July 2023

ArmadilloCon Schedule

/ Events
Friday 5pm - Standalone Series in the Age of Cliffhangers / Ballroom D 10pm - Writing Better Erotic Scenes in SFFH / Ballroom E Saturday 10am - What You Should Have Read This Year / Ballroom D 4pm - You Are Good Enough: Fighting Imposter Syndrome / Southpark A Sunday 11am - Autographing / Dealers Room

I’ll be attending ArmadilloCon in Austin this weekend (August 4-6), so if you’re in town, come hang out with me! Here’s a list of all the guests, since it seems like they haven’t quite gotten the full schedule up yet, but I’ll be on four panels plus a signing session!

I’ll be chatting with other SF/F/H folks about standalone series, how to avoid a bad sex award, my favorite books of the year, and fighting imposter syndrome. That last one is a delightful irony since I was complaining on Twitter about having imposter syndrome when I was filling out the panel interest survey, and the programming manager saw it and decided to intervene. Well played, sir, well played. 😂

Because my panels are so spread out, I’ll probably be spending a decent amount of time at the bar or crashing somewhere with a laptop when I’m not attending other panels.

If you see me sitting around and you’d like to say hello, please do!

I promise that even if it looks like I’m working, I will welcome the interruption since I’m there to chat with people—I’m just very introverted, and starting small talk is like scaling Mt. Everest. But once someone else starts the conversation, it’s much easier, so come save me from my awkwardness. :)

I hope I see you there!

Five Years!

/ Events, Writing

Five years ago today, I was at my first ever author signing. Seems like forever and no time at all, in part thanks to all the time-warping the pandemic did. Look at this little baby author, so excited and so nervous:

Me sitting at a table stacks high with advance copies of POLARIS RISING, wearing a pink shirt, holding a copy of the book, and smiling nervously.

Those of you who are good with numbers (or memory) will realize this was actually more than six months before Polaris came out. My publisher printed up a bunch of ARCs for the RWA conference, and I was in a room with a ton of authors I admired, desperately trying to pretend I was a professional and not a screaming fangirl. 🙈

Then last month, I got to sign my tenth (!!!!) book! Granted, there were a couple of novellas and a novelette in there, but even if we just count the traditionally published novels, it’s my sixth. Not bad for five years. :)

A photo of me at BookPeople holding up a copy of Capture the Sun

My hair certainly looks better, even if it’s a lot more gray now. And I no longer have the deer in the headlights stare (as much, lol). And look at all of those books on the table! 😍

I get to keep doing this job I love because all of you, so thank you so much!

And speaking of author events, if you’d like to see my smiling face in person, I’m going to be at ArmadilloCon here in Austin on August 4 – 6, along with a host of other SF/F peeps. I’ve seen an early panel schedule, and it looks like it’s going to be a fun conference, so come hang out with me!

On the writing front, I’m still waiting to hear back from my agent on the fantasy romance, so I’m poking at a couple of shorter things. I’ve written 7k of a second Books & Broadswords-universe story. It was supposed to wrap up around 9-10k, since I wanted it to be short, but it looks like it may go a bit longer. I’ll probably publish it as a serial once it’s done, but I haven’t really thought that far ahead yet, so plans may change, etc, etc.

Really, I’m just enjoying writing without a deadline or contract. It’s a little scary, too, not going to lie, but I needed the break.

Otherwise, we’re just hanging out inside and avoiding the broiler that is central Texas right now. Yesterday was our tenth day in a row of 105°F (40.5°C) or above. Do not want, please return to sender. Mr. M has started semi-seriously looking at real estate in another state, lol. It’s that bad. 😭

I hope that your weather is more pleasant, wherever you are!

Buns & Roses Tickets!

/ Author News, Events
Richardson Adult Literacy Center presents Buns & Roses Romance Tea for literacy. Keynote: Alka Joshi, author of the Japur Trilogy, The Henna Artist, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, and The Perfumist of Paris. October 22, 2023, Doubletree Hilton, Richardson, TX

Tickets for this year’s Buns & Roses Romance Tea for Literacy are now on sale! The afternoon tea is on Sunday, October 22 in Richardson, TX, which is just outside of Dallas. I’m hosting a table (along with a ton of other fabulous authors), so if you want to come drink tea with me while supporting a charitable cause, get your tickets quick because there are only seven seats left at my table.

The ticketing website isn’t the most intuitive, but I think this link will take you directly to the page to buy tickets. Once you buy a seat at an author’s table, you can also add on a “VIP package” to attend a reception on Saturday evening to meet the authors and hang out.

Mostly, it’s a fun weekend filled with romance readers and authors that also supports a good cause. I hope I’ll see you there!