Happy Girlfriend Day!

aka Happy Tara Maclay Day!

Hey, hi, hello, readers!

This is a different kind of newsletter than you’re probably used to by now. Those of you who’ve been fans of me for a while know that I’m also a young adult author, and to the newbies—hello! I am also a young adult author.

(You can find a selection of my novels here.)

My adult romances, The Dead Romantics and The Seven Year Slip are a bit of a departure from my previous young adult novels. There isn’t much of an overlap, but there is one!

And so I’m speaking to y’all, the overlap. The convergence. The “ah, yes, I am the center of this venn diagram" people. The readers who love geeky, fun fairytales and grew up on vampire lore and also like to joke about ghost boners and pigeons named mother and f*cker.

So, anyway—

I have a book out today!

In this Buffy the Vampire Slayer prequel, fan-favorite and LGBTQIA+ icon Tara Maclay gets the main character treatment … whether she wants it or not.

Tara Maclay isn’t thrilled to be starting her senior year of high school in a new town. She misses her mom, her garden, her magic—and the way her dad treated her before her mom passed. But if Tara can just keep her head down, then maybe she can make it through this year in Hellborne, Vermont without the town living up to its name.

Of course, her plan falls apart immediately, as dead students start turning up around her, and she’s suddenly voted Most Likely To Have Murdered Them by the rest of the senior class. Oh, and the fellow new girl Tara’s crushing on? Turns out to be a witch-hunter. So maybe it’s not the worst thing that Tara’s magic is majorly malfunctioning.

As the body count rises, Tara has to overcome her fears, reconnect with her magic, and cast herself in a more central role to save the town—even if it means putting her new relationship at risk.

Written by New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Ashley Poston, The Bewitching Hour is the perfect blend of ’90s nostalgia, mysterious murders, and star-crossed sapphic romance.

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I had so much fun playing in the Buffyverse. Tara was one of the few characters that I really connected to when I was younger (she’s queer! she has a stutter! she’s a bookworm! my Amazon queen!!!!) so getting to pen her prequel story is such a freaking honor.

If you would’ve told tween me that I’d be playing in the Buffyverse canon? Writing my favorite character? She wouldn’t have believed you.

I really hope you love Tara and Daphne and Baz just as much as I do, and appreciate all of the little easter eggs I managed to shove into every little corner of this witchy, murder-y novel.

Bring your emotional support incubus, your super rad girlfriend, your mom’s old book of spells, and your gumption, because it’s dark out there—and you better survive.

Cover art by the talented Sam Schechter! Go give them a follow on instagram!