I’m very happy to announce that the first book in my queer contemporary romance series, International Love and Misadventure, will be released September 9, 2025, with book two coming out December 9, 2025, and book three on March 11, 2026! And the title for book one is…

Starlight and Cinnamon.

You're hearing it here first, folks: I'll be going the indie route and self-publishing my first romance trilogy this year! The first book will come out in the last quarter of 2025, and the rest will be published in 2026. The date is still soft, since I'm hiring professionals for all the stuff I can't professionally do myself, and their timeline is my timeline. I'm very excited and have a ton of stuff planned, from revamping my website, linking it to my new, pen-name website, getting real author photos, submitting my books for review, etc. I can't wait to share the titles and covers in a few months.

A few days ago, my husband was talking about playing board games last New Year’s Eve, and I had no memory of it. He had to remind me that of course I had no memory of it because I was visiting family out of state last year. I hadn’t forgotten that trip, or the many I took the rest of the year, it’s just that time all runs together now without any demarcations

It’s been a busy month and a half. Productive? Oh no, I didn’t say that. Just lots of doctor and vet appointments, a never-ending house maintenance list, and ill cats. I redecorated my bathroom and it’s gone from “spooky” to “unsettling,” which is what I was going for. Our closet got a makeover that should be finished by tonight. I spent a whole day making burritos for the month (that’s a long story). And a hundred other things.

I came home from Scandinavia and crashed. Looking back at what I had planned for the past month, it’s clear that delusion must have struck me while carving out my schedule. Draft Block for the first book in a new contemporary queer romance was supposed to begin two weeks ago. To give you an idea of my current chaotic mental state, I’ve rescheduled it to begin in NOVEMBER. Finishing my next two poetry books is still on the calendar, but now it’s hovering around Spring of next year.

The good news is that there’s a shiny new book all ready for your reading pleasure. A Year Without A Season is a collection of poems from the most isolating part of the pandemic, when it was just me, cats, and nature, trying to figure stuff out. I’ve got some gems in there. Make sure to check it out!

I’m going to be away from all computer-related things for the next month while I track down ancestors and swim in cities’ canals and eat pastries and bask in sun that doesn’t try to kill me for simply existing outside. You might see the odd post on Instagram (my NEXT book is coming out mid-August, so I have to hype it a little before then, I think), but for the most part: disappeared.

I set aside an entire day to learn how to make a book cover in Canva, and two hours after opening the website and signing up, I had ALL FIVE book covers finished for e-books. Fifteen minutes later, I had the paperback cover finished for the re-release of The White Stairs.

I set aside an entire day to learn how to make a book cover in Canva, and two hours after opening the website and signing up, I had ALL FIVE book covers finished for e-books. Fifteen minutes later, I had the paperback cover finished for the re-release of The White Stairs.

Romance Series Update: Books 1 and 2 are being queried, and agents are reading the full manuscripts for both. My brilliant and talented editor gave me notes on Book 3, and I should have beta readers’ notes by June 10th, at which time I’ll start the next round of edits on it. I’ve given myself almost two weeks for revisions, which in theory should be enough time. If it isn’t, no worries, since the three following weeks I’ve booked myself with “Flexible to Finish,” which just means I can use that time to catch up on either of the two projects I’m actively working on right now.

Most of my memories are amalgamations of the many, many times Mormor and I did things together. I slept over frequently as a child, and I still have dreams about that house. It was tucked back in the woods, small like a cottage, with bright forest creeping in from all sides. And it was always bright, always green, full of birdsong. Deer would sometimes wander into the backyard, and one notable time, she found a cow out there. Everything smelled like old house. We sewed together, and she taught me how to make clothing from patterns. She made the best macaroni and cheese and I have yet to figure out how to replicate it. I feel the secret must be, like, swiss cheese or gruyere or something else an adult would never tell a kid is in their precious mac and cheese.

After Toronto two weeks ago and visiting family this past week, I really need to get back on some kind of schedule. To do that, I need to finish all the little loose ends and nitpicky things that will distract me otherwise. I wish I could say that I’m just procrastinating finishing my poetry books and editing Book 3. Alas, it is not avoidance, but necessity. Brain wired differently and all.

I have a chocolate cupcake waiting for me, a nice little reward for completing this manuscript, but I’m waiting on it because I realized I had to make several major changes in Book 1, which I thought was also finished-finished. The books in this series don’t need to be read in any particular order, but they do take place in different years, and I have to go back and fix some details for continuity.

If this were 2023, the answer would be: everything. Everything could, and would, go wrong. Luckily, it’s 2024, I have a brand new chance to make nice with the universe, and the worst that happened was getting slightly cursed by the Icelandic mountain gods for pocketing a few sea-smoothed lava rocks…

ADHD? Bipolar disorder? Aries? Who can say! At least this time I can pinpoint it to the exact moment when I decided, “Yes I see. I’m going to publish two books this year.”

I attended the RWA conference for indie authors a few weeks ago, and since it inspired me to release two books into the wild in 2024 (as well as working on the three books I’m writing/editing/querying/generally trying to publish traditionally), I suppose the cost was worth it.

Let’s start with writing and career. I took a lot of classes and seminars, and got my work critiqued by a couple of my favorite authors. I did a lot of research in New Zealand. I finished the first sort-of decent draft of book two (SC), and started writing book three (PR) in November, just under the wire. Book one (CQ) spent the year being queried to agents, and it was certainly a learning process. I started out slow, up to 10 queries out at a time, since it was my first time doing it and if it wasn’t working, I needed to be able to use the feedback to refine my pitch to others. This approach became invaluable once I realized that everyone asks for the first ten pages, but only the first half of my book is epistolary, while the second half is regular-type prose with paragraphs and whatnot. I had to choose between sending sample pages that represented only half of the book’s style, or deliberately not giving agents what they specifically asked for. It was a tough call. I’m still figuring out if it will work.

I wasn’t happy with what I’d written. It was a story I’d had in my head for years, and the execution just didn’t match my expectations. Also, I was working a full-time job, and finding those several hours to write, in addition to all the house chores, self care, cat stuff, family things, making food and finding time to eat it, etc, was all too overwhelming. It was a process that was stressful in a way that made sure I didn’t make good art.

Biggest news is that we’re fostering a cat and it’s taking up a lot of my time. She was in a situation rife with neglect, bullied by another cat in that house, unspayed, unvaccinated, generally uncared for. She’s thriving in our house, loves the birds and sunlight and laser pointer. What she doesn’t love is our other cats. I’ll keep her here if we can’t find her home, but I don’t think she’d be happy. Since she’s deathly allergic to vaccines (found that out when she was surrendered and the vet spayed her and gave her the first round of vaccines), she has to be in a home where neither she nor any other animals go outside. She just can’t be put at risk of contracting any of those illnesses. We’re just getting to know her, but she’s a total sweetheart and a bit of a weirdo, very affectionate and talkative, making biscuits everywhere, even when she’s just standing around. If you’re nearby and this sounds like the perfect cat for you, email me and tell me so!

Crisis Managing continues, with a close family friend dying over the weekend. If it turns out we’re invited to the funeral or any other memorial, I think I’m the only family member with the free time and little bit of money to be able to travel overseas for it. I shall be, to my family’s shame, our ambassador. It also means focusing less on my writing, for a time.