July 31, 2019

Monthly Author Check-In: July 2019

What I’m Writing: Hopefuls 3 and 4
What I’m Reading: Tell Me How You Really Feel by Aminah Mae Safi, These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling, and War of the Foxes by Richard Siken
What I’m Loving: A coworker convinced me to finally break down and watch Veronica Mars, and I am so, so grateful she did. (Thanks, Christine!) I am still on the first season, though, so no spoilers!

WIP Excerpt

The world compressed, flattening as neat as a page in the comics Jane drew. Smack dab in the middle: the open end of a gun, the barrel gaping so large that you feel you’ll tumble down into it. It’s a perfect circle, larger than life, and the rest of the scene warps inward around the image, the colors and shapes of the crowd distorting as if everything is being sucked into its orbit. Flip the page again. A narrow shaft of light cuts an otherwise solid field of black, and Jane, tiny in the middle, is caught in a free fall, as sure as Alice down the rabbit hole.

News Wrap-Up:

Who’s Afraid of Amy Sinclair? was released on June 24th to much enthusiasm, and managed to hit number 31 in one of its categories on Amazon—the highest I’ve ever seen for one of my books. Thank you all so much! If you’ve already read it, please remember to leave a review at your favorite bookstore’s site.
There’s now a special edition of The Private Life of Jane Maxwell, created in partnership with F-BOM (Feminist Book of the Month). There’s still time to pick up your copy today, so be sure to sign up on their site, so you can get behind-the-scenes content, including videos.
On a personal note, a little lost kitten found himself a home with us in June, exactly one week before Who’s Afraid of Amy Sinclair? came out. So that’s been a wild ride, especially the process of introducing him to my long-time cat, and a distraction I did not anticipate for the summer. But I cannot complain because come on, just look at that face.

So like I said, the summer’s been more of a distraction than I’d planned on. I haven’t managed to do as much promotion for my new book as I’d expected to, though thankfully my fans are carrying me through on their own, for which I am eternally grateful. As per usual, I took a few weeks off from writing after a new release to refresh and assess my current goals and deadlines, but now I am back into production. Currently, I’m plotting/outlining Hopefuls 3, while I am actually writing Hopefuls 4. I know, it’s out of order, but what can I say? I’m a chaos writer, through and through.

(No, in all seriousness though, Hopefuls 3 has a much more complicated plot than Hopefuls 4, so it genuinely requires more pre-planning before I can write it. Hopefuls 4, on the other hand, I can pretty much just wing it as I go.)

Meanwhile, my stint as F-BOM’s July/August Book of the Month pick is about halfway through, and it’s been so much fun! I’ve already recorded a sneak peak introduction of my book and gotten some reader feedback/questions in their members-only portal, and soon we’ll be sitting down to my first-ever video interview series. I’m really looking forward to that one. It’s been a delight, truly. Be sure to pick up your own copy, so you can have the Special Edition for yourself, as well as access to all the members-only content.

Now my sights are turning toward the rest of the year. I’m trying to figure out what I want my focus to be during the fall and winter months. I’ve got so many fun projects planned, so many new and exciting developments that I just haven’t had time to bring to fruition yet. But now that I’m back into drafting new books, I’m finally going to be able to juggle some of those other projects, and the only question that remains is, which takes priority? That’s my assignment for the next week or so, simply to figure out what I will bring to you all first. I cannot wait to share it with you.