Holly Riddle

March was a tough month, tbh. Our house is a construction zone. Anxiety has been high. I hammered out another 20k on horroromance WIP. For April, my goal is to really step back and take care of myself. If it's not bringing me joy, I don't want it. (Kim Cattrall said it better.)

Time for me to crawl out from under my rock to post the books I read in the last month. 😅 Loved Diavola but my fav was likely Somewhere Beyond the Sea. Chauncey fan club for life. 🐙 After reading one (1) book in Feb., I'm back on pace to exceed my goal of 50 books read in 2025.

January Reads book graphic, featuring The God of the Woods by Liz Moore, A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J Maas, The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love by India Holton, A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand, This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens, and The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

Hard to believe it's already Feb! Jan's reads included two potential comps for my soon-to-be-on-sub horror WIP, two book club books, and some (not so) guilty pleasures. 📚

Just realized my horror WIP can be basically summed up as “two women descend into madness over 200 pages, only for them to find out in the last 50 pages that they weren’t really mad and the men in their lives suck.”

I read soooo many good books this year and, as someone who’s historically struggled to crack 50 books/year, I’d say this was a big win. Here are a few of my favs!

I am (optimistically) aiming to finish a first draft (30k to go) and then edit it over a frenzied five days. 😅

The professional novelist must constantly struggle with the most profound questions of existence, such as: 'have I just spent 6 months writing a pile of shit?'

Hard same. 😭 What do you mean I won't read like five more books in the next two weeks??

Oh god. The details. "Can we just take a moment to appreciate Holly’s profound ability to turn every mundane task into a gothic horror?" 😂

A tale of two birthday buddies in three photos. 🎂🎉 (One of us turned 2 and the other turned 32, if you were wondering about the age gap. 🤫)

So it’s technically a dual timeline gothic horror. 😅 But I can be a little wibbly-wobbly with genres.

Ooo this sounds fun!

A divorcee with crippling anxiety acquires a remote compound that was the site of a spree killing in 1902 and must prevent history from repeating itself.

They really don't. 😮‍💨 You mean I have to use my brain all day for clients and THEN use it again on nights and weekends all for my silly lil book?

Every time I see a snippet from a friend's WIP: Amazing! Beautiful! Gorgeous! What prose! 😍

Every time I look at my own WIP: What hot trash is this?? 🤮

✋ I am a sub veteran at this point. 😅

A headline from Vulture saying “You know what, fuck this. I don’t even care anymore”, says woman who continues to try very hard”

Writers continuing to write despite being fed up with the publishing industry and giving up in disgust

This is how you become a writer: just pick one of the things that is deeply wrong with you. Make it a character. Now send it on a self-help journey or try to kill it. Now call it a book.

Ahhh congrats on going out again though!! 🤞🏻🤞🏻

Working on a dual-timeline gothic horror feat. evil men and the women who overcome them, anxiety, Gilded Age glamour, a dilapidated compound in the middle of the mountains, screaming chipmunks, and more! 💃 (Hoping to go on sub early next year!)

I'm so sorry, CJ. I cried for weeks every time I swept under something and found our lab's hair after he passed. 🫂

Graphic showing seven book covers: A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas, A Dowry of Blood by ST Gibson, Starling House by Alix E Harrow, The Undermining of Twyla and Frank by Megan Bannen, Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q Sutanto, Buried Deep by Naomi Novik, and The Gathering by CJ Tudor.

What I read in Oct! I'm a week late, but this week has been what it's been. Lots of great reads last month, but I think Starling House pulled ahead just a smidge and was my overall fav. #amreading

2025 black Passion Planner

New planner, new plans. (Bc everyone knows the key to fixing your life is just a really organized planner. 😌)

Monday nights are best spent carving pumpkins in front of the fireplace. 🎃🖤

Omg it makes me angry every time. 😭

🥰 Thanks for encouraging me to come back!

Let’s see if I manage to stick around this time! 😅🤞🏻

Blonde woman dressed in black hiking clothes sits on a rock facing away from the camera, toward a view of green mountains.

Black and white selfie of a smiling woman with long blonde hair and wearing a black tank top.

Ppl are saying this is the place to be for the #writingcommunity now (and the 🧵 place is just too toxic), so re-intro time (and a hope to post more)!

I'm Holly, freelance writer by day, fantasy/horror writer by night. Current WIP is a horroromance. On sub with a fantasy set in 1910s NYC. 👩‍💻

Happy birthday to me. Spending the first days of 31 in beautiful, snowy Lake Placid. (Also, look at my birthday book haul!)

Happy Halloween, from Weird Barbie and Michael. 🖤🎃