of blades and thorns

the official blog of author grace a. johnson

Grace A. Johnson

Jan 31
3 min

tell me you love me author tour wrapup (& giveaway winner!)

The end is here, my lovelies! The time has come to bring this fun (if a wee bit chaotic) tour to an end...and the announce the ✨winner✨ of our giveaway! But before we dive into that, I want to thank you all for following the tour and checking out all the amazing posts the authors of Tell Me You Love Me anthology have shared! From character Q&As and author interviews to beautiful graphics and behind-the-scenes, this tour has been jam-packed with wonder and romance - and that's

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2022 highlights: books, series, & reviews

Grace A. Johnson

Jan 30
5 min

2022 highlights: books, series, & reviews

Whew, boy! Did I take my precious time with this post or what? 😅 Fortunately, I still made it in time for January (but just barely!), and I am so excited to jump into my 2022 reading highlights! (Check out 2021's highlights here!) favorite books Y’all, picking favorites was hard. I had so many novels I thoroughly enjoyed but couldn’t count as a favorite, so we’re gonna keep this list short. In no particular order, my favorite books of 2022 were: A Heart Adrift by Laura Frant

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guest post: why do you write? finding your why by kaytlin phillips

Grace A. Johnson

Jan 27
5 min

guest post: why do you write? finding your why by kaytlin phillips

I hope y'all have enjoyed learning more about Writers' Vision the last couple days! I'm so excited to have Kayti on for one final post, and it's such a good one! She's got a very good question for y'all, so make sure you answer in the comments below! If you've missed the last two posts, you can check out the spotlight posts here and our interview here! why do you write? finding your why Kaytlin Phillips Hey, folks! If you're just now hoping on the tour my name is Kaytlin Phil

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interview: kayti phillips, founder of writers' vision

Grace A. Johnson

Jan 26
5 min

interview: kayti phillips, founder of writers' vision

Interested in learning more about Writers' Vision? Then you're in the right place! Kayti's joining us for a wonderful interview all about Writers' Vision and how it's the perfect community for young and aspiring Christian writers! Hey, Kayti! Thank you so much for joining us today! I am so excited to learn more about Writers’ Vision and share this amazing community! Would you mind telling us a little bit about what inspired Writers’ Vision? Thank you so much for having me, Gr

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introducing lydia m. jupp (tell me you love me tour)

Grace A. Johnson

Jan 25
6 min

introducing lydia m. jupp (tell me you love me tour)

IT'S HERE!!! We've all been so busy during the duration of this tour, so we were unable to get Lydia's post together in time for her original date, and we decided to post on the 25th instead! This is coming in very last minute, but it's here! I am SO excited to have Lydia M. Jupp on to share about her story and a Q&A with the characters from Sarah Lawton's story Till Death Do Us Part! Without further ado, here's Lydia! Hello lovelies! Tell Me You Love Me is soon to be release

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Grace A. Johnson

Jan 25
3 min

spotlight: writers' vision

The short of it is, Writers' Vision is a truly amazing and uplifting community for young and aspiring writers to grow, learn, and connect! The long of it is... writers' vision is... Writers' Vision is a community where Christian creatives can connect and receive feedback, advice, encouragement, and even form friendships. Originally started in 2021 as a writers' critique site, Writers' Vision has expanded to include creatives of all levels! From authors to bloggers and even ed

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interview with margaret copeland (tell me you love me tour)

Grace A. Johnson

Jan 24
6 min

interview with margaret copeland (tell me you love me tour)

Y'all, please welcome Maggie Copeland! She's one of the many amazing authors featured in Tell Me You Love Me, and I can't wait for y'all to get to know her and her story! I actually had the pleasure of meeting Maggie in real life several years ago, and she's so sweet! I know y'all will enjoy our interview as much as I did! Hello, Maggie! Thank you so much for joining us today! I’m very excited to get into this interview, but first, please introduce yourself! Hi, Grace! Thank

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about the anthology (tell me you love me tour)

Grace A. Johnson

Jan 23
3 min

about the anthology (tell me you love me tour)

Around Valentine's Day last year, I came up with the idea to challenge myself to write one romance flash fiction story every day for a week. Well, just as soon as I wrote that idea down, another one popped into my head: a romance anthology. That night, Tell Me You Love Me was born. A day or two later, I got everything together and posted about open submissions for my romance short story anthology contest, and within a mere month I had over twenty submissions of all kinds - hi

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interview with amelia cabot & her character annemarie (tell me you love me tour)

Grace A. Johnson

Jan 20
14 min

interview with amelia cabot & her character annemarie (tell me you love me tour)

Welcome to Day 4 of the Tell Me You Love Me author tour! I'm pleased to announce that one of our lovely authors has agreed to introduce herself and her main character with us today, so everyone give a round of applause to Amelia Cabot! Y'all, this girl is such an amazing writer and so full of wisdom! I know you'll love hearing from her! the interview Heyo, Amelia! Thank you so much for joining us today! I am SO excited to get into this interview, but first, please introduce y

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5 tricks to writing pristine prose in any genre

Grace A. Johnson

Jan 18
6 min

5 tricks to writing pristine prose in any genre

I don’t know about you, but my prose differs in some way in every single book, genre, and POV type I write. Sometimes, in a lovely third-person historical romance, my writing is flowy and poetic and immerse and detailed. And then just as soon as I switch to a first-person contemporary, it’s chaotic and unbalanced and overly emotional. Sound like something you’ve dealt with? Or do you have a hard time finding a consistent style that fits well with every genre and story you wri

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Grace A. Johnson

Jan 17
2 min

tell me you love me author tour kickoff

Am I posting at 9:50pm? Yes. Did I totally forget that this post was supposed to go live at 5am? Yes. Did I also forget to actually write it until I was about to leave the house this evening? Yes. Y'all, I have been a HOT MESS this year. I participated in CWW for the very first time last week, and boy was that hectic. So this surprised Tell Me You Love Me tour I planned will be very surprising, suffice to say. 😅 Anyway, enough about that. Onto the ✨fun stuff✨!!! Tell Me You

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marketing q&a pt. 4: marketing for unpublished writers

Grace A. Johnson

Jan 13
8 min

marketing q&a pt. 4: marketing for unpublished writers

Many moons ago, I shared a series of marketing Q&A posts, and I promised a final one, which never arrived... Until today. I'm not sure if it was lack of time/being overwhelmed with other things or if it was pure procrastination, but for some reason, I never got around to answering this final round of questions until the end of December, so here we are. I hope none of y'all's questions were extremely pressing, since I made y'all wait a billion years to get the answers, but I a

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interview: kellyn roth, founder of wild blue wonder press

Grace A. Johnson

Jan 11
11 min

interview: kellyn roth, founder of wild blue wonder press

If you haven't started piecing things together from the title of today's post, or if you haven't already heard, the esteemed Kellyn Roth, author of the beloved Chronicles of Alice and Ivy series, is launching a small press!!! *cue dramatic celebratory squeals* Kell has this amazing mission to help new indie authors through the publishing process (specifically with ✨anthologies✨ right now), and I am SO excited to be a part of sharing this fabulous press with y'all! I hope y'al

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book review: the rose and the thistle by laura frantz

Grace A. Johnson

Jan 9
5 min

book review: the rose and the thistle by laura frantz

Where do I begin? How can I put into words the enchanting beauty of this novel, this lovely work of art? I’ve noticed many reviews for The Rose and the Thistle thus far coming from first-time Frantz readers—and I’m not surprised that they all say this book of hers won’t be their last. TRATT is exactly the exquisite wonder I have come to expect from Laura Frantz, and I know everyone—long-time fans and new readers—will be as captivated by this story of an English rose and a Sco

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Grace A. Johnson

Jan 6
3 min

2022 highlights: blog posts & stats

To be honest, I was not going to do this post this year, because it’s kinda boring…maybe? I don’t know. I actually enjoyed putting it together this time around, so maybe it’s not! Y’all will have to let me know what y’all think in the comments! It is pretty fun to look back over the year and see what content everyone enjoyed and what all I got to do and share here, so I hope y'all enjoy it as well! most popular post of the year The most popular post of the year (according to

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Grace A. Johnson

Jan 4
8 min

2022 highlights: films & tv series

Here’s a new one for me: movies and TV shows. I have never kept track of what I’ve watched until 2022 (which is something I now regret, because I love being able to look back over everything I watched the past year), which means I get to share with y’all my viewing highlights! And here’s a fun fact for ya: if I’m mentioning it in this post, chances are the movie or series in question is clean—or at least not full of political propaganda, explicit sexual content, or other nast

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Grace A. Johnson

Jan 1
6 min

welcome to 2023

So, 2022 happened. Like, it came...it went...it was experienced and enjoyed (and despised a few times)...and now it’s over. Just like that. Every month was like a chapter that was just too short, and now the novel has ended with fewer pages than I’d expected. But the passing of one year means the dawn of another. I personally love how G.K. Chesterton put it: “The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; n

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