No. 56 - Housekeeping and Reading

Welcome to the Sunday Dispatch. Twice a month, I send out a quick newsletter linking to posts I’ve written throughout the week on HelloThisIsBarbara.com and other parts of the internet. I often include updates on what I’m working on, experiences I’ve had, and more.

If you’re not familiar with me: Hello. I’m B.A. Burgess, author of some children’s books, creator of a children’s book course, and a curious, complex person. For more information, consider reading the About page.

Housekeeping

Greetings, friends - since our last email, I've relocated this website, and in the process, lost a few posts. This was entirely my fault. I disconnected my domain and removed my account from Substack before fully committing to the site's new home on Ghost.io.

This move shouldn't change how you interact with this site aside from not seeing it in your Substack feed. You will still receive the Sunday Dispatches, and you can visit the website whenever you want.

I'm sure I'll write more about this move at a later date, but it doesn't seem necessary or relevant right now. All you need to know as a subscriber is that you will still receive the semi-bi-monthly newsletter.

Now, onto the fun stuff!

Recently Read

Verity Vox and the Curse of Firefox

I don't recall adding this book to my list at the Nashville public library, but when it became available for audiobook borrowing, I immediately checked it out. It is almost autumn, and I personally am ready for all things Halloween.

This is a sweet, charming book that follows a witch in training who finds herself in the Appalachian hills working to untangle a terrible curse. When people talk about cozy books, they mean books like this with rich descriptions of nature, frequent mentions of baked goods, and even lullabies.

This YA book still has an edge to it. It isn't Stephen King-spooky; it's more of a Practical Magic situation. There is also subtle sapphic romance, which is adorable.

Bookshop.org - https://bookshop.org/a/94915/9798890032706

How to Write a Children’s Book is Old

My course, How to Write a Children's Book, is almost 8 years old. I had two new reviews for the course waiting for me in my inbox this morning, and I started to scroll back to all the other reviews, which led me to the upload date - November 2018.

I have spent these last eight years trying to decide if I wanted to still be known as a children's book author, but it doesn't matter what I want. The fact is I wrote four children's books, made coloring books, and had those children's books translated into other languages. I created a system for creating children's books and made the process easy for me, and then I shared that system of writing the books with the public in a course. It shouldn't be surprising to me or upsetting to me that some people in the world only know me as the children's book author.

There isn't anything wrong with being a children's book author, and I'm proud of the work that I did, but I don't like being pigeonholed. I don't like being just one thing, which is why this personal log is about everything that's going on, everything that I do, everything that I love, everything that I'm reading, everything.

But when I saw how old my children's book courses are, and when I see that it's still performing, meaning it's still helping people write their books with their own minds without the use of AI, I'm very proud of the work that I did. The system still works.

You can take the How to Write a Children's Book course on Skillshare, or you can read the How to Write a Children's Book book for free in the On Writing section of this blog.

It’s time to warm my coffee and do mundane but luxurious things like laundry and cleaning.

Be Excellent To Each Other,

B.A. Burgess

Verity Vox and the Curse of Firefox by

Welcome to this unofficial meeting of our book club, Reading in Public. We will start by reciting the Reader’s Oath: I shall not poo poo on someone else’s joy. The speed at which I read does not reflect my intelligence or character. It is simply a sign of my available

HELLOTHISISBARBARAB.A. Burgess