Sofiya | Fantasy Author

🫡🫶

Okay, weird ask… does anyone know how to clean and/or restore old paper? . I’m renovating an old outbuilding on my property and today I ripped some of the old wood off the walls. Stashed behind that wood was a page from the local newspaper from almost exactly 72 years ago! December 21, 1952. It just seems like a meaningful coincidence and I think it would be fun to clean up that page and frame it to put up in the finished building. BUT I don’t want to destroy it while I’m cleaning it (I already ripped a little of the edge off just from pulling it out of the wall 😬). Sooooo any advice? . FYI a Christmas tree would cost you less than $2 in 1952 apparently. What a deal!

At a place named Lake Bled, you’d expect vampires. But not a single one spotted. Shame. . This castle and lake in Slovenia, though vampire-free, were still very cool. The views from the castle over the lake were worth the hike up the hill. . At the bottom of the hill was a little restaurant and ofc I had to get a cappuccino to fuel me up. The castle is on top of a hill, and then you have to hike MORE once you’re inside the walls! But that’s okay. Because. The views?? Also… more coffee at the top! . 10/10 would come back here. Maybe at night next time. I refuse to believe there are no vampires. 🧛🏼‍♂️

Treviso is like Venice, but with fewer tourists. Also wider streets. Also the seagulls won’t body-slam you in an attempt to steal your croissant. . I think one of my favorite things about exploring is that you can be walking along minding your own business and if you’re not careful you’ll walk face-first into some ✨history✨. . Obviously my history nerditude contributes a lot to that. But my psych side does too. I think my favorite thing about humanity is that we’ve been silly little guys since the dawn of our species. We’ve always tried out new and weird stuff because 🤷🏼‍♀️ it seemed like a cool idea. We’ve always brought furry little critters 🐈 into our homes and loved them and hugged them and called them George. We’ve always gone out of our way to collect some sparkly pigment to paint on ourselves for no other reason than it made us feel pretty 💅. We’ve always looked at the mysteries around us and asked ourselves, “I wonder why that’s like that.” 🧐 Or we’ve looked at a big wet river and said, “I bet I can build a city on that.” 🤔 And then gone on to figure out exactly why, or what, or how, or when. . Humans are a trip, man. . And when I stand in places people have stood in for millennia, I get shivers. It feels like reaching back through time. I wish I could send a message to those far distant ancestors and tell them how far we’ve come. . Also, there are no beavers in Italy but I saw a beaver-esque creature and named him Norbert because OBVIOUSLY.

I’m not sure why Croatia wasn’t on my list of places to visit IMMEDIATELY, but it should be on yours! Spent the day in Pula. Gorgeous beaches, turquoise water, and friendly people! Plus there’s a coliseum. Bitches love coliseums. (It’s me. I’m bitches.)

This lake and the hills around it felt like a fairy tale. ❤️ LOL WHAT A COINKYDINK. #lakebarcis #italia #authorsofinstagram

ya girl is back from book research in the Alps #italy #lakebarcis #authorsofinstagram

Shoutout to that time I got a bad review because a reader didn’t like Ivan’s bisexual nonsense. . tbf Anya is also fed up with his bisexual nonsense. She has stuff to do, Ivan! You’re getting her off schedule! . Anyway if you are not bothered by (middle grade appropriate) bisexual nonsense, grumpy archer princesses, and mysterious necromancers (???), you might like ANYA AND THE NIGHTINGALE.

Look who’s a PJ Our Way book!! 👀 . I’m forever grateful to PJ Library for everything they’ve done for me as an author and a parent! It’s bonkers to think that my own kids got PJL deliveries of books when they were little squirts (and even now as bigger squirts), and now my *own* books are being delivered to kids! 📚 . I’ve met so many lovely people through and/or because of PJL, and I’m so excited to continue to work with them in the future! ❤️ . @pjlibrary @haroldgrinspoonfoundation #pjlibrary #pjourway #pjourwaybooks

You know drafting is getting serious when I’ve got my time period-accurate playlist blasting in the car. If you saw someone driving around Baltimore with sweet sweet lyre jams playing, that was me.

Didn’t realize until I got all the way to work that my cat, Colonel Gentleman, apparently put his designer hat on last night and thought he’d modify my cardigan some. He’s a 10/10 cat otherwise, and it was just his birthday, so I guess he gets a pass… . I try to be relatable with my patients, and I guess I should thank the cat actually, because seeing your mental health provider with a cat-chewed cardigan sleeve might be the most relatable thing possible. . PLUS now I have an excuse to go shopping for cardigans! One got ruined so that means I have to replace it with three new ones right? Right. Glad we’re on the same page.

About a year ago, I visited Israel for the first time. I went with PJ Library and a group of amazing authors and illustrators. It was an experience I’ll cherish for the rest of my life. . One of the places they took us was a school called Hand In Hand, a joint Jewish-Arab school with kids and teachers from both backgrounds. They weren’t shy in telling us about the difficulties, prejudices, and problems that plagued their students and faculty. It’s something to hear about it in a newspaper or news show covering a topical story. It’s entirely different to hear it from the people who live it every day. . I signed up for their school newsletter and I get regular updates about what’s going on there. Today the email was titled “What Israelis and Palestinians Actually Need.” I found what they asked for important, and I wanted to share it. . “What we really need from our fellow humans around the world is support for conflict resolution agendas, peace-building practices, and building genuine hope.” . My books cover a wide range of topics and themes, but one theme they all share is that people (and sheydim) will subvert our preconceived beliefs and expectations about them, and what makes us great is our ability to accept those people (and dragons) as they are. We can’t show up to any table and tell the person on the other side that they’re wrong, and then expect any sort of resolution. We can’t demand that they change, or else. Compromise isn’t about winning or losing. . Empathy is the ability to see the world, the day, the moment, from another person’s perspective. You don’t have to agree with them. You just have to say, “Ah. I can see why this is so important to you.” And step into their passion, because this thing is also important to you. . And you hope they can do the same. . I don’t know what the solutions are. But I know that passion is powerful, and that people regularly do the impossible, and that hope can move mountains.