Jacque Stevens

Khoury was first introduced to me on a podcast where she was called a Fantasy Worldbuilding Expert (very official). I like fantasy with good worldbuilding, and her Mystwick books were being pushed by Audible around the same time, so I decided to give her a try. Mystwick is an upper middle grade magical academy series along the lines of Harry Potter, and I loved it. I made my sister listen to it with their kids, and they all loved it too. I especially recommend the audio editi

I have been talking about my experience trying out the Morning Pages routine from the Artist’s Way, and now I want to talk about “Artist Dates.” These are weekly outings where you do something that catches your interest artistically and feeds your muse, unconnected to any work you might be doing more professionally. Some examples might be attending a class that interests you. Learning a new hobby. Working on a craft/artistic project just for “fun.” Exploring a garden/hiking..

Last week, I talked about how I have adapted a Morning Pages routine from the Artist’s Way into my daily and weekly schedule. This is something I have done for just over a month now, so I wanted to talk briefly about the benefits I have noticed (so far) and maybe I will check in again sometime when I have some long-term results. 1. Increased Creativity/Word count. After being stuck on the same two writing projects for a while, I started the Morning Pages to see if thi

Because I work night shifts still, my schedule is often varied and upside down. I cannot claim to have a consistent morning routine—or even say where my “morning” officially begins and ends most days. However, this is how I have chosen to approach Julie Cameron’s morning pages from the Artist’s Way, no matter what time I end up doing them: 1. Start and End with Prayer: I could probably do several posts on how and why I do this, but for now I’m going to pretend it’s self-

It may go without saying that I have been away from social media and posting about my books for a while. Basically, for the last year since the Swan Bride came out. I still was writing, but for whatever reason, it just wasn’t as fun as it used to be. It was slow and honestly a bit discouraging, so I let myself get pulled away by other goals—making it even slower. I kept missing my usual word-count numbers and even had to cancel a preorder I posted last year, knowing that I wo