June’s been a strange month this year, unique in how busy it was but, simultaneously, in how little I worked on my books. I traveled to Porto, Portugal for a few days to see the sights and celebrate a friend’s wedding, which ended up being a wonderful—albeit brief—respite from the mundanity of my everyday life in America. I ate plenty of delicious food, enjoyed the architecture and art of the city, saw a wild peacock for the first time, and watched the Portugal vs. Congo game at a local sports pub. The trip took up so much of my mental energy and time this month, but it was worth every moment.
News & announcements
I do have a couple of announcements, though!
First, I will be a panelist for the first time at the 2026 WriteHive Annual Conference, a virtual, free conference for writers. My panel is called “A Few Strange Things: The World of an Unreliable Narrator” and will be held on Saturday, July 11 at 7:30 p.m. EDT. I’ll be speaking alongside Ashley N. Y. Sheesley, L. Marie Wood, Livia J. Elliot, and Sierra Elmore, with Patchree Jones as our moderator.
Being a panelist at conferences and conventions has been a dream of mine since I started writing with intent to publish, and I’m really excited at this opportunity. I attended a couple of panels at WriteHive Con last year and found them very helpful, so signing up to be a panelist this year was a no-brainer. I’ve blocked off the whole weekend so I can attend other panels, too. My co-speakers and I had a great time recording our panel in June, and I’m looking forward to answering everyone’s questions and chatting with attendees in the Discord server.
Additionally, I’ll be doing a live reading from The Devouring during the conference, though date and time are still TBD.
My second piece of news is that people will soon be able to buy The Devouring through The Crafty Bookstore, an online, independent bookstore that works closely with self-published authors. I will add a link to the listing on The Devouring’s page once everything is up and running. There will even be signed bookplates!
Writing update
Though I didn’t spend much time on my projects this month, I did accomplish what I set out to do. First of all, I picked a title for RewriteWIP, henceforth called What the Iron Gave Us.
I worked through worldbuilding and outlining simultaneously, as I discovered that new ideas brainstormed for the former impacted the latter and forced me to change it up. Finally, after several passes, I finished outlining the scenes for Act 1. Unfortunately, I didn’t accomplish as much worldbuilding as I wanted, thanks to my Porto trip. I’m still moving ahead with the first draft tomorrow, as I originally planned, but will likely have to do a lot of worldbuilding in tandem, in between writing sessions. That’s fine! I just hope it doesn’t slow me down.
Alpha reader feedback for The Heart Is a Weapon has started rolling in, too. So far, everything has been positive! Readers especially love the toxic romance between the main character and her love interest. The comments are energizing me to work on the third draft, but I will be good and finish Iron’s first draft before I return to Heart. Besides, not all alpha readers have gotten back to me yet.
Recent delights
- This month, I read A Light Most Hateful by Hailey Piper, and it was phenomenal. It is easily one of my favorite horror books now, one I’ll think about for many years to come. It has cemented Piper as one of my favorite authors. I’m slowly working my way through her backlist and will be buying whatever she publishes in the future.
- My husband and I have been watching the FIFA World Cup, and it will be dominating our July now that the bracket elimination has started. I always root for both the US and the Netherlands, but because of our trip, we’ve decided to root for Portugal this year, too.
A. M. Shilling 
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