Introduction
Hello hello! After many years of telling myself "maybe this will be the year I start a blog," I'm actually doing it for real. I promise. I WILL keep up with it this time. I'm not sure exactly what this will turn into, but for the most part, I'm going to focus on my favorite thing: BOOKS!
No, this is not yet another book review blog. Though I might post some short reviews (more like excited screeching) of recent books I've read and loved, I'm hoping to use this space primarily to talk about my own books and my writing journey. Consider this a page on which you watch me scream into the void.
So to start off, I'll introduce myself! Hello! My name is Talli (my pronouns are she or they!), and I'm a writer, artist, and grad student from upstate New York. I'm in the process of getting my Master's in library science, and am working in a library in the meantime. I absolutely love it, and I hope to land a position as a teen services librarian in the future. My debut novel, THE ORACLE STONE, comes out February 1 on Amazon!
I primarily write YA fantasy, since that's what I love to read. Writing books for teens is really important to me; when I was in high school, this massive push for more diversity in YA was only just beginning. I don't remember ever reading a fantasy novel starring a queer character when I was a teen, and though I wasn't super conscious of it at the time, I didn't realize how isolating that felt until I finally got my hands on some wonderful queer books and it was the most amazing feeling. Seeing myself and people like me represented on the page is so important, and I hope my books can contribute to the ever-growing pool of diverse books for young adults. I love that we're moving toward a world where young people can open a book and see people just like them kicking ass, changing the world, or just plain existing. I can't even describe how validating that feels when the real world can be so isolating.
WHEW we got a little deep there. Anyway, there'll always be a soft spot in my heart for YA, and fantasy is my main jam, but I'll read just about anything if you hype it up enough. I love a good contemporary novel, and I like historical fiction if it doesn't put me to sleep. I've been trying to get into science fiction, too, but some of them are so sciencey that I can't wrap my head around it! Like I said, I mainly write fantasy because I love the freedom to make everything up and quite literally create a new world -- and also I looove love love writing magic. But I have a hankering to write a YA contemporary someday, and have an idea bouncing around for one, but that'll be far in the future after I get all of my other planned novels out of my system.
On that note, I'll introduce my current projects!
What I'm Writing
My main project right now is the first draft of the first book in a new trilogy that I sort of started in 2019 but then set down after about 20k words. The series overall has a working title of The Peacebringer Trilogy, and the first book is (for now) called TRUTHSEEKER. So far this first draft is going... okay... (I say hesitantly bc I don't want to jinx it lol), and I got about 32k down in the month of December! Don't get me wrong, this draft is DEFINITELY a mess and doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but I'm trying to tell myself that that's FINE and that's what first drafts are for: making a mess.
In addition to that, I'm working on polishing the first book in my other trilogy, THE DEMON MAGE, so I can query it in the coming year. I'm also planning to submit that book for Author Mentor Match in a few weeks (fingers crossed!) so I can maybe run it through another round of revisions and perfect my query letter before I send any more. I queried this book a little over the summer and in the fall, and actually ended up getting a full manuscript request from an agent (ultimately a rejection, though, rip), but other than that it's just been a whooolee lotta rejections. I also drafted the second and third books in this trilogy in 2020, but those need a ton more work before they can see the light of day lol. I'm hoping to revise books 2 and 3 in 2021 and get the big, overarching plot straightened out. Writing a trilogy is fricken hard, though. Can't believe I'm doing it again already lmao.
I've also got three other stories rattling around in my head, including a companion novella to my standalone book THE ORACLE STONE, a short story about a grumpy immortal storyteller, and a lovers-to-enemies book about a necromancer. I am really excited to break into all of those, but they need to stay on the back burner for now while I draft my main projects!
In 2021, I'm hoping to gain more confidence in my writing, draft something new, kick impostor syndrome in the teeth, and read more so I can write more.
On the subject of reading...
What I'm Reading
I somehow read 43 books in the hell year that was 2020, so this year I'm setting my Goodreads goal to 40 to give myself a little challenge! I'm starting off with KINGDOM OF THE WICKED by Kerri Maniscalco, and if the first chapter is anything to judge by, this seems like one I'll be finishing in one sitting!!
I have a plethora of anticipated reads for the new year, but I'll do a separate post about that later this week and also talk about my fave reads from 2020. But if you want a sneak peek, I'll have a post up on my instagram later today talking about my favorite books from last year :)
Last Words
So! I'm gonna end here because I'm starting to ramble. I'm excited to get into this, and hoping to post an update/ramble once a week, and then maybe a once-a-month deep dive into a writing-related topic. We'll see how it goes!
Until next time, you can find me haunting the following places:
Carrd for all of my things and stuff in one place
See you next time!
✌🏻 Talli
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