Cozy and Maple

Category: author

  • Book Update

    Book Update

    There isn’t much to report on the traditional publishing front yet. Still waiting, still wondering, still occasionally checking my email with perhaps a little too much optimism. But that doesn’t mean the book has been sitting untouched. I’ve decided that, whether traditional publishing eventually works out or not, I want to make this book the…

  • Wild Asters

    Wild Asters

    Wild Asters After months of heat,when the grass has gone brittleand the live oaks hold their leaveslike old church ladies clutching their fans,when the pavement shimmersand the afternoon feels endless the asters come. Small starsalong the roadside,from foundation borderswhere no one planted them. They do not ask permissionof the hard earth.They simply appear,quiet as a…

  • Building a Book, Part 4: Rejection

    Building a Book, Part 4: Rejection

    I thought I’d be more dramatic about it. I imagined myself opening the email, gasping, dropping my phone onto the floor and falling to my knees, weeping. Maybe a slow-motion walk to the couch. Maybe a spiral of doubt involving snacks and journaling and questioning all life choices. But instead, I was taking a break…

  • The Texture of Ordinary Life and the Women that Notice

    There is a certain kind of woman online who has become almost impossible to distinguish from the next. The same neutral living room, expensive linen dress (that she got off poshmark!), the same “slow mornings.” The same sourdough rising beside a carefully placed wooden spoon. And listen, I am not immune to any of this.…

  • Building a Book: Part 2

    Building a Book: Part 2

    I did it! I finished the first rough draft. My sweet little beginning chapter book idea is now an actual, completely typed out story with a beginning, middle, and end. I made a deal with myself that I would devote the next 6 months to trying to get it traditionally published, and if I’m not…

  • Building a Book Part 1: Why Won’t This Book Leave Me Alone?

    Building a Book Part 1: Why Won’t This Book Leave Me Alone?

    There’s a folder on my computer with a very rough draft of a children’s chapter book in it. It’s been sitting there for almost a year. I open it every once in a while. I skim a chapter or two. I close it again. And yet, here I am, still thinking about it. This book…

  • How to Self-Publish a Children’s Book

    How to Self-Publish a Children’s Book

    When I tell people I’ve self-published three children’s books using Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), the first thing they usually say is, “Wait, you can do that yourself?” And the answer is yes, you absolutely can. I also publish mine “wide”, which just means I distribute it through other stores as well (not just Amazon).…