Shout out to one of my favorite poets, Nikki Giovanni. It’s been 1 year since her transition into the ancestral realm.

And my boy @theedarylc for hanging with me today! #trenchcoatpotna

Remember shop local, shop small, and let’s continue to find ways to support each other! That’s how we really fight the power! ✊🏾

#verdearzu #blackqueer #indieauthor

✌🏾❤️&🌈🌈

I already lit an incense when I got home (Nagchampa) and it was such a delightful frangrance. I’ll be back!

AND @indigosunflorals they make the most beautiful flower arrangements and they grow them! 💐

Hey!! Hey!! Hey!! 👉🏾🏃🏾‍♀️ 🙌🏾 (if you grew up in the Black church, you got that! 😂)

Please go check out @zenafvibe they had Hey!! Hey!! Hey!! 👉🏾🏃🏾‍♀️ 🙌🏾 (if you grew up in the Black church, you got that! 😂) the spot smelling hella good today!

The love, support, and community have been beyond what I could have imagined. 🫶🏾 I’m blessed and I know it. God is good. I am grateful to have the strength, mind, spirit, and ability to walk the path that has been laid before me!

Gonna go rest up and see y’all out there in them streets slangin’ these books in 2026!

PROMISE KEEPER is available in hardback, too!

YOUR love, support, and REVIEWS 😉 are appreciated. Thank each of you for all the ways you show up for me! 🙏🏾

#verdearzu #blackqueerauthor #publisher

✌🏾❤️&🌈🌈

Next Saturday 📅 December 14th I’ll be @sacllace for their Holiday Makers Market from 🕐 1-4PM. See you there!

And I’m working on a Black queer writers’ space #forus so if you know somebody or are that somebody holla at me!

#verdearzu #blackqueerindieauthor

✌🏾❤️&🌈🌈

📍Saturday @saclgbtcenter for their #HolidayMakersMarket where I was able to connect with a lot of folks in the community.

Didn’t catch me out and about at one of these great spaces? No worries!

Keep dreaming!
Keep creating!
Keep working to leave this 🌎 in better condition than we found it.

Thank you to my peeps for showing up for me! 🥰

#verdearzu #author

✌🏾❤️&🌈🌈

My podcast, Verde’s Folding Chair, is named in her honor and following her call to make space for myself! Thank you, Shirley Chisholm for the legendary legacy you left for us as a road map to follow.

#verdearzu #verdesfoldingchair

✌🏾❤️&🌈🌈

📸 hardvardsquarelibrary.org

Today, we stand upon Chisholm shoulders and we must remain UNBOSSED & UNBOUGHT. ✊🏾

The wins…

But here I am, still writing. Because I’ve been writing all my life. Since I can remember. Since my Chicago days on the West Side, then the South Side. #chitown

Thank you for reading #DiariesofaBlackQueerIndieAuthor

#verdearzu #indie #author

✌🏾❤️&🌈🌈

Dreams aren’t exact but they do come true. So here I am getting rejected left and right. Some days it’s really tough, others? It’s fuel!