Giveaways, Book Auctions, Workshops, and More
Why did summer have to end and immediately throw us neckdeep into work?!
Hi friends! This newsletter is going to be a big one, but it’s FULL of fun, free, or low-cost things that I think you’re going to love, and I highly recommend you stick around—there’s a lot here! And next month, I’ll get to share with you: BOOK TOUR DETAILS! I’m so stoked to get to travel the country with my co-author Sara Raasch and meet you as we tour for Night of the Witch! (Plus, Sourcebooks is doing some AMAZING things for the tour—here’s a hint!)
I can’t say much right now, but you’re definitely going to want to stick around for next month’s newsletter as well. There are multiple pre-order incentives, a book tour, and lots of goodies for you coming from Sourcebooks!
#SupportTheArts Giveaway!
I teamed up with one of my favorite artists, Hallie Bertling, to create a super fun bookish and art giveaway for you!
Up for grabs is a whole collection of Hallie’s beautiful bookish art, including five bookmarks in her fairy tale feet series (and my personal fave, The Last Unicorn art), two art prints (including a Laini Taylor character I think you’ll recognize!), and a packet of bookish-inspired stickers (including my favorite piece Hallie’s ever done—the little Ewok with flowers)!
Additionally, I’m giving away two signed copies of my own books—Museum of Magic and a FINISHED hardcover copy of Night of the Witch!!
LOOK AT THAT NEON GREEN SPINE WITH THE MOON DECORATIONS, I AM IN LOVE WITH IT SO MUCH!!!!
We made entries super simple—Hallie and I “hid” a codeword for the giveaway in our Patreon posts. It’s free and accessible to everyone to see, so all you have to do is visit our pages, find the word, and enter it into the giveaway form. Seriously, that’s it. And there’s some additionally easy ways to enter—including signing up for my newsletter, which you’ve already done if you’re reading this, so all you have to do is tick the box that says you to count it. One click!
Plotting Your Novel Workshop
Coming up NEXT MONDAY is a great workshop event you can attend online! I’ve teamed up with Inked Voices to teach about my four-act method of writing and provide some hands-on activities to help you plot your novel. If you’ve never experimented with structure before, this is a great introductory course that can be applies to either a first draft or a revision (or can be used to get you out of a plot hole or writer’s block)!
This program should be a lot of fun but also highly informative, and we’ll be doing Q&A afterwards. I hope you can join us!
Auction to Help Maui
I’m sure you’ve all heard of the devastating fires that burned through Hawai’i recently. I am thrilled to be able to offer multiple items for auction, with all the proceeds going to aid relief in Maui for the victims of the fire.
You can find all my auction items here—I’ve donated a query critique, and signed copies of my most recent books, including Museum of Magic, Night of the Witch, and The Princess and the Scoundrel. (Also, hi Sara! Our names got linked, so she pops up in my search, lol.)
As I said, this is a very important auction to help for the victims. I highly encourage you to look through the services and books that have been donated—even if you don’t buy mine—or consider donating without a bid to help the people recovering from such devastation.
GoodReads Most Anticipated
It was such a pleasant surprise to see Night of the Witch selected as one of GoodReads’s Most Anticipate Fall YA books!
This book is just so much fun, and I’m so glad it’s reaching an audience! If you’d like to add it to GoodReads, I’d really appreciate it!
The Global Quest Nears the End
My interactive video game story is coming to a close soon! Ellery and her friends have traipsed across the world, seeking clues, and have finally pieced together a chance for something huge. You’re not going to want to miss the exciting conclusion!
As a reminder, it’s essentially free to read this choose-your-own-adventure style game—you just sign up and every day you log on, you get free coins. You can absolutely read the entire game without paying a cent—and every read helps!
What You Missed on Patreon This Month
This is going to be a bit of a sneak peek, as these haven’t gone in the mail yet, but this month, all members of my Patreon are getting these lovely “Love is never a sin” magnets!
This is a quote from Night of the Witch, as well as a statement I personally feel strongly about, and I love that it’s going out to Patreon members!
If you’d like to see what’s happening even further down the line, I have art prints coming soon. You can get a sneak peek of that here.
And this Thursday, I’ll be doing a workshop on self editing manuscripts, complete with checklist and some tried-and-true tips on how I edit my own work prior to sending it off to my agent, editor, or even beta readers.
Patreons always get first looks at the book projects I’m working on, monthly mailings, and the writing tiers get bonus critiques, workshops, and more! I’m doing my best to create a community of book lovers, and I’d love to have you join us!
Tiers on Patreon are as low as $2 a month for readers and $5 a month for writers (who get the workshops and writer-focused elements). I’m currently sold out of the critique levels, but Patreons get first dibs when those coveted slots open up (and I’ll likely be adding more in the fall).
What I’m working on now…
House of Hex, a YA fantasy with witches and witch bottles, sequel to Museum of Magic. Available on Patreon and Kindle Vella.
New adult science fiction project: with my agent.
Night of the Witch 2: with our editor.
Adult fantasy novel: at around 70,000 words, working on the structure and rewriting the opening.
Global Quest: YA adventure, choose-your-own-path story, almost complete!
Side gigs!
Weekly posts and videos about writing at Patreon
SNHU as an online adjunct in the MFA writing program
Accepting critique and coaching jobs with Wordsmith Workshops—in addition to doing Word Lab! Also, we’re starting live and in person retreats again!
Actively doing in-person school, library, and book fair events—book me for panels, signings, and workshops for both adults and teens on writing! If you’d like to get an idea of some of the programming I do, I describe it a bit here.