The Motherhood Mental Load vs. Word Counts: Finding “The Pocket” When Life Doesn’t Pause for Your Chapter
Nobody tells you that some of your best writing happens in twenty-minute windows between school runs, snack requests, and someone needing you right now. But they do. And learning to find those windows changed everything. It is 8:47 in the morning. The school run is done. My four-year-old has been dropped at his program. My […]
Music for the Shadows: A Curated Playlist to Get You Into the Headspace for Writing Dark Fiction
I want to tell you something I’ve never said in a blog post before. Music saved me before writing did. I mean that literally. There were years, long ones, loud on the inside and very quiet on the outside, when the real world got to be too much. Too heavy. Too loud in the wrong […]
The Female Veteran’s Lens: Writing Strong Female Leads Who Aren’t Just “Tough,” But Realistically Resilient
Let me ask you something. When you picture a strong female character in a novel, what do you actually see? If the first image that arrives is a woman who never flinches, never breaks down, never needs anyone, who walks through explosions and betrayal and loss and somehow comes out the other side without a […]
Raising Warriors While Healing a Ghost:
You don’t have to be fully healed to be a good mother. But nobody tells you that. So I’m telling you. There is a version of me that wakes up in the middle of the night. Not because of a sound downstairs or a child calling out. Just… awake. Alert. Heart doing that thing it […]
From Journal Pages to Published Author: How I Got Here And Why I’m Just Getting Started
Some dreams don’t arrive on a schedule. They arrive exactly when you’re ready for them. I. Am. A. Published. Author. If you’d told me even two years ago that I’d be sitting here writing those words, that my book would be live on Amazon, that my pen name would exist in the world for real […]
She Served Too: The Mental Health Crisis Nobody Is Talking About Enough
Women are the fastest-growing segment of the veteran population. So why do so many of us still feel like we don’t exist? I’ve shared pieces of my story here before. the journals, the Army, the hinted long road to healing. But today I want to zoom out, because my story isn’t unique. Not even close. […]
She’s Here. She’s Real. And She’s Just Getting Started:
Introducing The Ice Queen Ascension — My Debut Novel and the Series Behind It My first published novel is live, it’s real, and I’m genuinely not over it. Here’s everything you need to know about the book, the woman at the center of it, and why this is only the beginning. Okay. I have to […]
Why I Chose the Name Leigh Nightshade
The meaning behind the Name When people first see the name Leigh Nightshade, they often assume it’s just a fantasy pen name, something mysterious or gothic to fit the genre. And on the surface, that’s true. It does sound like someone who might write about dangerous magic, powerful queens, and shadowy worlds. But the truth is, […]