Embracing my Inner Karen

Ok, brace yourself.

I’ve got some SERIOUS fan girl flailing to do.

Ok, so I read a book on Tuesday, Witch of the Wolves, and was FURIOUS because it ripped off sooooooooo many things from Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, and Kelley Armstrong is one of my absolute FAVORITE authors. So I’m talking, I was HELLA heated.

So, when I got home, I emailed Kelley Armstrong about it, saying if she hasn't read it, she should. And then gave her like 8 bullet points of the biggest rip offs I came across.  Yes, I went full Karen here.  ::laughs::

Well, SHE emailed me back.

And said, it was her writing, just under a pen name. And it's a Victorian spin off of the Otherworld series.

She was expecting people to figure it out once the book was published, but I was the first person to email her since the book was released, 3 months ago.

She apologized for it making me feel like someone was taking advantage of her work. And then said, since you are the first person to reach out to me, you deserve a prize. Any one of her books, she'll sign and send to me.

::alllllll the fan girl flailing::

So yeah, I was flailing soooooo fucking hard about it.  So I’ve requested a copy of the Witch of the Wolves to be my signed book.  I thought about going with one of the Otherworld series books, but realized, it makes for a better story, if I got the book that made me contact Kelley Armstrong in the first place, as my autographed book.

Expect more fan girl flailing to occur when said book arrives and it is in my hands.

Day 1

So here we are, in 2026. Gotta do the traditional “Word” and “Spirit” of the year entry.

Word: Assess
verb
1. to judge the worth, importance, etc, of; evaluate

I’ve been doing quite a bit of assessing various things in my life here recently. Somehow, I picked up various lil “rules” on how things SHOULD be done, and when I can’t meet that stupid standards, I would tear myself apart.

But here’s the kicker....I’m the only one enforcing said “rules”. And they are fucking stupid. So, I’m really looking hard at things I “suck” at, and seeing what I can do to make them easier for me to get done. It doesn’t have to all get done at once.

I’m neurodivergent. I’m just now realizing how much I don’t function in a purely neurotypical world. So it’s time to adjust MY world to better suit me.

Spirit: Black Leopard
- harness your inner power
- can represent courage, beauty, grace, protection, femininity, death, rebirth, cunningness, viciousness, reclamation of power, and ability to know the dark
- need to be more flexible
- teaches grace in silence
- evaluate when to speak up and when to sit with silence
- embrace your passions
- helps you to understand your inner powers often hidden without in the dark
- encourages you to use that power to remove any fears you have of the unknown
- have courage when you need to stand alone, or whenever you feel alone
- helps you discover your personal truth
- represents hidden pleasures
- you are ready to face the darkness that has been holding you back

This year’s Spirit chose me in a very potent dream.
Let’s see what 2026 has in store.