it's the end of april, so in a few days....
Discover more from Do Not Feed the Cryptids
it's the end of april, so in a few days....
IT'S GONNA BE MAY
I don’t have a specific topic in mind for this particular newsletter, but I did feel quite reflective this week on how far things have come over the last year.
A year ago today (well, tomorrow, really, it got posted late the night before on the west coast), mentees for the first year of the Kiss Pitch mentorship program got announced! I got so lucky to be paired with such an excellent mentor who had wonderful advice for Love and Other Conspiracies (which had a super different title back then) that made the book click into place.
I think it would have taken me months to make those realizations myself and get the book ready for querying. It also taught me a huge deal about revising and I am eternally grateful for that. Because I had zero idea how to revise until then, and now, I actually kind of look forward to it. (If you want a closer look at my revision process, I wrote about it a few months ago :D)
Right before the KP mentees were announced, I was going through one of the worst spirals of self-doubt I’ve ever had. I set the goal in 2022 that I wanted L&OC to be query ready by the end of the year. I definitely didn’t anticipate finding an agent and landing a book deal by the end of 2022. I am eternally grateful for the kickstart that Kiss Pitch gave me and the valuable help and friendships I’ve cultivated because of it.
A year later, fun, exciting things are happening with Love and Other Conspiracies. I have line edits to work on and the word “cover” got used this week, and I am so thrilled to see what the art teams come up with. After several weeks of silence, it was a much needed hit of serotonin for me. I will share more updates as I have them, of course, but in the meantime, if you haven’t, you can add the book on Goodreads and tell your friends about it?
I haven’t done one of these in a bit, so here’s a little update on what I’ve been reading, doing, watching etc.
Reading: I am currently devouring The Fiancée Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur. I have yet to be disappointed by Alexandria’s books (and I kinda doubt I will be at this point) and I usually plow through them insanely fast. This book is giving Gossip Girl and Succession and I am low key obsessed with Gemma. It’s a delightfully charming read that I’d definitely recommend.
I also recently finished an ARC of In The Weeds by B.K. Borison, the second book in the Lovelight series. The paperback version from Berkley comes out July 4th and today is the last day to get 25% off pre-orders from B&N! Lovelight Farms was one of my favorite books of 2022, and I think I will definitely be re-reading it every holiday season because it feels like a hug, as does In the Weeds. Large, hot farmer with tattoos adopts a lost baby duck (in addition to a small army of cats he adopted in book 1). That should be a selling point enough.
Watching: Oh boy… I have time traveled back to late elementary/middle school because I have legitimately been re-watching old seasons of American Idol. I found a YouTube channel that has pretty much all the old seasons uploaded — auditions, performances, results shows. I am doing this for book research, so there is a reason aside from nostalgia and if I end up going through with this idea, it might be a terribly fun, mid-2000s fever dream.
I watched most of Season 5, right up until Chris Daughtry got voted off (still shocking even seventeen years later wow) and then jumped to Season 7 (my personal favorite) and I’m up to the final six. It’s been a great throwback and full of so much nostalgia. This has actually proved that I still had some taste when I was little because my faves definitely hold up, but the difference of fifteen years is that one episode in, I was ready to file adoption papers for David Archuleta.
Doing: I recently discovered diamond painting and my little hyperfixation brain has become obsessed. I bought this one below and completed it in 5 days. That is a LOT OF LITTLE BLACK DIAMONDS.
I finished it and honestly was relieved because it meant I could have other interests again. So what did I do?
I bought another one.
Now, here’s your Out There meme (This is on my L&OC Pinterest board, but my editor literally also sent this to me in one of my line edit comments so clearly I have cultivated a consistent brand):
