Author: Yolandie Horak
-
March Writing Update
I wanted to start this post with something witty, but then I remembered my actual writing-related news and needed a moment to celebrate. It’s been a journey, friends. Setback after setback made me hate A Curse of Venom & Scales for a moment there, but I’m ECSTATIC to announce we’re back on track. What’s fourteen…
-
Tips for Changing Genres
I grew up reading Tolkien, Lewis, and Eddings, and if you read my work, you can see how those OG wizards influenced my writing. I tend to tell a slower story—the intrigue unfolds in increments. And that’s okay because I write epic fantasy, and we expect a fair amount of world-building and setting up from…
-
Let’s Craft – Punch Needle Art
I’ve been eyeballing punch needles for a good while now. Last year, I even purchased a punch needle kit from Michaels, but sadly the kit didn’t include the actual punch needle and the one I bought isn’t big enough to accommodate the yarn. I was thrilled to receive a punch needle kit for Christmas! And,…
-
Book Review – Starling House
I stalk my friends on Goodreads, and that’s how I noticed Starling House by Alix E. Harrow. Okay, context. My reading fam enjoys vastly different genres. One of them might review a book as ‘5-stars-heart-emoji-squee!!!!!!’ while another might give the same book 1 star or a hard Did Not Finish (DNF). Since the start of…
-
I Built a Book Nook
But first, a disclaimer—this post isn’t sponsored and all opinions are my own. With that out of the way… I’ve been intrigued since I first saw NookTales book nooks in our local Discovery Hut. It just makes sense—good books take us to different worlds, so why wouldn’t we add tiny worlds to our bookshelves? We…
-
Book Review – Onyx Storm
My little fangirl heart couldn’t take it when my shiny pre-order copy of Onyx Storm arrived in the mail last Monday (and, boy, is it shiny!!!!!!!). My heart still couldn’t take it halfway through the read. Now? I think I’m dead because my heart stopped after whatever the hell that was. How, in the name…
-
ADHD & Writing
I’ve been working on this post for literal years. And if that doesn’t illustrate exactly what it’s like to be a writer with ADHD, I don’t know what will. Still, since my diagnosis, several regular readers of my blog have reached out to me to write about this topic, so I put it on my…
-
2024 in Books
After the longest and most intense reading drought of my life, 2024 was a record-breaking year for me. I consumed books as if my life depended on it. And in many ways, it did. Okay, so context. My mental health imploded somewhere during the pandemic. The last book I read (that wasn’t a storytime book…
-
Hello 2025
It’s been a hot minute, hasn’t it? The past holiday season was one of the busiest of my life. On the eighteenth of December (aaand the nineteenth and the twentieth), we moved from Calgary to Cochrane, a sweet town about half an hour’s drive outside the city. This move has been a dream for us,…
-
Photo Diary – Drumheller Hoodoos
After our trip to The Royal Tyrell Museum, we drove out to the Willow Creek Hoodoos. Hoodoos are groups of naturally occurring stone columns with caprocks. At Willow Creek, they range from 1-3m in height, and span 11 hectares. Though the Willow Creek trail isn’t very long, the sights make up for it. Some visitors…
Yolandie Horak 