Becky Allen Books

Fantasy writer. Not a morning person.

Author: allreb

allreb

  • My shadow falls over a sidewalk where someone has painted 'It's a BEAUTIFUL day' the day the 2020 election was won by Biden

    On a new year and a fresh start –

    Hi friends, Happy new year! Welcome to 2021, and good riddance to the hellscape that was 2020. Though that feels weird to type for a variety of reasons, but especially because nothing actually changed except a digit in the date. It isn’t a big change. But it feels big, and naysaying that feeling just seems…

  • On (not) finishing projects –

    Hi friends, Well, March was quite a month, huh? I almost don’t believe it’s over. I have no idea what April will bring, or May, or… You know what, I’m not really going to talk much about current events, except to say that I am fine, and doing about as well as anyone can be…

  • An instagram screenshot where I talk with a classroom of students

    Rereading my own work –

    Hi friends, It started with career day. My sister/roommate is a high school teacher and once a year I get invited to take part in her school’s career day, and spend a morning talking to kids about my career. I go back and forth between talking about my day job in tech and my creative…

  • On ideas and anxieties —

    Hi friends, I have some happy personal news, which is so simplistic it probably doesn’t count as news at all. It’s this: writing has been going well. Last month I put out my single annual blog entry, where I total up my writing stats… and in 2019, I wrote considerably more than I had in…

  • Recovering from Burnout: 2019 by the Numbers

    2019 marks the fifth year I’ve tracked my writing and done a summary of it.

  • On resolutions, and rebuilding –

    Hi friends, Happy new year! Welcome to the 20s! And look – it’s January 1, so I’m going to talk about resolutions and goals and planning, because of course it’s on my mind. Though first I want to say that I have a weird tension about goal setting and resolutions and whatnot, because I don’t…

  • A messy notebook page broken into four columns, each representing 25% of a story outline

    I’m going to throw my laptop out a window…

    Hi friends, I hate my writing process.  I mostly try to avoid writing about writing in these updates, because there are about a bajillion other newsletters out there that are for writers. I don’t think I have much I can add to the genre. But this has been on my mind a lot, because even…

  • On swimming and anxiety –

    Hi friends, I swear I did not mean for this newsletter to be a journey of my personal attempts at self-improvement. Oh boy does that sound obnoxious. Instead what I set out was to just write about what was on my mind every month (and yes, I have failed at that “every month” part, but…

  • Coming back from burnout… slowly.

    Hello friends – Two months ago I wrote to you all about having a hard time writing, and the way it feels like my brain has changed after the depressive spell that ate a year of my life. After that letter, a few friends reached out to me about facing similar challenges, so it seems…

  • When your brain changes –

    Hi friends, I’m going to talk about writing. I love writing, but this is not a love letter, because more and more lately I’ve realized that I enjoy writing less and less, and that kind of sucks. But here we are. When I think about what it’s like to love writing, I actually think about…