Greetings from SD County Fair!

A lovely review for AIRRELLE OF THE MAROON WITCHES came in from Booklist this month:

Airrelle is ready to start her magical journey and finally become a witch like everyone else in her family. Having grown up in Missen Dessalin, a place created by enslaved and other marginalized folks, 12-year-old Airrelle is surrounded and protected by magic, with very little experience of the outside world. Her witch trials take her far from her home, where she witnesses the harsh realities of the nonmagical Overside and meets a girl she can’t help but feel drawn to. Beck’s middle-grade debut is a sweet coming-of-age story that mixes the mundane with the magical. The exploration of historical maroon societies will pique readers’ curiosity, and it serves as the perfect jumping-off point for further research. [...] Reminiscent of Kiki’s Delivery Service, this fantasy tale delightfully balances whimsy and real-life issues.

A balance of whimsy and real-life is the perfect way to put it! They're also right that one of my goals with this novel is to serve as a jumping-off point for children and families to do further research into the history of maronnage. It feels good to have your artistic aims seen & understood. 🥰

 

In other news, the San Diego County Fair was delightful thanks to the Del Mar Fairgrounds staff and their exhibit theme of Once Upon a Fair. I especially loved the Scholastic Book Fair within the county fair! I would have loved to return for multiple story-time readings!


(I would also have returned to the petting zoo because I love goats. 🐐)

Look at this goat! He’s so silly! So stubborn! So pretty! So perfect! Eats whatever he wants and doesn’t afraid of anything

My next event will be a Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Masterclass on July 21st with The Clarion Foundation. Endless thank yous to Jac Jemc for the invitation to present! Tickets are linked here.

That weekend, I hope to serve on a Comic-Con panel with the wonderful folks of Mysterious Galaxy (my favorite local bookstore) and Meet Cute (Friday, July 24th). I'll be signing books the (Satur)day after, on July 25th.

More events are coming up soon!

Big thanks to Holiday House Publishing. for the support. Sarah Howard Parker has been making it happen!

PS: My former writing mentor William Alexander has a new book out, Sunward. I’m excited to read it!
I’m also currently 5 books deep into the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, which has critiques more structural and solutions more collaborative than those practiced by internet leftists. I took a break from reading George Saunders’ Vigil (less audiobook-friendly than Lincoln in the Bardo, so I’ll need to buy a hard copy too) to read Putnam’s Bowling Alone.
Oh, and SZA is baby girl.

’Til later!

Greetings from LinkedIn!

Recently, I've been more focused on doing big things than sharing the big things I've been doing, so I've got a few overdue life updates to share.

Most notably, my debut Middle Grade novel AIRRELLE OF THE MAROON WITCHES comes out on July 14th of this year with Holiday House Publishing.

Pre-orders are officially open, and you can get your copy from:

...Or wherever books are sold! (I prefer indie bookstores, but you can also request it at your library.)

The School Library Journal describes it as a story of magic that "interweaves themes of acceptance and belonging, with inspiration drawn from historic maroon societies of escaped enslaved people who thrived in secret communities. Despite being non-magic, readers will find ways to relate to Airrelle and her experiences. The magical elements are cute and fun, and the relationship between Airrelle and the supporting characters is sweet."

I love it when reviewers pull out the elements I poured my sweat, tears, and thesis hours into. I'm excited to see readers discover the worldbuilding, relationships, and cultural Easter Eggs.

That said, I am actively looking to connect with more kid lit writers and am always open to collaborations.

I've recently joined the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association as I prep to begin hosting readings, school visits, and library events. I may or may not have signed up to read at the San Diego County Fair, for example. 👀

Greetings from Instagram!

Happy Aries season!

Just popping in to share that my book AIRRELLE OF THE MAROON WITCHES has a review from Publishers Weekly, who calls it a “tender tale of hope and belonging”.


Preorders are open, so feel free to buy a copy for the young people in your life who want to experience a story of magic rooted in rebellious Black History. It’s available wherever books are sold!

In my personal life, I have turned 38, moved in with my partner, and started a new job!

Recently, I’ve trying to confront alexithymia by listening to my body more. I used to faint several times a year, and I think overextending myself was why. 😮‍💨

My body has been telling me “I have difficulty with transitions, but you’re making me do all of this at the same time? And a Business Intelligence Analysis Certificate? I passed Intro to SQL with 98% even while packing and job searching. Please acknowledge my hard work before you move on to the next task. 😡 Or your skin will break out again.”

I responded by feeding my body some Shawarma Guys and lots of good tea, watching comfy anime like Journal with Witch and Frieren, and reading lots of David Graeber and Dungeon Crawler Carl. Because my life feels so up-in-the-air right now, I don’t plan to return to social media until I feel more stable—and even then, I’ll probably be focused on book promo.

Til next time! Abayo!

hyperindependent women part II

My perfectionist behind has finally completed the Google Data Analytics capstone and it can be seen here or here as well as my GitHub portfolio. This project makes it look like I can code in Python, but I don’t yet believe that. I need to take another course to be sure.

Similarly, while the Google cert hypothetically taught me R, I want to do another project or take another class until I believe I can use it.

That said, I've completed enough courses on Tableau that I’m three-fourths done with my next cert!

I’ll be keeping my completed homework assignments on my Tableau Public page with the assumption that there’s nothing wrong with transparency as you learn.

I find Tableau quite fun! I plan to add more projects with greater style, complexity, and skill. Likely, the rest of the SDStories will be hosted here. I’ve long known what kind of visualizations I want to use (sankey, chord, dumbbell chart, dendrogram/tree, etc…). Now that Tableau is becoming intuitive to me, I feel like I’ll be able to do these more quickly.

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A Hiatus Hopes to Conclude Soon ~ Data Analysis Quickie!

I was discussing the state of racial inequality in CA versus MN with my dad, and I sent him this November 2024 article on The Worst States for Black Americans as support for my arguments. For this project, I spent a couple of hours extracting the data, converting it to a spreadsheet, and turning those spreadsheets into charts and visualizations to put in perspective how my state is treating me.

Let’s count our blessings with facts and logic!

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A Hiatus Continues? ~ What I'm reading ~

My perfectionist behind has finally completed the Google Data Analytics capstone and it can be seen here or here as well as my GitHub portfolio. This project makes it look like I can code in Python, but I don’t yet believe that. I need to take another course to be sure.

Similarly, while the Google cert hypothetically taught me R, I want to do another project or take another class until I believe I can use it.

That said, I've completed enough courses on Tableau that I’m three-fourths done with my next cert!

I’ll be keeping my completed homework assignments on my Tableau Public page with the assumption that there’s nothing wrong with transparency as you learn.

I find Tableau quite fun! I plan to add more projects with greater style, complexity, and skill. Likely, the rest of the SDStories will be hosted here. I’ve long known what kind of visualizations I want to use (sankey, chord, dumbbell chart, dendrogram/tree, etc…). Now that Tableau is becoming intuitive to me, I feel like I’ll be able to do these more quickly.

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A Hiatus

It's been a while! I'm just going to give you an update before I say goodbye for a couple weeks or months.

On the data analytics front, I recently completed a SQL certificate with honors. I had started to doubt my skills in SQL, so completing this course was useful for me to reaffirm my knowledge. I still need to develop a project that will let me show off my SQL abilities on my resume.

Secondly, I've started a different course focused on Tableau. I similarly have been doubting my Tableau skills so I wanted to take the course focusing on data visualization. I ended up signing up for the entire 8-course certificate (I'm 3/8ths through!) so let's work this big ole brain and see how quickly I can finish it—and with an A, of course.

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In any case, the writing and the job search are currently battling for highest priority in my life while data analytics will take a backseat until I feel more economically stable.

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