#8 - I went to Wisconsin, and all I got was this conspiracy theory

actually that's not true + some post-release thoughts

Have you ever been to Doveland, Wisconsin?

Apparently, a bunch of people have, or they’ve had friends or family who lived there. They have souvenirs or merchandise from their visits. The only problem is that this town doesn’t exist.

There is no record fo Doveland, Wisconisn ever existing. No physical, historical records, either. It doesn’t appear on any maps and there’s no record of it being redistricted or rezoned. It was a small town located in “the heart of the state”, but no coordinates or specific location has ever turned up.

There are a couple of theories as to where this town might have gone:

• A sinkhole — yes, some people believe that a giant sinkhole opened up in response to an earthquake and the whole town just fell in.

• Damming — This wouldn’t be that strange. There are plenty of records of towns disappearing due to certain engineering failures or natural disasters. It’s even happened in Wisconsin before. Werner, WI was a small logging town that was wiped off the map by an overflow from a nearby dam. Usually, however, there is decent record keeping on these types of circumstances.

• Government tomfoolery — There are theories that Doveland was either wiped off the map for a secret government/military study. Fill in the blanks with whatever oddness you may please.

I have not been to Doveland, Wisconsin, but I did get to go to Wisconsin this weekend to attend Romance Con! That’s going to be the bulk of this newsletter because it was a noteworthy event, but I couldn’t deprive everyone of some little weirdness at the top here.

Romance Con was my first ever author convention. I’ve been going to cons like WonderCon, SDCC, and Emerald City for years and they are some of my favorite places. The energy of people who are just excited about things and unabashedly nerdy and exuberant is my favorite. Then, take that great energy and make it focused on romance books? I’m sold.

I spent weeks getting ideas for my table ready (and after attending Romance Con, I have like 800 more ideas for next time) and prepping all that I wanted to bring. Art prints, stickers, friendship bracelets, stuff for a giveaway. Aliens. And I think the result was pretty damn cute.

yay aliens!

I was prepared to have a couple of people come by my table and get books signed. Love and Other Conspiracies has only been out for three weeks. It had relatively little fanfare leading up to its release (more on that later), and I’m a newbie! I get it. It would have still been cool to be there and meet so many writers and friends I’ve known online for years, and visit a new city!

Instead, I was just so deeply shocked and overwhelmed by how many people lined up to come get their books signed, tell me they loved LAOC and wanted to hear more about the process of writing it and the characters. Even more shocking, the owner of the bookstore came up to my table to tell me that they sold out of my book before the signing hall even opened, which is absolutely wild.

I got to meet writing friends I’ve known for years for the first time, spent time with the local hotel dogs, tried many good beers, and ate cheese curds. I also really loved what I saw of Milwaukee, and not just because it was in the 70s when it was literally 115 degrees in LA (help). It reminded me a lot of Boston, which is my favorite place in the world, with its architecture, geography, and energy. I really hope to get to go back and maybe explore more of the city next year!

friends!

dogs!

cheese curds!

Meeting readers and knowing that people love your books is literally the best feeling in the world. I was writing for years and I was mostly doing it for me. Bad YA dystopias in high school, structureless fantasies that I was just vibing in, romances that were kinda getting there, but not quite. I loved sharing these stories with my friends and sometimes the internet, but I never imagined sharing it widely. I genuinely didn’t think I was good enough to publish, so I didn’t try until a couple of years ago.

I’ve lived like 90 lives in the past 3 years I’ve been trying to actually make something of my writing. Writing my first rom-com and not quite nailing it and putting it down, picking Love and Other Conspiracies back up and deciding this was the one. Taking it through a mentorship program. Getting an agent. Selling the book. Releasing the book.

LAOC had a quiet stroll to release. It didn’t hit any of the big “Most Anticipated” lists or “Hot Books of the Summer” articles. It wasn’t nearly as talked about as a lot of other books, and I got why. It does have a very niche and odd vibe to it, so I understood why perhaps Cosmo was not rushing to write about a book with Bigfoot on the cover. I was simply hoping it didn’t totally flop. I didn’t expect it to be a massive hit, or anything. I just sort of… didn’t want to be embarrassed?

Love and Other Conspiracies debuted on the USA Today Bestseller list at #62 and I don’t think anyone was more shocked than I was. It’s kind of one of those pipedream things you hope for. I told myself “It’d be nice to hit a list”, but I certainly didn’t expect it.

The past couple of weeks post-release have been absolutely magical and so special. I’ve felt so much love for these odd little characters and my strange little books, and I’m extremely relieved that it’s being received pretty well out in the world. Between that and Romance Con, I do feel really invigorated to dive back into drafting projects and telling stories. I was genuinely struggling with it leading up to release, so I’m hoping that once the weather cools down, spooky season picks up, and I’m no longer on a deadline for Book 2, I will be spewing far more words out.

On the subject of Book 2, I got to release the title and some vague descriptors of the book: Love at First Sighting will be coming Summer 2025 and I’m so excited to share more. I saw some cover options this weekend and they are… SO GOOD.

I have a couple of events in the coming months that I’ll be at, but I will post about them as we get closer!