I’ve worked in book production my entire career and I hate that shiny crap. A good cover doesn’t need it, so pay what you can for the design; it’s what lasts once all the jewellery has to be taken off. And none of it says anything about the quality of the content anyway.

I've been working on a cozy fantasy novel about a bunch of outsiders and "monsters" all finding themselves renting rooms in the same house and having to learn to trust each other. There's romance, found family, neurodiversity, queerness, and the MC is a harpy.

here's me holding on for dear life to the last iPhone model that still had a home button

Congratulations!!! My group, which was meeting regularly once every six weeks or so, has been postponing the final session for four months now and I'm starting to lose hope

Being an unpublished nobody, not quite, but I do get exhilarated that I get to read their work as it comes out. I got that feeling from your book, actually!

Also I was once, in Paris(!), stopped by an incredibly stylish French man who *gushed* about good how I looked (mostly hairstyle-related I believe) for several sentences. All I understood was that I looked like a singer apparently. Not my own personal achievement, but great for confidence!

A woman once told me the piece I’d delivered at a storytelling event brought her to tears