@ToriLRidgewood Thanks, Tori! 🤗

@Myana Oh thank you! 🤗 When it's a labour of love one really wants to get it all *just* right. Glad that came through!

@MLClark I wanted to let you know that I had some trouble finding your book on Amazon. Your link in your bio worked perfectly. But first I tried searching at Amazon by your name, the writer's name, and the title of the book. None of these brought up your book.

I'm hoping that their site is just slow updating its search engines. But I wanted to mention it in case other readers have problems.

@Myana Oh, good to know! It's been out since April, but it was first in the Kindle Select program for 90 days, and wouldn't ship outside Canada, the US, and the UK during that timeline, so... there is no reason that searching for this text should be so difficult this far out. (Save for the sneaky way that Amazon tries to get authors to pay to be promoted within the site.)

I will check with indie pub friends and see about options! Thank you *so* much for letting me know! 🤗 Very kind of you!

@MLClark You're welcome! Looking forward to receiving my copy. 😍

@Myana Oh, that's so kind of you! Thank you for supporting the work! I hope you enjoy the glimpse into another time and place. There's quite a striking collision of pragmatic and deeply spiritual characters, urbanity & ruralism, the rush of modernity at the turn of the century, the hardships in life but also sometimes the beauty. If you ever get around to it, please do let me know if it was what you expected (or not!), or what it reminded you of in other literature. But either way, thanks again!

@rche_types Thanks Rita! The page is listed in my links under Translator (and below!).

Turn-of-the-20th-century Colombian realist stories with a strong Catholic edge might not be everyone's cuppa, but sharing in the joy of achievement here is still fun. 😊

Indie authors at SFWA tell me the real trick is having a back catalogue. That's when self-publication really starts to amount to sales and brand recognition. So! That's what I'm aiming for with book two.

Link below:
https://www.amazon.com/Rifle-Other-Stories-Tom%C3%A1s-Carrasquilla-ebook/dp/B09X7BL7MT

@MLClark Ordered a copy :)

@JakeA Oh, thanks Jake! That's supremely kind of you. Lots of weird takeaways, for sure, but I hope it's an interesting study in craft at least!

@MLClark Looking forward to reading this!

@rche_types Rita! That's very kind of you. Thank you. ❤️ I find it fascinating how the perspective echoes quite a bit of colonizer rhetoric, but with local elements that demand to be read on their own terms too. Would be very interested to know if it reminds you of any other lit from your own readings into the classics (or moderns!).

@thewebrecluse Hey you. I hope you're still being kind to yourself, wherever this little note finds you. ❤️

@MLClark I spent the majority of my life focusing on being kind to others and never to myself ... in my later years I'm trying to focus more on me and caring about me since none of the aforementioned people gave two shits about me in the end. I'm slowly learning to put myself first which feels insanely selfish and hollow. It's an ongoing process for me but I'm trying to do better at encouraging, instead of punishing, myself and being so doom and gloom all the time about the things I want to do.

@thewebrecluse That is incredibly hard but also supremely vital work, Elaine. 👌 I'm so glad you're giving yourself the space for it now. After so many years of habituated self-punishment, it's not going to be easy to teach the voice in your head to be kinder to you. And chances are pretty good that you'll sometimes backslide into old patterns along the way!

So one day & one brilliant act of self-care at a time, eh? It matters, as do you. ❤️

@MLClark @thewebrecluse

Just want to +1 this thought.

Doing the hard heart work is... well, hard. It's so worth it, though.

You got this, Elaine. :)