Warm welcome to our new listeners! Head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/ to watch Libba Bray's Instagram takeover filled with exciting behind-the-scenes footage of her writing life!  --------------------------------------- Curious to discover how leaning into your emotions can strengthen your writing? How about the actionable steps to reach your writing goals? Or tips for creating a financially viable marketing plan for your novel? We talk about it all and much more with Akemi Dawn Bowman. Akemi is the award-winning author of "Starfish", "Summer Bird Blue", and her newly released novel "Harley in the Sky" which just released on March 10th. It’s been particularly hard on our writing and book community, so please show support however you can, and if you are able, order a copy!  She is also a Ravenclaw and Star Wars enthusiast, who served in the US Navy for five years and has a BA in social sciences from UNLV. We kick off our conversation discussing her career path from joining the navy to falling back in love with writing, and ultimately pursuing storytelling full-time as a published author. We discuss how she developed the perseverance to grapple with all the rejections that come along with the querying process and continue on to have a very honest conversation about her mental health, finding the right support system, and how to be a great ally for others. We then dive into how she juggles being the best mom she can to her children, showing up as a partner to her significant other, and a writer while maintaining a healthy mental state by prioritizing what’s most important to her, giving herself permission to slow down and take breaks, and cutting out toxic relationships both in-person and online. She shares how leaning into her emotions helps her craft such beautiful and immersive stories, how her writing voice and character development has changed throughout her career, and her experience being an author with multiple published novels. And later, we get into some real-talk about book sales, contracts, and self-marketing. We wrap up the conversation with a small but powerful step you can take to reach your writing goals.  Please say 'Hi' to Akemi on Instagram! instagram.com/akemidawnbowman/ Head over to Akemi's shownotes page at  https://88cupsoftea.com/akemi-dawn-bowman/ to download her writing prompt and to find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation.