What’s In My (Writer’s) Bag: June 2026 Edition

Maybe it was Venus conjoining Jupiter, or maybe it was my big Leo energy taking charge, but there was something in the air in June. Whatever it was, it felt like lots of small puzzle pieces began to quietly click into place. Splitting my time between publishing, experimenting with SEO, and pitching creative work to print and online publications, I was reminded that more than anything, a writer’s success largely rests on consistency more than anything else. 

Here’s what I pulled out of the bag (har, har) in June (and April and May, too). 

A Writer’s Bag Breakdown: What I’ve Published Lately

TWO SAPPHIC HAGS

The latest happenings on Two Sapphic Hags, a lesbian travel project exploring the world through a queer lens. Part travel writing, part storytelling experiment, and part creative collaboration built from concept to launch on WordPress.

Published: “The Ultimate UK Pride Guide (2026)”

Travel Writing | SEO Content | Editorial Resource

One of my biggest projects this month was launching our “2026 UK Pride Guide”. The topic is relevant to our audience, obviously, but I wasn’t planning to push into long-form Pride content this quarter. However, there’s been a noticeable change in the level of support for the LGBTQ+ community that extends beyond corporate sponsorships into rising anti-queer legislation and  media/political talking points. For these reasons, I felt the need to publish an article from a personal level. 

So, I opted to go deeper than the standard, top-of-funnel list of parade dates, and instead, dove into the history of Pride, followed by why it’s still such an important event for the community, supported by stats and personal storytelling. I also detailed some of the lesser-known intersectional and grassroots events. 

The end result is a genuine resource that people can reference every year, which I think is why it has had such successful data results in just a month of being published. I’m excited to see where it goes over the next 12 months as it has time to mature in the algorithm. 

Early results:

• Ranking for five new search terms
• #21 for “sapphic pride”
• #39 for “pride guide”
• Average page position: 13

For the launch, I also built a coordinated Instagram and TikTok campaign to support the article and test how social media could amplify search performance for this topic. 

Update: Iceland Keeps Growing

One of my favourite surprises this month has been watching our Iceland content ecosystem continue to mature in organic search. The “Iceland Travel Journal (Visual Guide)” is now boasting an average page ranking of seven while the main “Iceland Travel Guide” sits around the 12th position, supported by five additional articles all ranking within the Top 20. 

A particularly satisfying milestone is the “Reykjavik Transport Tips” article, which has climbed to position 8 and was driven by personal experience. It’s a nice reminder that SEO is a long game, even in the age of AI-assisted search. Sticking to authenticity is still the way forward. 

New Explore London Guide

Travel Writing | Local SEO

I also recently published our first full-length guide for the Explore London series: “How to Spend a Day in Greenwich”.

It’s still very early, but it’s already beginning to appear for local search terms, including:

• Average ranking of 24 for the guide itself
• Position 45 for “travel to Greenwich”

I’ll be keeping a close eye on the stats for this piece over the next year. I’m particularly interested in how it grows as the Explore ecosystem expands into other areas as well as with supporting posts for the pillar topic. 

Literary Cobblestones

The latest happenings on Literary Cobblestones, an independent literary criticism project exploring sapphic-themed horror and genre fiction through a mix of academic analysis, humor, and visual storytelling.

Published: “The Starving Saints” Book Review

Book Review | Literary Criticism | SEO Content

I’ve recently published a book review for “The Starving Saints” by Caitlin Starling that has taken tf off and gone far above what I expected for it, at least in terms of reach. 

As of publishing for this recap, the post has: 

• 1,500+ Google impressions
• Average search position: 6

Horror is a very competitive search market in general, and lesbian horror is very niche. As such, it can take a while and a lot of strategic work to make it to the first page of search rankings. Additionally, large numbers aren’t expected, especially as an independent outlet. So, looking at the Google Analytics and Console data for “The Starving Saints” review, it’s essentially gone viral from an SEO viewpoint, and I couldn’t be more self-satisfied about that. (Got that triple-fire sign energy, people!)

SEO Ranking: Celebrating a Milestone

Content Strategy | SEO | Digital Publishing

Thanks in part to “The Starving Saints’ success, Literary Cobblestones has crossed a major SEO milestone. We now rank for 200+ keywords and have generated nearly 12,000 Google impressions over the last 90 days alone. 

What’s the reason for the big jump? Well, one of the more unexpected successes has been becoming a top organic and AI-assisted search result for discussions around cannibalism in sapphic horror, citing my review of “The Starving Saints,” which does have a section about how cannibalism serves as a metaphor for female and queer rage as well as sapphic yearning. 

With such a big impact, I may create a dedicated marketing case study because it’s a fascinating example of the impact of AI-assisted search in modern SEO and how to gain topical authority. 

Published: Banned Books Reading List for Pride Month

Editorial Resource | Literary Criticism | SEO Content

To celebrate Pride Month, I also published a “Sapphic Banned Books Reading List.”

Like with Hags’ Pride guide, the reading list is a project that I wasn’t planning on publishing this year, but circumstances demanded it of me from a personal perspective. This particular blog actually started as a social media carousel post on Instagram and TikTok, which took off quickly, so I opted to expand it as an article for long-term organic growth.  

Copywriting & Content Marketing

Published: Free Interactive Portfolio Tutorial Blog

Marketing | WordPress | Web Design

In June, I also published a behind-the-scenes marketing tutorial on my own professional website: “How I Created a Free Interactive Portfolio with Clickable Hotspots.”

The post walks through how I recreated the visual portfolio style you often see on Pinterest using SEO-friendly WordPress instead of Readymag as well as a hotspot plugin and Canva. After solving the problem for myself, I thought I could save some other web designers and marketers some time by sharing what I figured out. 

Creative Writing

Submissions: Recent Work

Creative Nonfiction | Personal Essays 

I try to set aside at least ½ a day a week for creative writing and the admin that goes with it. In June, I wrapped up several flash creative nonfiction pieces (all under 1,500 words) and submitted work to three literary journals and one online publication. Now comes the biggest challenge: waiting. Many of these organizations ask for a six-month review period at a minimum, so crossing fingers!

Looking Ahead: What I’m Packing in My Writer’s Bag for July 2026

There are some big moves already happening in July. For Hags, the focus is moving abroad to the UK with a huge push on socials to support the original pillar blog. There’s also a new ecosystem focused on the process of moving to the UK from the US with pets, while in the background, I work to prepare for our next two installments of London Explore. Plus, I’ve got another sapphic book review planned for LitCobb as well as a case study for my professional blog. 

Additionally, I’m still in the market for some short-term, full-time or part-time, long-term/ongoing contracts for copywriting, creative strategy, and content marketing, so if you have something open, reach out to talk about my rates. 

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to see you soon.