The After-Party Looks a Lot like More Work
I can’t believe it’s been nearly a month since Paper Roads was released and the International Love and Misadventure series completely out in the world. It took a lot longer than I expected (I thought it would be picked up by an agent in like, a month, lol. Silly me!), but the actual publication of it feels fast. Three books in six months? That’s an ambitious (desperate?) timeline. Will I do it again? I never say never, but, I can’t imagine doing it this way again. For ILM, I had all three books ready to go. Right now, I’m having trouble even starting the Draft Block for the first book in the next series. But I’ll get to that in a minute.
March was wild, y’all. The book came out, I hosted the Cozy Book Nook’s March poetry event, I had a table at Mulberry Street Books’ author meet-and-greet, went back to the Cozy Book Nook for the first official Paper Roads launch party, then had the official-official launch event at Bell, Book and Comic. And during all that, I had a friend visit one week and my parents the next, my birthday and its assorted outings and dinners and celebrations, got a new tattoo, and adopted an ancient and sick cat because I guess that’s just what I do now.
If you, like me, thought that April would see things winding down a bit, you, like me, would be wrong. It’s Poetry Month, and I’ll be at Cozy Book Nook again twice and Mulberry Street Books once, home for a full day of in-person gaming with friends, and in Chicago one weekend for a music festival. May looks lighter, so far the only thing on my calendar is Gem City Queer Fest near the end of the month in Dayton. I’ve already applied to be an author (and host/panel several talks?? Who have I become??) at the Kentucky Book Festival in September and the Cincinnati Books by the Banks in November. Not sure I’ll get in, but our big local bookstore, Joseph-Beth, asked me for a copy of Starlight and Cinnamon to review if they’ll carry it, and I got another email from them three hours after the USPS delivered the book to them saying they’ll carry the entire series. I told my spouse that a lesbian had to have been in charge of things that day, lol. I love my queer community.
Technically, I’m supposed to be on day four of a Draft Block, which is when I block off eight weeks and spend every moment I can drafting my next book. Ideally, I wouldn’t have any doctor or vet appointments during this time, tattoos or haircuts or vacations or events, but, well, look at me. I’ve put off this Draft Block for…honestly, about two years. I had been waiting to see if any of the ILM books would be picked up by an agent, and I realized I had about two books’ worth of poetry that was ready to publish, so I spent 2024 going to Scandinavia and publishing those two poetry collections. Then 2025 was the year of indie publishing ILM and that learning curve looked more like the famous Italian road full of hairpin turns (Stelvio Pass, for those interested). But now ILM is out and about and I pretty much know what I’m doing with author events, so I have no excuse not to write. Besides writing this for you all, and another update in May.
I’ll get back on track. It’ll look different than it has in the past, but the story is already in my head and I can’t wait to read it.