Junewards!

News

Behooved is out in the world! I am now a published author—a fact that is still sinking in. The process of getting published is such a slow burn, with all these milestones happening along the way, that’s it’s surreal to actually have gotten to the finish line and now a book out in the world. It’s in stores! And people are buying and reading it! Honestly, just amazing.

I started my pub day by stopping by my local Barnes & Noble, where I was delighted to find Behooved out on a table. I adore independent bookstores, but that—seeing my book in B&N—is the publishing dream I’ve had since childhood. So it was amazing to actually have that happen. I stood and stared at the copies for an awkwardly long amount of time (it had never occurred to me that actually seeing the books only takes a few seconds, haha).

I ended the day with an amazing launch party at Buffalo Street Books! I had a great conversation with Isabel Sterling, there were gluten free snacks, and people humored me by playing Pin the Tail on Aric for a prize basket (the booksellers ended up winning the very steep competition). I had a great time! I highly encourage people to play silly party games at their launch. I’ll have to come up with something good for the next one.

I also got to see my book in a massive number of stores during debut week, thanks to the power of social media! Thank you so much to everyone who sent photos of it in the wild. It really means so much to me to see my story getting out there, and especially for my debut novel to be greeted with so much excitement and support.

An anthology update

On an unrelated note, submissions for ENTER HERE, the anthology of speculative fiction I’m co-editing with C.J. Subko, are now open for short story submissions! We’re open June 1-15 for all writers who identify as marginalized in some way and June 1-22 for BIPOC writers. All the details on submitting and the submission form can be found here. If you have a short story that fits the prompt, please do consider submitting!

Writing updates

I’ve started drafting a new project! I tend to keep my WIPs very close to the chest, but what I’ll say for now is that it’s an adult fantasy rom com with opposites attract and more magical shenanigans. I’m excited to share more with you soon!

Drafting is hard (shocking, I know), but I’m genuinely feeling very excited about this project, so I’m excited to keep going. It helps that for whatever mysterious reason, I’m having a much better time with this than with my last draft.

I also spent some time in May doing final edits on my YA fantasy heist to get it ready to go on submission to editors. Good vibes appreciated as it sets sail into the world!

Crafty Corner

I’m starting a new project and one of the vital parts of that process is naming the main characters—so I thought I’d talk a bit this month about some of the things I think about when I’m settling on names!

Honestly, the most important factor for me is vibes. The names have to feel right. How a name feels in my head influences a character’s appearance, personality, aesthetic—so if the right name doesn’t helpfully offer itself from the beginning, it can take me awhile to get there. I had a really difficult time landing on names for my main character and love interest this time, so in no particular order, here is a list of things I considered (other than vibes):

• Language: When I’m world building, I often base it loosely off of real world inspirations (for instance, Victorian England; Bronze Age Ireland; the French Revolution). So if I have a real-world analog I’m pulling from, I want the general naming scheme to somewhat match that. Even when I’m not directly drawing from a certain period, I’ll often look to an existing language for names with a similar feel—for instance, in Behooved, all the Damarian names have a very loose Spanish origin. I find this helps the world building feel consistent, especially when I’m creating multiple countries with distinct flavors. It also makes it easier to quickly find names for side characters or background characters (cue googling “list of Irish male names”, for instance). Even if you’re making up a language, consistency is still helpful!

• Meanings: I really love a good Easter egg when it comes to names. Vibes take precedent, but when a name has the perfect meaning for the character, it’s just chef’s kiss. (The main character names in Behooved are mini Easter eggs—not super important meanings, but they do relate a bit to the story and characters!)

• First letter: To make things easier for myself, I really like to have all the major characters’ names start with different letters. That way in my notes I can shorthand them as A and B (see: Aric and Bianca!). Different first letters also help readers distinguish characters. I also wanted to avoid using a name that sounded too similar to any of the names in Behooved, so that gave me extra letters and sounds to avoid.

• How it sounds with other names: Especially since I’m usually writing romantic plotlines, it’s important for the main couple’s names to sound good together! (It was secretly just about vibes all along…)

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

Book recommendations

May was a very contemporary romance-heavy month for me, and a standout title I read was Love and Other Conspiracies by Mallory Marlowe. It has a kind love interest (you may have figured out by now I have a thing for those), delightful banter, cryptid hunts, and characters I totally adored!

In a very different vein, I also read Night Magic by Leigh Ann Hennion, which is a nonfiction book about nocturnal life. It’s a gorgeous read that felt like it was opening my eyes and making me want to go outside at night and witness more of the world—my favorite sort of science writing.

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

Bonus epilogue

One last thing: As part of my preorder campaign for Behooved, I wrote a digital bonus epilogue. So many people have requested it since publication that I’ve decided to offer it as a gift to any newsletter subscribers, too!

From now on, the bonus epilogue will be included with the welcome email for all new subscribers. But as a thank you to people who have been around for awhile, I wanted to offer it to you, too.

If you haven’t received the bonus epilogue yet, and you’d like to, just fill out this form. I’ll send it out to anyone who’s interested in a week or two to give everyone a chance to fill it out.