My book comes out next month!

I just have to pause for a moment here and screech: in less than ONE MONTH I will be a published author! I have been working towards this for multiple decades. I am more or less surprisingly calm about it at the moment… we shall see how I feel next month!

On to the main newsletter!

News

Behooved got its second starred review! This time it’s from Library Journal, which gave it a lovely write up.

The audiobook of Behooved is now available for request on NetGalley US! I got the files to listen to, and naturally the first thing I did was skip to the meet cute, haha. (I had to know how the love interest was voiced!) It’s voiced by the talented Natalie Naudus, who was my dream narrator, so I’m really thrilled!

The Kickstarter campaign for the ENTER HERE anthology is less than $200 from hitting our funding goal! The campaign runs through April 30, and if we pass our fundraising goal we’re planning to unlock some exciting stretch goals—story header illustrations, swag, and more. I’m so excited for our confirmed contributor stories and am certain this anthology will be amazing! In case you missed it, C.J. Subko and I are editing this anthology highlighting science fiction, fantasy, and horror short stories from marginalized authors, on the theme of “a door opens.” You can reserve a copy by backing the project!

If you’ve been debating whether to support the anthology, I would be so grateful if you take a moment to contribute! You can chip in as little as $2 to get your name in the acknowledgements, donate without a reward, or get the anthology and other incentives. Every bit helps. In case you’re not familiar with Kickstarter, you only get charged if we meet our fundraising goal. Also worth noting is that C.J. and I are not making any money from this campaign—100% of our funds goes to paying the anthology authors and covering production costs.

If you can’t contribute now, spreading the word is also much appreciated as we enter the final stretch!

Writing updates

I have not done any writing during the month of April. This is very unusual for me—typically I’m working on something, even if it’s just dabbling. But truthfully, after the unexpected setback of my second contracted book being changed, I have not had any motivation to start something new until I have an official book 2.

Adding on to the uncertainty, I’ve hit a burnout period, which came as a bit of a shock to me—as far as I knew before early March, I was ready to tackle more revisions. I think the changes to my publication schedule and the unexpected pressure of coming up with all new ideas on short notice may have shorted a mental circuit. I’ve been trying to embrace this time as an actual break, since I’m sure May will be a very busy month and I have not actually taken time off in awhile. I’ve been reading a lot, practicing digital art, and watching Bridgerton (yes, as per usual I am multiple years late to the show; I just don’t watch much TV typically). I’m enjoying it quite a bit!

Events and appearances

I’m excited to announce my first ever author panel! On May 10th, I’ll be on a panel called “But Make it Gay” at Buffalo Street Books in Ithaca, NY (my favorite bookstore, and one of my preorder campaign partners—you can order a signed copy of Behooved from them here). This panel is part of the Spring Writes literary festival.

I also did an interview with fellow author and agent sibling Lindsey Byrd! You can watch it here or listen to it on Spotify if you’d like to hear me chat about my publication journey.

I will definitely have at least two more live events in May/June, so I may send next month’s newsletter out a little earlier in the month to give you those details as soon as they’re finalized!

Crafty Corner

This month’s topic is pen names! One of the questions I get asked most often is why I publish under M. Stevenson. (If you didn’t realize that was a pen name until now… surprise, I guess!)

The short answer is that I started signing my writing as M. Stevenson when I was a kid because little me thought it looked like an author name, and I’ve kept it as a tribute to little me and her dreams. (Plus, at this point, using anything else just looks wrong.)

I also really like the measure of anonymity it gives me, even if it’s a small one. Stevenson is no longer my legal last name, which makes it a little bit harder to find me (this was especially helpful when I was teaching high school students who I didn’t want to find my author accounts when they googled me. Which they definitely did). If you’re worried about your family/coworkers/students/random strangers finding out what you write and potentially googling your workplace and other personal information, I highly recommend a pen name.

Some people, especially people with femme-presenting names, use initials or a pen name to avoid bias from readers or editors. I’ve been asked if that’s why I use M. It’s not, but that can still be a concern, especially in certain genres that are historically male-dominated, so that may be a consideration for you.

There aren’t really any downsides to using a pen name that I’ve found, other than that it makes it slightly trickier to do copyright when you publish and that I sometimes get confused about which name I should be using when I introduce myself. In my opinion, the benefits outweigh the (very small) downsides, and I love having an “alter ego” for my writing presence.

Is there a craft or publishing topic you’d like me to cover? Hit reply or leave a comment!

Book recommendation

This month’s recommendation is Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgis! As noted in the Library Journal review, I think it would be good friends with Behooved (I had actually picked it for my monthly book rec before the review came in, so it was a very happy coincidence). It’s got a lovely romance between a villainous queen and her new librarian who is actually her unwilling arch enemy in disguise, and it’s very sweet while also dealing beautifully with overcoming trauma. I loved it!

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

Reminder that if you preorder Behooved or request it from the library, you can submit your receipt/request to get a digital bonus epilogue. And if you’re in the US, you can order from any of the three bookstores I’m partnering with to get swag and a signed copy or signed bookplate!