As consumers, we often rely on reviews from other shoppers before making a purchase. After all, you want to make sure what you’re buying is worth it. Like any other product, this also holds true for books. You don’t just want any book, you want the best book, and you don’t want to waste your money either. So what do you do? You read the reviews. Then later, you might even leave a review yourself. As a teenager, I occasionally left reviews for books I’d been reading. Sometimes they were glowing reviews, and other times they were less than stellar. Regardless of the rating, I viewed it as a service to people who hadn’t read those books yet. But then something happened to little teenage me that changed my perspective on book reviews…

One day I left a 4-star review for a book I’d checked out of the library. Not a bad review by any means, but I had written that I was disappointed in the ending and that was my reason for demoting a star. This is a helpful review, I thought. Then someone ‘liked’ the review and my heart sunk when I saw who it was…the author had ‘liked’ it. I was mortified. Although I hadn’t been rude and in fact had given a high rating, this was the first time I realized authors actually read their reviews. It should have been obvious, but it just never occurred to me until that moment. I always thought of reviews as a way of informing other readers about books, not as a way of telling authors what I thought of their work.

I felt a little guilty for saying I was disappointed in the book’s ending, even though it was true. It perhaps would’ve been better if I had detailed how I thought the ending could’ve been improved, and also better highlighted the things I did like. I’m sure the author was still thrilled to receive a 4-star review—hence why they clicked the ‘like’ button—but maybe I didn’t have to be so blunt. I later had flashbacks to some of the 2-star reviews I’d left for other books and just felt…icky. Could I have been nicer? Was what I said actually helpful, or just destructive? Did I hurt the authors’ feelings? I realized that when you leave a review, what you’re actually doing is giving feedback to an author that’s put a lot of time, energy, and heart into their work. And this isn’t to say you shouldn’t be honest in reviews⁠—constructive criticism is welcomed by most authors—it just means you should be mindful of the person behind the book before writing your review.

Am I against leaving book reviews? Absolutely not. Authors rely on reviews to get more sales, especially the 4 and 5-star reviews they receive. So if you love a book, definitely be sure to leave a review to help them out! And then there’s those books you thought were OK, but had just hoped for something more or different. By all means, share these opinions in reviews also, but do so with kindness as though you were talking to the authors face-to-face. In order to learn and grow as writers, authors sometimes need to hear a few negatives so that they know what to work on in the future. But what about those books you absolutely hated? Really, it’s up to you, but as for me, I can’t bring myself to leave a review on those books. If I truly hate something, I think it’s better to not leave a review at all. And besides, just because I hate a book, doesn’t mean the next reader will hate it, too. We all have different tastes and expectations when we pick up a new read.

Writing a book is difficult and takes countless hours to complete, so it doesn’t feel right for me to drag the work of a fellow author through the mud. Books aren’t like other products—they’re art. And as a way to respect fellow artists, I will never leave a 1-star review on a book.

If you have somehow managed to evade my social media spamming, then it may come as news to you that my first novel releases next week on April 21st! This is a big deal for me, especially since I’ve been gradually crawling my way out of what I consider to be a quarter-life crisis. I’ve wanted to publish this book for a very long time. I don’t dare say how long or else my readers might think I’ll never release anything again. Don’t worry though! I am committed to releasing more books in a timely and predictable manner, but you may want to hear my story.

When I graduated college in 2017, I felt like I hit a metaphorical brick wall. I was so burnt out from dedicating all my time to school that I allowed myself a well-earned break. The problem was, this break turned from weeks, to months, to even years, and once you get settled into a lazy lifestyle it’s very difficult to get out of it. I had no motivation to pull myself up and do something with my life. I didn’t need the money because my husband worked, and my own negative self-perception told me that I wasn’t really cut out to be an author despite an underlying desire to do just that.

So what changed? If I’m being honest, I’m not entirely sure. I just got to thinking more and more about where I would be five years from now, ten years from now, or twenty years from now. And then I looked back on the last five years and realized I’d done nothing. Was my life really going to be filled only with YouTube and video games? That seemed like it would only lead to regret, and honestly that lifestyle already had resulted in regret. Whether I liked it or not, I finally forced myself to get up and get to work. Long story short, I’ve now put in enough work to release my first book. So what’s next?

This summer I will be working on another standalone book. Without giving away too many details, the book will be about a teen boy who, after committing suicide, races to prevent his own death from occurring in the first place by confronting the personification of Death himself. The working title for this book is Misfits of Oblivion, and will highlight struggles that some spirits have in accepting their own deaths and moving on. It will be more ambitious than To Haunt or Be Lost, but I am very excited about it. I tentatively anticipate it will release around January 2023. The goal for all my future releases is quality over quantity, but I hope to release a book every eight to nine months (and my family and friends better hold me to it).

For this blog post I really felt I needed to call out my past self, verbalize my goals, and officially sever ties with the version of me that quit on life. This is my renewal. No more procrastination and no more excuses. It’s happening, and it’s happening now. I hope you all will join me on my journey, and I hope that if you’re experiencing your own quarter-life crisis or mid-life crisis that you’ll be able to find the motivation to make a needed change in your life as well.

In less than three weeks, my debut novel To Haunt or Be Lost will be releasing as an ebook and paperback, and in honor of the special occasion I thought I should answer the question: Do I believe in ghosts? In my debut novel, the main character, Lori, tends to lean heavily to the side of fact and reason. She needs proof—real evidence—not just speculation. If something can be explained logically, it’s not ghosts. This is juxtaposed against her cousin, Agatha, who believes in ghosts one hundred percent. She claims to see them, even talk to them, and she desperately tries to push Lori into believing in them, too. The problem is, Agatha has taken her beliefs to extreme and even dangerous levels, leaving Lori afraid to participate in Agatha’s witchcraft.

But where does that leave me? Well, there’s not really a straightforward answer. I would say I lean more towards logic and reason, much like Lori. Any time I’ve heard a strange noise there’s always a perfectly reasonable explanation. It could be the wind, or the house settling, and that door that creaked open was because the vents turned on and the air pressure changed. However, all this really means is that I haven’t experienced anything paranormal personally. I haven’t seen it, so I find it harder to believe, but there are plenty of sound-minded people out there who have been turned into believers as soon as they experienced something that their mind couldn’t explain. So, I think there’s a chance there’s ghosts, and they could be lurking around with me right now. I mean, why else would my cat stare at the ceiling like that? 

When I was a teen I was obsessed with ghost hunting TV shows. There were a lot of these shows, too. I don’t know if these sort of shows still exist, since I haven’t had live TV in years, but I do remember being completely captivated. What horrors would the hosts experience next? My obsession with these shows died out quickly though when I realized that shows like these often faked their paranormal encounters (no one wants to watch people explore a haunted abandoned hospital just to have nothing happen). And this isn’t even a new sort of hoax. Back in the day, many con artists used the technique of double exposing photographs to make it seem they caught a real ghost on camera. And don’t even get me started on Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster! If there are real photos and footage of ghosts out there, it gets buried among all the fakes.

Some people out there flip their position on this question. And I must admit that when I’m in a dark, spooky place that I become way more open minded. Why is that? I get this bad feeling in the pit of my stomach and my adrenaline starts pumping, even if there’s no hint of danger. It must be my survival instincts kicking in, or at least that’s what logic would tell me. But survive…what, exactly? I could be in a dark empty room and still have this feeling to get out now. It’s unsettling. I get this eerie sense that I’m not alone. I have to remind myself that it’s all in my head. It’s psychological, it’s natural to have fear, even if I don’t know what I’m scared of in that moment.

I now pass the question off to you. Do you believe in ghosts? Maybe you have a healthy level of skepticism like I do. Maybe you once were a skeptic, but changed your beliefs after a ghost encounter. Or maybe you always believed, because you’re very in tune with your spirituality. No matter the case, I want to hear your stories and your experiences. Make a believer of me…or not. I’m ready to hear your stories.

As a writer, it’s very important for me to keep all the chaos in my brain in order. I can become very forgetful if there’s too much to remember, so I keep a lot of lists. In fact, there are four types of lists that I keep that are of great benefit to me in my daily, monthly, and even yearly routine. My lists will certainly vary from the non-writers that read this post, but keeping lists is beneficial to people in all areas! Here’s how mine are organized:

The White Board List

In my home office, I keep a white board list. The main purpose of this list is to write down everything that needs to be accomplished this year. Some of it is related to my writing, but a lot of it is just things like “flu shot” and “taxes” that I will likely forget if I don’t have a place that reminds me, “Hey, remember you have to do this thing!” It’s incredibly satisfying to cross items off this list as the year progresses, and then I’m able to look back and see everything I’ve accomplished, which is a very welcome morale boost when I’m feeling like I’ve accomplished nothing. I also have a list on this white board of good habits I’m trying to develop, such as “exercise” and “violin practice”.

The Planner List

I love buying cute planners with stickers and motivational quotes inside. My middle school self would be very envious. Each year I buy a new planner and use it to keep track of my daily tasks. A lot of these tasks are simply chores, but sometimes I have to remind myself to send out my newsletter or write a blog post (just like this one!). It’s also pretty handy in reminding me when my hair and dentist appointments are. Some people may opt to use their phone rather than a planner for these sort of lists, which is also an acceptable way to do it.

The Hyperlink List

This is the kind of list that my self-publishing friends may have their own form of, but can certainly be adapted to other areas of interest. Because I am very new to self-publishing, there is a lot of things I’m having to learn. I ended up making a list in a Word document on my computer using bullet points and hyperlinks to organize all the online resources that have been informative to me. For example, one section of the list is for marketing, and within this section I have a bulleted list of marketing techniques and hyperlinks to websites that elaborate further on these strategies. This list will also become useful later as I learn what works and what doesn’t work, allowing me to adjust it as my knowledge grows.

The Brainstorming List

Another Word document list, but an entirely different type of creature than the hyperlink list. Writing books can be hard, and trying to remember all the twists and turns of your future stories can be overwhelming to keep track of. Fortunately, I have several brainstorming lists that I’m able to jot my ideas on so that I don’t forget those ideas later. I have lists of characters, lists of places, lists of chapter outlines, lists of major plot points…anything and everything related to the brainstorming process can be found in these lists. Once I start writing my books, these lists act as a useful guide throughout the process.

If you don’t keep lists already, and you feel like you can’t keep track of all the madness in your life, try out a few of these list suggestions! If you do keep lists, how similar are they to mine? Are there other types of lists that I did not mention? Let me know in the comments!

I’ve wanted to be an author since I was really young. Of course, my aspirations weren’t always so clear, but I often circled back to wanting to write for a living. Like most authors, there were some books I read in my youth that really stuck with me. These books helped me escape the real world for a while, and showed me the kinds of stories that could be written if I applied myself. Unsurprisingly, some of these books have similar themes to one another. Ghosts and the paranormal are a particular interest of mine, and romance also has a key role to play in some of the these stories. So without further ado, these are the books that helped shape my writing:

Molly Moon series by Georgia Byng

This was the first book series that really sparked my interest in paranormal, mysterious powers beyond normal reason. It’s a children’s book series that I read in late elementary school, and I was captured by this story of an orphan girl named Molly Moon who discovers a book on hypnosis in the library. She uses hypnosis to become a famous star, and in later books learns to time travel through hypnosis. I was enthralled. I remember being eager to go back to the library to get the next book and then the next book. Admittedly, I don’t remember most of the details of this series, as it was quite a while ago now, but I do remember that excitement I had to read about Molly Moon’s next adventure in hypnotism. This series was hugely influential in the types of books I chose to read afterwards.

The Mediator series by Meg Cabot

Most people know Meg Cabot for her wildly popular The Princess Diaries series, but I always knew her for The Mediator series. It’s a story about a teen girl named Suze who can talk to ghosts and attempts to guide them to the afterlife. When she moves to California, she discovers a handsome ghost residing in her bedroom, and he just won’t leave! You can probably tell where this story is going. While I was gripped by the romance and supernatural elements of the series, this was the first series where I really picked up on a writing style I absolutely loved! It’s witty, it’s humorous, but still has just a touch of darkness without being full-on horror. I loved Suze’s inner dialogue as she navigates through life as a mediator in a new town, and I distinctly remember thinking I want to write just like this. I’ve read this series multiple times since the first time I read it in middle school, and frankly it might be about time I pick up this series again.

The Darkest Powers series by Kelley Armstrong

This series is likely my favorite of all time. I can’t really put my finger on why, but it’s one I keep coming back to again and again. Similar to The Mediator, Chloe has the supernatural ability to talk to ghosts. Not only that, she can summon ghosts and turn them into the undead. Unlike Suze from The Mediator though, Chloe only just discovered these powers and is told she’s schizophrenic when the adults in her life learn she’s been seeing things. She’s put in a home for “crazy” kids, only to slowly discover that the other kids seem to have strangely supernatural abilities of their own. And, like many other young adult novels, there’s a bit of romance thrown in there, too. It has the same paranormal themes that drew me in like many prior books, and I quite enjoyed how relatable Chloe was as an awkward teen who just wants to fit in. I read through this series so quickly the first time through, and every subsequent time as well. The fact it was an easy read that I could get lost in greatly inspired my own desire to write.

Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen

The only book on this list to not contain anything paranormal, Flipped is a story I hold very near and dear to my heart. It’s a beautiful love story told from the perspective of two protagonists and their feelings for each other, or lack thereof. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll find the urge to reach into the pages to smack Bryce upside the head for not taking a liking to Juli sooner. I very much enjoy a good romance, and a love story so simple and pure as this one makes my heart skip a beat. If I can write a romance that I adore as much as this one, I will die happy.

What do you think? Have you read any of these books? Please share what books you love the most. I’m always happy to take suggestions on what I should read next!