Uncategorized – Alicia de los Reyes

Posted on November 27, 2016 January 4, 2017 by alicia — Leave a comment

Did you find me in a zine?

If you did, that is so awesome! I made tiny little zines called INSTANT GIFT FOR WRITERS and threw them in Little Free Libraries around my neighborhood. Perhaps you picked one up and found my website on the back. Welcome! It is so great to have you here!

Here are the things I do:

Write fiction and nonfiction. So far, I’ve mostly published nonfiction but my first novel is [bites nails] on submission.
Podcast about writing (I always give a quick update on my novel, which is called Finding Lucy) and how to write better (there’s always a mini lesson on all kinds of things–I did a series on how to get started writing a novel, which you can find here). You can find all episodes here and on iTunes.
Make random zines and put them in unsuspecting Little Free Libraries.

In non-writing land, I take care of a tiny human and live in South Seattle.

Would you like a zine?

Maybe you don’t live in the greater South Seattle area, and you would still like a zine! That’s fantastic! I’m so excited for you to get one in your little hands. Click here* and type in your email address, and I will send you a printable version. It’s one page and it’s really easy to print and fold up! In fact, you don’t even have to fold it up–but then it will look like a crazy flyer.

What you will get in INSTANT GIFT FOR WRITERS, a printable, foldable zine:

An instant gift for writers! I designed this zine so that you can tape it to the front of a notebook, stick in your gift-ee’s favorite pen, and tie on a bow! Shazam! Christmas! Hanukkah! Solstice! PRESENT!
My favorite resources for writers–a couple of book recommendations and one essay that I love (spoiler alert: it’s by Ann Patchett, about whom I cannot sing enough praises). There’s also handy websites if you’re interested in submitting your work places.
A cut-out anti-distraction device, which you can tape to the front of your phone, plus a clever do-not-disturb sign.
Plenty of my curly but legible handwriting. Old school!

Perfect for you or a pal! Print as many times as you like! Just sign up here** and I will send you one.

*And I promise this is not a bid for your email. I will put in a handy opt-in box if you want to keep getting my podcast updates and read my work, but you do not have to click it.

**Seriously! No pressure! Just get a fun zine!

Posted on September 16, 2014 November 17, 2014 by alicia — Leave a comment

Welcome

I’m Alicia, and this is where I write (occasionally about writing). I live and work in Seattle. Right now, I’m writing about finding a spiritual home as a not-that-churchy person, taking myself on a writing retreat, and how I trick myself into revising my rough drafts.

Posted on July 1, 2014 July 1, 2014 by alicia — Leave a comment

June

The past few months have been crazy–Andrew and I moved! We now live in a totally new neighborhood in South Seattle, the up-and-coming (or some may say up-and-came) Columbia City.

A move is as good a reason as any to shake things up, and I plan to shake things up here on the blog/site that is my name (I still feel weird about it, can you tell?). First of all, I’m going to write regularly about what I’m working on. It will be a little incentive to myself to keep writing and a way for you to see what it’s like to be a writer trying to be a writer–I feel like I work on too many projects, but maybe it’s just the right amount of projects.

Second of all, I’m going to be writing a regular column-type thing on here about going to church. I need some kind of snappy title for it (suggestions welcome). Why should you care about me going to church? I don’t know. But I used to go to church, and then I decided I didn’t, and then I spent a year in an evangelical church (writing about it, which I will explain later), and then last year I stopped thinking about church at all.

All I know is that if I found another person like me who went to church, I’d be like, “TELL ME ABOUT YOUR LIFE” because I don’t know anyone like me who goes to church.

And by “like me” I mean a lot of things, implicit and explicit. On the surface, I mean someone like me in temperament: open-minded, relatively smart, and basically nice. Someone sarcastic and not generally into talking about politics or religion or things like this at all, really. But at the same time, someone who cares about church. For some reason, church is important to her.

Implicitly, I think I also mean someone who is in my same shoes: middle to upper-middle class, female. If I met another person in my life neighborhood who wasn’t into God but at the same time was into church, and who was basically chill, I would be very curious about her. I would want to know how she ended up going to church, what she really thought about it, and why she thought church was relevant at all.

These are the questions I ask myself from time to time and the ones I plan to write about here. I’m apparently in a time of thinking about it all again, so here I am, reviving Alicia’s spiritual journey (can we please not call it that). Unlike my explorations in evangelicalism, I hope to really join this church and see what happens. Because the church I found is pretty cool. So far, I’m pretty sure I’ve only alienated one person there.

Posted on May 5, 2014 June 11, 2014 by alicia — Leave a comment

Hello again!

Hi friends and fans!

As you may have noticed, I have a new, slightly spiffier website. Never fear! The Chick Lit Cookbook tumblr is still up, and will remain up until the end of the internet.

But *this* new website is exciting to me for several reasons:

1. I am now a dot com. Actually, I feel very silly and not a little self-conscious about being my-name-dot-com, but every other name seemed…sillier. And at least this way, publishers can see my “platform.” Or something.

2. You can now buy The Chick Lit Cookbook directly from me. You check out using PayPal, and it’s still $4.99. But when you buy my book here, 100% of the list price goes to me and my editor. That is awesome! (You can also still buy from Amazon and Smashwords, or any other ereader platform.)

3. It has those cool little links at the top, which right now are mostly random photos but will soon be unified, cohesive artwork!

Setting up my own shop was honest to goodness one of the most satisfying experiences of my life. I made my sister Monica buy a book, and when I finally figured out how to deliver it to her, I was so damn proud.

Anyway! To celebrate this spiffy new website, here’s a coupon for 50% off the list price of the CLC (making it only $2.49!). Just pop on over to the shop and use the code CINCO to get 50% off The Chick Lit Cookbook. Now through June 15!