Happy New Year, friends! I’m so thrilled to finally reveal the cover of YOUR LIFE HAS BEEN DELAYED! The amazing Bloomsbury design team has been hard at work on this cover for a while, and I am so in love with it. đđđ Thank you to cover artist Rosemary Valero-O’Connell and designer Danielle Ceccolini for…
What I Read in 2020
I read 99 books in 2020. With my own book coming out in 2021, I made a concerted effort to seek out and support 2020 debuts. Some of these were also fellow 2017 PitchWars mentees–bonus! And later in the year, I added another goal: I sought out books by Black authors for both myself and my kids….
My Favorite Reads of 2020
I read so many fantastic books in 2020, it’s really hard to narrow down favorites. As I was reading back through my reviews from the year to decide, one of my major determining factors was the book’s unputtdownable factor (I guess that’s not a word, but oh well). So you’ll see how quickly I read…
8 Months to Release: A Title Story!
Merry Christmas to those of you celebrating today and tomorrow! Today marks eight months until YOUR LIFE HAS BEEN DELAYED releases, and I promised that each month on the 24th leading up to release day, I would share behind-the-scenes information about the book. Today I thought it would be fun to talk about the title…
INSTANT KARMA and A Few Other Books You Should Read
Happy December, friends! I expect this will be my last review roundup of 2020, but I will still have some other fun reading features before the end of the year. As always, I plan to feature my favorite reads of 2020 the last week of year–although I have no idea how I’m going to choose….
It’s Pretend To Be A Time Traveler Day!
During the November Twitter chat for #the21ders, one of the questions was: If your book were a holiday, what would it be? In case you aren’t aware, there are days out there commemorating pretty much everything, and sure enough, I found Pretend to Be a Time Traveler Day! Which happens to be celebrated on Dec….
9 Months to Release: Your Life Has Been Delayed Playlist
Today marks nine months until YOUR LIFE HAS BEEN DELAYED releases! This is when the term “book baby” gets real đ¤Ł. Each month on the 24th leading up to release, I’ll be featuring special, behind-the-scenes content on the blog. (Yes, I do realize this will fall on Christmas Eve next month.) I’m also starting a…
After the Book Deal: Copyediting Fun!
It’s been a while since I’ve given an update on YOUR LIFE HAS BEEN DELAYED. I think I’ve mentioned here on the blog that the book is now coming out Aug. 24, 2021. (I have, right? I’ve kind of lost track of this whole year… ) Anyway, you can even pre-order YOUR LIFE HAS BEEN…
Another Draft in the Books: Take That, 2020!
When I jumped back into drafting this manuscript a few weeks ago, I didn’t expect to finish this quickly, but here we are! At 56,229 words, it’s much shorter than I was shooting for. This means I only added about 25,000 words to the existing partial manuscript I drafted and rewrote several times last year,…
TRACKER220 and A Few Other Books You Should Read
I normally do review roundups on Mondays, but today is special because it’s the book birthday for my friend Jamie Krakover’s YA debut, TRACKER220! I didn’t want to let the day pass without celebrating with her, and while I’m at it, I might as well tell you about a few other books I’ve been reading…
An Update on the Book I Attempted to Pants
I’ve been writing novels for many years now, and over time, I’ve discovered what works well for me. At the same time, I also know that as a person who really likes systems and schedules, sometimes I need to be flexible and try new things. My usual system for drafting is to create an outline…
Dear 1995 Michelle
For the month of September, I participated in daily prompts on Instagram and Twitter with other members of of my debut group, the21ders, to introduce ourselves–and books, of course!–to the world. (You can also visit our website, www.the21ders.com, for info on all the amazing books coming out next year!) The final prompt of the month…