Erin Madison (she/her)

I think I found my next YA MC last night while scrolling through old free writing exercises. This is definitely why I horde every random snippet I write, because I love Liv’s voice, and I was so excited to come across her in my files, and now I’m trying to work and she’s dumping her life in my head.

Ooohhh, love the spooky and cozy New England vibes of this mood board!

Me: I want to plant more flowers to make our yard super pollinator friendly!

Also me: *is terrified of anything with a stinger and can no longer use her front porch without terror but happy the bees are happy!*

Apparently today my solution to *gestures at everything* and all the disability inclusion and justice, accessibility, and general DEI work that I need to find the energy to keep doing in my little corner of the world is to order a white board.

Hallelujah, Word did not, in fact, delete this entire draft!

Most stressful 15 minutes of watching the wheel of doom spin I’ve had in a while.

Word is attempting to give me a heart attack at 1:30 in the morning when I was seconds away from being done with this pass of this draft and going to bed.

Someone pray to the Microsoft gods for me.

The problem with me trying to use YouTube shorts as a replacement for TikTok is that my YouTube account dates back to late high school, and this has made what the algorithm serves me very…chaotic.

Back to work today, and my writer brain does not understand why we are looking at a laptop screen but we are not writing.

It does not compute.

Every single time I get an MRI they ask enough times that I start to worry that somehow I do have metal in body. Metal I don’t know about that somehow popped in there when I wasn’t paying attention between my last MRI and now.

A laptop and coffee cup are shown sitting on a table in the foreground. In the background is the large window at the front of a coffee shop looking out onto a Main Street

In the foreground in the corner of a laptop and in the background is a cozy used bookstore filled with varying chairs and stacks of books

Spending the second day of my winter vacation working on book revisions from my favorite coffee shop and this cozy bookstore.

#writingcommunity

A sitting area in an office including a couch, coffee table, and two chairs. On the walls are lit shelves showcasing Penguin books

A clear party favor bag featuring some candy and an Oreo with a Penguin drinking a holiday drink printed on it.

Spent yesterday down in NYC to pop into the PRH office and attend the PPG holiday party.

Absolutely love the Penguin-themed party favor!

And, of course, it's queer. Very queer.

Other things it includes:
-That one ex you never want to see again
-90 minutes (plus stoppage) to find a new girlfriend
-Fake dating
-College tours, cartoon foxes, cows, and cleats!

So, this book is my love note to the women's soccer world, complete with my MCs working on a very important tifo.

It's also my love note to the disability community, and I can't wait for all of you to hopefully meet my disabled MC and neurodivergent love interest someday!

This book began in Summer 2021 when my wife and I were in an Airbnb looking for something to watch. We'd heard there was a famous lesbian on the USWNT and decided to give soccer a shot. To say the least, we loved it, and now, 3 years later, I've been to more games than I can count.

A collage of images including a teenage girl working intently on a painting, a soccer ball, a pair of cleats, a distance shot of a field in a soccer stadium at sunset, another teenage girl wearing a backward baseball hat, a close up of an awkwardly twisted ankle, a set of luggage in an airport, two hands clasped in front of a Pride flag, and a set of cartoon foxes, one large, one small.

I am so happy to announce that I am now represented by Bridget Smith @awfulagent.bsky.social for my new contemporary YA novel, complete with fake dating, LGBTQ+ and disability rep, and so much love for the women's soccer world! (Because everyone watches women's sports!) #writingcommunity

My Spotify Wrapped is always more a reflection of the book I wrote that year than my actual favorite music.

Like Spotify definitely thinks I went through a toxic relationship followed by a break up last summer.

This is my MC’s wrapped, not mine 😂 (Minus the Broadway recordings. Those are mine.)

a group of soccer players are laying on top of each other on the field covered in confetti . Alt: a group of female soccer players making confetti angels on a field covered in confetti

The writer and soccer fan and disability and lgbtq+ rep advocate parts of my brain are all excited about the same thing, and that is making it EXTREMELY difficult to focus.

The little Inside Out characters in my brain today:

#ORLANDOPRIDE WIN FIRST EVER #NWSLCHAMPIONSHIP 🏆

After a record-breaking season powered by Marta Magic and Barbra Banda Brilliance, #NWSL Shield winners Orlando Pride win the NWSL Championship in Kansas City. 🔥❤️🏆

📸: @NWSL

Barbra Banda, friends. Barbra. Banda.

Melissa Etheridge singing the national anthem at the NWSL final is peak gay and we’re here for it.

No offense to the Spirit, but after the season they had, the Pride deserves to beat the curse of the shield winner never winning the championship. So, for the next two hours I am a temporary Pride fan! #nwsl

My wife and I replaced a door handle today to finally have a lock on our powder room door (because the previous owners inexplicably didn’t have one?) and I am very proud of us.

I am telling you all because obviously you need this quaint domestic lesbian content.

Three deer stand on grass at the edge of a gravel parking area. A fall forest with most of the leaves fallen can be seen in the background.

The family of deer that live in our forest came by the house to visit today! Mom and two babies have been around since the summer, and the babies are almost all grown up now! My best friend says we live in a Disney movie, and she’s not wrong.

Other fun facts:
💚 I watch a lot of women’s soccer. Go Gotham!🦇
💚 In my free time, I do improv & try to slowly hike
💚 Current fav book: House on the Cerulean Sea
💚 Currently playing on repeat: Lin Manuel Miranda’s The Warriors
💚 Currently watching: Call the Midwife season 13

Realizing I haven’t actually introduced myself here, so…

💚 I’m a queer disabled writer working in book publishing
💚 I primarily write sapphic YA w/ lots of disability rep & lgbtq+ characters 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️
💚 I live in beautiful Western MA w/ my wife & tiny tuxedo cat

#writingcommunity

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. 7/20

#BookSky💙📚
#Books
#BookChallenge

Having vague writer news 👀 at a time where everyone is migrating to different platforms and you have to rebuild your followers is…not great.

But I am going to have writer news soon, so I will scream it on all the random social apps!

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. 6/20

#BookSky💙📚
#Books
#BookChallenge

I am apparently now standing at the window saying “We needed this” when it rains years old.