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Exploring Worlds Through Fiction

Portfolio website for fantasy novelist J.M. Kern

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Soft Serve

Prompt: you are craving something, but you are not exactly sure what you want.

Silly Bookish Content on Instagram

j.m.kern

fantasy and sci-fi with lit-fic energy 📚
supporting writers 🙌
co-founder Atlanta Flash Fiction ✨
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some fantasy novels I think would be a great entry

some fantasy novels I think would be a great entry point to anyone trying to get into the genre

AI content disclosure: honestly no effing clue this time. In the picture at the end, I probably used Magic Eraser to remove my Garmin 😅

🏷️: book recs, character-driven fantasy novels, fantasy recommendations, bookish content, booksta, bookstagram

not all writing looks like writing 🏷️: writi

not all writing looks like writing

🏷️: writing a novel, writers of Instagram, writergram, writing community, bookish community

✨ stuffs ✨ 👉 coffee accoutrements 👉

✨ stuffs ✨

👉 coffee accoutrements
👉 sweet potato chips (family size, definitely)
👉 2021 macbook for drafting
👉 variety of houseplants
👉 flash fiction notebook and pouch of prompts
👉 pink nalgene I've had for forever because I refuse to buy a trendy new water bottle (my enneagram 8 is showing)
👉 books I will reread a million times
👉 variety of footwear (open question if I can spell footwear correctly)

what would be in your starter pack?

🏷️: writers of Instagram, writing a novel, writergram, writing community, bookish content

any day now… 🏷️: writing a novel, writing

any day now...

🏷️: writing a novel, writing community, writergram, writers of Instagram, wip

doing it for her 🥹🥹 🏷️: writing a nove

doing it for her 🥹🥹

🏷️: writing a novel, writergram, writing community, writers of instagram, writing content, bookish content, booksta, bookstagram, wip

you may be thinking I don't know what a trope is,

you may be thinking I don't know what a trope is, and you may be right

🏷️: writing a novel, fantasy novel, romantasy novel, upper ya, writing community, writergram, writers of Instagram, bookish community, booksta, wip

okay, back to silly lipsyncs it is

😄😄😅😅

🏷️: writing a novel, writergram, writers of instagram, writing community, wip

share this with writer to show you see their hard

share this with writer to show you see their hard work and you're cheering for them

share the love ♡♡♡

🏷️: writing a novel, fantasy novel, romantasy novel, contemporary fiction, mystery novel, writergram, writing community, writers of Instagram, wip

when you delete something you've written and then

when you delete something you've written and then put it back, we call that a flip flop

🏷️: writing a novel, writergram, writing community, writers of instagram, bookish content, wip

writing a novel while holding down a 9-to-5 and tr

writing a novel while holding down a 9-to-5 and trying not to turn into a shrimp is not for the weak

🏷️: writing humor, writergram, writing community, writing goals

save a spot for Heartfire on your 2027 tbr 💫 i

alright, you didn't ask for it, but here it is: 1

alright, you didn't ask for it, but here it is: 10 more totally random facts about me
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🏷️: writing a novel, writergram, writing community, writers of instagram, writer fun facts, about me

a little more info about these books and who shoul

a little more info about these books and who should read them:

📕 The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley – read this to improve how you write interiority, creepy institutions, near future sci-fi, and secret yearning

📚 The Raven Cycle (including The Dream Thieves and Blue Lily, Lily Blue) by Maggie Stiefvater – read this to improve how you write vibey magic, complex relationship dynamics within a friend group / found family, contemporary fantasy

📕 Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield – read this to improve how you write dual pov, literary allusions, married life, creepy institutions, grief and loss

📚 The Magicians by Lev Grossman – read this if you want to improve how you write hard magic, frienemies, debauchery, and darkness

📕 Intermezzo by Sally Rooney – read this if you want to improve how you write siblings (specifically brothers), characters who don't fit in, slightly unconventional romantic relationships

📚 The Locked Tomb (including Harrow the Ninth and Nona the Ninth) – read this if you want to improve how you write complex narration, larger than life characters, multiple magic systems under one umbrella

heads up I did edit some of these quotes just slightly for brevity. For example, the exchange where Adam is sassing Ronan, "thanks for the white teeth," happens at the start of BLLB, so we get their full names and quick description of how they're laying in the grass, and I trimmed all that out.

🏷️: writing a novel, writing advice, book recommendations, book recs, writing community, writergram

yip yip 🏷️: avatar, last airbender, atla, ap

✨✨ 🏷️: writing a novel, writergram, writ

✨✨

🏷️: writing a novel, writergram, writers of instagram, indie author, bookstagram, booksta, bookish community

📚 thoughts from an upper ya author deep in the

📚 thoughts from an upper ya author deep in the revision marshes

📕 Legendborn – should I give this another try?

📘 The Blade Itself – super unique!

📙 The Foxhole Court – it just cracks me up so much that they're going to Columbia, SC to go clubbing 😂😂 okay, but in all seriousness, I had hoped this would fill the hole that The Raven Cycle left in my life, and it did not 🫠 I suppose I will have to try to appreciate it on its own merits (namely, entertainment value).

📗 Oblivion's Hymn – I've not been good about reading before bed lately, and I'm really slow slow on this.

📔 Storm Front – sigh... I feel like this is just interesting enough to keep me invested...

I can't believe I haven't already read The Knave and the Moon!! Really need to get on that. Also A Drop of Corruption, which I failed to place on the slide, oops.

🏷️: book recommendations, book reviews, bookish content, booksta, bookstagram, writergram, writers of instagram

ready to hear about your next favorite upper ya fa

ready to hear about your next favorite upper ya fantasy?

Fraternal twins Owen & Myles MacAvoy have spent their lives preparing to unravel an inherited curse and restore the family name.

When a misstep sidelines Myles, Owen is forced to accept help from an unlikely ally – the summer groundskeeper, Eirian Lockley, who is in many ways Myles' opposite.

Their journey quickly becomes a clash of worldviews. As the final confrontation nears, Owen faces a choice between fulfilling his destiny or forging a new one based on a reluctant but transformative partnership.

˙✧˖° ✫ ⋆｡˚

tropes (but make them weirdly specific)
• ISTJ aristocrat grump x INFP aspiring botanist sunshine
• ~witty banter~ ❌ walking in the woods while arguing about moral philosophy ✅
• ~kn!f3 to the throat~ ❌ lots of plants ✅
• guide who is both not to be messed with and exactly like other girls, thank you very much 🙂‍↕️
• sympathetic(-ish) antagonist trying to solve a 20 year cold case
• indifference-to-lovers
• closed door (obviously, it's YA), but also there are no doors because they're always outside
• ~they save the world~ ❌ things get worse(?) before they get better(?) ✅

✫ ⋆｡˚˙✧˖°

🏷️: writing a novel, fantasy novel, queer romantasy, upper ya, writing community, writergram, writers of instagram, wip

taking a break is good for your creativity… I pr

taking a break is good for your creativity... I promise you...

🏷️: writing humor, writing a novel, writing community, writergram, writers of instagram, wip

🫠🫠 🏷️: writergram, writing a novel, wr

🫠🫠

🏷️: writergram, writing a novel, writers of instagram, writing process, writing humor, wip

as the person telling you to aim for 90k words for

as the person telling you to aim for 90k words for a debut novel...

do as I say, not as I do 🤭

🏷️: writing humor, writing community, writing goals, writing a novel, writing process, writers of instagram, writergram, wip

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J.M. Kern Writes

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