Rie Neal (she/her)
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rienealwriter.bsky.social
Rie Neal (she/her)
@rienealwriter.bsky.social
160 followers 180 following 83 posts
“ree”
👩🏼‍💻ASTRID THE ASTRONAUT & SPACE FOR SAFFRON (2026), Aladdin/S&S. Rep: Carrie Pestritto @ldlainc.bsky.social
🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ Ally
📚MG/YA Reader
🦻🏻Audiologist
🤟🏻ASL Student
Posts Replies Media Videos
rienealwriter.bsky.social
Had a blast doing a Q&A with students at Kendall Demonstration Elementary School in D.C. today!
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KDES participated in the Battle of the Books tournament through Gallaudet Youth Programs last fall, and read the first Astrid book as part of it. Many thanks to Amelia, Rae, and both interpreters!
Image is a photo of me, a white woman with curled red hair, freckles, and glasses, smiling at the camera, with a white background. I’m holding my t-shirt straight so it’s easier to read. It’s a black t-shirt with cartoon bison dressed up like Minions and Gru, and reads, “Battle of the Books, 24-25, Preliminaries.” The Minion bisons have the Gallaudet logo, “GU,” on their overalls.
April 10, 2025 at 6:08 PM
rienealwriter.bsky.social
Weekend work date with my hubby :) #AuthorLife
A white man and woman sit at a table with laptops out. The man has shoulder-length dark brown hair and glasses, and wears a blue plaid button-down shirt. The woman has curled red hair in a high ponytail, glasses, and a dark jacket open over a black and white spotted blouse.
March 2, 2025 at 8:10 PM
rienealwriter.bsky.social
The stories my heart will always have on speed dial. ❤️ (OH—and Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World; it’s apparently gone missing around our house. 🤷‍♀️) Do I share any favorites with you? #bookworm #alwaysreading #kidlit #kidlitcommunity
The following books are shown, arranged in two stacks, with decorative heart figures on top: The Love Hypothesis; Caraval; Across the Desert; Sanity and Tallulah #1; Prairie Lotus; Out of Range; Song for a Whale; Farther Than the Moon; Amari and the Night Brothers; We’re Not From Here; Show Me a Sign; The Prophet Calls; The Last Cuentista; El Deafo; American Street; A Court of Mist and Fury; I Kissed Shara Wheeler; Give Me a Sign; The Darkness Outside Us; The Words in My Hands; The Maid and the Crocodile; Fourth Wing; The Cruel Prince; True Biz; Across the Universe.
February 24, 2025 at 2:29 PM
rienealwriter.bsky.social
Congrats to my friend Chiara Colombi on her newest picture book release: Rocket Beams, Lunar Dreams! 🎉 Your books are the perfect marriage of technical spacey knowledge and deep emotional arcs. ❤️ Had a blast celebrating with you at Linden Tree Books! #kidlit
Two white women (Chiara Colombi & me) smile for the camera, each holding up our books inside a children’s bookstore. Chiara has long brown hair and is wearing a sweater-blouse and jeans. She’s holding up her two picture books: Rocket Ship, Solo Trip and Rocket Beams, Lunar Dreams. I have red hair in a high ponytail and glasses, and am wearing a maroon blouse and jeans. I’m holding three of the four Astrid the Astronaut chapter books. There are bookshelves around and behind us. Chiara holds a small sphere meant to represent the Moon, as she speaks to a gathering of young children and their parents on the front patio at Linden Tree Books in downtown Los Altos, CA. A close-up of Chiara, reading from her newest picture book, Rocket Beams, Lunar Dreams.
February 23, 2025 at 7:56 PM
rienealwriter.bsky.social
Thank you to the Tech Interactive and Silicon Valley Reads for a great time today! Always fun to cheer on fellow space-y kidlit author (and friend) Lindsay Lackey, and it was wonderful to meet Dr. Natasha Schatzman, an aeronautical engineer at NASA Ames (like my grandpa, back in the day!). #kidlit
Three white women pose for the camera, smiling. Lindsay Lackey is on the left; she has long brown hair and wears a dark dress covered in stars. I’m in the middle; I have red hair and glasses, and am wearing a light turquoise blouse and jeans. On the right is Dr. Natasha Schatzman, a NASA engineer; she has long brown hair and is wears blue polo shirt with a jacket tied around her waist. I’m laying back in a motorized chair, controlled by a joy stick in each hand. The chair resembles a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), like the motorized chairs sometimes used in space walks by astronauts. I’m in a circular arena, trying to move the chair so the red light above it lines up with the green target lights above me. Lindsay and her husband cheer me on in the background. A heat-sensitive image of four people (me, Lindsay, and our husbands) is shown on a screen in green, red, and blue light. My husband raises his hand to a wall with a projected waterfall on it, and the water moves away as if his hand is truly diverting it.
February 23, 2025 at 1:29 AM
rienealwriter.bsky.social
Hello Flashes/Bluesky! 👋🏻
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My name is Rie (pronounced REE), and I’m a kidlit author living in the SF Bay Area. I write the chapter book series Astrid the Astronaut (Aladdin/S&S), about a plucky 8yo who wants to be the first hard-of-hearing astronaut one day.
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Drop a comment to say hi!
I’m smiling at the camera, hand on my hip, holding up my four Astrid the Astronaut chapter books. I’m a white woman with curled red hair, glasses, and wearing a striped navy and white top. I’m outside; there is a high wooden fence and greenery behind me.
February 22, 2025 at 2:17 AM
rienealwriter.bsky.social
A beach in the Marin headlands, near San Francisco, is shown. The Golden Gate Bridge is silhouetted against the sky.
February 13, 2025 at 2:52 AM
rienealwriter.bsky.social
Thank you random Starbucks barista via DoorDash. I needed the reminder today ❤️🥹
An iced Starbucks drink sits on a white table. “Love Wins” is written in black Sharpie on the side.
February 6, 2025 at 3:47 PM
rienealwriter.bsky.social
Grateful to have safe havens to #readfreely in my community, like Linden Tree. Books teach us empathy, and are essential to the development of young minds. Kids deserve access to books that reflect their own identities. ❤️
#authorsagainstbookbans #freedomtoread #ireadbannedbooks
Image is a photo of me in a bookstore, smiling at the camera. I’m a white woman with strawberry blonde hair in a high ponytail. I’m wearing glasses, a tshirt, shorts, and a jean jacket, and am holding the four books mentioned here: * GenderQueer, by Maia Kobabe: the most frequently banned book in the country (I haven’t read it! Time to rectify that ❤️) * Stamped From the Beginning (graphic history), by Ibram X. Kendi: I read and loved the full-text version a few years ago; I’m excited to read the graphic version * Deer Run Home, by Ann Clare LeZotte: @annclarelezotte’s newest book (one of my favorite Deaf authors) * Radiant, by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson: a MG novel in verse, set in the 1960s, when my mom was growing up (I’ve been learning more about her childhood recently, and the historical context of it)
January 25, 2025 at 6:26 PM