good things

come to those whose tummy still hurts. (sadly.)

HARK, I AM ALIVE!

Okay, okay, I don’t think that was ever in question but I absolutely did not post a newsletter the day A Novel Love Story came out like I thought I would. Like with most things in my life, I overestimated the time I had and the willpower I possessed to check off everything on my to-do list.

And since then a lot has happened. So! Instead of regaling you with an essay’s worth of OH MY GOD IT WAS SO MUCH, THERE WERE SO MANY PEOPLE, MY CHEEKS STILL HURT, I LOVED IT, THANK YOU FOR COMING OUT TO SEE ME… I’m going to do this in bullet points.

My brain is still a little too wobbly for much of anything else.

THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED SINCE JUNE 25TH, 2024

• Wild Geese Bookshop was darling! Thank you all so much for coming out to visit. I arrived back to my hotel room much too late but I appreciate everyone who came out. There were about 400 (??????!) of you! My gobs are still smacked.

• The drive from Indiana to Ohio is really lovely! Lots of green farmland! I still hate driving in cities, though!

• Joseph-Beth Cincinnati was such a riot that I tore my hose two seconds before the event began, so you know it was a good time.

• East City Bookstore in DC was delightful. I was not emotionally prepared for how lovely chatting with

  Sarah Adler
  was. And I was also not emotionally prepared for the freak thunderstorm I, and a majority of the booksellers, got trapped in afterward. RIP to those umbrellas, the real heroes. Gone too soon.

• NYC was, as always, a hot festering mess and I’d never have it any other way. There was even a pigeon who roosted on the window at my hotel! (

  Nicole Brinkley
  and I ran into a delightful pug two separate times in the lobby. Made my entire week.)

• Ripped Bodice is just as Instagram-worthy as all of the photos say! And while I didn’t get photos, apparently my line wrapped around the block because, uh, ya girl is a chatterbox and there were too many good dogs that came through my line not to stop and tell them what good doggos they were.

• The Met was gorgeous. Cried in front of Van Gogh (if you know, you know). The usual.

• Oblong Books in Rhinebeck, NY, was gloriously rowdy, and while I did nag on

  Nicole Brinkley
  ’s podcaster voice during the event, I’ve been told since that she would make a very good podcaster. (Which, as someone who has been on a podcast with her, I absolutely agree.)

• 8 hours in the LaGuardia Airport will suck the life out of any human, but 5 hours on the tarmac + 3 hours in the airport gave me an eye twitch I’ve yet to shake. I did get home, though… but at what cost?

• M. Judson Bookstore was, as always, fantastic (as was the drink they made for the event)! I love doing repeat stops and seeing familiar faces. There’s really nothing better, you know?

• Then I came back home (again) and hit the ground running on my next rom-com.

• Until I got a call from my editor and agent last Wednesday evening, congratulating me.

• Oh, that’s right—

LOOK WHAT Y’ALL DID! THAT WAS YOU GUYS! ALL OF YOU!!

• A NOVEL LOVE STORY became an instant bestseller.

  • #4 on the New York Times Trade Paperback list

  • #13 on the New York Times Combined Print + E-book list

  • #4 on the Indie Bestseller list

  • #11 on the USA Today Bestseller list.

• Guess 4 is my new lucky number?

• But really—you all showed up for me in the biggest way possible. Thank you so, so much. I’ve been in this industry for a decade now and you never cease to amaze me. I wouldn’t be here if not for you.

  • That’s not just hyperbole—I absolutely would not be here, talking to you in this newsletter, if not for the readers who championed me and the booksellers who have faith in my stories and my team at Berkley who have my back.

  • Y’all make this whole ride worth it. Thank you.

• OKAY, back to our regularly scheduled program—

• Still writing, by the way. Still got that deadline. Still slamming my face into a brick wall known as writer’s block, and telling myself that it hurts so good.

• And then yesterday my editor emailed me because, for a second week in a row, A NOVEL LOVE STORY hit the Indie Bestseller List, this time at #6.

• And #41 on the USA Today list!

• Then I got to celebrate A Novel Love Story with all the lovely readers who came to Buxton Books in Charleston!

• I can’t stop smiling.

• I think I haven’t stopped smiling since 7pm on June 24th, actually.

• After The Dead Romantics and The Seven Year Slip, I wanted to write a book that felt like a warm hug.

• I hope I did, and I hope you find yourself lost in your own version of Eloraton.

• Meanwhile, I’ll be back at my computer pounding away at the next rom-com, listening to beach music (a clue??) and trying to remember how to play the piano.

Sometimes, your work is never over, but you don’t mind it if you enjoy the work.

I hope I get to see some of you in St. Louis on Monday, Houston on Tuesday, Chicago on Friday, and Atlanta next Monday! Or, perhaps, at SteamyLit Con? Let’s make a party out of it!