Goodbye, Goodbye, Goodbye (2024), you were bigger than the whole sky

Swore I would write a final newsletter this year and then saved it for the last possible minute

Ultimately what my procrastination means is that I am writing this on December 31, whilst streaming Wicked with my kids, who woke up early this morning jumping on me and telling me it was time for the streaming release.

It doesn’t feel like a bad way to close out the year. Anyway, this is going to be short, and focused on what I am looking forward to in 2025. La, la, la, laaaa, you can picture me singing along to a musical loudly in a voice that once caused critics (some other girl in the freshman dorm showers when I was at UMD) to say things like “Um, could you not?”

Back to books!

First of all, I am obviously so excited that 2025 is the year that HOPELESSLY TEAVOTED will be published. Fall is a long time away, but every part of my publishing journey—querying, submission, revisions—has been a slow burn, which feels fitting, because I do love reading and writing a slow burn. It’s been agony waiting, but the pay off? The pay off is going to be fire.

More immediately than the release, I’m so excited that sometime next year I will get to share a cover. It’s not finalized, but I’ve seen draft versions of it, and when I tell you that it is SO GOOD that I jumped and gasped out loud in a coffee shop, I mean it. I was with some lovely writing friends but I also was so excited that a stranger turned to me, too, and asked what had happened. It’s that good.

The designer and illustrator are both wildly talented. I am so very grateful that every stage of this, including revisions and design, have made me feel like my editor, my designer, my illustrator—the entire team working on this book—really get it. That is the dream, right?

On that note, when I can share the cover, I’ll probably share it with newsletter subscribers first, so please sign up! And along with the cover will come pre-order links, which will make it feel real! In the meantime, if you’ll indulge a moment of self promotion, you can add my book on goodreads, and I would be forever grateful for it.

I’m looking forward to giving myself writing freedom and writing prompts in 2025. What I mean by freedom is, I will allow myself, once again, to dive into new projects, no matter how bonkers. What I meant by prompts is that I will keep using non monetized art, like journaling, doodling, and tarot pulls, to ask myself questions.

I am no expert at tarot, but I love the idea that pulling a card means interrogating how I’m feeling about a topic. I think of it as a writing prompt, and I’m fortunate enough to have friends who are really good at it and help me enough to muddle through. So here’s a pull I did for 2025, inspired by my friend DeAndra Davis. If you like stunning prose and YA books, you can preorder her debut, All the Noise All at Once, and trust that ALL of her work is brilliant and lovely.

A tarot spread (sort of a circle) of twelve months and a center card for the whole year.

You could probably do a prettier, more circular spread, but I had a teeny table so you get what you get! Again, I find it useful to think of this as not set in stone or any sort of strict prediction, but rather a way to examine what I’m thinking and feeling already, and to sit with my instincts, my knowledge, and my goals.

a sketch of the spread I did!

Also, going back to doodling things in a sketchbook this month has been so nice for me, because even when it’s about my writing, it’s so obviously non-monetized and sloppy, and I enjoy that. I like a thing that just gets to be what it is.

One of the best bits of advice people give for after a book deal is to find hobbies that aren’t for money. Which is why I love you, colorful pens and little journals, and also BG3. Baldur’s Gate is really out here getting me through a lot, and I have a writing friend to thank for that, too!

I was lucky enough to mentor Lenora Woods for SmoochPit last year, and her debut is this absolutely gorgeous romcom featuring the characters in real life and in their D&D game, and the speed with which I picked up both D&D and BG3 after reading is a nod to her skills as a writer. You can preorder Roll for Romance here. I am working with a new mentee for SmoochPit this year who ALSO has a fantastic book I can’t wait to yell about one day, and that I’m in the process of picking a RTM mentee to do the same.

TREAT YO’ SHELF to what I’ve been reading lately:

Wedding Dashers by Heather McBreen: A sexy romp in which a best man and maid of honor are thwarted by airline cancellations and forced to make their own way to a wedding in time. A-plus banter and steam.

Illusions of Fire by Nisha Sharma: Based in tales from the Mahabharata, the characters in this YA fantasy set in our world are descendants of Hindu gods, making it a perfect read for slightly older readers who grew up on Percy Jackson and seek that same kind of demigod drama, epic fights, and romance.

First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison: I’ve lived in Maryland since I was 6, and this is a love letter to the city of Baltimore, and to love itself. I have heard it described as a modern Sleepless in Seattle in Baltimore, and it fits that description so perfectly, from the lonely yearning all the way through the beautiful, hard earned love story.

Up next:

The Love Lyric by Kristina Forest

Worth Fighting For by Jesse Q. Sutanto

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