Kristen Tate
@kristentate.bsky.social
Editor and writer at the Blue Garret. Southerner by birth, San Franciscan by choice, Italian by some route I have yet to discover. she/her/y'all
https://bio.site/kristentate
https://bio.site/kristentate
BREAKING: My cats have created some kind of rainbow wormhole situation. What’s the protocol here?
October 21, 2025 at 6:19 PM
BREAKING: My cats have created some kind of rainbow wormhole situation. What’s the protocol here?
That felt fucking fantastic!
(Pls overlook the spacing – I am merely an editor with a printer and opinions about typefaces, not a graphic designer)
(Pls overlook the spacing – I am merely an editor with a printer and opinions about typefaces, not a graphic designer)
October 19, 2025 at 1:47 AM
That felt fucking fantastic!
(Pls overlook the spacing – I am merely an editor with a printer and opinions about typefaces, not a graphic designer)
(Pls overlook the spacing – I am merely an editor with a printer and opinions about typefaces, not a graphic designer)
You’ll get links to my story spreadsheet template and scene component template too! (3/3)
July 12, 2025 at 6:38 PM
You’ll get links to my story spreadsheet template and scene component template too! (3/3)
Okay, sure, I guess I choose fog dome over heat dome? But I wouldn’t mind if @karlthefog.bsky.social took a quick little visit to NYC (see a show maybe!) so we could break 70 here in San Francisco.
June 24, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Okay, sure, I guess I choose fog dome over heat dome? But I wouldn’t mind if @karlthefog.bsky.social took a quick little visit to NYC (see a show maybe!) so we could break 70 here in San Francisco.
Great conversation with Matty Dalrymple about the editing process. I even talk about the panic day I build into my schedule for content edits. There's always a day I feel like I've lost the plot & need time to find it again.
selfpublishingadvice.org/podcast-edit...
#AmEditing
selfpublishingadvice.org/podcast-edit...
#AmEditing
May 31, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Great conversation with Matty Dalrymple about the editing process. I even talk about the panic day I build into my schedule for content edits. There's always a day I feel like I've lost the plot & need time to find it again.
selfpublishingadvice.org/podcast-edit...
#AmEditing
selfpublishingadvice.org/podcast-edit...
#AmEditing
Want to dive deep into craft discussions of a current bestseller with a group of story nerds? Come join us over at the Novel Study Patreon! Our April selection is Nnedi Okorafor's DEATH OF THE AUTHOR, which is a show-stopper.
patreon.com/BlueGarret
patreon.com/BlueGarret
April 10, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Want to dive deep into craft discussions of a current bestseller with a group of story nerds? Come join us over at the Novel Study Patreon! Our April selection is Nnedi Okorafor's DEATH OF THE AUTHOR, which is a show-stopper.
patreon.com/BlueGarret
patreon.com/BlueGarret
📊 Inside a bestseller: I analyzed every sentence in Chapter 6 of THE GOD OF THE WOODS by Liz Moore to see exactly how the scene works. (1/3)
February 24, 2025 at 6:31 PM
📊 Inside a bestseller: I analyzed every sentence in Chapter 6 of THE GOD OF THE WOODS by Liz Moore to see exactly how the scene works. (1/3)
Thrilled to be back at the San Francisco Writers Conference this weekend! This year I'm part of two panels on the self-publishing track:
📚 "I Finished My First Draft" to Clicking "Publish": What and Who You Need to Know to Produce the Best Books: Friday, 9:15am
(1/2)
📚 "I Finished My First Draft" to Clicking "Publish": What and Who You Need to Know to Produce the Best Books: Friday, 9:15am
(1/2)
February 6, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Thrilled to be back at the San Francisco Writers Conference this weekend! This year I'm part of two panels on the self-publishing track:
📚 "I Finished My First Draft" to Clicking "Publish": What and Who You Need to Know to Produce the Best Books: Friday, 9:15am
(1/2)
📚 "I Finished My First Draft" to Clicking "Publish": What and Who You Need to Know to Produce the Best Books: Friday, 9:15am
(1/2)
He is! And a little miffed lol
February 5, 2025 at 9:08 PM
He is! And a little miffed lol
Hello, #ACESChat! I'm excited to participate here on Bluesky for the first time. I'm a fiction editor based in San Francisco, taking a break today from the thriller novel I'm currently copyediting. Here is one of my kitties trying to understand why I don't have a lap while using my standing desk.
February 5, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Hello, #ACESChat! I'm excited to participate here on Bluesky for the first time. I'm a fiction editor based in San Francisco, taking a break today from the thriller novel I'm currently copyediting. Here is one of my kitties trying to understand why I don't have a lap while using my standing desk.
Just finished two weeks of work on a gorgeously written novel set in the 1730s. The author sent me a spreadsheet of terms he'd already looked up in the OED to avoid anachronisms – truly what copyediting dreams are made of! (I did find a couple dozen more I queried.)
#AmEditing
#AmEditing
January 31, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Just finished two weeks of work on a gorgeously written novel set in the 1730s. The author sent me a spreadsheet of terms he'd already looked up in the OED to avoid anachronisms – truly what copyediting dreams are made of! (I did find a couple dozen more I queried.)
#AmEditing
#AmEditing
Are we heading for a day when Apple Health is less dumb or a day when it will detect the hot flash this question triggered? Or *maybe* we are heading for a day when my hot flash will destroy things. Who has written this book and where can I get it?
January 29, 2025 at 4:10 AM
Are we heading for a day when Apple Health is less dumb or a day when it will detect the hot flash this question triggered? Or *maybe* we are heading for a day when my hot flash will destroy things. Who has written this book and where can I get it?
On the Novel Study Patreon, which is focused on the bestseller lists this season, I plunged straight into two super uncomfortable topics: money and class/status. Hey, we are all feeling wildly uncomfortable anyway, so let's go for it! I will admit that I have to resist framing some books as... (1/3)
January 26, 2025 at 9:48 PM
On the Novel Study Patreon, which is focused on the bestseller lists this season, I plunged straight into two super uncomfortable topics: money and class/status. Hey, we are all feeling wildly uncomfortable anyway, so let's go for it! I will admit that I have to resist framing some books as... (1/3)
Do you want to join a book club that not only discusses the book but actually studies it, breaking down the structure, analyzing a scene, and deconstructing sentences? Come join Novel Study on Patreon! We're starting in February with the thriller THE GOD OF THE WOODS.
patreon.com/BlueGarret
patreon.com/BlueGarret
January 24, 2025 at 2:01 AM
Do you want to join a book club that not only discusses the book but actually studies it, breaking down the structure, analyzing a scene, and deconstructing sentences? Come join Novel Study on Patreon! We're starting in February with the thriller THE GOD OF THE WOODS.
patreon.com/BlueGarret
patreon.com/BlueGarret
I started writing the Blue Garret newsletter in 2019, and it’s still one of my very favorite things to write. I tell you the things I also need to tell myself:
January 12, 2025 at 10:30 PM
I started writing the Blue Garret newsletter in 2019, and it’s still one of my very favorite things to write. I tell you the things I also need to tell myself:
Way back in the summer, when I was head down in the final drafts of my Novel Study book, I dreamed up an idea to begin a new series of novel studies, but with a group of authors, editors, & other story nerds all reading together.
The idea wouldn't let me go and now I've made it a reality! (1/3)
The idea wouldn't let me go and now I've made it a reality! (1/3)
January 4, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Way back in the summer, when I was head down in the final drafts of my Novel Study book, I dreamed up an idea to begin a new series of novel studies, but with a group of authors, editors, & other story nerds all reading together.
The idea wouldn't let me go and now I've made it a reality! (1/3)
The idea wouldn't let me go and now I've made it a reality! (1/3)
Really asking a lot of the black-eyed peas this year
January 2, 2025 at 2:01 AM
Really asking a lot of the black-eyed peas this year
Yet another reason to love SF (y’all should read this whole piece – it’s wild!)
January 1, 2025 at 1:03 AM
Yet another reason to love SF (y’all should read this whole piece – it’s wild!)
20 years in San Francisco, and this is my first tornado warning – it took my half-asleep brain time to understand it wasn’t another earthquake warning like we had a couple weeks ago. I lived in Kansas for a while as a kid, so the training kicked in, but the SF Chron is starting with the basics 😂
December 14, 2024 at 4:28 PM
20 years in San Francisco, and this is my first tornado warning – it took my half-asleep brain time to understand it wasn’t another earthquake warning like we had a couple weeks ago. I lived in Kansas for a while as a kid, so the training kicked in, but the SF Chron is starting with the basics 😂
Spent yesterday sifting through my notes and stacks of business cards and writing about what I learned from the Author Nation conference – and committing to going back in 2025. www.thebluegarret.com/blog/author-...
November 24, 2024 at 9:00 PM
Spent yesterday sifting through my notes and stacks of business cards and writing about what I learned from the Author Nation conference – and committing to going back in 2025. www.thebluegarret.com/blog/author-...
Hey, #AuthorNation folks! If you are curious about working with an editor (or becoming an editor ✨) come chat with us. The @efafreelancers.bsky.social booth will be staffed from 10-4 on Mon and throughout the week.
November 11, 2024 at 4:43 PM
Hey, #AuthorNation folks! If you are curious about working with an editor (or becoming an editor ✨) come chat with us. The @efafreelancers.bsky.social booth will be staffed from 10-4 on Mon and throughout the week.
If you are a visual learner like I am, you’ll love the illustrations, which show you at a glance how authors manage chronology, multiple narrators, scene components, and complex plots.
October 1, 2024 at 3:22 PM
If you are a visual learner like I am, you’ll love the illustrations, which show you at a glance how authors manage chronology, multiple narrators, scene components, and complex plots.
I tackle topics from backstory to theme, and each chapter includes concrete takeaways you can apply to your own work. The conclusion guides you through the process of conducting your own novel studies, so you can uncover the tools and techniques used by authors you want to learn from.
October 1, 2024 at 3:22 PM
I tackle topics from backstory to theme, and each chapter includes concrete takeaways you can apply to your own work. The conclusion guides you through the process of conducting your own novel studies, so you can uncover the tools and techniques used by authors you want to learn from.
NOVEL STUDY is here! If you’ve ever finished a novel & thought, “How did the author do that?” this book is for you. I spent a year following that question across the terrain of ten recent novels, & what I discovered is that each novel provides a different answer. www.thebluegarret.com/novelstudy
October 1, 2024 at 3:21 PM
NOVEL STUDY is here! If you’ve ever finished a novel & thought, “How did the author do that?” this book is for you. I spent a year following that question across the terrain of ten recent novels, & what I discovered is that each novel provides a different answer. www.thebluegarret.com/novelstudy