📬 Someone Subscribed. So Now I’m Stuck With Feelings (and a Newsletter)

I told myself I wouldn’t post here until someone actually showed up.

Well… someone did.

So now it feels like my sacred Saturday obligation to show up too—with updates, ramblings, resistance, possibly formatting tears, and hopefully something worth sticking around for.

Even as I’m putting together this very post, today isn’t quite the sun-killing-me-in-Super Mario Bros level of heat, but it’s close. We’re still stuck under the remnants of a heat dome that’s been lingering like relatives who don’t take hints. It’s not exactly endearing me to finish anything, least of all the print versions of my books.

That was the plan—to wait out the weather, take my time, breathe.
But then my cousin casually mentioned she’d be asking her local librarian about ordering my books in print.

So now I guess I should probably mosey on over to reality and resolve the issue.

Which brings me here.

And technically, I guess this is your peek into wtf I’m actually doing:
Toggling between heat stroke and header styles. Fighting with formatting demons that sneak into my EPUBs and mock my carefully styled PDFs. Whispering “this is fine” to myself while watching scene breaks collapse in Draft2Digital like soggy origami.

It’s chaotic. But it’s mine.

📚 My Books (yes, plural)

✨ Volume 1: 1980–1985

The Inextinguishable Marie Kelly, Book 1

Marie Kelly’s journey toward self-discovery is shaped by her mother’s powerful legacy, forcing her to confront the past and forge her own path in a world of love, resilience, and transformation.

💸 On sale now for $2.49 (normally $4.99)
📅 Use code SSW50 at checkout through July 31, 2025
📚 Formats: EPUB
🔗 Grab your copy on Smashwords

✨ The Awakening of Clara Hayes

The Resistance Chronicles, Book 1

In a world ruled by the tyrannical Emperor Victor Hale, Clara Hayes stumbles into a hidden resistance and discovers her own untapped potential. As secrets unravel, Clara must decide how far she’s willing to go to reclaim her future and challenge the empire’s iron grip.

💸 Also on sale for $2.49
📅 Code SSW50 through July 31
🔗 Explore The Resistance Chronicles

Originally, I thought I’d build this platform on Substack. But watching Proud Boys-adjacent voices thrive there made me shift gears. I don’t want to build a house in a neighborhood like that. So now, Beehiiv’s the new ground. This is where I’m gathering the people who believe I’m the next Margaret Atwood… and maybe the ones who think I’m a formatting mess with delusions of literary grandeur. Either way, I’m writing.

And somewhere between all this—the heat, the chaos, the digital fires—June 17 quietly passed.

No big announcement. No confetti. Just a private milestone:
That was the day Clara Hayes came out.
Not to the regime. Not in defiance. But to herself.
And maybe—quietly—to me.

I didn’t plan it that way. It just was.
And it felt right.

Some authors go viral on book launch day. Others blow up five years later. Some don’t get seen until long after they’re gone.

I’m not chasing virality. I’m chasing truth—on the page, in the story, in whatever breath this world hasn’t taken from us yet. I’d love to be compared to Atwood. I’d also survive if someone read my work and said, “This is giving discount Patterson with a heat migraine.” That’s fine.

What matters more?

That you’re here.
And that I’m still writing.

Same time next Saturday.

—
A.L. Bellettiere
✍️ Author of two books
💧 Hydrated and defiant
📚 Smashwords July Sale