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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

SACRIFICE OF DATES Tamar of the Behemot tribe chooses the Azazel desert to save her people ✡️ Bronze Age inspired secondary fantasy world 🦁 Ancient Judean X Babylonian inspired ⚫ Sheydim "demons" 🐍 Seraf, a fiery winged snake 🗡️ Enemies to lovers 🐲 Giant monsters #DVPit #Dis #JV #MENA #YA #F w/ #R

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

MY MOMMY HAS BREAST CANCER SURGERY A children's picture book manuscript that answers the questions "What is happening to Mommy?" and "What can I do to help?" with focus on a parent's double mastectomy and recovery through the eyes of a child, written by a stage 3 bc survivor. #DVPit #DIS #PB #JV

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

SACRIFICE OF DATES Tamar is sacrificed to the Azazel desert, then dragged to a land where a ziggurat breathes, forgotten people lie in bondage, & truth threatens to doom all she's willing to give her life to save. It’s easy to spot monsters w/ claws-but some wear gold. #DVPit #YA #F #JV #MENA

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

MY MOMMY HAS BREAST CANCER SURGERY A children's picture book manuscript that answers the questions "What is happening to Mommy?" and "What can I do to help?" with a focus on a parent's double mastectomy and recovery through the eyes of a child, written by a stage 3 bc survivor. #DVPit #DIS #PB

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

MY MOMMY HAS BREAST CANCER A children's picture book (without an illustrator) that provides emotional labor to families with small children about dealing with breast cancer and surgery recovery, written by a stage 3 survivor. #predv #DIS #PB

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

SACRIFICE OF DATES ✡️Bronze Age inspired secondary fantasy world ⚫Sheydim "demons" 🐍 Seraf, a fiery winged snake 🗡️🦁 Enemies to lovers JudeaXBabylon style 🐲Giant monsters 🧂Dates & salt #PreDV #JV #MENA #own #YA #F

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Im so happy with how this is looking. I might play with it more, but Im leaning toward actually using this. 💙 Feeling good about my art and my writing today. (Info: this is for a YA Fantasy with romance set in an ancient Judean and Babylonian inspired secondary world)

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Fun things I wrote in the Jewish-coded/ancient Judean MENA romantasy I'm getting to the querying stage: 4 tribes connected to mythical beasts: Behemot, Livyatan, Ziz, Seraf. Clothes w/ 4 tassels Names like Tamar bat Nitzevet v'Ezra. Etz Chaim is literal. I need all the Jewish joy in my fantasy. 💙🪬

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

THE UNCOLLECTORS & THE BLUE TOMBSTONE TheWitcherXDealingWithDragons 👻Ghosts & a zombie 🌏0 humans worldbuilding 🧙‍♀️Wizard thief girl (not a witch!) on a mop 🦇Romanian folklore inspo ✡️Jewish-coded FMC ☯️Korean-immigrant-coded MMC 🐲Hunted by a dragon rider (and dragon) #DVPit #JV #AC #Own #MG #F

Image is a cover illustration of a dragon's head with lightning in its mouth, a ghost boy, and a blue-haired girl hiding. They are in a cabin, and the girl is mixing something golden with a mortar and pestle.

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

SACRIFICES OF DATES AND SALT: KpopDemonHuntersInspired X ExodusStory X ACOTAR ✡️Ancient Israelite inspired secondary fantasy world ⚫Sheydim (Jewish "demons") 🐍 Seraf, a fiery winged snake 🗡️🦁 Enemies to lovers JudeaXBabylon style 🐲Giant monsters 🧂Dates & salt #DVPit #JV #MENA #own #YA #F #R

Image is of an ancient Judean styled character named Tamar. She has red hair, olive skin, brown eyes. She wears a red colored fringed dress with gold embroidery at the bottom in a wheat and flower motif and a blue and gold head covering with date trees and stars embroidered with gold thread. She is swinging a sling defensively while standing in front of a palm tree.

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

The hardest part of dvpit is resisting the urge to like all the cool pitches, haha! Also, please, don't like my pitches if you're not an agent/publisher, it gives me false hope. 😅

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

#DVPit #JV #MENA #own #YA #F #R E2L Judea & Babylon 2ndary world Tamar agrees to be sacrificed to the desert in order to save her people from shadowy Sheydim, but is captured & brought to a lush city. If she doesn't uncover its mysteries, her fate may end in the bloodshed she tried to avoid.

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Romanian folklore, Jewish+Korean writers, Witcher inspo A magical thief on a broom crashes into a ghost boy's shack. He can turn her in or help her escape. W/ his body's zombie in her magic hat, he escapes to an adventure returning twice-stolen goods to their original owners. #DVPit #JV #Own #MG #F

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

A poem to racists who think pale skin means I can't have #MENA roots, +receipts. 10/6/23, I was half #Ashkenazi #Jewish Religion, race, ethnicity, culture is a knot A knot is 100% string There is no such thing As half a #Jew. Not today. #antisemitism #antizionism amalenafolic.com/2025/10/05/b...

amalenafolic.com

Blood Quantum is Racist Except for Jews

This poem is inspired by the onslaught of antisemitic racists who think Jews are from Poland, and particularly all the people who see Ashkenazi Jews as “fake Jews” and leave hate commen…

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

#DVParty Day 5 Inspiration playlist for Sacrifices of Dates and Salt #YA #F #JV #MENA youtube.com/playlist?lis...

youtube.com

SDS Inspo Playlist - YouTube

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

#DVParty Day 4, a gif or meme that describes my book! THE UNCOLLECTORS AND THE BLUE TOMBSTONE MG Fantasy Adventure, Romanian folklore inspired secondary world, with Jewish and Korean immigrant coded MCs. (The manuscript has 0 swearing, though does use the word 'goblin' as a derogatory slur, lol)

Image is two images, one on top of the other. The first is Geralt played by Henry Cavill in The Witcher saying "fuck" on top of a man with glasses and a beard in a suit saying "You know, for kids!"

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Reposted by Amalena Folic, author

Ben Hart @pavlovforgoths.com · 04/10/2025

the only way that things are going to get better in regards to discrimination against trans people is if we give trans people more power

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

#DVParty Day 3! The Uncollectors and the Blue Tombstone Yoon Haru was a skinny boy with black hair, light brown skin, and dark brown eyes. He was also transparent and had a habit of floating a few inches above the ground most days as a side effect of being a ghost.

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

#DVParty Day 2! This is Tamar bat Nitzevet v'Ezra of tribe Behemot. Tamar's feisty, witty, a good baker, and loves dates. She lives in Eretz Elim where her family grows fruit trees and tends livestock. Originally drew clothes undyed, but now dyed & embellished! What do you think, red or taupe?

Image is of an ancient Judean styled character named Tamar. She has red hair, olive skin, brown eyes. She wears a taupe colored fringed dress and a blue and gold head covering, and is swinging a sling defensively while standing in front of a palm tree.

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

#DVparty Here's my moodboard and art of my main character! From my YA Fantasy featuring a Judean and Babylonian secondary world. Sacrifices of Dates and Salt

Image is a moodboard titled "Sacrifices of dates and salt" and features the following images: An ancient Judean styled woman swinging a sling who wears a blue and gold head covering, a taupe outfit, a hamsa necklace, and is named Tamar. A date tree with lots of dates. An artist's depiction of the blue gates of Babylon. A winged serpent. A winged lion. A view of the Dead Sea from atop Masada. An artist's rendition of the Temple of Solomon.

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

#PreDV #JV #Own #MG #F Romanian Jewish Witcher A magical thief on a broom crashes into a ghost boy's shack. He can chose to turn her in to a dragonriding knight, or help. He helps & with his body's zombie in her magic hat, escapes to adventure returning stolen museum goods to their original owners.

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

#PreDV #JV #own #YA #F #R E2L Ancient Judean & Mesopotamian 2ndary world Picked by lots & exposed to waters of prophecy, Tamar has a choice. Stay in her homeland & survive an attack from shadowy Sheydim, or go alone as a sacrifice to the desert of Azazel to spare her people. She chooses the desert.

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

I finally made an author website and have a first blog post up! I'm fascinated by goblins throughout fantasy focused media, so I'll be doing a series of deep-diving articles examining a few and their antisemitic traits and origins. Here's my intro to the topic! amalenafolic.com/2025/07/29/j...

amalenafolic.com

Jewish Coding in Fantasy: A Study of Goblins

Jewish representation in fantasy books and media, especially in high fantasy, doesn’t look like Judaism. At least, not at first glance. Even when it’s overt, some people don’t rea…

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Reposted by Amalena Folic, author

TestZero @testzero.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

Made a version of this meme I wanted to see.

Meg Griffin ans AI says "You guys always act like you're better than me."
The rest of the family are dressed nicely, Peter is labeled "Digital artist", Lois is labeled "traditional artist", Chris is labeled "Pixel artist", Stewie is labeled "A literal child with crayons"

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Made a doodle 😁 Starting to wonder if I'm getting good enough to illustrate my own MG fantasy WIP book. Still somethings to improve, but not terrible! #amwriting #middlegrade #fantasy #mgfantasy #digitalart

Text reads "The Uncollectors and the Blue Tombstone by Amalena Folic" and thr pictures show an illustration of a blue, green and silver dragon with electricity in its mouth looking at a floating ghost boy while a blue haired girl hides in a basement with a mortar and pestle in her lap. The frame is white with black and red Romanian embroidery.

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Trying to slowly ease back into social media! My kid asked me to write a book for him. And I think that might be a push to self publish, but I'm not sure about making that jump. I realized... trying to get approval from agents or strangers doesn't matter compared to having stories for my kids.

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 28/01/2024

For Holocaust remembrance day I meant to post. This is one of the only pictures of my grandma's sister (the baby), held by the nun who would later save my grandma's life. The sister was sent to Auschwitz along with my great-grandma where they were murdered together in the gas chambers.

Image is an old black and white photo of a baby girl wearing a white dress smiling in the arms of a late-teens woman in a black dress.

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 10/12/2023

Chag Hanuka sameach! Made soup and latkes from scratch, carrots and green beans, chicken schnitzel, cheese and potato burekas. Then for dessert, all homemade cinnamon babka, sufganyot, and my grandma's spiced honey cake. 😊 So happy I got to make a beautiful holiday for my boys.

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 24/11/2023

Tired of people saying "Zionist" when not talking about real Zionists and just hating on Jews because now I'm hyper suspicious of any non-Jew being aggressively anti-Zionist. Do we have positions we agree on, or are you a bigoted asshat? Do I want to risk the anxiety to find out or just leave? 🤷‍♀️

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 02/11/2023

Made a board for mood putch, which looks like it's postponed until April... but it would be a shame not to share anyway! It turned out gorgeous.

A collage of images, from left to right, top to bottom:
1. A multi headed giant dragon
2. The back of a girl's neck with tattooed dragon scales
3. Misty autumn Hoia forest in Romania
4. Bright blue headstones of the cheerful cemetery in Romania
5. A house on chicken legs
6. A clay golem with "emet" on its forehead in Hebrew
7. A mob carrying torches
8. A vasilisk, aka a rooster with a snake tail and dragon wings
9. A Romanian embroidered folk dress, white top, black skirt, red and green embroidery
10. Two moons in a sky with "The Uncollectors" written across the sky in orange

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 27/10/2023

12 year old Amalena would be a bit disappointed to know she would grow up to like sewing, cooking, and baking when all the girls in my fantasy books were terrible at those things and scorned them. But it's okay, I can probably still sword fight if you give me a fencing saber!

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 27/10/2023

I did good with dinner today! Shabbat shalom! Chicken schnitzel, homemade mashed potato, oven baked green beans and carrots, six strand challah, and a cinnamon babka. 😁

Plate of chicken schnitzel, mashed potatoes, green beans, and carrots, with challah in the background.

Cinnamon babka with a slice cut to show the inside with layers from the rolled and twisted pattern.

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 19/10/2023

Time for bibimbap! We had a great dinner last night. Was my best bibimbap dish yet! Everyone was very full and happy. Beef bulgogi, spinach, zucchini, carrots, bean sprouts, gochujang, and egg on top of white rice in a dolsot bowl. Also tons of garlic.

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 14/10/2023

Some Shabbat joy - I made my first six strand challah and brought it to my parents' house for Shabbat dinner. My eldest son was very excited to see it uncovered after he helped me make it earlier that day. :)

Image is of my husband and my eldest son at the table with a large loaf of six strand braided challah in front of them. Son has an emoji face for privacy, but he is very excited.

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 05/10/2023

It's weird to realize I fight the urge to say, "I'm fine" to a specialist dr I was recommended to see by my primary because my test results say I'm not fine and also I'm in daily pain. I'm so trained to push through and ignore pain. On the bright side, my arthritis is finally being taken seriously!

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 24/09/2023

Gmar chatima tova! East fast to those fasting!

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 22/09/2023

Shabbat shalom! Tonight, I made my mom's Romanian mititei (a little misshapen but still delicious) and a round challah! Mititei is a Romanian caseless sausage of mixed ground meat, spices, fat, and all the garlic. My mom usually makes hers with beef, lamb, and duck fat on Thanksgiving!

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 22/09/2023

I mixed the meat and spice blend for mititei to let sit overnight in the fridge and I put so. much. garlic. My kitchen (and house) smells like a garlic plant's butthole. It's awesome.

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 15/09/2023

#shanatovah Jewsky! Shabbat shalom ve shana tovah u metuka! This is my homemade round challah, apples with honey, pomegranate seeds, and my grandma who disowned me's special spiced honey cake made from her recipe. 😁 We're eating good tonight.

Image includes a steel bowl full of red pomegranate seeds, plate of apple slices with honey in a small bowl in the middle, and round braided challah bread.

Image is of a brown honey cake, with my toddler's arm and some challah in the background

Image is of Rosh Hashana/Shabbat candles, a little wine in a glass, a pomegranate, and a round braided challah.

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Reposted by Amalena Folic, author

Ros Dando ✨A Gift of Wild available now!✨ @rosdando.bsky.social · 10/09/2023

Hello, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, and welcome to the fourth weekly #MiddleGrade chat! As always, try to remember to use the hashtag or just the words 'middle grade' to appear in our feed, and have fun - anyone is welcome to join in 😊 Question 1!

Question 1 How is your writing week going? Have you any milestones or accomplishments to celebrate? Shout about them here and let us cheer you on!

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 10/09/2023

So my in-laws' neighbor has 3 boys ages 9-12. They read my MG fantasy manuscript and their reaction was that they want to decorate their lawn based off my book for Halloween. I'm not crying, that's just too much happy emotion spilling out of my face.

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 09/09/2023

Romanian chicken stew with tomato sauce and black olives, couscous, and veggies. :) Hubby said it's not spicy enough. I told him, "Welcome to European cooking." XD (there were spices and herbs, just not hot spicy spices)

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 08/09/2023

Some mornings you get up and ready, get the kids up, do breakfast, and play. Others you put on a shirt, find pants, brush & braid, get kid 1 into clothes, change kid 2's diaper, brush kid 1's teeth, go downstairs, make coffee. Cook egg & oatmeal, slice fruit, make kids eat, clean up, & play w/toys.

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Amalena Folic, author @amalenafolic.bsky.social · 20/08/2023

Every time I'm reminded I'm just a peasant eating gruel, I add an extra spoonful of my homemade mango chutney with 8 spices on top of my oatmeal to make the dead kings who ruled my ancestors jealous.

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