Jessie

Five Years!

July 20, 2023 / 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!

July 5, 2023 / 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!

Rest Week

June 28, 2023 / Life, Watching

Release week is over, so I’m resting this week, which mostly means I’m not writing prose. Instead, I’m writing code, lol. But it’s a different sort of creativity, and it works well to give my brain a break while still being a little bit productive. If everything works correctly (ha!) then this post will auto-post to Twitter and Bluesky, since that was my project this week.

If it doesn’t, then I’ll try to figure out what happened. :)

Lest you think it’s all work around here, I’ve also been binging various C-dramas on Netflix. I watched all of Love O2O and really enjoyed it, then I bounced around through a few that didn’t quite capture my attention before landing on The King’s Avatar, where I’m five-ish episodes in. But I’m still looking for more things to watch, so if you have any favorite shows, drop me some recs in the comments!

Other than that, I’ve been playing Diablo and hiding from the brutal Texas heat. We’re supposed to finally be getting some relief as the heat dome moves on over the next few days, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

I’ll probably be a little quiet for a week or two as I take some time to recharge, but thanks again for making release week fabulous, and I hope you all are enjoying the book! 💕

Thank You!

June 23, 2023 / Author News, Capture the Sun, Writing

Thanks to everyone who celebrated Capture the Sun‘s release with me this week! 🎉🎉🎉

Release weeks are always a little stressful, and this one was no exception, but seeing everyone’s excitement makes it all worthwhile. 😍

I signed the BookPeople preorders on Tuesday, so hopefully those will be going out soon, if they haven’t already, and I have an in-person event on Sunday at 7PM, so if you’re local to Austin, come see me!

Jessie Mihalik, speaking and signing CAPTURE THE SUN. June 25 at 7PM at BookPeople in Austin.

I’m not expecting a big crowd, so we can hang out and chat and you can ask all your burning questions about books, Diablo IV, or why it’s so darn hot here this week, and I’ll do my very best to answer or at least make up an entertaining story. :)

I’ll also bring the last of my stickers and bookmarks for people who get books signed at the event!

After Sunday, I’ll be done with release stuff, and I plan to lay on my couch and stare at the ceiling for a day or two to recover, lol. After that, I might work on Chira’s story and see if I can get it unstuck. Yesterday, I reread what I have so far and it’s good, if a little angsty. So! Many! Emotions!

My fantasy romance is with my agent, so once she looks it over, I’ll know more about what I should do there. It’ll likely need an edit before it goes out on submission to publishers, if that’s what we decide to do, otherwise it’ll need an edit before I self-pub it. Then I’ll have to write the second book. So many ideas, so little time.

But it was nice to have a release week where I’m not on deadline. 🥰

If you’re not going to be able to make the BookPeople event, and you want to ask questions, there’s a spoiler/discussion thread. Please don’t drop spoilers in the comments anywhere else, since I know a lot of people haven’t been able to read yet.

Have a great weekend, and I hope I’ll see some of you soon!

Capture the Sun Discussion / Spoiler Thread

June 20, 2023 / Capture the Sun, Writing

If you’ve already read Capture the Sun, then you’re in the right place if you want to talk about it or ask me questions. If you haven’t, go get yourself a copy then come back, because spoilers ARE ALLOWED in this thread.