Winners + Craft Week

Hi! First of all, thank you so much to everyone who shared their awesome accomplishments and entered my Birthday Giveaway. I got my STAR CURSED edit letter last week, which required some teeth-gnashing and doubting of my own awesome, so it took me a little while to respond to all the comments — but I loved reading them.

I absolutely think we are all too hard on ourselves. It’s so easy to downplay our own achievements, to be worried about sounding arrogant, to focus on what we’re still striving toward. I do it too. But to those of you who struggled to think of something, or who denied your own awesome in the same breath as you told me about it, all “Well, this isn’t really that cool” or “I haven’t done much” — no. You are awesome. I mean, all other accomplishments aside, if you are here, chances are excellent that you are a reader, and if you are a reader, chances are, you are good at putting yourself in other people’s shoes. You are empathetic and clever and imaginative and curious. Those are excellent qualities to have!

The winner of my birthday giveaway is Jessa Russo. And the winners of my swag giveaway are: Adriene, April Hunter, Jasmine Rose, Heidi Grange, and Lisa.xox. (Lisa, please email me back at cahillwitch at gmail dot com with your address so I can send you a swag pack!)

In other housekeeping news: I’ve updated my Events page to include the three summer events I’m doing — a multi-author signing in Boston on June 2, a library event in VA, and Bringing YA to PA! I’m so excited to meet more readers and authors!

Coming up, I’m planning a Craft Week on the blog. I’m fascinated lately by the hows and wheres and whens and rituals of other writers. I don’t think there’s any one right way to do it. But I’m still fascinated. So, next week (May 21-25) I’m going to write about my own when and where (along with pictures of my office) and try to explain a bit of how — how I fight my own perfectionist-y procrastination-y tendencies, my sticker method of drafting, when I involve my critique partners and beta readers, the software I use, and all of that. If there are things you’re particularly curious about, let me know in the comments!