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A reader friend ( @ kelleynnn) alerted me to the fact that Authorstrator started 1 year ago today! Thanks Kelleynn! Has it been one year already?! I had planned to mark the occasion with a ZSH triple chapter drop and a post about summer creativity but THEN I ended up with a story to tell, as well as an explanation on why my post is a day late. (Iβm still going to drop the ZSH chapters today, donβt worry.)
So here it is. About a week ago, someone replied to the Authorstrator Chat with a gross comment that had nothing to do with the discussion at hand or Authorstrator n general and read very much like a bot out to cause mischief, as bots do (and not helpful for the case in favor of AI, Iβm just saying). Anyway, DELETE, block, moving on.
And THEN yesterday morning, while I was putting the finishing touches on my creativity post, I started getting A LOT of emails from Substack (well, a lot for me). All new subscribers. This was weird. I hadnβt posted anything in a while and if I get a new subscriber it's one every couple weeks. And I immediately thought of that mischief bot message. Something was going on.
I asked my computer savvy husband what he thought of the situation and he frowned and said that I was right, it was strange.
So then I hit the google and searched to see if I could find an answer to my problem and found that bots can start subscribing people unwittingly to other peopleβs newsletters! Why would a bot do such a thing? Who knows, but the point is - surely this was the problem Authorstrator was facing. If I sent out my creativity post, all these new, nonconsenting subscribers were going to be hit with my newsletter nonsense and be really upset. No, no. I couldnβt have that.
So I contacted Substack IT and laid out my problem. I decided to hold off on the post until I could free the bot subscribers from the newsletter hell they had found themselves in.
And then I got a message from Substack:
Oh wow! Said I. Authorstrator is a featured publication!?!
And thenβ¦..
Ohβ¦..
SO - on that note: Hi new subscribers! I am so happy you are here!Β
I suppose thereβs a lesson in here somewhere. Perhaps I need to have more confidence in myself, in my writing so that my first instinct is NOT suspicions of bot activity when people sign up for my newsletter. Because the truth is, I deal with crippling imposter syndrome and donβt we all? No matter how many books I publish, I always find myself battling the feeling that Iβm an imposter. The idea that anyone besides my mom and my cousin (hi mom! hi cousin!) would be interested in what Iβm writing is a hard one to embrace. But I still put myself out there in the hopes that someone will read it. Isnβt that what we all do when we put our words, our art, our ideas out into the internet void? Itβs an exercise in hope. Maybe, if Iβm going to be hopeful, I need to be less skeptical too.
Or maybe the lesson is just that I need to stop bothering the IT department.
Whatever the case, whether youβre new here or have been here a while, thank you. Iβm so glad you found your way to my little corner of the internet. And I want to hear from you! Head to the Authorstrator Chat to introduce yourself, and meet the Authorstrator community. Or reach out in the comments and let me know what youβd like to see in an Authorstrator post - writing, art, tutorials, tips, you name it! Iβm always excited to hear from readers and their suggestions so donβt be shy!
Doodle
I thought Iβd share a little process of our cupcake birthday girl!






As you can see, I couldnβt quite get the arms working in the original position I had wanted to do. Darn foreshortening.
What Iβm working on
Zombie Shark Highway triple chapter post is coming your way!
Chapter 2 is already up and you can read it here!
If you havenβt read the first chapter, you can find it here.
Also, the ebook is ready so if for any reason you wanted to read ahead of the posting schedule, you can join the Goody Tier to access it!
Iβm working hard on trying to get as much of my Wizard of Oz project complete before summerβs end and my writing buddy and I are doubling down, putting the pressure on each other to get our respective WIPs done. Which means Iβ should do a post about writing buddies and how important they are.
What Iβm reading:
Iβm reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman and Move Fast and Break Things by Jonathan Taplin.
Substack posts I recommend:
Amazing post by
And this one from Disconnect by
And lastly, no, I havenβt seen Barbenheimer. Not yet. Have you?!
Authorstrator turns 1! π
Iβm so happy for you! You deserve all of it β€οΈβ€οΈβ€οΈ
A year? That's great! Congrats! Just read the first two chapters and enjoyed them. (You should do a graphic novel with me.)