Happy New Year! Claribel & Kat discuss some fun news in their author careers and chat about new year and resolutions. Then they interview debut author, Akshaya Raman about her highly anticipated Fantasy, The Ivory Key. How she dealt with doubt during her query journey  and how she made writing friends. ABOUT AKSHAYA: Akshaya Raman fell in love with writing when she wrote her first story at the age of ten. Though she graduated from UC Davis with a degree in biology, she gave up pursuing a career in science to write books. She is a co-founder and contributor to Writer’s Block Party, a group blog about writing and publishing, and has served on the planning teams of several book festivals. She lives in the Bay Area with an actual scaredy cat, and in her free time, she enjoys baking, traveling, and watching too much reality TV. FOLLOW AKSHAYA: website | Twitter | Instagram • BUY The Ivory Key MENTIONS Fave "untraditional" success stories: • S4 E7 Emiko Jean & We Don't Need Permission to Write • S2 E1: Susan Dennard & #UghJay! • S1 E23: Karen M McManus & The Haunted Airbnb • Halloween Bonus: Holly Black & Black Pond Revelations and Weird Stuff FOLLOW CLARIBEL: Twitter | Instagram | Youtube | TikTok • www.claribelortega.com • Check out all of Claribel’s books • PRE-ORDER Witchlings (April 2022, Scholastic) • FOLLOW KAT: Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | TikTok • www.katchowrites.com • PRE-ORDER Once Upon a K-Prom (May 2022, Disney) • Check out Kat’s Books • FOLLOW WRITE OR DIE: Twitter | Instagram  • Write or Die Episodes • Join our WorDie community! • Learn more about Write or Die  --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/writeordiepodcast/support