In like a lion, AKA March updates

Hello friends!

With just under two months (!!) to go until Behooved releases, it’s suddenly all starting to feel a lot closer.

A quick reminder that if you preorder Behooved from any of the three independent bookstores I’m partnering with, you’ll get a signed copy or signed bookplate, a bookmark, and some very cute custom stickers. Preorder anywhere (including internationally), and you can submit your receipt to get a digital bonus epilogue!

Preorders really help authors, especially debuts—they tell booksellers and libraries what books to put on their shelves, they increase the chances of a book hitting bestseller lists, and they signal interest to the publisher. Plus, it’s like a little gift from past you to future you.

News

First, you might have noticed the newsletter looks slightly different this month—that’s because I’ve migrated to beehiiv, due to some ethical considerations over Substack I’ve been aware of for some time but haven’t been sure how to act on. This shouldn’t make any difference in functionality on the subscriber end!

On to actual news:

If you’ve been hoping to get your hands on a special edition, ICYMI, the Bookish Box will be featuring Behooved as their May subscription book, with orders opening to the general public in April!

Behooved got its first trade review! Publishers Weekly gave it a star and called it a “wonderfully whimsical romantasy debut.” Here’s the full review if you’d like to give it a read (it’s short)!

And finally, C.J. Subko and I have put together a Kickstarter for the portals anthology we’re editing! It goes live for backing on April 1st, and in the meantime you can click to be notified when it launches and admire the cover by artist Aimee Cozza. If you’re a short story writer, you can also check out the submission guidelines here!

Writing updates

The past couple of weeks have been pretty up and down on the writing front.

I spent some time this month revising the first three chapters of my sapphic contemporary swing dance rom com, with the goal of putting it on submission somewhere down the line. I got good feedback on the opening pages from beta readers, so after a bit more revising those chapters are now off with my agent. If she thinks it’s worth continuing to work on, I’m planning to revise it as a back burner/side project.

I also got some unexpected news about my publishing schedule. In short, the book I’ve been working on as my 2026 release is not going to be the next book I get to publish. I’m not sure exactly what the next book will be yet, and it most likely will be releasing in early 2027 instead of late 2026 as initially planned. So unfortunately, you’ll have a bit of a longer wait after Behooved for my next fantasy rom com.

This is not my favorite thing that has happened in the publishing process by any means, but apparently it’s more common than you’d expect. In the meantime, I’ve gone back to the drawing board and am brainstorming, using my WIP spreadsheet (yes, I have one of those) to narrow down some options.

Crafty Corner

This month I wanted to share some thoughts on slow burn romance!

Behooved is labeled (by my publisher) as a slow burn romance, and I agree that—in a sense—it is. However, I’ve seen a handful of reviews saying things like, This didn’t feel like slow burn to me because once they got together it happened really fast, or This isn’t slow burn because the characters didn’t know each other for very long before they got together. (I am really, truly trying not to read reviews, but I have moments of weakness and also I sometimes get tagged.)

**Important note here that I am not ragging on reviewers. If you’ve read Behooved and it didn’t feel slow burn to you, thank you for reviewing, you’re totally right about your experience!**

So here’s the thing: To me, slow burn is about reader experience, not character experience.

One of the really cool things novels do is play with time. You can have a book that takes place over ten thousand years, or one that unfolds over the course of a single day. Let’s say both exist and are both 300 pages long.

In our first example, the main couple has been yearning for each other for hundreds of years (they’re immortal), and after all this waiting they finally get together… on page 50. Is that slow burn?

I’d wager it doesn’t feel that way to the reader, since even though the characters have been yearning for centuries, you’re barely settling into the story at that point.

Let’s look at our second example. In this story, the main couple meets at the beginning. Over the course of this single day, they go through intense experiences together and bond, and finally, on page 280 of 300, they get it on. Slow burn, or not?

In my opinion, book 2 is much more of a slow burn than the first example, even though it takes place over hours instead of centuries—because the reader has to wait for most of the book for the characters to get together, even if in “real time” it’s a very fast relationship.

So, there you have it. To me slow burn is mostly about how long the author makes the reader wait for the payoff. In Behooved (very mild spoilers here), most of the plot takes place over about a week, and the first kiss is roughly 60% through—which if we’re going by romance beats is actually fairly late in the book (most romances have the couple sleep together or at least kiss at 50%, though this can vary a lot more for romantasy).

So is it slow burn? That depends on your experience. In my book, it counts.

Have any topics you’d like me to cover? Leave a comment or hit reply!

Book recommendation

This month’s book recommendation is What Wakes the Bells by Elle Tesch! It’s a YA fantasy with gothic vibes and a demisexual heroine that takes place in a sentient city. I found it fully engrossing with some really incredible imagery. Also the cover art is so gorgeous!

Also to note that the end of March is the Trans Rights Readathon. Especially given the targeting of trans people by the current US administration, this is an excellent time to read, buy, and shout about trans books. Here is an incredible list! A few I recommend:

• Dragonfall by L.R. Lam (fantasy)

• A Shore Thing by Joanna Lowell (historical romance)

• Homegrown Magic by Jamie Pacton and Rebecca Podos (cozy romantasy)

• The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas (YA fantasy)

To see all my newsletter recommendations, visit the full list here!