The Anxious Author

  Not every author's journey is smooth sailing. Honestly, if yours is you should be eternally grateful, for you've been hand-picked by the gods to be pampered. Like with every form of art, there will always be critics that try to tear you down and destroy your reputation. How you respond to them can make or break you as an author. Your readers are watching you and how you react.      Amber M. Kestner, the author of lesbian romance fiction, has dealt with more drama in her time as an author than any other author I know personally. That drama has made her stronger, resilient, and determined to stand firm for the LGBTQ+ community.      Originally born in Flordia, Kestner currently resides in West Virginia. She's made it her mission to write stories for the LGBTQ+ community (with an emphasis on the lesbian community) that lets them know they aren't alone.       "Coming out is hard enough in society and actually reaching an audience that has the struggle of coming out t

           Oftentimes in the world of writing, fantasy is written off as an unserious genre. The truth of the matter is that fantasy explores serious themes in a fun way.      Fantasy readers get pushed into boxes full of uncomfortable stereotypes. Such as the adult nerd who lives at home with their parents and plays Dungeons and Dragons every Friday night. Hurtful. Other stereotypes in the same box are the quiet introvert and the socially awkward homeschooler. These stereotypes are looked down on by society but are intelligent beyond belief. They're scholars. They think in abstract thoughts and are fluent in symbolism.      You can probably guess that I'm a huge fantasy nerd. Being an author of young adult fantasy, I kind of have to be. Tolkien, Lewis, Bioware, Bethesda, Magic the Gathering, LARPing, cosplaying...I know what they all are. I'm fluent in geek-speak. I can tell you how to ward a home against demons but I can't tell you what 9x7 is. Actually, that's 63

      (Please Note: This post contains slight spoilers of Rachel Smythe's Lore Olympus .)      Once again, I am behind schedule on blog posts. At this point anything I tell you will feel like an excuse, so just know that I am trying my best over here. I almost didn't do a March Book of the Month. I was discouraged after how February went, but part of life is getting back up when you fall and it's no different in the author and reader community. We all have our ups and downs.      January's author spotlight, Book of the Month, and giveaway went over amazingly in my reader groups, but February didn't bring in any entries. It was saddening. I'm not sure why my reader interaction has gone down. I've increased my media presence and have been doing giveaways as much as possible to bring in more readers to my page and the pages of our monthly author spotlights.      March's spotlight was Carrie Weston and I'm hoping you all gave it a read. She's a great