaches (especially when I lived in Japan), I absolutely adore a skyline with mountains. I love hiking them, too, although it takes me longer than the average person due to my fitness level. When I lived in Japan I hiked frequently, and when I went to Yakushima I think I can say I did some mountaineering, too--the path there is pretty much vertical.

Share a sunny snippet

I don't like sharing from WIPs and Son of the Siren is a bit of a dark fairytale (where basically I can't think of any sunny scenes) so I'm going to hold off on this one.

How have you invested in your writing career?

I started early. I wrote a lot in grade school. In high school (10th grade I think) I attended the Young Writers at Kenyon program to be a better writer. I entered contests, though I never really won anything. I invested in an English Literature degree. I also invested in a graduate degree in Writing Popular Fiction to help me get a handle on writing fantasy fiction. I attended a workshop at the Thurber House in Columbus. I attended the World Fantasy Convention in Columbus, too. I read books all the time to stay knowledgeable. I invested in courses from Writer's Digest University. I downloaded and filled out a bajillion writing handouts. I spent $3,000 on marketing for Son of the Siren. I feel like I've put my entire life into my writing career.

What's the weirdest thing you've ever Googled for your book?

This one's pretty recent--I was looking up the materials used in the Regency era for making headstones for graves. Sandstone and slate were popular.

Describe your book world with emojis or a meme.

The Name and the Key:

😈🪞💀 ✨❤️‍🔥

Share something you've learned from your characters.

In The Name and the Key, there are things I've learned while researching for each character. For Lily, it was soap making/soap ingredients. For Andresh, it was creating a grimoire (although that's more in the second book, The Step and the Walk). For Lainey, it's painting with watercolor. For Kale's business, Bellamy Mercantile, I had to study merchant vessels and shipping schedules and the cost of silk and how much silk is used to make clothing.

Favorite Book Dads

I honestly can't think of any because most Dads are out of the picture in YA novels. I do YA no favors because I've continued that tradition, too.

Inspiring Quotes for Creatives

“I'm writing a first draft and reminding myself that I'm simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.”

― Shannon Hale

“A word after a word after a word is power.”

― Margaret Atwood

“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”

― Toni Morrison

Share a character aesthetic

Images from depositphotos.

This is Lily from The Name and the Key. She's undergone a dramatic appearance change from the way I wrote her in my graduate thesis. I decided to give her auburn (reddish-brown) hair and freckles. Her hair is supposed to be stick-straight and I couldn't find a model whose hair was like that, so this model here is the closest approximation I could get to her. The other model in the photograph is used to establish the time period on which the trilogy is based--Regency England. The soap reflects what Lily likes to make, the lilies represent her name, and the mirror and figure in the cemetery represent Lily's haunting.

What made you laugh out loud while writing a scene?

This one is from Son of the Siren, which is published, so I'm happy to share it with you. Kitra, my fae fox, takes her turn singing in front of the campfire, and she chooses something bawdy to sing:

There once was a tailor and his friend the sailor who argued fair good and hard. Who was the smaller and who was the taller when it came down to the yard? They each grabbed a ruler, the fool and the fooler, trying their best for the pick. It was down to the letter and no one was better, they each had a sizeable stick!

I absolutely love making rhymes and songs and poetry, so this was a ton of fun. To toot my own horn, I thought this was really clever.

Share something you have completed.

Ta-da! My debut novel, Son of the Siren!

First day of summer vibes

I didn't remember celebrating the first day of summer--I just stayed inside where it remained cool thanks to air conditioning. But I do remember when I was in Wales at university they celebrated The Longest Day and had silly slip n' slides out and games and stuff for people to play. That's a fond memory.

Where would your MC go on vacation?

Lily lives in the seaside town of Mariner, and their shop Bellamy Mercantile is really close to the boardwalk and pier. So she's probably tired of the ocean and would given hiking in the mountains a try.

WFC Writer Rest

I guess another moment where I'm supposed to pause?

How do you reset between writing projects?

Usually with reading or streaming TV and movies.

Share a snippet that sets the mood.

Ok. I'm going to break a rule here and share something from The Name and the Key, only because I shared it originally on my old blog and I currently have it on my word count accountability posts. It's a quote from Andresh:

If there's no difference between above and below, and all and one are exactly the same, then anything is possible.

Favorite books in your genre.

• The Folk of the Air trilogy by Holly Black

• The Cursebreakers trilogy by Brigid Kemmerer

• An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson

• Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

Side effect of living the writer life.

You really do live inside your own head a lot. Sometimes to the point of "forgetting how to people."

What does your timeline look like for writing a story?

I don't really write short stories (too challenging for me at this time), so I'll talk about fiction. It usually takes me 2-3 years to write a book (including revisions and editing). But now that I'm under contract for a trilogy, I have to go much, much faster. I can't share my deadlines because that's part of the contract and I can't disclose details, but just know that I'm holding out for a miracle.

Share a review.

Here's one that totally gets the fairy tale inspirations for Son of the Siren:

Son of the Siren by Kristina Elyse Butke – I won a copy of this from Goodreads, and this is my honest opinion. If The Little Mermaid (or any other siren story), Donkeyskin (Allerleirauh, Tatter-Coats, other fairy tales with creepy parental figures), and The Children of Lir had a quest fairy tale, this would be that story. Be prepared to be triggered (google Donkeyskin) because I would quantify this as New Adult not Young Adult. This has a lot of sexual assault and trauma. But the world is very well built, the magic is great, the characters are interesting, and it has all the elements of a traditional fairy tale that make it Grimmtastical. Overall, I liked it! Happy Reading!

What do you like to listen to when writing?

Anime soundtracks really are the best. My top for writing fantasy are Sword Art Online, Tokyo Ghoul, and Diabolik Lovers. The music all varies based on mood and because it's instrumental, it's easier not to get distracted by words.

Writing win for the month.

I rewrote my first chapter of The Name and the Key to fix pacing issues and also wrote the first entry in Andresh's grimoire, The Book of Simoneth. The first chapter rewrite was tough, but the grimoire was a ton of fun because I got to rhyme again.