(How many of you even remember the song that I used as the subject here? Do I even want to know the answer to that?) Happy September! By now, most kids are likely back in school, temperatures are (finally) starting to dip just a bit, and some people are already excitedly digging all their spooky season decor out of storage. Here in the south, schools have been back in session for a month, but I grew up in Pennsylvania starting after Labor Day, so I'm sending a virtual high five to all the...
10 months ago • 6 min read
Y'all, I was going to make this an updates-only newsletter, because I have a bunch of them, and I'm behind on everything (it's summer, which means everything is moving slower, but also I have a kid starting college in a month and a book coming out in a few weeks, which means that everything is also moving at the speed of light). But, well, now I have something I want to talk about after all, despite having no time to do so, so we're going to do that instead. But first, the updates Instead of...
12 months ago • 13 min read
Hello friends, and happy almost-summer! Spring has, like every other season, been busy. I don't know why I always think each season is going to be quieter than the last. That's almost never how it goes, and yet I continue to stubbornly hold out hope. I continue to be utterly obsessed with my plants (I actually think I have some arriving in the mail later today!), and may have gotten slightly carried away, but also who cares. Every day, I kick off my morning with a little plant walk where I...
about 1 year ago • 8 min read
First things first, the winner of my giveaway for a physical ARC of You Shouldn't Be Here is MARCY S.! Congratulations, Marcy! Thanks everyone for playing along, and stay tuned for more giveaways in the future! Who else functions more or less like a plant? This is a thing I've realized about myself in recent years; my energy level tends to directly coincide with how sunny and warm it is. If it's gray or cold, I essentially go dormant, but as soon as the sun comes out and the temperature...
over 1 year ago • 11 min read
Happy Leap Day! What is everyone doing with their 24 hours of Bonus February? Here in middle Tennessee, the weather has decided to celebrate by getting abruptly cold again after being mild for the past week, which tricked my dormant flowers into peeking through to the surface just in time to freeze them again. Clearly the weather is a troll. The past week has been one of several fun developments on the You Shouldn't Be Here front. First, completely unexpectedly, a box of ARCs (advance reader...
over 1 year ago • 6 min read
It has come to my attention that attempting to embed Instagram links is breaking my newsletters, so that best-case scenario, the pictures don't load, and worst-case, the entire thing is gibberish. Lesson learned! From now on, Instagram is dead to me. Long live downloading-and-uploading. Anyway, if my last couple newsletters looked wonky (or just flat-out didn't work), here they are again. A smattering of wee updates What all goes into publishing a book, anyway? My apologies for the...
over 1 year ago • 1 min read
So I promised my next newsletter would be more interesting, and while I do have a couple updates to share (nothing major, calm down), those updates actually tie in nicely to a thing I've been meaning to write about for a while. I get asked a lot "what's happening with the book," and while of course the process is going to look a little different from author to author and publisher to publisher, the basic components tend to be the same. Now, this is only going to address traditional...
over 1 year ago • 18 min read
Hello, all! It is a thoroughly dreary day outside today, which makes me want to do zero things, but unfortunately, life demands that I do at least a few. This is not likely to be the most loquacious newsletter (don't worry; I'll make up for it later), but there are a few little updates that I wanted to share with you before too much more time passed. A Night of Thrills First of all, if you're located here in Nashville or the surrounding areas, I'd love to see you this Friday night at Bound...
over 1 year ago • 3 min read
Happy New Year, y'all! It's 2024, although I fully anticipate I'll be writing the date wrong for at least the next four months, possibly longer. It seems my brain's reluctance to step into the future grows deeper with every passing year, and I suspect that eventually, when I am old and withered, I will probably plant myself at a point in time and refuse to go any further. My great-grandchildren will be wondering why I am still insisting it is 2046 in 2080 and other family members will remind...
over 1 year ago • 12 min read