*Long suffering sigh*

I'm not going to lie, the astro weather of the present moment is pretty gnarly. If you are feeling cranky, exhausted, sleepless, agitated, or just generally out of sorts, you are not alone this week. The best advice I can offer you is just to try to move at the pace that is available to you.

I drew the Queen of Pentacles this week, which feels particularly appropriate for this moon. While this isn't always how I read this card, what really came through when I was looking at it for this reading was that we really need to pay attention and honor the signals coming from our bodies right now. And before you argue with me, just know that I am a person who has a very hard time doing this. I want to rage against my own medicine as much as the next gal.

But the Queen of Pentacles is a card that really encourages us to feel sovereign in our ability to make things happen in the material world. For me, this very often starts with paying closer attention to what is going on in my body. Am I getting enough sleep? Am I eating enough healthy food? Am I trying to pretend that I didn't pull a muscle when I was committing to the bit of reenacting the angry version of illicit affairs from the Eras tour?

These are the questions that we all must sit with when we pull the Queen of Pentacles. (Well, maybe not that last one). The point is that feeling sovereign in our bodies means trusting in our own authority before we seek any outside counsel.

The energy of this Scorpio new moon offers us a moment to process the grief of acknowledging our limitations. FOMO is real, but this lunation is a sacrifice that we can accept as a part of chasing the life we truly want.

I hope you weather this week gracefully

What you'll find in the rest of this email:

• Another THE POISON DAUGHTER Milestone
• NSFW art
• A Writing Update
• TBR Stack
• Pick a Card reading
• A DIY Tarot Reading

THE POISON DAUGHTER Milestone:

STILL SHE CLIMBS.

I continue to be pleasantly delighted by the success of TPD. This is a higher rank than I've ever had for any of my books, and it comes a full six weeks after release. From the bottom of my heart, thank you all so much for continuing to shout about this story through every corner of the Internet and out in the real world at your local bookstores and in reader groups.

I have lots of exciting things planned for this book, not the least of which are our two special editions coming in 2025 (do not hound me. I am a steel vault. I will tell you nothing.) Crossing my fingers that there are other updates that I can give you by the end of the year.

On a personal note, thank you again to everyone who has reached out about the chronic pain representation in this book. I've had a difficult year with migraines, and it has been so gratifying to hear how many of you have seen yourself and your struggles with chronic pain reflected in Harlow's journey.

If you're wondering how you can continue to support me, please just keep doing all of the things that you're doing, and be sure to rate and review the book on Amazon and Goodreads, as this is the thing that will help me the most at the moment for “REASONS”. I really can't overstate how many things in this industry are reliant on numbers. While it's always exciting for me to see the numbers climb, it is very much a metric that decision makers in the industry pay attention to.

Do with that what you will 👀

And now for a little NSFW art celebration courtesy of @artsbygih. You know the scene, and if you don't, you will want to (unless you are related to me, in which case you can close your eyes and scroll down, or better yet, just delete this email).

Hardcover update:

Reminder that the hardcover is showing as temporarily out of stock on Amazon. Ingram Spark has informed me that as long as Amazon is having trouble keeping hardcovers stocked in their warehouse, the listing on their site will look like this, but that any orders placed will be fulfilled as usual. If you have any issues, please just let me know.

​You can get TPD here.​

What I'm Writing:

BALLAD OF THE HEARTLESS- Drafting

I just returned from a short writing retreat in Colorado with my critique partner Liz Leiby. I spent a long weekend in the mountains writing, eating cheese, being coached through my first ramen meal (don't judge me), and, as any white millennial is wont to do when she’s had an extra glass of wine or two: acting out the angry version of illicit affairs from the Era’s tour using the shawl she found in her coworker’s Mountain House as a prop.

While I was hoping to get a lot more words down, I did work through a lot of plot and character development, and I'm feeling much better about the trajectory of this book. I also learned a good bit about dictation as part of my writing process since I've been having some hand and wrist issues (shout out to dictation, which is also how I'm writing this portion of the newsletter.)

One of the interesting things about writing an interconnected standalone series is that you often think that you already know the world-building really well because you established so much of it in the first book. You expect that doing the world-building for the next book in the series will be easy because you have that background, but BALLAD takes place about 10 years after SONG, and the changes in that world are very much a ripple effect from the events of the previous book. Of course, it's meant to be a standalone, so you should be able to pick it up with no knowledge of the previous book and still understand the world and the magic system. But I had to spend more time than I expected thinking about how this world had changed because of shifts in power dynamics.

None of this is a bad thing, and it's not a huge shock considering how much work I had to put into the world-building for A LEGACY OF STARS even though I knew THE LOST GOD world so well.

But regardless of progress and words on paper, it is really nice to be able to get away and talk craft with a friend and have space to verbally process ideas with someone who understands your writing style and can help you brainstorm through snags.

I'm not going to lie, I've certainly been feeling the pressure to get the rough draft of this one complete so that I can start layering new things on top of it. As ever, I am foiled by the limitations of how much I can do at one time and the fact that I have not yet figured out how to clone myself.

The success of TPD has been really gratifying and thrilling, but I'm in new territory with trying to navigate a book that continues to thrive so long after release, along with promoting my backlist and working on this new book. It's definitely something to be filed under good problems to have, but since this is uncharted territory, I've had to go a little bit slower. I'm still on track for the timeline I have in my head for this book (which is not what is showing currently on Amazon as a placeholder), but I'm feeling the urgency now more than ever to get this idea that's been tugging on my brain down on paper.

For the TBR Stack:

I've got more than usual this week because FOUR friends have new books that I am so pumped for.

Made You Look by Tanya Grant - I have zero chill, which you know if you watched my stories about this book coming out yesterday. Tanya is not only one of my long-time besties, she is also one of my critique partners. She was the first person to ever read TLG and although she has a lengthy indie publishing history herself, MADE YOU LOOK is her traditional publishing thriller debut. This book follows the influencer It Girl Sydney, the influencer everyone loves and loves to hate, and a few of her friends as they head out to visit a brand new remote resort. But when they arrive, the dream -brand-sponsored trip quickly turns into a nightmare when the picturesque snow turns into a storm that leaves the group cut off from the outside world, and the bodies start to drop. Click the cover below to check it out.​​

Silver & Smoke (Ashes of Thezmarr book 3) by Helen Scheuerer- The third and final book in Helen's spinoff series came out last week, and I am so pumped to see where this story is headed. You heard me raving about this series earlier this year, but as not to spoil anything, I'll just share a little about book one, Iron & Embers. Our FMC, Wren, is an alchemist-turned-assassin who finds solace in seeking vengeance for the death of her friends. She's been hiding from the world for years after the war, but when an unknown form of alchemy is used to attack a king of the midrealms, Wren is forced out of her solitude in the hopes of finding a cure to the dark magic threatening the kingdoms. She sets out to earn her spot at Drevenor, the ancient alchemy academy, to conquer the Gauntlet, a grueling series of deadly trials that could cost her sanity or her life. Click the graphic below to check it out.

A Lesson in Obedience (Mystic Riegan Book 2) by Allie Shante- I am so excited for my girl, Allie, completing this duology this week. Avoicing spoilers by telling you a little about book one. When a mysterious tragedy turns Riley's world upside down, she is determined to find the truth. She takes matters into her own hands, by enrolling at Mystic Riegan University, a school that caters to both humans and magic wielders. Unfortunately, flying under the radar to poke around won't be as easy as Riley hoped, because she's caught the attention of three mysterious and sexy men. I am so excited to dig into this poly romance, and it's coming soon to audio!!! Click the graphic below to check it out.

Splintered Kingdom (Shattered Crown Book 2) by Gretchen Powell Fox- I'm so excited for this book. I have both books one and two on audio, and I'm anxiously awaiting the end of the Libby tsunami I'm surfing right now so that I can finally listen to them. To avoid spoilers, I'll give you a quick pitch for book 1, Smoke & Scar: A shadow-wielding fae warrior must reluctantly battle through a series of deadly trials alongside the human knight who hates her—but who she can’t seem to stop saving anyway. Now I have not read this yet, but I have it on good authority that the MMC Cedric Thorne would be the best of friends with Rainer McKay, and don't we all love a down bad pathetic man.

New Moon in Scorpio - This lunation brings us face to face with the deepest parts of ourselves. What is subconscious becomes conscious. This is a place to meet ourselves with compassion, to surrender to the pull of the parts of ourselves we normally hide that want to surface, and to accept those parts of ourselves without judging them as good or bad.

This is a time of straddling the middle place in which we can redefine what parts of ourselves truly need to be secret and what we hide for the sake of acceptance.

Take a breath and select the card you feel most drawn to. The card you select represents how you can make peace with the parts of you that you or others have deemed as “too much”.

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Scroll down for the reveal.

Page of Cups - It’s important to surround yourself with friends and loved ones who can speak the emotional language that you need to hear. If you grew up in an environment that rewarded you for downplaying your inconvenient feelings, it may feel very difficult to be vulnerable. This card reminds us of the importance of being curious about our own emotional needs and to be certain to prioritize them in the same way that we do eating and sleeping regularly.

King of Wands Rx - When you feel your inner heart fire guttering, it’s time to trust wholeheartedly in the visionary path you hold in your mind’s eye. It’s OK if no one else around you shares that vision. You don’t need someone else to forge the path for you. It’s your passion that makes the stream possible in the first place. Make sure you’re taking in Art and entertainment that inspires and delights you to remind yourself what is possible

4 of Cups Rx - Just because no one is offering you the thing that you want doesn’t mean that what you want is not possible, or that you don’t deserve it. When other people can’t meet you where you are, that is much more or reflection of them than you. You don’t have to take something simply because it’s all that a person you care about can give. Keep the faith that you will find what you’re looking for and that you can make the best of things in the meantime.

I hope your card was resonant.

In the Media:

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Storybeast Podcast - A reminder that I was a guest on Story Beast, which is one of my favorite bookish pods. What I love about this show is that they talk so much about the creative journey of writing a book. I love hearing other authors talk about craft, but as we all know, I also just love to yap about it myself

I had a really good time chatting about my backlist and THE POISON DAUGHTER with Ghabi and Courtney, so go show the episode some love.

​Apple Podcasts - Spotify​

The Broke Book Girls Podcast - I had a lovely chat about The Lost God Series and The Poison Daughter with Anne and Bree of the Broke Book Girls Podcast last week. It will air tomorrow/today, depending on where you are in the world.

​Apple Podcasts - Spotify​​​