I have been staring at the screen for half an hour, trying to figure out how to start this blog post.

Note to self: Don’t wait 5 months between now and the next one.

I’ll start with the highlight reel:

Awards for Unrelenting

In September, we found out Unrelenting had been selected as a Finalist in 3 categories for the 2022 New Mexico-Arizona Book awards. The original nomination form stated that we’d find out who the winners were in late November.

So imagine our surprise when, only a week later, they announced the winners!

Turns out Unrelenting is the WINNER of the 2022 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award in the category of Gay/Lesbian (LGBTQ)!

We’re also a Finalist in the categories of Fiction – Sci-Fi/Fantasy and First Book NM for debut authors.

We’re super honored by this, and now my to-be-read list has grown exponentially with all the other awesome-sounding finalists.

Press for Unrelenting

We’ve had some fun new press come out about Unrelenting since my last update — although the hype has, of course, slowed down since the book launch.

• We were highlighted on the Hugo-winning site, File770.com by Mike Gyler, about our NM-AZ Book Awards win. (Link)
• We got to discuss the most meaningful part of Unrelenting (for us!) on the blog of Hugo, Locus, and Nebula Award winner, Mary Robinette Kowal. (Link)
• We chatted with fellow writers, Wil Ralston and Marshall Carr, about the experience of writing and publishing Unrelenting on the Just Keep Writing Podcast. (Link)
• We were season finale guests on the This Podcast Needs a Title Podcast by the indomitable Peter Malone Elliot and Erica Davis of Book Pipeline. (Link)
• We talked about our co-writing process on the DIY MFA Radio Podcast with Gabriela Pereira. (Link)
• We were co-hosts of the #PipelineAuthors Twitter Chat hosted by Book Pipeline. (Link)

Plus, we just recorded an interview with Edgar Award winner, Mindy McGinnis, in a to-be-released episode of the Writer Writer Pants on Fire Podcast.

Getting Back to It

This summer was rough on the personal front. I was unexpectedly traveling a lot, and I ended up taking a writing hiatus for a few months.

I track all my writing time and word counts in a spreadsheet, so here’s what the summer slump looked like, in terms of production:

But then something magical happened in August.

I was home. I got into a schedule. I was in flow.

I started setting my alarm for 3 hours before work. Instead of lying in bed doomscrolling like usual, I put on the soundtrack I’ve been listening to while writing, took a shower, had breakfast, fed the dogs, and then sat down at my desk. And wrote for 2 hours before work began.

This is the soundtrack I’ve been listening to while writing Flightless:

Look what that yielded!

I was mostly working on Flightless, my solo work in progress. I am SO enthusiastic about this novel.

In September, I attended the 2022 Writing Excuses Retreat (WXR), an event that is born from the Hugo Award Winning Writing Excuses Podcast.

This year, the instructors and staff included (in alphabetical order) Marshall Carr, Kathy Chung, Matthew J Drake, Piper J Drake, Margaret Dunlap, Mary Robinette Kowal, Erin Roberts, Brandon Sanderson, Peng Shepherd, DongWon Song, KM Sparza, Howard Tayler, Sandra Tayler, Dan Wells, and Dawn Wells.

I’m super fortunate and privileged to have attended 3 WXR events now, and to have had a chance to learn from these super-talented, extremely giving folks. So many advancements in my writing since 2019 can be traced back to what I’ve learned at these events. Plus, I’m so grateful to now count several of the instructors among my professional friends. These are some deeply good people, in addition to being deeply good writers and storytellers.

Even with all of that, the very BEST part of WXR events is the other early-career writers. I’ve been able to form some deep friendships with these writers over time, and I cannot imagine my life without these dear friends. Plus, they’ve been so very supportive of Jessi and me with Unrelenting‘s launch.

I’ll be sure to update you on any of their books as they come out! I had a chance to beta read one of them earlier this year, and y’all. Y’all. Y’ALL.

This year, sadly, the experience was significantly dampened by an anxiety-inducing COVID-19 outbreak among participants. Plus a cold. Plus e.coli. Jessi and I are SO extremely fortunate that we didn’t end up with Covid (although each of us ended up with one of the latter other issues, respectively). We’d had our bivalent boosters the week before, but we had a ton of exposure, and we were just downright lucky. We’re thinking about so many of our friends who weren’t as fortunate and are recovering now.

Books I’m Excited About

I’m excited about 3 upcoming books, and I plan to review them all here on my blog.

Thank You for Your Support

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that now is a GREAT time to order Unrelenting as a holiday gift for your fantasy-loving friends and family members. Click here to grab a copy.

And if you want to read exclusive stories every month that are published nowhere else, please consider joining my Patreon at the $6+/mo level. You’ll get access to the Writing Archive, which grows every month with another deleted scene, sneak peek, short story, novel fragment, or other creative tale for your enjoyment.

Back in January 2021, Not a Pipe Publishing offered to publish Unrelenting. This is my co-author’s (Jessi Honard) and my debut novel, so we’ve been learning a LOT along the way.

It’s been a fun and interesting process, going from then to now, 13 months later.

🎵 It’s been a long road, getting from there to here… 🎵

Here’s what we’ve been working on.

We took stock of our options.

At the time of the offer, we had a few conversations going on. This is largely thanks to the buzz and support we got from Book Pipeline after being named a finalist (top 3 in sci-fi/fantasy) in the 2020 Unpublished Manuscript competition.

An agent was speaking with us about the book and had offered a R&R (revise and resubmit) with specific feedback. A medium-size press had offered to publish it, but on a protracted timeline.

We also got on a Zoom call with Benjamin Gorman and Viveca Shearin, the co-owners of Not a Pipe to get to know them, their process, their contract, and their values.

We fell in love with the press from the first interaction, and we’ve stayed in love ever since. They were more than supportive of us having an LGBT+ main character, loved the book, and couldn’t wait for the sequel.

They had a great track record with their authors, which was corroborated by private conversations I had with several writers who had published them. It was nothing but glowing testimonials of feeling respected, heard, and seen.

I ordered a few books they’d published and was impressed with the quality of the stories, writing, and physical books, themselves. They really go the extra mile to make the books special and unique, in terms of the appearance.

And, later, this article came out, which made me believe in them all the more.

We were ready to sign with them, except for one thing…

We negotiated the contract.

Since we didn’t have an agent, we needed a third party expert to make sure that the contract was all in the proper order. We worked with an excellent literary attorney, who said the contract looked great. She had a few small recommendations, so we went back and forth a handful of times. All parties were smiling when we signed the contract in March of 2021, feeling great about working together.

That was it… our book was officially going to be published with a house we believed in, and who believed in us! It was such a great feeling, and still is.

We started working with a cover artist.

One of the wonderful things about small presses like Not a Pipe is being able to work directly with your cover artist. We were able to pick the artist from a list and give detailed feedback along the way.

She’s done a great job of bringing our vision to life, and we can’t wait to reveal the cover soon! (That’s right, it’s complete!!) We’ll brag all about the artist, too, once we do the reveal.

We dove into edits.

Viveca Shearin, our editor at Not a Pipe (who co-owns the press) worked closely with Jessi and me as we went through several more thorough revisions and edits of the manuscript.

It takes a village to catch all those consistency errors and typos, even at this late stage of a manuscript. We’re grateful our village was headed up by the talented Viveca!

We talked timetables and marketing.

Benjamin Gorman, the other co-owner of Not a Pipe, talked with Viveca and us about marketing strategies for the book, as well as the release timeline. We decided that the release would happen in the spring of 2022 (just in time for everyone’s summer reads!). As we got closer and closer, specific dates began to firm up.

While Not a Pipe does book marketing of their own, authors are never free of contributing their own marketing efforts. So we received strategic instructions on developing a rapport with local bookstores and seeking to shelve our book at them and potentially host readings/signings — although that last one is a bit difficult with an ongoing pandemic.

Plus, we’re using a lot of the marketing skills and relationships Jessi and I have gained over the years as co-owners of a content marketing firm. We are READY!

We started working on Unrelenting‘s sequel.

I’ve always heard that the best way to sell a book is to have two books. So Jessi and I have been working on the sequel to Unrelenting. We don’t have a schedule for publication yet, since we’re still drafting it, but rest assured it’s in the works!

We lived our lives.

2021 was a tough year on the personal front. About a month after Jessi and I signed our book contract, my husband and I separated, then divorced. That led to me moving into an apartment (which ended up being not great), then buying a house.

During that time, I didn’t have the creative or emotional energy to write much, so I generally guilted myself a lot and watched a bunch of Netflix. I also road tripped to see some family and friends, went solo camping with my dogs, and worked a bunch.

Not a Pipe remained super understanding and compassionate through the process… once again confirming my love for them.

In September, I had the great fortune to attend the Writing Excuses Retreat, where I finally got my creative mojo restored and felt excited about writing again.

Jessi and I made progress on plotting Unrelenting‘s sequel, and I’ve also been making good headway on Flightless, my fantasy heist.

What’s next?

We’re very close to the Unrelenting cover reveal and announcing the dates for the pre-order and book release.

We’re in the process of requesting blurbs and sending out advance reader copies (ARCs). If you have a platform or audience and are interested in receiving an ARC, please reach out to me via the Contact page.

Also, if you’re interested in helping Jessi and me promote the book to your family and friends, let me know. We’re about to create a book launch squad, and we’ll give you all the info you need.

Please also sign up for my mailing list, if you haven’t already. That’s where I’ll be sharing more information soon.

Thanks so much for your interest, and I’m thrilled to share this novel with you. The time is nearly here!