MAY 2024

Let’s catch up…

Has it already been a month since I last popped into your inboxes? I guess it has, if the calendar is to be trusted. Somehow, these past few weeks went by in a blur.

If you’re new to my newsletter, welcome! I’m so happy to have you here with me. If you’ve been a subscriber for a while, you might notice some changes moving forward.

Firstly, I’m aiming to be more consistent about timing: you will hear from me on the second Wednesday of each month. Next, I’ll be divvying up this monthly missive into two main sections: what’s going on with the books, and then what’s going on behind the scenes. Some months will be chock full of news and life updates, others will be quieter. (Such is the way of this mercurial authorly existence.)

So… grab a cup of coffee or your favorite fizzy drink and let’s dive in, shall we?

It’s cherry blossom season in New Engalnd. Seemingly overnight, blooms burst into life on every street corner. The air is sweet with it, fresh and light and floral, better than any bottled perfume. Everywhere you look, the trees are showing off their beauty — some vibrant pink or purple, others so pure white it looks like snow when the falling petals stir in the breeze. 

It’s heavenly. 

And though it happens every single year like clockwork, somehow it always manages to catch me off guard, this sudden shift of seasons. Like I’ve been asleep and then, in a blink, all traces of winter have been swept away. Suddenly, it’s spring. 

Maybe that’s because I don’t measure time the way a normal person might. I don’t mark the passing of it in days or weeks or months, by clocks or by calendars. My life is carved into chapters and deadlines and milestones. My friends and family often joke that I never know what day it is, and they aren’t totally off base. Sometimes, it takes a major trigger — the overnight explosion of pink petals on the tree outside my window, for instance — to shake me out of my head and into reality. 

I find this temporal dissonance especially true when I’m deep in the trenches of a book deadline. These past few weeks have been especially writing-heavy. I’ve spent them with my eyes on my screen, my fingers on the keys. I’m working on the second book in my fantasy trilogy (the title is still top secret, sorry!) and I’ve really hit my stride. The words are flowing, fast, and it’s difficult to tear myself away.

Even so, I’ve learned the hard way (through painful past experience with burnout) that it’s important not to get so totally lost in a fictional world that you forget to live in your real one. So, I did manage to peel myself away from my keyboard for a few days and take a trip to New York City. (I’m writing this newsletter to you from my hotel lobby at this very moment, in fact.)

It’s always a shock to the system to see so many people after an isolated stretch in the writing cave. Like a bear coming out of hibernation, I’d imagine. But a bear cannot stay in her cave forever — not if she wants to thrive. That holds true for creatives as well. You must fill the well in order to keep emptying it. Consuming other art, be in books or movies or galleries or Broadway shows, can be as vital as creating your own.

Last night, I saw the musical adaptation of Water For Elephants (based on the book of the same name by Sara Gruen, which I read ages ago and loved tremendously) and thought it was spectacular. I also did some people-watching, took the tramway out to Roosevelt Island for a scenic bike ride, window-shopped for clothes I do not need, consumed a truly massive slice of NYC-style pizza at midnight, and got lost for hours just walking around, taking in the sights and sounds and (occasionally unpleasant) smells.

You could say that my creative well is effectively brimming. I feel energized and eager to dive back in to my manuscript when I get home.

Which brings us back to the books…

This is a quiet year for publishing (my only 2024 release is AT LAST SIGHT, which came out in March) but a very busy one in terms of writing.

With my fantasy books in particular, I like to divide the stories into three acts when I sit down at my laptop. Act One sets the stakes — puts your passengers on the plane, buckles them in, starts the engines. Act Two kicks those stakes into higher gear — the story starts careening down the runway toward liftoff, your stomach pitches as the wings start to catch air. And then, Act Three is just pure, unstoppable flight — sailing through the skies, full throttle, no turning back, no changing course.

Every writer has a different process when it comes to plotting. This just happens to be what works for me. I find a three act structure particularly helpful when dealing with a storyline of this scope, set in a huge world with lots of background turmoil and a big cast of complicated characters.

In my current manuscript, I’m just rounding the corner of Act Two, hurtling headlong toward Act Three. When I hit this part of the storyline, it’s genuinely tough to tear myself away. I can’t get the words out fast enough. No matter the genre, though, my third acts are always written faster than the others. I typically clock massive word counts as I near the end of the story.

I’ll sit down at my desk to write a scene, then look up and it’s seven hours later, my back is aching, my eyes are bloodshot, and my head feels weirdly hollow.

Perhaps that’s partially to blame for my off-kilter concept of time. The days are dictated by my manuscript, passing in lurches and lulls, in rushes of paragraphs and pages.

Beyond the writing itself, I can’t tell you too much about what’s going on behind the scenes. I did get to see the final cover art for THE WIND WEAVER (fantasy book one) this week, and nearly cried of pure joy.

It.

Is.

So.

Beautiful.

I can’t wait for you guys to see it. I also can’t wait to see hardcover copies sitting in the windows of bookstores all over the world next April. (15 territories/languages and counting! Woo!) We are officially less than a year away from release day. Not that I’m counting.

Okay, that’s a lie. I’m definitely counting.

But can you blame me?

I’ll be busy, busy, busy as I dive headfirst into Act Three of this manuscript in the coming weeks, so I may be quiet on social media. But if you need to get in touch, you are more than welcome to email me — reply directly to this newsletter, if you’d like!

In any case, I will pop in again during the second week of June to give you an update on all that’s going on in my world.

Wherever you are, I hope you’re enjoying the change of seasons and taking time to smell the cherry blossoms. After all, they only last such a short time. It would be a shame to miss them. xx

Much love,