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As I continue on my writing journey I learn something new every single day. Not only do you need to market your book, create a writing brand, strategies for reaching new readers, booking events; you need to develop who you are as a writer. I have learned that this is one of the most important aspects of your writing career. Whether you are writing for selfcare or attempting to break through into the publishing world; you must discover who you are to the core. What do you value? What is your most cherished ideals? How do you want your future readers to relate to you? These are only a few deep dive questions to ask yourself when creating your author brand. One of my fundamental practices is to learn and research all the things. I love to discover new knowledge, for knowledge holds power. With it you can conquer anything you wish to tackle. A new item I discovered was the idea of developing an Author Brand. I never truly thought of this until I read a blog post by Naomi D Nakashima . She discusses the importance of building your brand as a person seperate from your writing. You are not your book. Your personality and life experiences influence who you are and the perspective of your writing. This was such an eye opener for me. I always thought my marketing should be focused on my book, the genre, and such. There is so much more than just the book. There is you! In building your author brand you can communicate to your future and current readers what they can expect in your upcoming writings. You build a connection and bond with your readers that can transcend the universe. As I jump into this time of self-discovery, I will challenge myself to truly see me. What mark do I want to leave in this world? Who do I want the world to see as my authentic self. I feel this may be heart wrenching but once I complete the process I will have a clearer view of who I am and who I want the world to see. Stay tuned for Part 2: The Beginning of my Author Brand Fenix Rising

St. Louis Union Station Hotel I took a leap of faith and now I will be going to St. Louis in August 2025. I never thought I would be an author, let alone a guest author at a Fantasy Convention. A few months ago I decided to complete an application for a new convention, EnchantiCon. They were looking for guests, vendors, authors, anyone related to Fantasy. I thought why not, I have nothing to lose. Fast forward to October 23rd, 2024. I completely forgot about EnchantiCon and figured I didn't make the cut. Then on the evening of October 23rd, I checked my email as always and there it was an email from Mischief Managed. I made it in!!!! I couldn't believe what I was reading. I actually refreshed my inbox several times to make sure it wasn't a mistake. I was so excited I didn't even think about how I was even going to go. Self-doubt reared its' ugly head and my OCD/ADHD/Anxiety began to take over. Who am I to think I'm good enough for this? How am I going to make this happen? Will they even like me? So many thoughts and spirals but I pushed on. My demons were not going to hold me back from this amazing gift and opportunity. Now begins the hard part, the planning. I booked our hotel for the convention. My family will join me for the 9 hour car ride because the airfare is too much. Next steps are to budget for book orders, schwag, and all the things to make my Author Table stand out from the rest. Fingers crossed this helps launch Solasta into the best sellers list and help me reach my goal of being a stay at home mom.

It has been some time since my last post. My head is still reeling from the last month. September 14th was a day to remember. It was my very first book signing at Barnes & Noble in Asheville Mall. I was over the moon and beyond excited for this bucketlist item. Fast forward to September 27, 2024. Hurricane Helene came barreling up to our beautiful mountains causing a catastrophic geological event. Over a 1,000 landslides due to the unforgiving torrent of rain. Flooding surpassed the 1916 floods. The rushing power of water and earth came at a speed no one had expected. We were not ready for it or the devastation to follow. We were beyond blessed by the good Lord in Franklin, NC. Our family lost internet and cell service but we had power. 5 days before the hurricane arrived my hubby had 3 trees cut down as he was thinking about getting Starlink due to internet not being reliable in our area. God knew we needed them gone. After the storm we walked our property to see what had been damaged and what needed to be repaired to assure our driveway was passable to reach the outside world. To my amazement we had mammoth oaks that had been completely uprooted causing a dominoe effect. As one colossal oak fell it would take 4-5 smaller trees down snapping their trunks as if they were twigs. The 3 trees my husband had previously had cut illuminated the true blessing we were given. If it were not for the company squeezing us in we would not have had a home. The location of each tree created a triangle around our home. Knowing how the large oaks fell mere inches from the remants of the cut trees showed us they would have certainly fallen on our bedroom, the 2nd story where our children slept, and our living room. We were protected with a heavenly bubble. All the trees had fallen around our home and not on it. I was in shock. We did not have a landslide, which is my biggest fear. A few years ago we had one that obliterated our driveway but again our home was saved. Once the initial shock wore off the survivior guilt began to settle in. Without cell service or internet we had no idea what was going on in the world, let alone in our own community. When we were able to leave our home to drive into town we were able to finally learn about our surrounding areas. Our schools were closed, there was flooding, no cell service, and numerous power outages. Thank heavens the public library and the Verizon store had public wifi and Starlink available. We were able to tell our families we were safe. As the community pulled together to help each other remove debris and clear roadways we began to hear and learn about our neighbors on the other side of the mountain. Haywood County, Bumcombe County were destroyed and unpassable. People were missing and there still was no way to communicate. In a blink our local churches began humanitarian efforts. We had distribution centers set up collecting water, cleaning supplies, food, everything. We were moving at warp speeds to help our neighbors and displaced families. It was a week before we returned to school. I missed my students and was so grateful to see each and everyone of them. I focused my attention on being a mama bear to my babies and my students. We played games, watched movies, colored. Anything to bring a little joy into their lives as they faced this new version of the Appalachian mountains. I do not know how or if we will ever truly recover from this hurricane but I know we are WNC Strong. As I processed all of the things I could not handle being on social media. I wanted so much to promote my book and shout to the heavens how blessed I am but it just didn't feel right yet. Now I am slowly coming back. Taking baby steps. It is so difficult to move on knowing that a town 45 mins away is still reeling from Helene and looks like a scene from the Hunger Games. I want to do more. We have donated, celebrated my daughters' Quince and invited friends to have fellowship and forget for a moment the world outside. If you have read this far, first and foremost- Thank you. Next I ask that you share my story. I would love to take a portion of my book sales and donate them to Samaritan's Purse. They have been a driving force in WNC. I hope the donation I am able to provide will help them buy the items they need to continue to help those in need. As winter approaches our WNC people need coats, warm homes, and hope. Between the months of October and November I will donate a portion of my book sales of "Solasta: The Highlander Fae" to Samaritan's Purse to help survivors of Hurricane Helene. #WNCstrong #Samaritanspurse #solastathehighlanderfae #hurricanehelene #selfpublished