iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 8h

The book club Discord has sections for the book, for writers, for art and crafts, and for general chaos. The chaos section is the most active. This tracks.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 20h

Book two has a drum circle, a confidence canyon, an ancient dragon, and Lara falling off things repeatedly. She laughs every time. So do I.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

The empty nest is a strange grief because everything you made is still there and thriving. You just aren't the center of it anymore. That takes some getting used to.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Seven color realms. Seven kinds of magic. One very tired midlife woman traveling through all of them. This is the Chroma series.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I set up a market table with books on one side and handmade goods on the other and somehow it all makes sense together. Author and artist. Same person. Same table.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Rantoul friends, Spark to Story is back at the Rantoul Public Library, Saturday Oct 17, 10am to noon. Free writing workshop, no experience needed. Bring the story you've been carrying for years. Know someone who wants to write? Send this their way.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I published the second edition of Waterweaver after readers gave me feedback on the first. Listened to them, did the copy edit work, republished. That's the kind of author I want to be.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Somewhere between homeschooling four kids and writing a fantasy series I apparently became a person who makes things. All the things. Constantly. Send help or fabric.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Susu keeps a close eye on the neighborhood cats through the window. Territorial supervisor. Does not get involved. Judges everyone.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I started Scribes Guild because I wanted writer friends who got it, not a class to teach. Inside, I'm just another author talking shop. Come be a peer, not a student.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

There's a button in my recording app that fakes eye contact. That's creepy. So here's the real me instead. Hoodie, ponytail, no makeup (and looking down half the time). Show up real. Show up messy. Full vlog on YouTube: @mayagouliard #CreativeLife #ShowUpMessy

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"It's better to practice fifteen minutes every day than eight hours on a weekend." Shoshie Bauer on creative muscle memory and just showing up. Full conversation on The Makings of an Artist. #creativehabits #artistlife

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"All art will make you better at your art." If you have ADHD and keep setting creative things down: you come back to the things you really care about. Shoshie Bauer and me on The Makings of an Artist. #adhdcreative #artistlife

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Waterweaver exists because I sat with a grief I didn't know how to hold and turned it into a world. That's what creativity is for, I think. Among other things.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Writing Lara through Azural is the closest I have come to writing my own therapy in public. She doesn't know that. She'd probably have thoughts.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

"Your time is your time." Shoshie Bauer on why discounts don't really help artists, and why you might charge a day rate instead of an hourly one. Full conversation on The Makings of an Artist. #artbusiness #artistlife

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Putting your art out there means some people won't be kind about it. Shoshie Bauer on how she handles the hate comments. Full conversation on The Makings of an Artist. #makingsofanartist #artistlife

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Readers keep telling me Waterweaver was the book they were looking for without knowing it. I was looking for it too when I wrote it.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Someone's mother started referring to Lara as her friend Lara. Not the character. Her friend. That is the whole goal of fiction right there.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Fleck the baby dragon naps constantly, causes chaos upon waking, and is psychically bonded to his person. He is basically a cat with magic.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

We spend a ton on birdseed and I regret nothing. The birds showed up first. The garden kind of grew around them.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

My husband loves our pets more than is reasonable. I put it in the book. Some things are too specific not to use.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The chaos garden, the books, the handmade things, the book club - none of it was planned. All of it makes sense.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Half hour drive to work, and some days I choose silence. The car might be the only quiet place I've got. Where's yours? #creativelife #quiettime Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: GTMONRQODAVCGBYM

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

We pay for all the streaming services and still can't find the game. So we finally canceled live TV. $75 a month back in our pocket. #streaming #reallife Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: GTMONRQODAVCGBYM

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The empty nest hit like a freight train and then I wrote 75000 words about it and called it a fantasy novel. Therapy is valid. So is this.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Fantasy book club for women over 40. No gatekeeping. No spice required. Just good books, honest opinions, and a Discord full of women who get it.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Two years of hunting for fantasy with older heroines, and The Bone Maker might finally be the one. A woman whose lived experience actually shapes her choices. #fantasybooks #bookclub Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: GTMONRQODAVCGBYM

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

"Where did you give yourself permission to show up and call yourself an artist?" That's the question I ask every creative I interview. Three conversations in, I've learned as much about myself as about them. When did you give yourself permission?

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Three interviews in and I'm learning as much about myself as my guests. My question for every creative: when did you give yourself permission to call yourself an artist? #creativelife #podcast Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: GTMONRQODAVCGBYM

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Waterweaver has no chosen one, no love triangle, no dark lord. Just a midlife woman, a dying town, a baby dragon, and a lot of stubborn.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Lara is married, happily, to a man who loves a goat unreasonably. The love story is not the plot. The quest is the plot. Both can be true.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The first book I ever finished was Waterweaver. I was 50. I want to hug the ADHD kid I was, who lost the Young Authors contest in fourth grade.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Made another zipper pouch today instead of writing. Fleck would understand. He also avoids hard things by napping.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Reading is the thing I have done my whole life that nobody ever had to teach me to love. Books have always been where I went when the world got loud.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Power of Simplicity in Art Minimalism isn't unfinished. Sometimes less really is enough. From The Makings of an Artist, part of my podcast I've Always Got Time to Talk with Maya Gouliard. Full episode link in bio/comments. #MakingsOfAnArtist #ArtistLife #Minimalism #CreativeProcess

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Color is magic in the Chroma world. Color is also just magic in general. I don't know when I became a person obsessed with color theory but here we are. (I think it might have been Junior year in high school when I wrote a paper on color psychology.)

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Nobody's going to hand you the title. You have to name yourself. From The Makings of an Artist, part of my podcast I've Always Got Time to Talk with Maya Gouliard. Full episode link in bio/comments. #MakingsOfAnArtist #ArtistLife #CreativeIdentity #NameYourself

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Encaustic Painting with Jennifer Rabbitt Beeswax, heat, and sometimes fire. Encaustic art explained in under a minute. From The Makings of an Artist, part of my podcast I've Always Got Time to Talk with Maya Gouliard. #MakingsOfAnArtist #EncausticArt #ArtProcess #ArtistLife

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Stephen King says write the book that scares you. I wrote the one that made me cry. Close enough.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I am building a creative business in a small Illinois town and it is going exactly as chaotically and beautifully as you would expect.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I wrote a book about a woman who didn't know who she was after her kids left. I was that woman. The book helped.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I owned a restaurant at 23, homeschooled four kids, got a master's degree, and then at 50 decided the thing I actually wanted to do was write fantasy novels. Life is long and weird.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I grew up between two households - one that read fairy tales and Bible parables, and one that read The Hobbit. This explains everything about me.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I have a Substack and a TikTok and a Discord and a Pinterest and an Amazon author page and a Square shop and somehow it all points back to the same thing. One woman making things she loves.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

So many birds in this yard I've started recognizing individual ones. This is either very wholesome or a sign I need more hobbies. Probably both.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Book three is in progress. Echoweaver. Purple realm. Ancient library city. Fleck getting bigger and weirder. I am having the time of my life.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

People ask what a day actually looks like here. Coffee, writing, a walk past the roses, feeding approximately one hundred dollars worth of birds, then probably a zipper pouch.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The Chroma world has a broken magic system and a woman trying to fix it one realm at a time. The metaphor was not accidental.

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Maya Gouliard | Fantasy Author @mayagouliard.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

My market table goal is five author packages prebuilt and ready before every event. Some days I nail it. Some days I show up with hope and a tent.

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