For the last two years, I’ve been working with the team at Epic Originals to help curate a line of short stories for the series Animal Rescue Friends. While the individual stories have been releasing digitally on the Epic app, it’s also been announced that the stories will be collected in a book!

Coming this fall, Animal Rescue Friends: Learning New Tricks is all about…

“The Animal Rescue Friends gang is back with ten sweet tales about their furry, feathered, and flying friends!

Join Bell, Maddie, Noah, and the rest of the Animal Rescue Friends as they learn to love an affectionate rat named Whiskers, find Sergio the tortoise a forever home that’s just his speed, fall for the antics of a chatty parrot with a familiar name, and more! Along the way, they make a few new friends and learn that everyone—even insects—can sometimes use a helping hand.”

Doesn’t that sound delightful?! That’s because it is! It features creators like Megan Kearney, Barbara Perez Marquez, Ellen Crenshaw, Shadia Amin, Gillian Goerz, Katie Longua, Brian McLachlan, and more! You can preorder a copy now to have it the moment it’s available!

ANIMAL RESCUE FRIENDS: LEARNING NEW TRICKS will be available on November 7, 2023.

PRE-ORDER NOW!

I can’t believe yet another month has passed us by. While January was a slow crawl, February zoomed by. Somehow, we’re already a week into March now. Continuing the trend of an emotional rollercoaster, the last few weeks have been filled with ups and downs.

For instance, on one hand, I got to see that a collection of short stories that I curated and edited for Epic Originals’ series Animal Rescue Friends will be published later this year! The book is called Learning New Tricks and features talented creators like Megan Kearney, Gillian Goerz, Barbara Marquez Perez, Katie Longua, and so many more. I’m beyond proud of the work I did on this project and I can’t wait for people to get their hands on it.

On the other hand, this marked the last bit of editorial work and story consulting that I’m doing with Epic for the time being. It’s been one of my most beloved projects for the last two years and I’m mourning the comfort and stability of that right now. Even while being so happy, proud, and fulfilled. Nevertheless, stay tuned for more details on that project and the launch of it.

While I still don’t have a lot of updates for other projects I’ve been teasing for a while, I should have more details soon. Both Pillow Talk and Racc Pack are drawing nearer and nearer though! Last week I even got to see the first final pass of Racc Pack and while I can’t say much, I can say that it looks incredible. Whitney knocked the art out of the park, and our book design team are doing such a phenomenal job. So again, stay tuned! Hopefully in the next Blogletter, I’ll have more to share.

And honestly, there’s not much more going on! I’ll be able to share some upcoming appearances and visits I’ll be doing soon. But while my work obligations are quiet, I’ve been trying to make time for my friends and loved ones. I went to Demand Lucha last month, did a couple of trivia nights (came in third and second, respectively!) and I made some cursed puppets (well, mine looks cursed) with my partner. Plus I read a bunch of great stuff and minimally watched some TV, so let’s dive into all of that!

TV:

I honestly didn’t watch a ton last month. Well, I did but it’s mostly stuff I’ve started and hasn’t wrapped yet like The Last of Us. And Taskmaster…and a lot of reality TV like MILF Manor, which is too cringey even for me, and 90 Day Fiancée.

My fave from the above list though was, The Other Two. It was so funny and very bingeable! I hadn’t even heard of it until my partner found it and told me to check it out…which I did, obviously. The whole cast is great and it’s a lot of fun to watch the titular “other two” as they try to navigate the newfound fame within their family.

Moving onto books…

BOOKS:

As I mentioned last month, I’ve pared this back a bit to include only the books and graphic novels that I read and have something to say about. Mostly, this is now a section for the books and graphic novels that I recommend. So, with that being said, I read a few more things that I didn’t write up reviews for. You can find my full reading list on Goodreads or Storygraph.


That’s it for me right now. I think I say this every time, but hopefully I’ll have more to share with you soon and I’ll see y’all around the internet.

Stay safe out there and thank you—as always—for your love and support.