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Photo by Aneta Pawlik on Unsplash. On July 2, 2024, Son of the Siren made its debut. Published by Oliver Heber Books , this YA standalone fantasy is inspired by three fairytales: The Little Mermaid, Allerleirauh, and The Wild Swans. It's been described as: A thrilling YA fantasy where dark magic, enchanted realms, and a deadly curse drive half-siren Lirien on a relentless quest to save his family and defy his fate. --New In Books To be honest, there was a huge part of me that never thought I'd see the day a book of mine would be published and out in the world. I felt like I was in a constant state of, "This has potential, but it's not quite there yet." Like a hamster running in a wheel, I kept writing, hoping that someday I would find a publisher and audience for my stories, but for the longest time, it just didn't happen. I always wrote with the intent that I would have readers somehow, so I just kept going. When Kim Ostrom and Tanya Anne Crosby agreed to take me on, I felt myself flooded with emotion. My dream had finally come true! But being an author isn't just writing--it's marketing and promotion and lots of other stressful things. While OHB has done a lot of amazing things for my book, there was a lot I needed to do, too. I chronicled how that went in this blog post . Basically I wasted a lot of money on things that didn't work, but with the next book, I'll know better where to put my focus and my funds. Anyway, amazing things have happened with Son of the Siren, like the release of the audiobook with the exceptionally talented J. Kindred narrating. I really want more people to get out and listen to him, because he did a tremendous job with all the different character voices and accents. If you are on the fence about which version of Son of the Siren to get, I strongly recommend the audiobook. It's like attending live theater. Another bright spot was the fact that Ingram Spark selected Son of the Siren for the Ingram Spark Author Exhibit at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference & Exhibition 2025, which literally just wrapped. There are a lot of benefits to being featured, but I won't be able to see ROI for a while. I just hope that librarians and young adult readers will discover it and enjoy it. Things haven't always been sunshine and roses, though. I can't disclose much but with a year out in the book world, Son of the Siren hasn't quite found its audience, not for lack of trying. So while I plug away at my forthcoming trilogy, I need to keep working on Son of the Siren, too, and keep finding ways to promote it to a dedicated readership. I'm going to leave you on a positive note with this video from Instagram, as it's one of my favorite reviews of Son of the Siren: I'm so proud of Son of the Siren and am happy it was selected to be my first published book. Next up for Oliver Heber Books is my trilogy, The Name and the Key, The Step and the Walk, and The Fear and the Flame. These books will be published in 2026 and 2027, and I am working on them right now on a deadline, whee! I hope with every book I write, I get better and better, but I will always look on Son of the Siren with a great fondness. Thank you, readers.

Photo by Rinck Content Studio on Unsplash Write a quick love story. The story must end badly. I met my husband in graduate school--we were both budding novelists and creative types who were perfect for each other. He was my stabilizer and laughed at my goofiness; I was his support and encouragement. Then I found out he was cheating on me. I packed his things and had them sitting on the front porch and waited for him to come home. "You're out," I said, when he stepped out of his car. He looked at me with a shocked expression, but said nothing, and loaded up the car. After coming home from work I found my books burned and all my WIPs on my PC deleted...even from the cloud. Everything I had written was destroyed. So I killed him.

Image from depositphotos. I've been holding onto these prompts for about a year, when I first saw them on Twitter/X. I hardly go there now, so they probably came up with a new one, but this one seemed fitting because of my book, The Name and the Key. Anyway, this Worldbuilders activity is hosted by Kira of the Wind and as always, I'm knocking out all prompts in one go to make it into a blog. Enjoy! Image from depositphotos. Entities associated with good or evil I'm sort of taking the end of the Middle Ages/early Renaissance aesthetics to come up with such entities. In The Name and the Key , there are demons, who are incredibly interested in the human world, and a bare mention of angels, who are uninterested in human lives. In fact, the only angel I mention is a fallen one who became a demon (and his true form looks a lot like this .) I don't mention commandments or anything like that, and I don't name a god, but it's sort of understood that this world is somewhat Christian (although more Catholic) inspired. But the basic gist is demons = bad, angels = indifferent, saints = good, God = good. But again, angels and god do not really figure into this story. It's all about the bad guys trying to trick the good guys. SNIPPET: Spirit, angel, or demon For The Name and the Key (trilogy) I wrote a grimoire called The Book of Simoneth that's based on 16th century English and inspired by The Lesser Key of Solomon. I have entries for the demons mentioned in the book, and their domains and summoning instructions are written as rhyming poetry. I don't like sharing excerpts of the work for my own protection, but I will concede and share the first couplet to Isabelle's entry to tide you over: Her domayne is Hidden things   Amongst paupers, amongst Kinges.   There are 14 rhyming couplets that alternate between a 7-7-8-8 syllable pattern. I decided to call that pattern lullico meter in the book for when Andresh studies literature at college. He is essentially taking a survey of Medieval and Renaissance Literature class, but I don't want to use those era terms because they're from the real world and might take readers out of the story. When I get to that part of the book ( The Step and the Walk ) I should have it figured out. Hierarchies There is a hierarchy to the demons of the underworld (I'm not sure I actually want to call it hell) based on The Lesser Key of Solomon. In The Lesser Key, it states whether or not demons are princes or generals of hell...and I thought that was really interesting. However, these details might not make it into the book if I can't find a way to make it relevant. That's the tricky part. All the worldbuilding can be expansive, but only a small percentage of it makes it into the story. Virtues and Sins I don't really go into the seven deadly sins because that's something Hiromu Arakawa did for her masterpiece Fullmetal Alchemist. It makes sense why she did--alchemy is a refining process, where you strip away things and then recomposite them into something better--but you repeat this step multiple times until you reach the perfect substance. Instead of sins, I have things that simply make a person "human." I chose four of them, one for every step along the way in the magnum opus: desire, violence, emotion, and self. My trilogy focuses mainly on the first step, desire. Interestingly, the absence of these four traits doesn't necessarily make someone virtuous in the book, just something closer to godlike. MC's thoughts on angels and demons Lily, my main character, never thought magic or anything supernatural was real until things started to haunt her. She is very scared of the concept of demons but realize they are a means to an end. As for angels, Lily asks about them out of curiosity but doesn't seek them out or ask for help because they are known to be absent from human lives. Blessings or curses The Name and the Key trilogy is all about the curses. Lily has a curse. Her mother might have been cursed (I leave this up in the air). Andresh has a curse. The demons are cursed. I am still writing the trilogy now, so maybe a magic spell that resembles a blessing of some kind could appear, but I'm not entirely sure how that would work, so I may leave it alone. Servants of a God or Devil I don't have a clear god or devil named in this book. I'm more concerned with the underlings. I guess demons would serve a devil and angels would serve a god, but I have each being more concerned with themselves than anything else, although demons really adore humans (most of them used to be one). Image from depositphotos. Everyday clothes worn in WIP The era in The Name and the Key is based on the Regency England period and vaguely around the 1820s. I looked at a lot of the clothing of that decade and thought the women had some lovely gowns. It was also the start of men wearing pants and slippers as opposed to boots, although my character Andresh and several other men wear riding boots with their trousers because they look great. Lily would wear a dress like this, which dates from 1820 and is in the archives of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC: Photo from The Met. Public Domain. Meanwhile Andresh would wear clothes like these (although he wouldn't wear all tan and cream like the outfit on the right). The outfit on the left dates 1810-1815, so a little old-fashioned, and the outfit on the right is from the 1820s. The outfit from the left is from the Mint Museum, and the right is from the Fashion Museum of Bath. Photos from Mint Museum/Bath Museum. SNIPPET: Shirt, hat, or shoes Andresh had a magical indestructible coat in the graduate thesis version of The Name and the Key that protected him from ripped fabric, water, and even fire...but I just couldn't find a way to work that magical item into the new version, so it's gone. I don't have an excerpt of the thesis for you, but I vaguely remember Andresh saying the fabric color (multifaceted blues) come from pachliopta kotzebuea, a dark blue butterfly that also more commonly comes in black. Of course, I didn't use that scientific name exactly but chose a close-sounding name playing off of it. In hindsight it's probably good I stopped doing that with names. Anyway, I'm sad the coat is gone, but again, I couldn't find a way to justify its use in the new trilogy. さようなら. Cultural garments, hats, or shoes I need to come up with a historical, cultural garment that the people of Sindalia traditionally wear. I've only described a common hairstyle and some common physical traits of ethnic Sindalians, but I need a national costume. Because I lived in East Asia and have been to both Japan and Korea, I can't quite shake cultural influences from them. But I don't want to appropriate, either. This probably won't be decided unless absolutely necessary. As far as the clergy goes, my book has a kind of Catholic aesthetic to it. I will never forget when the Met Gala did the theme "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination" in 2018. I was living in Japan but saw the most beautiful clothes on the red carpet. I kind of feel like the clergy and the saints in The Name and the Key look like this: From Diplomacy Beyond: https://diplomacybeyond.com/met-gala-2018-fashion-gets-catholic-imagination/ Especially saints when they are skeletons but still dressed up like they do in catacombs , and how people look in the effigies on tops of their tombstones in cathedrals and churches. Material or fabrics used to make clothes I had to do some historical research for this because Lily and her family sell fabrics at their shop, Bellamy Mercantile, so I needed to know what was commonly used for dresses. Here's a sample of one of my sources, Atelier Nostalgia : The fabrics of existent dresses are most often silk or cotton. Wool and (fine-woven) linen are also seen. Although cotton and silk are seen more often, it is good to remember that the fancy dresses are also the ones most likely to survive and be preserved. [...] For silks and cottons, look for thinner fabrics. Very thin white cotton was often used. Heavier draped fabrics aren’t seen much. Silks are usually either satin or taffeta, but again, rather thin. Crepe silk was also used, very thin and and almost sheer. What does the MC wear? I changed Lily's appearance from how she looked in her graduate thesis. Her current iteration is a young woman with stick-straight reddish brown hair, freckles, and honey-brown eyes. I picture her wearing pastel greens and pastel purples a lot. She is in mourning for a time, so she also wears black. What does the villain wear? The villains are demons, and I picture them all wearing Greco-Roman togas and robes for some reason, showing a lot more skin than a proper Regency gentlewoman (or man!) could handle. I am not sure why this specific imagery popped in my head for them, but that's how it is! Clothes worn by special classes (nobles, clergy, etc.) I sort of talked about this above, but in terms of what the nobles wear, I think of how things aren't totally different from the reality of the Regency era. Nobles wore more expensive things. Different colors. Elegant tailoring, etc. People in lower classes wore simpler items that were less expensive. Just as long as it fits Regency clothing (with the exception of saints/clergy/demons/entities) it works. Image from depositphotos. Scary or cute? The monsters in my trilogy are all demons. I used to have an actual wolf-snake-bird chimera monster in the graduate thesis but he got eliminated in the new version once I started changing in the nature of the magic, so rest in peace, danger puppy! Anyway, all of the demons are bewitchingly beautiful so they can tempt people into making bad deals or committing atrocities or sins. They do look a little chimeric because I give them animal traits in addition to their human ones. For example, Isabelle is a gorgeous woman with black hair, lilac-purple skin, black ram's horns, and the lower body of a black panther. All demons have solid, jet-black eyes. Even the sclera is black. Because of this, their vision isn't normal--they cannot see anything but the Fire that composes a living being (the energy of the soul). SNIPPET: Beast, monster, or creature Ok, here's a simple sentence Isabelle the demon says to Lily: You’ll need to help him soon. Nigredo. Tell him to open the Gate. Enemy monsters The demons are the enemy monsters! I do not have the demons infighting although I may play around with Aineiron and Isabelle should I decide to make them meet. They seem like they would be antagonistic. Companion creatures In Book Two, The Step and the Walk, Andresh befriends a friendly female calico cat named Saint, who follows him everywhere and sleeps in his tent. Ecological niche Most of the trilogy takes place either in cities, the countryside, in mirrors, or in the Magnum Opus (a path with four gates alchemists must pass through). The ecology in cities and countryside are representative of places in Europe and Asia and there is no special flora and fauna. I had originally created a flower called the "amyth blossom" but when I tweaked the beginning of the new book, I cut out that whole story. They were based off of hydrangeas...so now I simply call them by their name. The mirrors don't have anything living in them except trapped demons or demons who wish to look out into the human world. The Magnum Opus is similar to the mirrors in that there is nothing there, but a demon guards every gate to collect a sacrifice before you pass through. Dens, nests, families I suppose depending on what level of hell you get to, demons nest together and have families. I don't really depict that in the books, though. My demons tend to be cursed to be alone, which is why they like to watch humans and try to engage with them so much. Myths or legends about creatures In The Lesser Key of Solomon , demons have a "specialty" or "domain" of knowledge that often serves as the reason for which they are summoned. The same is true of the demons in my trilogy. Belloqueth has knowledge of hidden things. Aineiron's domain is music, although he specializes in a bewitching, cursed kind. Cendelamon's domain is more literal as he is the guardian of the Nigredo Gate. He is never summoned as his punishment is to watch over those who wish to pass through it, only allowing passage if they make the appropriate sacrifice. Image from depositphotos. Crimes committed in story There was a scene in the early drafts of The Step and the Walk where Andresh murders someone in self-defense, but I don't know how to keep that scene in the new version. There will be a murder that happens in The Fear and the Flame, though. SNIPPET: Crime Everybody's pretty well-behaved in the book! Organized crime/gangs There is mention of highwaymen attacking on the Old King's Road in The Name and the Key, but only in passing. Justice system Similar to that of Regency England. Unique or brutal punishment method I can't really think of anything because there's nothing that really comes up in the trilogy for this. Is your MC a criminal? She does do something of gray morality in the third book, but I wouldn't call Lily a criminal. Common punishment method in story All I can picture are people being taken to jails and prisons. Image from depositphotos. How are you feeling about your WIP currently? I'm happy with it but I also think things are happening pretty fast. I cut a lot of the fat from the thesis and have been hitting major points but I've been getting to them pretty quickly. I'm worried this draft will be a bit on the anemic side, and I need to get it done by August to send it off to beta readers and rewrite it before it's due to my publisher. Was your worldbuilding pre-planned or do you build as you write? It is a mix of both. I'm not consulting my thesis as I write, but doing a bunch of stuff from memory as well as winging it. I always knew I wanted to model the time period and customs after the Regency so that's one of the few consistencies carrying over from the thesis into the trilogy. If I need to know a fact as I'm writing, I pause and look it up before continuing. This happens a lot, so I guess overall I build as I write.

Photo by Ella Christenson on Unsplash Describe one odd item that you have in your purse or wallet right now. In my purse I keep my inkan from Japan. An inkan is a red stamp with your last name on it that serves as your official signature. You need to get it formally registered at city hall and then it's used for contracts, business, legal stuff, etc. I have two of them. One of them is in romaji written as BUTKE, and the other one is in katakana written as バキ. I had to register my romaji stamp at city hall because Kikuchi was very strict about my inkan matching my name as how it is written on my passport. The katakana inkan was a welcome present to me from a friend, and I used that for informal things like signing for packages coming through the mail. Anyway, I never knew when I'd need an inkan for something, so I kept both of them in the back zipper of my purse. This habit has continued in the US. I need to go and take them out and put them in a safe space while I remember.

Photo by Jonas Lee on Unsplash Write about something you frequently forget. So, if my cell phone is attached to the wall on a charger, or sitting on my writing desk near my laptop, I'll totally blank out that it's there and walk out of the house without it. When I remember, I put it in my purse pocket for emergencies and texting and things like that, but more often than I'd like, I leave it on the charger, then come back in total shock to see my phone there charging. I really hope I get better with this. It would suck if I was in a car accident or something bad happened, and I had no way to contact anyone.

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.

Photo by Stories & Ink Tattoo Care on Unsplash Do you have a tattoo? What is it and why did you get it? If not, would you ever get one? What would the tattoo be, and what would it symbolize to you? I have a tattoo of the Welsh dragon on my right ankle, I wanted it to match everything I wore, so it's black instead of red. I researched designs of the dragon, ranging from very medieval-looking to more modern, and I chose a modern rendition: this one . I got it to commemorate the time I lived and studied abroad in Carmarthen, Wales. It was a life-changing experience for me because it was the first time I was truly away from home, felt independent, and tried so many new things (like mountaineering!). I felt like I grew up more when I was there. I want another tattoo--another black dragon on my ankle. This time, I want a Japanese dragon to commemorate the time I lived in Japan. I lived in Kikuchi, the land of the white dragon, but white doesn't show up on skin very well, and I want my tattoos to match, so I'm going with black. I found an image online of what I want, but it's small in size and pixelates/gets fuzzy edges when you enlarge it. So I need to do a reverse image search or something to try to find it on stock photo websites. Only then will I feel confident in getting a tattoo for Japan.

Photo by Dan LeFebvre on Unsplash What have you been able to accomplish this year that you are really proud of? I can't fully claim this one, but I'm going to say the audiobook to Son of the Siren. The applause should really go to the narrator J. Kindred, my publisher Tanya Anne Crosby at Oliver Heber Books, and whoever else was involved in the creation of the audiobook. However, I did have a role in it! I was given unprecedented freedom to provide input. I got to listen to auditions, help choose the narrator, provide pronunciations, and approve the recordings chapter by chapter. It was a very exciting experience and I believe all of us created something wonderful. To be honest, I never thought Son of the Siren would be getting an audiobook, so at the beginning of the year when Tanya let me know, I was so happy. I had been in a depressive slump for a while but that news made me feel brighter. Of course I was still depressed, but I had something great to look forward to. And I'm so happy I got to participate. So, here's the thing...I wrote this post in advance having no idea an even better accomplishment was going to come my way. Here it is: Yep, I secured a three-book deal with Oliver Heber Books! This is the first time I've been offered a deal before the book has been completely written (I'm almost halfway through Book One as I write this) and I'm on some deadlines--which means I can't meander through writing or only write "when I feel like it." I feel like this deal is going to help me graduate from a baby writer into a grownup one. Thank you to my agent Rick and Tanya and Kim at Oliver Heber Books!

Photo by Kristina Elyse Butke What's a poor book lover to do when books are getting prettier and shinier? I never cared about foiled covers or deluxe editions or sprayed edges or anything else like that before, so where is my love of this stuff coming from? I'm going to blame BookTube, BookTok, and Bookstagram for all of the carefully curated bookshelves and collections they feature showcasing how gorgeous books have become. Oh, and of course, publishing. This was not a thing even five years ago, from what I remember. These types of books were relegated to the far reaches of the realms where you could only get them through Fairy Loot, Illumicrate, etc. In other words, if you wanted a special edition, you ponied up the dough to a book box retailer. I never did, because I didn't think I could afford to have book crates delivered to me monthly, and there was never a guarantee you'd get a special edition before they ran out of copies. Fast forward to now, and publishers are designing books just like you see in monthly crates. You could walk into a Barnes & Noble and see exclusive editions with foil lettering on the covers and beautiful sprayed edges for several books, just chilling there. And other stores have their own editions, too, like Target and Waterstones and Walmart. And aside from social media, the news is getting in on this, too: This is Why So Many Books Now Have Colorful Edges Spredges Effect: Why Books are Becoming More Beautiful With the increase in availability of these types of books, plus the mouthwatering bookish lifestyle presented to me by social media influencers, I suddenly started wanting special editions. I cleared my shelves to designate one book case to be entirely devoted to collector editions (aka the prettified versions). I'm slowly filling that up but I'm trying to arrange them by size, since publishers don't print books in a standardized way. Right now the most recent purchases are just in a pile next to my already-full bookshelf in my room: Look how pretty they are! But I need to shelve them. Photo by Kristina Elyse Butke. I am also completely redoing my Heaven Official's Blessing collection. I got all 8 books (at the time, they were trade paperback only) and then they came out with special edition hardcovers, and readers, I was done. I have been picking up these new versions as they release, and they are beautiful. The paperbacks have their own gorgeous art, but I decided to gift them to a friend so I wouldn't have duplicates. I don't think I ever would have done something like this if the new books hadn't been so lovely. I have an ongoing wishlist on various sites that feature the special edition/deluxe book editions, and I'm just patiently waiting for them to release or go on sale. With school being out and teaching pretty much being done for a good while, I can't really buy any more of these for the time being, but I can wait. These books are worth it.

Photo by Chandler Cruttenden on Unsplash You look outside. Ah, it is snowing! But look closer. Those are not snowflakes falling from the sky! What is it snowing at your house? My Mom's homemade vanilla frosting shaped into little balls of snow. Her frosting is the best on the planet--I've always preferred it to the professionally made cakes. Anyway, I'd probably stand there with my mouth open trying to catch and eat the frosting snowballs.

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash What is the best road trip or vacation you have ever taken? Who was there? Where did you go? What did you see along the way? When I lived in Japan, I tried to do travelling on daikyu days (compensatory holidays) or on weekends and national holidays. Even so, the first year in Japan, I never went anywhere because I was afraid to and hadn't quite worked out a travel buddy yet. Later my travel time consisted of travelling with a friend to do the Shikoku Henro 88 Temple Pilgrimage. But when my friends returned to the States and I hadn't really made new ones, I began travelling solo in Japan. My first solo trip was to Yakushima, an island that's a part of Kagoshima prefecture. However, I've talked about that one quite a bit, so I'm going to talk about a major solo trip that required me to take actual vacation days off of work! October is a special month in Japan because it's the "no god month," where all 8 million kami are said to assemble at the great shrine Izumo Taisha in Shimane Prefecture. I wanted to go to Izumo Taisha to be there when the kami were there, in case the shrine did anything special or if I could get "vibes" while I was there (some shrines in Japan definitely have vibes). I planned my trip. I would stay overnight in Tsuwano, Shimane, to check out one of the top Inari Shrines in all of Japan: Taikodani Inari. Then after visiting the shrine in the morning, I'd hop back on the road and head to Izumo. Besides the 8 million gods meeting at the shrine, Izumo is filled with all sorts of myths. The god Susanoo has a lot of stories there, so I visited shrines related to him and his wife Kushinadahime. I also visited the door to Yomi, the Shinto underworld. If there was a story about it, I wanted to go and live it. After Izumo in Shimane prefecture, I'd take a day trip to the neighboring prefecture of Tottori to see the giant sand dunes that look like a desert. Then I did the most geeky thing ever and went to Iwami to do the Free! scavenger hunt (the anime Free! takes place there). While I had stayed at hotels on the way to Izumo, I cancelled my hotels for the trip back and just did a straight shot back to Kikuchi. It was a six hour drive. I was tired, but I loved this solo trip and the chance to experience the location of some of Japan's most important and ancient stories.