2025 Leveling Up in the New Year ♥︎
✨Publishing updates and reflections✨
You can absolutely level up by slowing down. Art is all about learning control and to see perspective, that takes slowing down and not rushing with hustle culture. I recently sat down with an artist from China and she shared about how she teaches art, focusing on light, control, and perspective. It almost sounded like she was giving a karate lesson with the degree of slow, intentional focus she gave to her work.
I think we forget that in daily life. To succeed. To reach our goals. It doesn’t mean rushing, working relentlessly, forsaking our health and the world—and people—around us. I’m reading Solo Leveling (again) this year and it’s undeniable that hard work and practice get results. But one thing that manhwa doesn’t illustrate is that it’s not just repetition of an art like writing, sword fighting, or drawing that helps us improve. We also need to slow down, to remember WHY we create, to observe the world around us and interact with it for perspective. Just a few thoughts I’m churning as the New Year begins. You can level up by slowing down.
Newsletter Highlights
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💪 Leveling Up in 2025
❤️ Fundraiser to fight human trafficking
📚 January Book & Anime Recs
While I don’t know what the future holds, I do have a few plans & hopes for 2025 ⬇️
BOOKS FOR FREEDOM
This year is already off to a great start! I joined several authors to fight against human trafficking by donating proceeds from our books. I’m so glad to be able to do things like this with my art!!! If you bought a copy of Saints and Monsters last weekend, I donated my proceeds to Zoe Japan, a group that fights human trafficking in Japan. 🖤
“This was such a beautiful tale that had me hooked from the very first chapter. I love all the parallels between what makes someone a monster and the theme about the decisions we make that can either build us up or break us down. Highly recommend if you're looking for a high stakes romantic adventure with unique world building..” — Victoria Roberts
ALMOST AT 100 REVIEWS!
We are so close to 100 Reviews!! Reviews mean a lot to indie authors as they help new readers find the book and give the mysterious algorithms a push to give the book more visibility. At least, that’s the theory! Thank you to everyone who left a review! Don’t forget you can review the audiobook as well. Jane Maree did a FANTASTIC job!
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS!
I’ve been cheering for this book since it was a draft. My dear friend, Melissa Poett, has a book releasing with Quill Tree Books and this book is beautiful. If you are looking for an upper YA romantasy page turner, preorder here: THE ENEMY’S DAUGHTER
INDIE AUTHOR READING RECS!
ASHEN by HL Burke is a rugged YA Cinderella retelling set in a fantasy world with light steampunk elements. No-spice, relatively clean YA novel.
FLAME OF THE WHITE HORSEMAN by Jess K Chavez is a no-spice, clean YA book in a series called Tales of the Four Horsemen. The cover is beautiful and I’ve bumped this one up on my reading list for sure!!
"You can absolutely level up by slowing down. Art is all about learning control and to see perspective, that takes slowing down and not rushing with hustle culture"- sounds like my post today. If we are so focused on the hustle we lose the forest for the trees