November 20, 2024

Signs You're a Writer

Cat's, coffee, and notebooks, Oh my!

The only thing you need to do to identify as a writer is write. But let’s be honest, there are a lot of similarities among us besides our simple desire to put words on a page. We tend to have vivid imaginations, a collection of fluffy animals, and some… unsettling habits.

This post is just for fun! Let me know if you’re a writer and exhibit one or more of these writer signs.

1. Your pet is your co-writer.

Whether it’s a cat draped across your keyboard or a dog napping at your feet, your furry friends are always ready to "help" (or demand attention) when you’re trying to focus on your manuscript.

2. You call movie night ‘research.’

Bought tickets to the latest sci-fi blockbuster? It’s not just for fun—it’s inspiration. And yes, the ticket costs will be counted as a business expense. Maybe the popcorn, too.

3. You have a notebook (or ten) within reach at all times.

Inspiration can strike anywhere, so you have one handy in a number of places: your bag, the car, the nightstand, the shower…

4. You hear voices in your head and get concerned when they stop talking.

Your characters talk to you all the time, even getting into arguments with your inner voice and each other. But more concerning than the cacophony in your head is when they’re suddenly quiet.

5. Your search history is concerning and closely watched by the FBI.

How many bullet wounds before a human can no longer run? How much blood does the average mosquito drink? What’s another synonym for big? How decomposed would a body be after being abandoned in a swamp for a week? …a month? …a year? What’s another synonym for big? It’s all research for your novel, of course.

6. Coffee (or tea) is your lifeblood.

Staying hydrated is very important, and you’ve mastered the perfect ratio of caffeine to creativity.

7. You’re on a first-name basis with your local librarians.

Whether it’s for research or an excuse to leave the house, you know the library staff well enough to exchange birthday cards.


I hope you’ve enjoyed my list of Signs You’re a Writer! Let me know, are there any strangely similar things you’ve noticed about the writers in your life? Feel free to share them and tag me @bethmartinbooks!

November 6, 2024

Celebrate Fall with Cozy Creativity

As the crisp fall air settles in and the days grow shorter, I find myself drawn to quiet, reflective moments—the perfect time to embrace my theme for November: Cozy Creativity. This month, I’m focusing on slowing down, savoring the creative process, and finding joy in the little things. Whether it’s sipping coffee while drafting a new story or sketching a maze with a cat cuddled up on my desk, November is all about finding comfort in creativity.

Along with this cozy theme, I’m also making a few changes to how I share my content. Recently, I’ve felt that the character limits on certain platforms (I’m looking at you, X.com!) have been a bit restrictive. I want to provide more depth and thoughtfulness in what I share without feeling rushed. Also, the pressure to post something new every single day has gotten a bit much, so I’ll be pulling back on my posting schedule.

Going forward, I’d like to prioritize my newsletter. Every social media platform keeps changing its algorithms, making it harder to reach people who are interested in me and my work. I want to stay in touch with you, and I make sure that my newsletter is worth reading! I give subscribers early access to my creative projects, behind-the-scenes updates, and special content like downloadable mazes and short stories. If you don’t already receive my monthly newsletter, what are you waiting for?

Sign up for Beth Martin’s Newsletter

Of course, I’ll still be active on social media! My future posts will focus more on sparking conversation, sharing snapshots of what I’m working on, and creating a cozy, creative space for us to connect.

I hope you’ll join me this month as we explore Cozy Creativity together—both through my newsletters and in the little moments we share online.

October 1, 2024

Number One and the Blue Jay

This post is something a little different from me. Here’s a personal essay I wrote detailing a humorous story involving my very pampered cat and an annoyingly noisy bird. 


Like many newly committed couples, when my husband and I were first married, we decided to adopt a pet. Since our apartment at the time didn’t allow pets, that clearly meant we needed to adopt a cat. So at seven months into our marriage, we adopted a white, seven-month-old cat. She slept through the whole adoption process, clearly not caring about her sweet kitty fate. We named her Number One, and she exemplified her namesake as she was truly the best cat. Her laid-back attitude persisted through all areas of her life.

Except when it came to the blue jay.

Our tiny one-bedroom apartment had a single window in the bedroom which looked onto the narrow alley between our building and the adjacent one. There were a few concrete pillars lining the gravel alley roadway to prevent cars from hitting the building, and they made perfect perches for the local birds. Sweet little finches, chickadees, and other winged friends would sing or chirp just outside the open window, filling our apartment with beautiful bird songs.

However, one day, a horrible squawking noise came loudly through the window. CAW! CAW! I rushed over to see what made the awful sound and barely caught a glimpse of the fat, blue-colored bird before he flew away.

The next time the noisy blue bird came to screech at the top of its birdy-little lungs, it caught the attention of Number One. I was sitting on the bed reading, and the cat jumped up next to me. The bed was situated in front of the window, so the cat climbed over me and the headboard and then stared out at the feathery visitor. She began making those weird chirping noises cats love to make—the noise that indicates they see pray and they’re excited about that.

CAW! the bird squawked in reply.

Number One began whipping around her white tail, pressing her fluffy body against the screen in the window.

“Cat, no!” I scolded as her tail smacked me in the face. I was worried she’d rip the screen out of the window in her attempt to reach the bird, so I removed her from the windowsill. As soon as the bird saw me, he flew away.

Figuring the ordeal was over, I got back to my book and proceeded to pet my happy cat as she peered out the window, probably wondering if the bird would come back.

He did return barely a minute later. Again, I got smacked in the face by a tail, removed the cat from the window so she wouldn’t destroy the screen, and scared away the bird. But this time, I also closed the window.

Of course, the blue bird came right back. His screechy greetings were muffled this time by the closed window, but now Number One had less of a windowsill to perch on. She balanced as best as she could on the top edge of the headboard, pressing her white furry body against the glass, and proceeded to whip around her tail and meow at the aggressive creature just outside.

I gave up on reading my book in bed and retreated to the living room, figuring that eventually, the bird would tire of my cat and fly away.

And he did.

But he came back. All the time. That aggressive, noisy bird would appear outside our apartment multiple times a day.

We kept the window closed so the cat couldn’t damage the screen. In turn, the apartment became unbearably hot since it was summer and we had no AC and no airflow. And, of course, you could still hear the bird’s ear-piercing cries through the closed window. Plus, you couldn’t sit on the bed during a bird visit because the cat would be busy racing back and forth across the headboard, smacking everything with her tail.

Something had to be done.

We knew the bird kept returning specifically to visit the cat. They noisily chatted with each other every time the bird called.

“Maybe if Number One couldn’t reach the window, the bird would stop coming by,” my husband suggested.

“How are we supposed to do that?” I asked. “Cover the window completely?”

“Number One can’t jump very far. If we move the bed away from the window, she probably won’t be able to reach it.” The window was around four feet from the floor, and Number One could barely jump onto the sofa, let alone reach something higher. His idea held merit, except for the fact that our bed was a massive wooden hand-me-down piece of furniture, and moving it was no small feat.

“How?” Since the room was so small, there wasn’t enough space to rotate the bed to situate it next to the wall opposite the window—which was the only other spot we could practically put it.

My husband shrugged. “Take it apart. Reassemble it so it’s facing the window.”

Several hours and much ado later, we had successfully moved the bed a whole five feet across the room.

However, we had severely underestimated our cat’s resolve to visit with the damn bird.

The next time we heard the taunting CAW! from outside the window, my husband and I shared a smug smile, knowing we had solved the problem. Number One was desperate to get up to the window and paced on the floor underneath it. Eventually, she decided to muster the courage to jump up to the window sill. She backed away from the wall a bit, squatted down, mustering all of her kitty jumping power, the sprung up into the air… and then went smack into the wall. She scampered off defeated.

Although her first attempt was unsuccessful, the bird kept coming back, and she kept trying to jump up to the window. She made it about once every three tries. The bird would fly away when he saw a person, so going to the window to yank the cat away would also scare away the bird. I also tried going outside and chasing the bird away from the lane, but he kept coming back.

Now we not only had to deal with the constant annoyance of the bird screaming right outside our window, but our cat was going to seriously injure or even kill herself trying to get up to the windowsill.

I had no idea what to do. I needed serious help.

I grabbed my phone and dialed.

“Hey sweety, it’s good to hear from you! How are you doing?”

“I have a Dad-question,” I stated. I had a lot of dad-questions after moving out of my parents’ home. The power shut off; what do I do? My car tire is flat; what do I do? I came home and the floor is covered in water; what do I do? You get the idea. I still call with dad-questions occasionally. My dad knows a lot of stuff. “There’s this bird. It’s blue. And if makes awful noises.”

“Ahh, it must be a blue jay. They can make quite the racket.”

“Okay, well, it’s befriended our cat.” I proceeded to explain the situation: the noise, the lack of airflow, the rearrangement of the furniture, and our cat’s intent on killing herself.

After getting a good laugh, my dad launched into fix-it mode. “Most birds, including blue jays, are terrified of snakes,” he explained. “Even something that looks like a snake will be enough to scare them away.”

“I could get a rubber snake!” I exclaim.

“It’s even easier than that. Just cut up an old garden hose into four to six-foot lengths—”

“I don’t have an old garden hose. I would have to buy a new one. I could just buy a rubber snake—”

“We used to take an old garden hose, chop it up, and hang all the pieces among the branches of the apple trees in the orchard because the birds kept eating the apples. Someone’s gotta have an old garden hose. Maybe ask one of your neighbors—”

“Dad, I live in an apartment building. All my neighbors live in apartments. None of them have an old hose.”

“I guess you could use a new one, but an old one would be best. It worked super well in the orchard. We didn’t have trouble with the birds after that. You know, I bet there’s a lawn maintenance crew that has an extra old garden hose you could use.”

“There’s a specialty toy store just down the road from my work. I can stop by during my lunch and grab a rubber snake.”

“You could ask around. Someone will have an old hose. But I guess you could buy a new one.”

“I’ll just buy a toy snake. Thanks so much, Dad, for the idea! I love you!”

“Love you too, sweety. Glad I could help. Call anytime you have another dad-question.”

The largest rubber snake they had at the specialty toy store near my work was six feet long. It was perfect. I shoved the floppy rubber toy, which was surprisingly realistic, onto the window sill, and the blue jay never visited again. Number One stopped trying to jump up to the window and proceeded to live a long kitty life.

The toy snake would go on to scare away a variety of birds and squelch annoying squawking on a few occasions. And to this day, the sound of a blue jay makes my blood boil.

Surprisingly, Number One wasn’t afraid of the snake toy; however, thinking back, I don’t think she was afraid of anything. She didn’t have another close encounter with a bird friend until a bird got trapped inside our house, but that’s a story for another day.

September 1, 2024

New Book Announcement: Starship Blunder: A Shareverse Anthology

I am so excited to announce my next book release: Starship Blunder. This book has been a new type of endeavor for me. It’s an anthology full of stories set in the Starship Blunder world. I had the pleasure of working with eleven other writers in order to put this collection together, and I’m absolutely thrilled with the result.

All of the best talent, most promising soldiers, and highly competent individuals were picked for the elite Starship Prime. Together, they will travel to faraway galaxies and make connections with new alien species currently unknown.

Unfortunately for Sarah Hawkins, she didn’t make the cut and instead pilots the Starship Blunder. With her team of misfits, has-beens, and generally underqualified crewmates, she does her best to explore not-too-far away planets and check in with the alien species that humanity would prefer to forget. But their biggest challenge is to keep the hunk of junk Blunder in good enough repair to prevent crash landing at every single stop.

The book will release on October 1st, and I have a lot of fun things planned to celebrate, including a virtual launch party on October 5th at 2 PM EST. A few of the authors included in the collection will join to talk about their stories, and we’ll partake in sci-fi silliness. Also, everyone who attends will receive a special giveaway, so don’t miss out!

Watch the Starship Blunder Launch Party Replay on Youtube

If you’re subscribed to my newsletter, I’ve kept you updated along this whole journey and even included a sneak peek at one of the stories. (Do subscribe if you’d like!) Also, I’ll be sharing fun tidbits and art related to the book all month on social media, so check that out as well.

I can’t wait to share this fun collection of stories, and look forward to seeing you all at the launch party!