I am grateful for these Fall experiences, both personal and authorial:

BRAZIL TRIP. In September, my husband and I went on amazing trip to Brazil: Rio, Sao Paolo, and 10 days in the Pantanal, the wetlands area in central Brazil where we saw jaguars, capybaras, and so many birds and animals. We went at the end of the dry season, so the landscape was starting to green up, but animals were still concentrated by the rivers. David is an amazing wildlife photographer; check out more of his Brazil photos at David Jacobs Photography. ​

ROAD RACES. About a decade ago, my friend Janet and I ran local races for fun (anywhere from 5ks to our longest, a half-marathon). Last year, we started up again, and this fall we did the Wicked 10k and the Santa 5-miler in Virginia Beach. For someone who trained minimally (jogging 2-3 miles a couple times of week), I was happy with my 11:42 min mile, and it's always fun to wear wacky costumes for a race. Our next race will be the Shamrock Half Marathon in March.  ​

Dark (Netflix) Both people and algorithms have recommend this show for awhile, but I didn't get into it until this year. This moody German sci-fi series has mind bending time travel, nonlinear storytelling, interesting characters with twisted family dynamics, and even a website dedicated to helping fans keep track of the family trees and plot lines. ​

​Severance S.2 (Apple TV) I loved the first season so it would always be hard for the second season to match that standard (especially the season 1 finale, which is probably one of my all time favorite episodes of any TV show), but I was still drawn back into the world and characters. Two episodes stand out (Woe's Hollow, the outdoor bonding episode) and the finale (another great cliffhanger).
  
Movie Choices:
Of the few movies I saw this year, I enjoyed K Pop Demon Hunters and Wake Up Dead Man the most.

Book Picks:

I've read 86 books so far this year, including many MG/YA graphic novels (some that stood out: Wish I Was a Baller by Amar Shah, Sea Legs by Jules Bakker, A First Time for Everything by Dan Santat, Almost American Girl by Robin Ha); sci-fi (reread Martha Wells' Murderbot stories, Six Wakes and Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty, The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kindby Molly McGhee, Rosemary Kirsten's Steersman series, Artificial Truth by J.M. Lee, more); and others. A couple highlights:

Revenge of the Tipping Point (2024). Malcolm Gladwell always provides fascinating insights into how people and society functions. This book covers the darker side of social contagions, including Covid superspreaders, contagious suicides in overachieving neighborhoods, the world's most successful bank robbers, and the hidden levers behind the opioid crisis. ​

 Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (2003) A harrowing and powerful memoir of a girl growing up in revolutionary Iran in the 1970s. The juxtaposition of preteen and teenage fears and dreams and extrajudicial torture and killings is shocking and thought provoking. ​

​As the year comes to a close, thank you for continuing to follow my author journey. I hope you and your loved ones have a wonderful holiday season and new year. What are you looking forward to in 2026? 

My daughter and I recently did a Christmas Day cold plunge (~45 degrees!) in the Chesapeake Bay. Brrrrr. ​

This summer, I've done some cool authorly things:MY FIRST BANQUET SPEECH, JULY 24: I was a banquet speaker at Longwood University's Summer Literacy Institute conference in Farmville, Virginia. I've given workshop but hadn't spoken to a large crowd in a very long time. I talked about the power of the universal and the particular story; how stories are sticky, connect people, and inspire action; and how librarians and teachers are uniquely positioned to empower students with these stories. It was so fun to meet librarians and teachers, as well as superstar librarian and author John Schu who shared his insights about storytelling.

To celebrate this news and to spread bookish love, I'm giving away 7 books: Bannock in the Hammock (Masiana Kelly & Ariel Sandland), A Cape! (Marty Kelley), You Make the World (Muon The Van, Phùng Nguyên Quang & Huynh Kim Liên), El Niño (Pam Muñoz Ryan), The Girl in the Walls (Meg Kuyatt), The Island of Forgotten Gods (Victor Piñeiro), Worm and Caterpillar are Friends (Kat Windness).

I'm also running this giveaway on social media. To enter, like and share my social media posts of this giveaway (on Twitter/X, Instagram, Bluesky). and/or reply to this email with a summer read you've been enjoying, or a book you're looking forward to reading. (You can rack up your entries by sharing in all of the platforms).
​

I usually do a roundup post at the end of the year of the media and books I've loved, but I thought I'd share what I'm currently enjoying.

What I'm Reading. After watching the Apple show Murderbot, I'm re-reading Martha Wells' Murderbot novellas and novels, and am on Network Effect. I've been a long-time fan of these smart, sharp, and funny stories about a security cyborg with free will reluctantly helping its human charges. The two middle grade books I'm reading now are The Beautiful Game by Yamile Saied Méndez (a soccer player who's the only girl in an elite boy's team) and The Island of Forgotten Gods by Victor Piñeiro (a kid spends the summer in Puerto Rico and awakens a mysterious chupacabra).
​

When I wrote my middle grade sci-fi, Hana Hsu and the Ghost Crab Nation, I quickly learned that we're already living in a cyberpunk future of meshed brains, smart bees, cyborgs, and all-knowing corporate entities. Since its publication (4 years ago!), I've continued to collect more examples of our strange, wired, and scary world. Here's a small sampling: 

• How a "Deviant" Philosopher Built Palantir, A CIA-Funded Data Mining Juggernaut: a must-read about one of the strongest (and possibly most nefarious) data mining outfits that will upend all of our existing notions of privacy
• Bees Recognize Human Faces: I already had learned that bees can count and understand the concept of zero, but now scientists have learned that they can also distinguish human faces
• Internet is Disappearing and Experts are Shocked: Billions of Web Pages at Risk By a Strange Phenomenon: 39% of active webpages since 2013 have already disappeared. I fear that one day far in the future, our era will be considered a "dark age" where little record of our intellectual lives will be found. I've been re-reading letters that I received from my friends and family in the 80s and early 90s and realized how precious it is to have that snapshot of our lives. It makes me want to revive pen-and-paper correspondence.
• "We Can't Answer These Questions" Neuroscientist Kenneth Kosik on Whether Lab-Grown Brains Will Achieve Consciousness Scientists have already developed brain organoids, lab-grown "mini brains" made of stem cells turned into brain cells. This has led to the thorny question whether these mini-brains can achieve consciousness or help animals achieve human-like consciousness. (If you're on X/Twitter, here's a scary video about implications that we live in a simulation because organoids have learned to play pong)

Anyway. . . to change the futuristic dystopian vibe, here's one of my sketches of a cute steampunk plague doctor:

It's a cliché to let your curiosity inspire you, but it took me the last two years to really understand it. 

I've always had a bit of an obsessive personality, which is usually channeled into harmless activities like computer games or TV shows. Two years ago, I spent a majority of 2023 thinking about and watching international soccer, from the Premier League to MLS to various national teams. Growing up in Venezuela, I always loved the World Cup, and watching it in December 2022 reignited my interest. I followed players like Messi, Neymar, Pulisic, and Son in their respective teams, and it led me down the rabbit hole of international soccer. Since then, I've watched a few games live (a Premier League game in London, a USMNT friendly with Ghana, and the COPA America semifinal between Uruguay and Brazil), and I mostly follow the Premier League (I support Tottenham Hotspur, but I'm not sure why I put myself through that stress).

Towards the end of 2023, it finally dawned on me that maybe I should channel all of that energy into writing a novel about soccer and the World Cup. . .which is what I did. I wrote a fun story about three 13-year-olds who help solve a mystery of the disappearance of a soccer superstar on the eve of the 2026 World Cup. 

And now I'm so excited to announce that STEALING THE SCORE will come out in Spring 2026, to coincide with the World Cup coming to the U.S in Summer 2026! I'll be working with Anjali Bisaria at Scholastic--she is also a huge soccer fan, so we've already bonded over our shared love of the sport. ​

To celebrate this deal, I'm giving away a chance to name a character in STEALING THE SCORE. ​

​
​Slow Horses (Apple TV+) My favorite show of the year, this British spy thriller series is fun and twisty and infused with dark humor, heart, and depth. Gary Oldman is in charge of an eclectic team of MI5 rejects sent off site to while away their days, but who end up inserting themselves in real and dangerous missions, while facing a nemesis at MI5 played by Kristen Scott Thomas. There are four seasons, and I guarantee if you watch one, you'll be pulled in for the rest.

​Drops of God
(Apple TV+). In this drama based on a Japanese manga, a wine titan dies and sets up a competition between his estranged daughter and his protégée to become the heir to his vast fortune and empire. I was sucked into this absorbing story set in France and Japan, rooting for both rivals as they puzzle through wine-based challenges and discover family secrets. The show reminds me of Queen's Gambit in the way the story revolves around the protagonist's psychological past while in a high stakes competition. ​

​The Boy and the Heron. I am a huge fan of Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli films, and this one is right up there with his typically strange, fantastic, and weirdly moving storytelling. Mahito is a boy who is sent to the countryside after the death of his mother during World War II, and he encounters a magical heron who leads him into an enigmatic world. It's not an easy plot to follow, but it leads to contemplation about life and loss amidst trippy and enchanting imagery. 
​

​A Complete Unknown. I'm a sucker for biopics about musicians, because I usually love the music in them. I particularly enjoyed this Bob Dylan biopic because it didn't follow the usual arc of rise to stardom followed by descent via drugs or inner demons. Instead, it covers Dylan's early career, the rise of his folk music stardom, and his controversial transition to electric music, and Timothée Chalamet was excellent.
 ​

​Sipsworth, by Simon Van Booy. A warm hug of a book about an elderly British woman who is at the end of her life, a bit depressed and alone, whose outlook on life and social circle changes abruptly when she inadvertently becomes the owner of a little mouse. A sweet, soothing, and wonderful read.

​

My latest middle grade, Near and Deer, came out on October 1, and I had a great time with its release. Here are a few highlights from the Fall:
The Launch
​I loved celebrating the release with friends and family at Prince Books in Norlfolk VA.

Scholastic Fairs

My first Scholastic book, Manatee's Best Friend, came out during the pandemic, so I never got to see it in the school fairs. This time, I was able to visit a couple of local schools with Scholastic fairs, where I signed books and met with kids. A real thrill was the case header that featured my characters, Jules and Persimmon! 

NCTE Conference

I went to my first NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) conference in Boston, where I participated in a couple of panels  with middle grade author friends (Middle Grade Authorcade). Scholastic sent extra copies of my book so that I could sign them and hand them out. (Here's my Tiktok video of it)

My sci-fi Hana Hsu and the Ghost Crab Nation is currently on a giveaway at Goodreads. Enter to win a signed copy of it! (click the image for the link)

Local friends, please join me at Prince Books, in Norfolk, VA, from 3 - 4:30 p.m. for snacks, mingling, and a book signing. Online friends, please say hi on social media! ​

In Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert talks about the phenomenon that ideas permeate in the ethosphere, and it's up to an individual writer to grab and write it. I totally agree that ideas and story themes percolate in the collective consciousness, and writers who are open to these currents can get inspired. Not only that, serendipity plays a huge part in how these ideas manifest. This was true in the research and writing of Near and Deer in 3 ways:

1. Tree Research: A subplot of Near and Deer is how trees interact communicate with one another, using chemical signals through a symbiotic relationship with fungi in their root systems. I had been reading about how "mother" trees will send nutrients to their saplings, trees will warn others nearby of insects, and more. The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben popularized these findings, and was one of those buzzy books around since the mid 2010s, so it sat in the back of my mind.
​

Fast forward to 2022, when I was writing Near and Deer. I wanted to include these cool facts, so I created a mycologist and her son as characters who befriend my main character. I did the usual internet research, but as with Manatee's Best Friend, my goal was to find primary sources of information. That fall, I taught at an SCBWI (Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrator) conference in Virginia, and during the dinner with faculty and volunteers, I happened to sit with two authors who were writing about or working with trees. I met Katie Sivinsky, writing a lyrical picture book about trees and their interconnections. As we chatted, Kathryn Gaglione joined in. I learned that she and her husband were doing some innovative, ecological forest farming in central Virginia. By the end of the evening, she'd invited me to visit her farm and told me about her next-door-neighbors who ran a bed and breakfast. A month later, David and I went on a lovely bed and breakfast research trip (my character's family owns a B&B) visiting her goat and tree farm.  ​

I love connecting with kids and fellow authors. Here are a few events on the horizon:

1. Friday, July 26, Virginia Beach Public Library Teen Lock In, 6-9 p.m. - if you're local to the Virginia Beach area, I'm taking part in a Teen Lock In at the Central branch of the VB Public Library. Not sure what the evening will look like, but I'll be at a table with my books, a deck of cards, and origami paper. ​

2. Hybrid Workshop: Social Media Management for Authors, Sept. 15, 1-3:30 p.m. EST (cost is free/ pay what you wish) Join me as I talk about building a platform and using social media as part of an author's career: (1) what is an author platform and do you need one anyway? (2) online components of a platform: website, newsletter, blogs, and social media presence; (3) the changing landscape of social media for authors and (4) ten signs of a successful platform.  
​

To celebrate receiving my copies, I'm giving signed copies of Near and Deer to two of my newsletter subscribers. To enter:

1. Reply to this email with a small, useful life tip you've picked up. (In 2013, I blogged about 6 Tips to Make Your Life a Bit Better, including my dad's tip on how to get through a large crowd most efficiently and how to roll a perfect pie crust).

2. Be a newsletter subscriber. (If you came to this post from another source, reply to the welcome email.)

Giveaway ends August 2, 2024!

Also, consider pre-ordering Near and Deer. Pre-orders help authors, because they tell a publisher there's interest and buzz about an upcoming book. Near and Deer is aimed for the 8-12 year old in your life! ​

Feb. 28, In conversation with Katherine Marsh, Reston Virginia:  I'll be at Scrawl Books on Feb. 28, at 7 p.m., moderating the book release of award-winning middle grade author Katherine Marsh's new fantasy book, Medusa, a delightful adventure about a girl who attends an academy for descendants of Greek monsters and finds out the truth of her heritage. It's like Percy Jackson with a feminist and subversive twist. ​

March 2, NerdCamp, Hartford, CT: Join me and other authors, illustrators, librarians, and educators in a day-long unconference to discuss kid lit books. I'm really excited to see some of my middle grade and YA author friends, Alysa Wishingrad (Between Monsters and Marvels, The Verdigris Pawn), Erica George (The Edge of Summer, Words Composed of Sea and Sky), Melissa Dassori (J.R. Silver Writes the World),  Nancy Tandon(The Ghost of Spruce Point, The Way I Say It), Lisa Stringfellow (A Comb of Wishes), and Rajani LaRocca (Red, White and Whole, Midsummer's Mayhem, more), among others.
​

Over the holidays, I saw my 23-year-old niece, and she made my day when she said the following about Hana Hsu and the Ghost Crab Nation: "I love your book. I still think about it a lot. Sometimes, when I'm facing a dilemma or problem, I'll ask myself, What would Hana do in this situation?"

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It's OK to Not Be OK. I love this K-drama. The premise of a diva-esque picture book author who writes the most disturbing stories caught my attention, but what drew me in was the central question: can two broken people find happiness together? The characters are complex and interesting (including a well-done autistic character); the tone is dark and whimsical; and the fairy tale metaphors and inventive filmmaking add to the appeal. ​

One Piece. I haven't read the source manga, but I really enjoyed this rollicking found-family-of-pirates story about an optimistic boy's quest to become King of the Pirates. Packed with action, charming characters, and set in an odd world of misfits and magic, this is feel-good brain candy. ​

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. I loved this sci-fi epistolary novella about rival time-bending agents who fall in love by writing to each other across enemy lines, time, and multiverses. A fun and mind-bending enemies-to-lovers story. ​

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin. Of last year's popular books, I really enjoyed this unique story of a friendship between two game developers that spans decades of ups and downs, rivalries, betrayals, and more. It's a fun deep-dive into geeky gamer culture as well as a refreshing exploration of the intricacies of a non-romantic friendship.
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This Was Our Pact by Ryan Andrews. My favorite middle grade graphic novel from last year. Every year, a town floats paper lanterns down a river, and legend has it that they float up into the Milky Way. This year, Ben and his friends vow to follow the lanterns, and what follows is a Studio Ghibli-esque adventure of magic, talking bears, and eccentric new worlds.
​

Adia Kelbara and the Circle of Shamans, by Isi Hendrix. This middle grade Afrofantasy holds a special place in my heart, because Isi Hendrix was my Pitch Wars mentee, so I got to see this story develop from its early drafts: a twelve-year-old apprenticing in the kitchens at the prestigious Academy of Shamans must ally with a snarky goddess and a knife-wielding warrior to save her kingdom. ​

I was insomniac last night, so here are my 4 a.m. thoughts on what makes a successful story. Obviously, what readers love is subjective, but I believe these are three things that we as authors should strive for in whatever genre or age category we write in:

Provide readers with an excellent

1. Premise
2. Execution, and 
3. Payoff


I thought of these after reading This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (a fascinating example of the power of word-of-mouth, this 2020 book just shot to #1 on Amazon's Best Seller list due to a passionate tweet: Bigolas Dickolas is the Best of Book Twitter; it had been sitting on my Kindle for three years but I read it this week)

1. Premise
The premise is the hook that makes a reader pick up the book, or decide they want to pick it up after hearing  about it. Whether you're writing a high-concept thriller, a funny graphic novel, or literary historical fiction, a tantalizing premise is what will bring your intended reader to your book. This doesn't mean your premise has to be super high concept; it just has to promise the type of story that your reader loves. For example, here's the premise of two recent favorites: 

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (Gallery/Saga Press 2020, novella): In this mind-bending sapphic sci-fi romance, rival time-traveling agents move across timelines and multiverses in service of the war between their sides and end up falling in love through clandestine missives. ​

The last time I sent a newsletter was almost a year ago (ack! I'll try to do better), when my middle grade sci-fi Hana Hsu and the Ghost Crab Nation came out. Since then, I've loved going to schools, book festivals, and generally interacting with readers of the book.

Here are some upcoming activities. Please consider joining:
 
Sat. May 13, noon ET: a panel with YA and MG authors Judy I. Lin, Elisa A. Bonnin, and Refe Tuma, Navigating the Debut Year: Insights from Middle Grade and YA Authors (it's part of the online 2023 Nebula Conference, which is $150 to register for 3 days of programming)
​

​A project that's taken up time these past months is writing and revising my new middle grade novel with a fun animal friendship, Near & Deer, coming out from Scholastic in Summer 2024. Here's the announcement:

AHHH... I can't believe after all these years, from the germ of an idea in the Fall of 2017 to today, the middle grade sci-fi book of my heart is out in the world! 
Hana Hsu and the Ghost Crab Nation is my love letter to all the sci-fi stories I've loved, from classics like A Wrinkle in Time and Andre Norton books to cyberpunk stories like Blade Runner and Altered Carbon to every other book that has sparked my imagination. (I urge you to buy or borrow a copy of the book to see the lengthy acknowledgements section; this book was truly the product of a village!).

I have so many people to thank for today, but I'll just do a quick shout out to my family (David, Sammi, and Sarah), my agent Jennifer March Soloway at Andrea Brown Literary Agency, my editors Julie Rosenberg and Gretchen Durning at Razorbill/Penguin Random House, and artist Fiona Hsieh and designer Jessica Jenkins for the amazing cover. 


Join Me in Tonight's Virtual Launch at 7 p.m. ET Tonight I'll be launching the book online, with the DC-based bookstore, Politics and Prose, from 7-8 p.m. ET (June 21). I'll be in conversation with Newbery Award winner Donna Barba Higuera (THE LAST CUENTISTA, LUPE WONG WON'T DANCE). Sign up for the virtual launch event here.

If you're interested in getting a signed copy with fun swag (postcard, bookmark, stickers), you can order the book from my local indie Prince Books.
If you've bought the book elsewhere, or requested a library to buy it, you can fill out this pre-order form and I'll send you the goodies along with a signed bookplate. 

I'm curious: what are your best de-stressors? what are some good shows you've watched lately? Recently, I've enjoyed Bridgerton season 2, Abbott Elementary, Mr. Robot, and now I'm watching The Silent Sea (a Korean sci-fi). ​

​

​3. Pre-Order Swag
My pre-order campaign will include a signed book (if ordered from Prince Books, a signed bookplate if bought elsewhere), a bookmark, and some other flat goodies. I'll announce the campaign formally in early May, but if you want to get a jump-start on pre-ordering, here's the link to the book through my indie bookstore, Prince Books. Keep a copy of your receipt to send in when the official campaign starts.  Here's a sneak peak at the bookmark:

I start most of my novels as a pantser, but at some point, I pull out all my organizational tools and start plotting and planning. As a visual person, I like exploring plot and scenes in visual ways.

Old School Tools

In early November, I spoke with Emma Kress on Instagram Live about some of my favorite low key tools, like highlighter pens, Post-it notes, index cards, and poster boards. Check out our 15-minute talk, and while you're at it, bookmark Emma's page for other excellent craft chats she hosted during NaNoWriMo.

These are the tools I talked about: (1) a plot arc chart, where I draw an arc and place external plot points on the outside and internal ones on the inside; (2) Lisa Cron's scene cards from her book Story Genius (see this blog post explaining them); (3) Kate Messner's Big Revision Chart; and (4) a poster board with different colored Post-Its for different POVs. 
​

(my board with POVs of my current WIP, 2 POVs in blue and yellow, special scenes in pink)
 Trello Boards
What I really want to talk about is Trello Boards. It's an online project management website where you can organize your tasks and To Dos and collaborate with work colleagues on joint projects.

The Usual Use: Project Management

​Here's a screenshot of my To Do board. Each of the columns can be moved, and there are more columns to the right as you scroll. Each card can be opened to include more details, like lists or links. I have a mix of subject columns and day-by-day columns. When you're done with a task, you can archive the card, or move it to a "Done" column.
​

Writing dialogue is hard, and it's an area I still work on. Here are some tips I've found helpful to make dialogue feel engaging and believable.

1. Eavesdrop

Sit in a cafe or drive a carload of kids and listen to how they speak. You won't want to include the latest slang (because it will become outdated), but you'll get a sense of the different ways people talk (their cadence, voice, how they don't talk in complete sentences, are casual, etc).  

2. Less is more: verisimilitude not exactitude

Even if one of your characters like to talk a lot, writing dialogue isn't the same as transcribing words. Remove excess words and sounds such as "um" and "ah." This results in more crisp and concise dialogue, which will convey the essence of the conversation. 

3. Give your characters distinctive voices

Pay attention to the word choices and sentence structures of each character, to give them distinctive voices. For example, you can have one character never speak with contractions, which would give them a more formal voice. Or you might give a specific phrase to only one character.

4. Be sparing with dialect, stuttering, or other unusual speech patterns

If your character has an accent, stutters, lisps, or otherwise speaks in a unique manner, don't overdo it when writing their dialogue, because it can be distracting or a stumbling block for the reader. You can add a slight touch of the unusual speech to give the reader an idea that this is how the character speaks, or describe it in the narrative, if it is something the POV character would notice. 

5. Beware of floating dialogue

A common issue I see in students in writing workshops is what I call floating dialogue: a big chunk of back and forth dialogue, without grounding action or description. Here is an excerpt of my recent book, Manatee's Best Friend. Start reading at the second paragraph that begins, "Mom puts down the brush."

I'm excited to announce I'm a middle grade mentor for Pitch Wars again this year!

Pitch Wars is a mentoring program where published/agented authors, editors, or industry interns choose one writer each to spend three months revising their manuscript. It ends in February with an Agent Showcase, where agents can read a pitch/first page and can request to read more. Writers can apply to four mentors with a query, synopsis, and first chapter. 

I had a great time mentoring the talented Isi Hendrix last year, for her Afro-fantasy MG. She had a tremendous showcase experience, resulting in signing with two agents, one in the U.S. and one in the U.K.! Mentors will post our wishlists on or around September 12, so watch my Twitter feed for the announcement, if you're interested. I'll be posting my wishlist on my blog. ​

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On August 3, my middle grade novel, Manatee's Best Friend, was published by Scholastic! I had a wonderful week of celebration on social media and at home. 

I'm really grateful to be able to share this story of 12-year-old Becca Wong Walker, who must overcome her shyness to fight for her manatee friends, while also dealing with complications of a viral video and new friendships. If you have a child in your life (8-12 years old), please consider sharing the book with them. ​

To celebrate the release, I chatted with MG author Kate Albus (A Place to Hang the Moon) on IG Live, In our conversation, I described an encounter my friends and I had with dolphins who visited our boat. Here's the video of those amazing moments:

It's a surreal experience to have a book come out to the world. It lived for so long as a series of 1s and 0s in my computer, and now it's a book with an adorable cover (thanks to artist Scott Dorman and designer Stephanie Yang). The moment I held the actual book was truly special (check out my unboxing video).

But even more awesome is the community of writers, friends, and family who have supported me throughout the process. Instead of recapping all the names, I'll post my acknowledgements from the book. (Ever since I became an author, I've loved reading these. Don't you?).  ​

After I wrote this, I continued to make great writing friends, especially other debut authors in 2021, mentors and mentees in Pitch Wars, and more.

Here are some pictures of this memorable week.

I got lovely gifts from friends and family:

I took my book for a walk on the beach to get a photo for the release announcement:
​

The evening before the release, my IRL CP group (insanely talented MG, YA, and adult authors) met and we had cake and champagne. ​

And photos at the bookstore (signing pre-orders, visiting the store on release day, and book signing a few days later)! (Prince Books in Norfolk, Virginia)

All in all, it was a wonderful experience. I received such an outpouring of love on social media, and I thank each and everyone who helped cheer on this book. ?

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