NYT Bestselling Author Gives Her Two Cents

More Free Books, Encouragement, & Your Opinion

Welcome!

If you haven’t already, take a few deep breaths. Get a glass of water. Put on a good song. Let yourself slow down. And, as always, get yourself a snack.

That’s better.

Shall we?

Encouragement

Sometimes it feels like whatever good thing we’re learning, doing, making, or dreaming up might not be worth it because it’s taking too long. With that in mind, I wanted to share an encouraging conversation I had earlier this month.

I write slowly.

I was messaging with an author who is much more established than me (her YA fantasy trilogy is currently on the NYT Bestseller list—any guesses who she is?) and I expressed the fear that if I don’t do absolutely EVERYTHING to market Iron Rose, then no readers will remember me or wait for my next book. After all, the world moves at a breakneck pace.

And this was her response:

“I promise, there will always be more opportunities and more readers.”

Well, that flies right in the face of FOMO.

There’s such a strong cultural narrative that if we don’t take the chance now we’ll miss life-defining moments. It’s so driven by fear. And I realized I’m so driven by fear.

Whew. That’s not how I want to live.

I want to be driven by joy, which is a much better boundary-keeper than fear.

Regardless of the type of your endeavor, I hope you can find some encouragement in this idea that we don’t need to break ourselves to take advantage of every opportunity in every moment. We can hold boundaries, go our own pace, and still do satisfying, amazing things with our lives.

Your Opinion

You signed up for this newsletter and I want to honor that by tailoring it to your tastes. It’d be a huge help to me if you could vote below and tell me what you what in these newsletters!

If there’s something else you’d like to see in these newsletters—or just want to say hi!—reply to this email and let me know. I love hearing from you!

Book Deals

This month, I’m teaming up with a set of Sci-Fi and Fantasy authors to bring you some free reading during this gray-skied February.

I actually had the pleasure of meeting one of these authors—Pamela Hart—at a conference last year, so I especially recommend checking out the stories (Amalfitano and Medusa Complex) that she added to this collection.

Happy Reading!

Me at a local bookstore’s grand opening earlier this month. Though it was for work, being around passionate readers (and my sister!) is always energizing.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a lovely day!

-Abigail