Author | Wanderer | Science Nerd & Coffee Lover
The last two weeks have been a sort of runaway freight train for me at work. Coming up next weekend is my five year college reunion and my recreational dance recital.
Before that happens, though, you should get yourself over to Amazon because THERE ARE SO MANY BOOKS THAT ARE FREE!
There are plenty of great Clean Teen Publishing and Crimson Tree Publishing books available for free this weekend – check them out!
Hope & Kindness,
-ML
I have, apparently, not killed my houseplant. Which is glorious, because I was worried for a couple weeks after Mama and I re-potted him. Henry looked pretty bad for a while.
There is the high probability that I actually screamed out loud in my lab on Thursday.
First, because, THERE’S A NEW RIVERS OF LONDON BOOK COMING OUT NOVEMBER!
There’s a synopsis and the rest of the RIVERS OF LONDON covers located here. If you haven’t read this series, I highly recommend it. It’s become one of my favorites. My love of Thomas Nightingale and Peter Grant knows no bounds.
The other thing that made me happy scream in my own lab before I’d had most of my cup of coffee was this.
Now, my love of both Moulin Rouge and Aaron Tveit, separately, knows no bounds. Put them together? Cue the happy screaming and the immediate watching of this video, and the start of the plan to get myself to Boston at some point this summer because I HAVE to see this.
(So, fairly fun fact – I kinda can’t embed videos at the moment. So you’ll have to trust me and follow this glorious link to YouTube to see what, exactly, I literally yelled about.)
Trust me. I’m really excited.
I have to pop into work today for a bit, but I hope everybody’s had an awesome weekend.
Hope & Kindness,
-ML
Before this past weekend, the last time I’d been to a book fair had been when I was in elementary school and it was the Scholastic Book Fair yes it deserves the capitals and those were amazing.
This weekend was also amazing, for a number of different reasons.
One of which was that I got to meet nineteen other authors local to WNY. Some of them, like me, had only one book. Some had three or four. One guy in the corner had an entire table full complete with some sets in cellophane and he had hoodies. HOODIES.
I don’t need hoodies but damn, did I seriously think about making one of those list type t-shirts with the outlaws names on them.
Anyway.
One of my big takeaways – and something I didn’t have – was something that listed my website and my social media handles. I do have bookmarks, but those are very much LADY OF SHERWOOD focused, not so much me as an author. As a result I’m looking into getting some sort of business card. If I hear good news about an opportunity in the fall, then I’m definitely going to need them.
That sounds really cryptic, but when I have good news, I’ll share it.
I did my best with my display. I was wingin’ it, okay? I’m wingin’ this whole author thing start to finish.
And I sold some books, too. Which is exciting.
I got to chat with other WNY authors. We got to share experiences, advice, and make the event fun for everyone who came to visit. And that, at the end of the day, is what mattered most.
There were some folks taking pictures – even a couple of Facebook live streams – but I have no idea where any of that got posted, and I can’t find it anywhere. It’s out there wandering the internet somewhere, having a grand old time, probably.
In the meantime, we’re halfway through the work week, which is always a bonus.
Hope & Kindness,
-ML
Hey!
Hope your week is going well. We’re almost to the weekend! That’s a good reason to cheer.
If you follow me on Twitter and Instagram, then you probably saw this photo from Tuesday night.
Those are my tap shoes in between my work boots.
I grew up playing soccer. I love the sport. I played it for years, took a little break, wound up having heart surgery, and then went back to the sport I loved. I haven’t found somewhere to play during the winter yet, but it might happen again. Instead, when I moved out here back in 2016, I’d somehow tapped into this previously hidden well of bravery and wanted to dive even deeper. I wanted to do something I’d always wanted to do but never had the chance to because soccer and that thing I’ve always wanted to try was tap dancing.
It was a struggle that first year, I’m not going to lie. But it was also rewarding as hell to fight with something and win a little bit each week. Each new eight count was a battle to win and making it to recital – feeling good about recital – was more or less winning all the battles to get to the final boss.
This year there’s still the tap struggle, and I added jazz to the mix.
I’m not graceful. I can’t pivot. And yet on Tuesday nights starting in September I set aside the steel-toe work boots and step into the studio to try something new, and fight more battles. The jazz one I’m really not entirely sure I’m going to win, but apparently it looks pretty good and I’m doing fine for someone who’s never done this in her life and as for the tap part of it, well…that’s still one of my favorite parts of Tuesday nights. It’s also why I have “Black Velvet” stuck in my head for hours.
If you haven’t already seen it, you can check out of me and my tap teacher in the studio in a video here.
And remember, friends, it’s almost the weekend.
Hope & Kindness,
-ML
Hi Friends!
First, I hope your weekend was great mine was great up until I literally puked on Saturday night, but I’m feeling much better today and that your week gets off to a great start.
If you’re in Western New York you should absolutely come say hello and check out the awesome lineup of local authors (there’s 20 of us!) – maybe even win a Kindle. If you do live in WNY and you are planning on being there on Saturday AND you already have a copy of LADY OF SHERWOOD, I will absolutely ask you if I can sign your copy. And I’ll be handing out bookmarks.
Everybody else will also have books for sale, and you should absolutely check them out, too.
I’m really excited for Saturday, and I hope to see you there!
Happy Monday!
Hope & Kindness,
-ML
Hello friends! Welcome to the new site!
I didn’t wake up this morning with the intent to completely destroy my old website, find a new platform, and start from scratch again. That was not on my list of things to do, and yet here I am, five hours later with something that looks a little cleaner and feels more like me. I loved the gorgeous picture of Wales that was my header as much as everybody else, but that was a lot of greenery and I live in a city now.
Strike is also a thing I have access to now for blog posts, and I am a happy, happy camper.
Weebly was also incredibly difficult for me to format blog posts with, so hopefully having an easier way to do it will let me do it more. Which would be nice.
Some things are still a little under construction – I need to figure out how to add in social media links/buttons. I should get everything figured out soon, and in the meantime, feel free to poke around the corners a little bit.
But overall this does feel a little more like me, and that’s a good feeling at the end of the day.
Happy Tuesday, everybody.
Hope & Kindness,
-ML
M.L. Bilinski 