Jessica Hatch

Inside you, there are two wolves: a Waffle House and a Spirit Halloween.

Sometimes *gestures all around* THIS can make it a struggle to write. Here are five things I've started doing to help myself out. I hope they help you, too: hatch-books.com/blog/when-it-f… #newblogpost #amwriting

I can't tell if I'm just getting shown generic questions about my writing process or my TBR list because I haven't regularly tweeted in ages or because the app has gone downhill. Is this happening to writers who are habitual users of X, too?

This blog post has been in draft mode for a while, but I finally pressed "Publish." Read on for some thoughts on the shifting memoir/narrative non-fiction space, but feel free to take them with a margarita rim of salt: hatch-books.com/blog/memoir-ad…

@AuthorGFAllen I re-read the Lord of the Rings trilogy every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. In 2021, when I was caring for my mom, who has secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, after a mastectomy to get rid of breast cancer, I related to Samwise Gamgee more than I ever have.

Did a book ever help you through a hard time?

You’ll see a bunch of lists of Puerto Rican authors…and many won’t feature horror or crime writers. We also exist. We also make history.

@AuthorGFAllen Yes! Most recently after reading @katiekitamura's Audition.

Have you ever finished a book and thought, “Okay, I’m reading everything this person writes”?

@Gabino_Iglesias And don't be precious about it! The book will evolve with time, and first drafts don't have to be perfect (imho).

Don’t know who needs to hear this, but finish that first draft. Seriously.

@SohrabFracis Love the idea of "HI," Sohrab! Thanks for sharing.

@JessicaNHatch Sensible stance. FWIW, my condensed thoughts in the current Poets & Writers:

Thought I should probably publish my editing business's stance on the use of genAI. I don't want to keep current and potential clients guessing. hatch-books.com/blog/ai-statem…

Smart people have already written about the many problems of generative AI better than I could, but I’ll tell you this about the thing I know: writing is about writing. It’s an action. A verb. It’s what we do. I write, you write, they write. Skip that and you’re not a writer.

I don’t need much.. just a room with built in bookshelves, a rolling ladder, a stained glass window, an overstuffed chair, and a fireplace.

@HerringAli That I’m worth it and not an imposter. It would have made it so much easier for me to get on board with self-promotion if I wasn’t constantly second-guessing whether I deserved any attention

Hey pub people: let’s bring back Twitter of old & do some mentorship stuff for new writers still here! If you’re a pubbed author who’s “made it” (however u define: pubbed 1st book, pubbed 70th, bestseller) what’s the 1 thing you wish you knew about publishing before you started?

@goodreads I did not need to be dragged like this, but the answer is three.

How many books are you in the middle of reading right now?

@KnowingStiles lol

@JessicaNHatch Or their patio/backdoor just wide open while they’re going around the house! I saw that a lot in my pretty little liars rewatch and I was just like— is someone not ACTIVELY trying to kill you? 😭

Anyone else ever get irked when in horror movies they realize someone is outside and run to lock all the doors? Like id CHECK the locks sure—but honey angel child why are your doors not already locked in the first place? 😭

@goodreads Moby-Dick! First time through.

What are you currently reading?

@Gabino_Iglesias I recently leaned into the fact that jumping from project to project based on mood is just my process. I’m relieved to see the upside to its results in your post.

Working on different projects depending on my mood is awesome, but it also makes it easy to not finish anything so…I’m gonna finish writing three novels this year.

If you see anything about writers helping folks affected by the fires via an event, anthology, whatever, please let me know. If you don’t see anything, maybe we should get something started.