I wrote a fantasy novel for women who felt invisible in the genre. It found them. If that might be you, come meet Lara.

Waterweaver (CHROMA Book 1)

Waterweaver (CHROMA Book 1)

f.mtr.cool

I dedicated Waterweaver to the mothers looking at life after the kids fly away. Those women found the book. I am still not over it.

I am a neurodivergent woman in her fifties writing fantasy and making things by hand and running a book club and somehow this is the most like myself I have ever felt.

Lara is 50, happily married, extremely capable, and tired. Then a baby dragon happens to her. Waterweaver on Kindle Unlimited:

Waterweaver (CHROMA Book 1)

Waterweaver (CHROMA Book 1)

f.mtr.cool

We pick books with older protagonists, complex worlds, and stories that take women's inner lives seriously. Also sometimes dragons. Always sometimes dragons. - Wise Woman’s Fantasy Book Club. 

The neighborhood cat family showed up one spring and just never left. Now they're part of the garden the same way the roses are.

Readers keep telling me they finished Waterweaver in one sitting. I take no responsibility for lost sleep. Kindle Unlimited has it.

Waterweaver (CHROMA Book 1)

Waterweaver (CHROMA Book 1)

f.mtr.cool

There's something about creating in the same room as other people that a screen just can't replicate. That's the whole heart of the workshops and the Writers Circle.

Scribes Guild is a free Discord for writers at every stage - no genre requirement, no publication requirement, just people trading real talk about the writing life. Come find us.

If your KU library needs a fantasy with no chosen one and no love triangle, just a woman doing the thing because nobody else was going to, Waterweaver is right here.

Waterweaver (CHROMA Book 1)

Waterweaver (CHROMA Book 1)

f.mtr.cool

The amigurumi are supposed to be a traffic draw at markets. They are also just very fun to make. I'm not sorry.

I homeschooled four kids, published two fantasy novels, run a book club, make zipper pouches, and crochet tiny animals. My ADHD would like you to know it is not a liability.

Waterweaver is free to read on Kindle Unlimited. A midlife woman, a dying town, and a baby dragon who naps through emergencies. If that sounds like your kind of quest, it is waiting.

Waterweaver (CHROMA Book 1)

Waterweaver (CHROMA Book 1)

f.mtr.cool

The thing nobody tells you about the empty nest is that you get yourself back. Grief first. Then yourself. Worth it.

We've got a small family of neighborhood cats who claimed our yard this year - a mama and two babies who spend their afternoons hunting beetles like it's the most serious job in the world.

Whether you're drafting, revising, querying, or stuck on chapter three for the eleventh month in a row - Scribes Guild is the free writers' Discord for that. Come join us.

Rantoul Illinois is a small town and I have built a publishing imprint, a book club, a handmade goods brand, and a creative community from here. Location is mostly a state of mind.

I have a Procreate app and approximately no formal art training and I am having a wonderful time.

I have started roughly one thousand creative projects in my life. I used to feel bad about the ones I didn't finish. Then I published a book and changed the metric.

Playful Spirits started as just me making things for fun. It's slowly becoming an actual workshop series - come make something with your hands, together, in person. More soon.

The chaos garden is not a metaphor. It is literally my yard. The metaphor came later.

The best thing about the Wise Woman's Fantasy Book Club is watching women realize they are not the only ones who felt like fantasy left them behind. They were never alone.

Calmillusion. Calm from my middle name Cerene. Illusion from Maya. A publishing imprint built from the meaning of my own name.

50 felt like a beginning and I did not expect that. Lara didn't either. We figured it out together.

First draft of Echoweaver is about half done. It is messy and alive and I love it in the way you love something that keeps surprising you.

I make zipper pouches and amigurumi and bookmarks and paintings and fantasy books and grab bags and somehow this is all one brand. The chaos garden is the brand.

I am the author, the artist, the publisher, the market vendor, the book club host, and the person who forgot to water the garden again. This is the indie creative life and I love it.

If you're working on something - a novel, a memoir, a first chapter you've rewritten nine times - Scribes Guild is a free Discord full of people who understand exactly that feeling. Come hang out.

Fleck's official species name is Pelanor. His unofficial job title is Chaos Agent. He is very good at both.

Susu supervises everything I make. Her feedback is mostly slow blinks and strategic positioning on top of whatever I'm working on.