June passed in a blur! I took the first week and a half of the month off from writing, but that time was absolutely packed with moving and working on the new house. The house work continues (I kind of suspect it will never end—the downside of having a 150-year-old home) but the actual, physical moving is done! I really love my new office, which is the first real office space with a door that closes I’ve ever had. I especially adore the lavender color I painted the walls. I’m also really thrilled with how many birds there are on the property—so far I’m at 47 species and counting. (In case you didn’t know this about me, I’m a huge bird nerd.)

There have also been sightings of mink, garter snakes, deer, snapping turtles, and many, many rabbits—including a nest of baby bunnies I accidentally uncovered in the front garden. And tiny fish in the little stream that runs across the property. I’m very happy about the wildlife!

House stuff, moving, gardening, going to weekly aerial silk classes, and frantically working to catch up on writing in between… that about sums up my past month. I did manage to go sailing once and would like to go a lot more than that in July.

I have some news about It Depends: An author’s practical guide to debut year! First, review copies are up for request on NetGalley. It’s only on the site until July 15, so if you’re a reviewer, I’d suggest requesting soon!

Second, preorders are finally live across retailers! If you’re a debuting author (or are just hoping for a book deal and want to know what to expect once you get an offer), this book is for you! I really hope it will be a valuable and helpful resource—it’s very easy to feel lost as a debut author, and this is the guide I wish I’d had. If you’re grabbing a copy, I always recommend Bookshop.org as an excellent retailer choice.

Finally… I’m not actually sure if I’m supposed to share this yet, but This Treacherous Night is now available for preorder! If you’re curious about the book, you can take a peek and find the full official description and purchase links here!

As mentioned, I took the first part of June off from writing—but the rest of it was packed!

I got my copy edits back for It Depends, went through them in a whirlwind, and then proofread the entire book and finished the final production tasks! It’s now completely finished and off to the printers.

I also went through the proofs for This Treacherous Night! Y’all, this book is going to be stunning. I requested individualized chapter headers for each point of view character, and wow, did they deliver. Here’s a sneak peek at one of them (shh, I haven’t shared this anywhere else):

Another fun tidbit: Due to how YA vs. adult books are formatted, despite being my shortest published novel in terms of word count, it’s going to be my longest yet in terms of page count. The proofs are 368 pages, even though it’s only 79k words! (For comparison, Behooved is 98k words and 352 pages.)

Anyway, that’s two books that I am now completely finished with except for the actual release. (And over 500 pages I proofread this month… oof.) They’re out of my hands. No more edits. It’s both exciting and bittersweet—I’ve loved working on them and it’s hard to let go, but I also can’t wait for them to find their readers.

Finally, I ended the month by going through my edit letter for my next adult book and getting ready to start a big revision. I am extremely excited to be returning to this story (it’s one from my backlist that never went on submission)! I think it’s the most fun I’ve ever had writing a book, and I truly can’t wait to share it with you. The details are secret for now, but I’ll just leave you with this: knights. Road trips. Magical creatures.

The lineup for Love Y’All 2027 has been announced, and surprise: I’m an attending author! The con is during the release week for The Bookbinder & the Thief, so I’m extra excited to celebrate my sophomore novel there. Plus, I will definitely have art and other prizes with me for readers. I hope to see you there!

The WriteHive annual conference is this month ! You can register for free here. I’m on a panel with some amazing other authors talking about healthy agent-author relationships! I believe all the panels should be available for replay if you can’t make it when it airs.

And if you’re in the Finger Lakes area, I’m planning a release week celebration for It Depends at Protagonist Books. Mark your calendars for August 28 at 5pm!

I also had a great time going on the Publishers Brunch with Karis podcast! You can listen here to hear me nerd out about pirate history and hear my not-so-hot romance takes.

It’s always been my intention to keep building my library of free content for newsletter subscribers, and I’m excited to let you know that it now has a landing page! It currently includes the Behooved bonus epilogue and—new!!—the introduction and first chapter of It Depends.

I’m planning to add more to it very soon… so I hope you stick around! And in the meantime, don’t forget to download your free copies!

My recommendation this month is The Demon Star by Jesse Aragon, which releases at the end of July. Full disclosure: I both beta read and blurbed this book. That just means I loved it enough to read it multiple times! It’s a big dark science fantasy epic with incredible world building and deeply flawed characters. If you like Dune, this is a must-read.

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