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My biggest personal update this month is that I went to Love Y’all! I had never been to a con before, as either a writer or a reader, so I was pretty nervous and didn’t know what to expect. But I had a great time! (Other than the overly vigorous 5am dump truck and vigorous, um, other activities of the people in the next hotel room interrupting my sleep.) I was on three panels and got to meet a bunch of other 2025 and 2027 debut authors, as well as some of the more established authors who blurbed Behooved and who inspire me so much.

I also got to meet so many readers! I had truly thought that maybe 5 or 10 people would bring copies for me to sign, but instead I had a line during the entire signing hour on Saturday and was pretty busy on Sunday too (though the con was definitely quieter on the second day, with a lot of people heading home). I was so touched that so many people came to see me—some of them with friendship bracelets they’d made just for the book! Connecting with readers is the best part of the author experience, and I’m especially so happy when someone tells me my book made them feel seen.

This was my test run of whether or not cons are for me. To be honest, I’m not sure what my conclusion is. I’m really glad I went, but it was also a lot, and I am a homebody who gets very stressed out by travel. Having celiac doesn’t help since I can’t count on going out to eat or being able to have the provided food or hotel breakfast. (Plus, cons are expensive when your publisher isn’t covering it… which mine is not.) I definitely want to do more events, and it’s possible Love Y’all will line up really well with my next book release, but whether I go next year remains to be seen. In the meantime, I’m doing some much more low key local events—see below if you’re in the Finger Lakes area!

I have quite a number of updates to share this month, so buckle up!

First, exciting news for UK readers: the paperback of Behooved is up for preorder! And she’s getting a beautiful new color scheme! If you go to Waterstones or Blackwells, you can grab your copy now. (For non-UK readers who want this version, Blackwells does free international shipping!) Here’s the gorgeous new cover—feast your eyes!

Another exciting announcement: I have a short story coming out later this year! I’m so thrilled to be contributing to a medieval horror anthology releasing in May from Grave Belles. Proceeds from the anthology will benefit The Trevor Project.

I don’t write horror super often these days, so this was really fun and a good stretch of my writing muscles! Here’s a mood board for the short story I have in the anthology, titled The Heart, the Hunt:

Enter Here paperbacks and ebooks are officially available wherever you get your books, if you’re in the mood for a speculative anthology! We also have digital review copies available—email [email protected] if you’re a reviewer who would like one.

The books turned out really beautiful! Here’s a photo of the intimidating stack of Kickstarter backer copies before they were mailed out.

And finally, I also have a hardcover copy of Behooved and a 30 minute AMA or book club visit up for auction in the Lit for Queer Liberation fundraiser. Bidding is live until March 7, so get yours in now if you’d like either of these things for yourself or a friend!

This Treacherous Night is off to copy edits! In January, I did my last editorial round of line edits (which included sensitivity reader notes) and a final detailed read through, and I’m now waiting for the copy edited version to review—so in other words, the book is basically finished. Other than fixing any actual errors, it has reached its final form. I’m so proud of how it turned out and can’t wait for readers to meet the crew! We’ve also started cover discussions, and I am so excited. I’ll drop some teasers once I have more details!

In January, I also finished the first draft of the craft book I’ve hinted at, and then tackled my first revision and sent it off to beta readers. I’ve been very secretive about this one so far, but I will definitely be talking more about it later this year. This is going to be a self-published project, tentatively releasing in August, and I really hope it will be a helpful resource for debut authors. If you’re a debut author or hoping to be one, keep an eye on this space—more information soon! I’ll be working on revising it from my readers’ notes this month.

Adult fantasy rom com #2 is also off to copy edits! I received and finished line edits in February and did a read through on my kindle, which is the last thing I like to do before copy edits. It was a bit nerve wracking to send it back, since this book hasn’t needed as many rounds of edits as I’m used to, but I’m excited about the final version and hope everyone will love it. The book also now has an official title! Once again, this is a secret for now, but I’ll give you a hint: it’s five words, and two of them are the same word.

Things are also moving along with my historical fantasy novella! I have a cover in hand (reveal to come!), and in February I did my line edits, incorporated my sensitivity reader’s notes, and completed a proofread. This little book is ready to go out into the world! And I have a super exciting announcement about this project exclusively for newsletter subscribers that I’ll be sharing later this year, so definitely make sure to check back for that!

I know that’s a lot of secrets—I can’t wait to share them soon!

If you’re in the Ithaca area, mark your calendars! I’ll be doing two upcoming author talks at Protagonist Books:

March 20 at 5pm: all about agents

June 19 at 5pm: getting a book deal

I hope to see you there!

I’m someone who gets excited about a lot of book ideas—you might know this by now!—so I thought it might be fun to talk about how I organize them.

First, all my rawest ideas, just bits and pieces that aren’t actually a story like “mud people” or “tapestries slowly become more horrifying,” get dumped in a general notes app on my phone. (These are actual things in my notes app; no, I don’t know what they mean either).

Then, if I have an actual premise that keeps nagging at me, it graduates to its own note where I add on bits and pieces that aggregate over time.

Finally, if I feel like there’s actually a story there—and, crucially, I can articulate it enough to have a one-sentence pitch (not necessarily a good one, but enough to capture the gist)—it gets added to my WIP index.

What is a WIP index? I’m so glad you asked.

It’s a spreadsheet where I keep all the ideas I think might actually be a book. I’m not going to show you my actual index (sorry, that’s for my eyes alone!), but here are the categories it includes:

I don’t always fill out the plan or comp title sections, but the rest gets completed. “Stage” is where it’s at developmentally—e.g. brainstorming, outlined, partly drafted, etc. “Potential plan” is what I think I could do with it, like submit it as an option to one of my publishers or pitch it as part of one of my contracts.

I also have some of my ideas grouped by color code—for instance, I’ve highlighted all the projects I’m thinking about potentially submitting as an option book for my adult publisher in the same color. It just makes it easier to see at a glance, since as of this writing I have over three dozen ideas on the spreadsheet.

But that’s not all! Once a first draft is complete, the WIP moves over to a different tab on the spreadsheet:

And that’s the WIP index!

Maybe this is horrifying to you! Maybe it’s helpful! Let me know?

Is there a craft or publishing topic you’d like me to cover? Hit reply or leave a comment!

I really enjoyed Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Revis! It’s the start of a trilogy of romantic sci fi novellas, and I blew through them all in a couple of days. Fun, snarky without being mean-spirited, hating on billionaires, and fast-paced—exactly the sort of quick and engaging read I enjoy.

To see all my newsletter recommendations, visit the full list here!