January 22, 2024

new year, new ̶ ̶m̶e̶ ̶b̶o̶o̶k̶ birds

I feel like I had a topic in mind for my monthly intro-to-newsletter thoughts. in true ADHD fashion, I've forgotten it. but this month's issue is packed full of news, book stuff, and more, so let's dive right into it without waiting for me to remember what else I wanted to say.

writehive mentorship program

back in 2022, I was a mentee working with mystery writer CJ Connor to revise the manuscript that is now The Keeper of Lonely Spirits.

in 2024, I am now a mentor working with author Kathleen Danielson to revise her manuscript!

I've been looking forward to reading Kathleen's manuscript since reading her query letter during WriteHive's 2023 virtual conference back in June. so I was VERY EXTREMELY EXCITED when I saw her submission package among mentee submissions for WriteHive's mentorship program!

keep an eye out for this folkloric historical fantasy, because it's going places 😤

click here to follow Kathleen on instagram

the keeper of lonely spirits

icymi: Publishers Weekly Book Deals for January 8

I was in Publishers Weekly! Keeper was in Publishers Weekly! Edna was in Publishers Weekly, which I initially but oddly thought was responsible for the sudden spike in Goodreads adds, but then I found out my dearest darlingest Kamilah Cole promoted Edna on her Goodreads list of dragony books, so now I know it was that 💗

click here to see Kamilah's list of dragony book recs

btw, Kamilah's queer, dragony, sister-centered, Jamaican-inspired debut So Let Them Burn released just last Tuesday, so be sure to check it out if you haven't already!

click here to buy Kamilah's book So Let Them Burn

click here to read the full PW deal report

and now it's time for.........revisions!

last weekend I started my revisions for Keeper as part of a virtual writing retreat with my fellow 2023 debuts ❤ it gave me a much stronger start and threw me a lot further into the book than I would've gotten had I sat around trying to bully myself into doing work alone.

as is usually the case with revisions, they went well until suddenly they didn't. one of the changes I'm making—a small change, I thought! requiring just a couple lines at the start of the book, I thought!—had, as they often do, a domino effect I hadn't anticipated, whoops. for now, I've paused revising so I can look ahead and make a list of every scene that will be affected by this change so they don't catch me off-guard like the first one did.

the good news is, after a false start the night before the retreat began, I'm feeling pretty good about the changes and additions I've made so far. and I got far enough into the manuscript to reward myself with the moment the main character and love interest first meet, which had me giggling and kicking my feet because lowkey I'd forgotten just how much I love these two old men.

the remarkable retirement of edna fisher

debut year may be over, but Edna is still here! this is the year we will (hopefully) release the audiobook, celebrate one year of publication, and (perhaps) get some new readers as people (hopefully) wait for The Keeper of Lonely Spirits.

Edna has also been nosing around book awards websites and was nominated for the Queer Indie Awards and the Indie Ink Awards. Queer Indie Awards voting opens today, so please vote for Edna!

click here to vote in the Queer Indie Awards

For the Indie Ink Awards, Edna was a finalist for Writing the World We Need: Asexual or Aromantic Representation. judges are currently reading to determine winners!

while Remarkable Retirement may not win the Indie Ink Awards, it means so much to me that it's a finalist for this category. I identified as ace for a long time. (currently that's a bit {question mark} because sexuality and gender are, alas, moving targets.) every time a reader messages me to tell me how much they appreciate the variety of ace rep in the book, I get a little 🥹

odds & ends

recent reads

• Alexis Henderson's The Year of the Witching, which I picked up because I was in the mood for something vaguely Gothicy and then read in one sitting and then LOVED SO MUCH OH MY GOD. like. my god. I just. I just loved it so much. I immediately ordered her second book, House of Hunger, just because I loved the first so much. ME. INSTANTLY ORDERING A HORROR NOVEL. THAT IS HOW MUCH I LOVED THIS BOOK.

  • add The Year of the Witching on goodreads

  • add House of Hunger on goodreads

recent watches

• finally, at long last, watched Barbie with my family over the holidays and enjoyed it as everyone said I would lol

• The Hunger Games (2012). yes, you read that right. I watched the first movie, not the recently released villain origin story

  • I did see this film in theaters back in 2012, just as I read the book series back in 2010. but WOW I did not appreciate the film nearly enough at the time

  • during a recent watch party with some friends, I was blown away by how really good a film this is on a craft level: the writing, the acting, the filmography, the MUSIC of course, and the whole thing is so devastating, and probably more so because despite having a violent premise, it's not a gory film. the minimalism of the initial bloodbath when the games first start made the scene so much more upsetting. god, I just. damn. what a good fucking movie

recent birds

• it's the start of the annual birdlist once more! although I'm mostly staying updates-only on threads, partly because it seems like it's reenacting all the most horrible parts of writing twitter with a vengeance and partly because I resent meta having YET ANOTHER platform, I have decided to use threads for the care and keeping of my ongoing birdlist because it is, alas, the best platform on which to do so now that I'm not using twitter. of course I still kept a personal birdlist last year on notion, but it just wasn't the same without yelling on social media in an unhinged fashion about all the exciting birds I saw

  • curse Musk Melon's name with me

  • follow my #birdlist2024 on threads

until next time!