that new notebook smell 🥸
Thank you for an incredible August! Wicked Serve is OUT 🐨
Hi friends,
Were you a first day of school nerd like me?
I used to be such a fan of of the back-to-school process—organizing my school supplies, swapping schedule info with my friends, and planning the perfect first day outfit. For me, the whole process involved a lot of questions like: Can I wear jeans even though it’s still 80F outside? How should I color coordinate my folders to my notebooks? Which planner system should I commit to? Should I swap my elective? Do I bring the novel I’m reading? What songs do I need to make sure I have on my iPod for the bus ride? (My iPod was purple, by the way.) While I don’t necessarily miss being in school, I do miss that clear signal for a return to routine, a new season, and a new page. And all the squeaky-clean notebooks, of course.
Weirdly, I’m in the position of drafting a new book at the change of the season, so I feel like I’m starting over, similar to shedding the prior school year and diving into the next. The Beyond the Play series is complete. The whirlwind re-release/new fourth release schedule, which took up a lot of my attention so far this year, is over. I’m on the cusp of entering the writing cave again, except instead of a cave it’s more of a forest. (More on that some other time.) From now until the end of the year, the first thing on my to-do list each day is WRITE.
And I am, frankly, terrified.
But wait! Before I go any further, let me say: thank you to everyone who came out to see me in the UK at the Headline Eternal #MeetCuteFest and RARE Edinburgh! <3 That was my first trip to any part of Europe and I had an amazing time. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that one day I would 1) sign books on a rooftop terrace overlooking the Thames and 2) have an all-day signing line at a huge convention, but both happened, and it was a perfect ending to all of my tour travel for Wicked Serve!
Some other highlights:
Meeting so many author friends and colleagues in person for the first time, especially my ride-or-die besties, Lily Gold and Olivia Hayle!
Exploring Edinburgh Castle in the mist
Signing foreign editions of my books for the first time
Haggis! It was delicious and I won’t be taking criticism.
That curry puff I ate in London that I am still thinking about on the regular (see below)
Afternoon tea!
The train from London to Edinburgh
All of your beautiful friendship bracelets and presents!! I officially have a stand for the bracelets in my office and I treasure each and every one of them <3
Okay. What was I talking about?
Right. New book. Terrified. Cool cool cool cool.
Being an author means juggling a lot of different parts of the creative process all at once. A book might be done, but you still need to promote it. Maybe one book needs edits, and another is still in the early brainstorming stages. As someone who prefers to hyper-focus on one thing until it is complete, otherwise my brain starts overloading like C-3PO, this is really hard.
For the majority of this year, it has been near-impossible to balance promoting Wicked Serve and Beyond the Play in general with the actual act of writing. One requires a lot of outward-facing work: social media, signings, interviews, etc. The other requires inward-facing work: brainstorming, drafting, chipping away at an idea until it resembles what I initially thought up in my mind.
Both are important, and I’m truly so grateful for how this year has gone, but for someone whose thoughts often resemble the painting Mia makes with her mother in Princess Diaries, it’s been a lot. One or the other would slip, constantly, throughout the year.
I do want to continue to strive for more balance—surely there has to be a way to have it in some form—but I’m glad to have the space, with this metaphorical new school year, to focus on the inward-facing work of drafting. I wrote most of and shelved a book this year (more on that some other time, too), but this is a true fresh slate. I’ll still be poking around online, but I have time to be at home, and settle into my routine, and trust Beyond the Play to continue to find its readers while I work on what’s next… with my new notebook sidekick. And when I push past the terror (it’s always scary!!), I really am excited to take time for myself and my creative soul this autumn.
All that is to say, I hope you’re also glad for the change of season, and whether you’re back to school in some form or just trucking along, I hope you achieve your autumn goals.
I can’t wait to write this book, and especially can’t wait to be able to share more about it with you all… eventually ;)
okay, technically…
I still have one more event this year! Later this month, join me in Brandon, FL, for #SpiceFest at Books-A-Million! I’ll be with some other fantastic authors from Avon/Harper Voyager, and I can’t wait. It’s possible that I’ll faint when I meet Alexis Daria and Sarah A. Parker!
Check out all the details and buy tix here:
currently…
I’ve been listening to a lot of Kacey Musgraves, Zach Bryan, Shaboozey, Tyler Childers, and Chappell Roan. Unsure how I landed in this era, but I’m not mad about it!
My good friend Sarah E. Green has a new novella out, so if you’re looking for something short and addictively spicy to read this week, check out Moonlit Temptation! It’s older brother’s best friend and sooo delish <3
Love you all! Izzy and Nik have been in the world for over a month now, and I’m so happy that they’ve become many readers’ new favorite couple in the series!
Until next time! xx
FELICES GARABATOS DE GRACIAGRACES