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On Revising and Killing Those Darlings

Last week when I posted my review roundup I noted that it had been a while since I’d shared a writing post.

So here we go!

What am I even writing these days?

Well, I didn’t really talk about it here on the blog, but I wrote a whole book last year–or maybe it was late 2020 into 2021?–and then scrapped it. I had tried to write this book before I wrote My Second Impression of You, set it aside, thought I’d figured out how to make it work, finished drafting it, got feedback from a few of my trusted critique partners, and sent it to my agent. But after we talked, I agreed with her that the book still just wasn’t working.

I’ve set aside many books over the 10 years I’ve been writing seriously. Some of them are harder than others to let go. Honestly, this one wasn’t too hard to set aside, especially because I already knew the best parts of it that I wanted to pull out and use in another book. In fact, I had an idea how one piece of this manuscript would fix an issue I’d had with another shelved manuscript that my agent was intrigued enough about for me to pick up again.

So, what does this have to do with killing darlings? Sooo much.

In case you aren’t a writer and need me to explain that phrase, “darlings” are things in our books that we really love–a character, subplot, even entire chapters–that ultimately don’t serve the overall story. As a result, we need to “kill” or cut them from the book. (I wrote a whole post about killing darlings back in 2014, and what’s funny is now I don’t even remember what manuscript that post was about!)

Anyway, I’ve killed quite a few darlings as I’ve tackled this rewrite, and I do feel it’s an important distinction from calling it a revision. I started an entirely new Scrivener document, and while there are some scenes I’ve copied over to revise, I’m writing the majority of the scenes from scratch. With the distance of time, I’ve been re-plotting the main thread of the story, and that’s where I came to this specific idea of writing about killing darlings.

You see, there’s a scene in the book I’m particularly attached to. For nearly a week, I played around with the outline, trying to figure out if there’s a way it would still work with the other necessary changes I made to the plot. Ultimately my answer is: no.

But also, sort of, yes.

I can’t do this scene the way it’s been for 10 years (yes, that’s when I wrote the first version of this book, and this scene was in the original). BUT, I can still keep the concept of the scene. I just have to change the execution to fit the new plot.

Thus, I am killing that precious darling. But at the same time, I know the story will be so much stronger for the change. And you know what? If this book ends up finally being published after all this time, then I guess I’ll have a fun deleted scene to share for my behind-the-scenes features!

Speaking of which, stay tuned for my next My Second Impression of You backstage pass, coming May 20. Or, if you can’t wait, you can get a sneak peek in today’s newsletter. And you might want to, because there’s also an opportunity to win an Advance Reading Copy of the book.

Writers, what’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to cut from one of your novels?

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THE LAST CONFESSION OF AUTUMN CASTERLY and A Few Other YA Books You Should Read

Happy May!

Also, today happens to be the 10th anniversary of this blog. I published my first post on May 2, 2012.

I used to celebrate the blogiversary every year by sharing the top posts and pages, but when I migrated to my new website in September 2020, my statistics got a little screwed up. Besides, I think there was maybe only one other person who enjoyed that as much as me .

So, instead, today is a perfect day to share some mini-reviews, since I started this blog to review books along with sharing about my writing journey. I realize I haven’t done a general writing post in a while either, and I’m thinking on that. But for now, here are a few books to add to your reading list!

I love a good suspense, and it’s even more intriguing when there’s a unique twist to it, like in THE LAST CONFESSION OF AUTUMN CASTERLY by Meredith Tate. Told in alternating POVs between sisters Autumn and Ivy, it’s about the disappearance of Autumn and Ivy’s desperate search to find her. The twist is: Autumn’s viewpoint is told from outside her body as she’s observing Ivy’s search and trying to give her clues about what happened to her, even while she doesn’t have all the information herself.

The two sisters are very different. Ivy is part of the self-proclaimed nerd herd. She loves board games and debating Star Wars. Autumn, on the other hand, deals drugs to classmates in an effort to save money for college, and she’s willing to do more. They’re not close and haven’t been since their mother died years earlier.

This book ended up being about so much more than a girl mixed up in the wrong crowd. It addresses a lot of serious topics, like grief, rape culture, victim shaming, and how schools and communities deal with those–particularly the latter. It wasn’t an easy read at times, but it’s an important one. I don’t want to spoil anything for the story, but I really appreciated the resolution.

Meredith Tate lists the following content warnings on her website: This book contains discussions of rape/sexual assault and harassment. There is also drug use, violence, bullying, and captivity/kidnapping.

I love stories about Anastasia and am old enough to remember when the legends that she’d survived the execution of her family by the Bolsheviks were still believed. That cartoon with the cheesy villain from the ’90s? Had all the songs memorized. And now it’s a Broadway musical! (But with a more realistic villain.)

I’ve also read Anastasia retellings before, so I’ve been anxiously anticipating Carolyn Tara O’Neil’s take on the story. I love what she’s done in DAUGHTERS OF A DEAD EMPIRE. The story begins with Anna stumbling into a town celebrating the death of the tsar. When she protests their joy and is about to be thrown into a bonfire herself, Evgenia interferes, saving her life. But while Evgenia doesn’t want to see Anna killed, she also is no bourgeois sympathizer. She is, in fact, a Bolshevik herself.

Anna is being hunted and trying to find her way to a cousin who can help her. Evgenia agrees to help her in exchange for a diamond to purchase medical care for her brother, not realizing she’s endangering herself by helping Anna.

What I loved most about this story is how it shows two girls from very different backgrounds with very strong views about their country. They both start out sure that everything is black and white, but as they get to know each other and also experience encounters with both sides of the country at war, they learn that there are many areas of gray and perhaps they need to compromise. It’s about friendship and family and also standing up for what you believe in while understanding that you might still need to change some yourself. I also really appreciated learning more of the history around this time period. There are many serious and heartbreaking topic covered in this book, but it’s also completely engrossing and applicable to things happening in the world now. Definitely check it out!

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE is my all-time favorite book, and yet I can’t say I’ve ever thought much about middle daughter Mary Bennet, other than to wonder why she didn’t marry Mr. Collins. Seriously, they would have been perfect for each other!

So I was intrigued by the idea of JC Peterson’s BEING MARY BENNET, which follows Marnie Barnes, the middle daughter in a family of girls, the oldest two of which could be likened to Jane and Elizabeth Bennet in their natures and accomplishments. Marnie finds herself spinning her wheels to stand out among her sisters, and she doesn’t have a need for anyone else in her life except the professed love of her life, Hayes, who is much older and engaged. She continually brushes off her roommate, Adhira, who is completely charming.

The story centers around Marnie’s goal to win the prestigious Hunt Prize at her school, and she selects a project connecting the local library and an animal shelter specifically with winning in mind. When Adhira accuses her of acting like Mary Bennet, Marnie realizes she needs to change.

Quite honestly, Marnie frustrated me for about half the book because she was blind to the people around her, but the whole point of the story was for her to figure that out. And it’s really worth it to see her learn which parts of herself she needs to hold on to and which parts she needs to open up and let other people in. I loved seeing her develop friendships and family bonds. Such an interesting take on what it might be like as a younger Bennet sister!

So this is random, but LOVE, DECODED by Jennifer Yen is another Jane Austen retelling. (Okay, you’re right, it’s not that random. I read a lot of Austen retellings!)

Annnyway… LOVE, DECODED is a companion novel to Jennifer Yen’s debut novel, A TASTE FOR LOVE, which was a P&P retelling. This one tackles EMMA, which is my second-favorite Austen novel. It follows high school junior Gigi Wong, who might follow in her great-aunt’s footsteps as a premier matchmaker and who also loves to code. She decides to combine the two by applying her aunt’s matchmaking questionnaire to an app she’s already designed, and things start to go wrong.

One of the things I particularly appreciated about this retelling is that it highlights Gigi’s privilege in contrast to her new friend Etta. She takes some big missteps–just like in the original–and has to adjust her view of the world. Also, even though it’s a rom-com, there’s much more of a focus on the friendships, and honestly, the original story is also a romance that grows out of friendship as well. I hope Jennifer Yen plans to tackle more Jane Austen retellings!

I don’t know how long you’ve been following me here on the blog, but if it has been 10 years, thank you! To everyone, I’m always open to new ideas for what to cover here, so please leave a comment if there’s a particular topic you’d like to learn more about.

Happy reading and writing!

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5 Months to MSIOY Release: Playlist

Today marks 5 months until the release of My Second Impression of You! I can’t believe how quickly it’s approaching.

Last month, I kicked off my behind-the-scenes features on the book with a glimpse into what inspired the story. This month, I’m sharing a book playlist!

A few months ago, I did a school visit, and one of the teachers asked me if students should listen to music while writing. Like so many things in writing, there’s no right answer to this question. It totally depends on whether listening to music adds focus to your writing or sends you off in a completely different direction.

For me, it depends on the type of writing I’m doing. When I worked in public relations, I listened to music all the time. I’d sing along while writing news releases, newsletter articles and so on. But when I’m writing fiction, I find it distracting. Occasionally I can handle classical music.

I mention that to clarify that the playlist for My Second Impression of You is not a writing playlist. Rather, it’s a playlist that represents the book itself. The central premise is that Maggie revisits the best day of her life, so obviously the first song has to be “Best Day of My Life” by American Authors . Aside from that, I don’t want to give away too many details before you read. Here are a few hints about what the songs in the rest of the playlist represent, but I mixed them up just to keep it fun .

A show Maggie planned to audition for in the summerAnother show Maggie might have auditioned for in the summerA character Maggie channels for confidenceGetting ready songA performanceOff-key post-surgery singingA song related to CarsonMaggie’s ringtoneHomework listeningA part Maggie previously playedA special gift from TheoBest Day of My LifeFootlooseMy ShotHyggeWells Fargo WagonWhy We Build the WallOn Top of the WorldPopularYou Can't Stop the Beat (Medley)Back To School AgainNo One Is AloneSeize The Day

With musical theater being the center of Maggie’s world, it should be no surprise the playlist is so Broadway-heavy. I hope you enjoyed this backstage pass into the book. There’s more to come next month! Let me know if you have any particular requests.

As always, I’ll remind you that the book is available for pre-order. You can select your favorite retailer on the My Second Impression of You book page, and if you’re on Goodreads, you can also add it there. Also keep an eye on my socials, as I’ll be doing an ARC giveaway soon!

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MSIOY Advance Reader Copies Are Here!

My advance reading copies of My Second Impression of You have arrived!

If you saw my ARC unboxing video for Your Life Has Been Delayed or author copy unboxing, you’ll know I like to have fun unveiling my books. But I admit I was a bit stymied deciding what to do for My Second Impression of You–until I considered that my main character, Maggie, is all about musical theater. So of course the unboxing had to be a musical. And it also had to be dramatic, so before you watch the video, here’s the full, dramatized story:

Last Monday, I received a text message from my agent saying that her advanced reading copies had arrived. How exciting! She included a photo of the copies already on her office shelf. As she’s in New York, I knew my copies wouldn’t arrive until at least Tuesday.

So the next day, I waited for the copies. By late afternoon, it became clear they wouldn’t arrive, thus my song hoping they would arrive “tomorrow.”

On Wednesday, I was sure they would come. That afternoon, a UPS truck stopped in front of my house. For several minutes, the UPS driver rummaged around moving boxes. “He must be searching for my box of ARCs,” I thought. And then… HE DROVE AWAY! I spent the rest of the evening sure UPS had lost my advance reading copies.

By Thursday, I doubted the ARCs were coming. I really thought UPS had lost them and I’d receive an email from my editor to the effect I’d have to wait for a new batch to be sent out. But then–another UPS truck arrived and set them on my doorstep. Hooray!!

Now that you have that backstory, here’s the video! Although I stopped singing once it was time to actually talk about the book. I was a little too excited to plan out that part, but maybe later .

I hope you enjoy it! And bonus points if you can identify all the songs in the parody (not all of them are from Broadway).

 

Also, in case you’re new to the blog and haven’t seen my explanation of advance reading copies (or ARCs) before, these are printed copies of the unfinished book that are sent out to booksellers, reviewers, librarians, and other influencers several months before a book’s release. As noted on the copies themselves, they are not final and shouldn’t be quoted without comparing them to the eventual published books. To put it in perspective, the ARCs are the same version of the book that I just reviewed as pass pages (see this post for more on those). We didn’t make any really drastic changes, but there are a few things we caught that I’m glad won’t be in the final book.

The goal for ARCs is for these early readers to get the word out so bookstores, schools, and libraries will stock the book when it releases in September. If you’re one of those influencers, great! You can request ARCs from the Bloomsbury YA Publicity Department at ChildrensPublicityUSA@bloomsbury.com, or the book is also up on Edelweiss for request as well. Please do not ask me directly for an ARC, but do watch out for future giveaways!

I don’t think I can express how exciting it is to be holding this book in my hands. I want to once again thank cover artist Jacqueline Li and designers Jeanette Levy and Donna Mark, my agent Elizabeth Bewley, and my editors Allison Moore (who whipped this book into shape!) and Camille Kellogg (who’s guiding me through the final stages). This book wouldn’t be possible without you!

My Second Impression of You releases Sept. 20, 2022, from Bloomsbury YA and is available for pre-order now at all major retailers. I’m partial to my local independent bookstores, The Novel Neighbor and Main Street Books, but you can also select your own local indie through Bookshop. Other options include Indiebound, Barnes & Noble (love my local stores!), Amazon, and Book Depository (for international orders). For those who have asked, yes, I will be putting together a pre-order campaign, and it will include orders from any store this time (since I know a few already took advantage of that B&N sale earlier this year ), so keep those receipts! If you’re not ready to pre-order yet, you can also add it on Goodreads.

I hope you’re all just as excited to get your hands on the final copy of this book as I am!

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THE LUCKY ONES and a Few Other Books You Should Read

Happy April!

So, I’ve completely lost track of when I posted my last review roundup. I went on a re-reading spree in March, and I had two files of middle grade and young adult reviews in progress. But as one of the books I’ve been meaning to feature comes out next week, I’m going to combine them into a single post.

First up is THE LUCKY ONES by Linda Williams Jackson. This wonderful book comes out next Tuesday (April 12!), and I would love to put it into the hands of every middle grade reader I know.

This powerful story follows 11-year-old Ellis Earl, living in the Mississippi Delta in 1967. Ellis Earl dreams of finishing school and becoming a teacher or lawyer and of always having food in the icebox for his eight siblings and niece. His dreams are threatened when his widowed mother says he might have to quit school after sixth grade to work, just like his older siblings have. He draws inspiration from his teacher, Mr. Foster, who shares stories about Thurgood Marshall and Black lawyer Marian Wright. He also loves to read and feels a strong connection to Charlie in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

I am about as far from Ellis Earl’s experience as you could be, but Linda Williams Jackson drew me into his story so well. I felt his joy when he stepped into the classroom, his satisfaction when his teacher singled him out, his sense of achievement when he recited a passage at his teacher’s church, his selfish urge to hoard some things just for himself even when he knew they’d benefit his siblings, his guilt when he knew he was making the wrong choices, and also his love for his entire family. Ellis Earl is so relatable to any kid who struggles to find their own place in the world while still feeling responsible for those they love.

I also learned so much about this time in history on many levels–the struggles Ellis Earl’s family faced being both Black and in extreme poverty. The story is set against the backdrop of Robert Kennedy’s southern “poverty tour,” and Linda Williams Jackson shares in her author’s note how she drew on her own experiences growing up in the Mississippi Delta to develop Ellis Earl’s story. Yes, it’s a serious story, but it’s also full of hope and love.

How adorable is the cover for JUST RIGHT JILLIAN by Nicole D. Collier? This book was originally slated to release in 2021 as part of my debut group and was delayed until 2022, but it was worth the wait!

Here’s the setup: Fifth grader Jillian is always too shy to raise her hand in class, while her nemesis, Rashida, always speaks her mind. She knows her issue is more than just being shy; she’s hiding, as her grandma would say. She wants to be braver, especially as she knows she could be a true competitor in the school’s Mind Bender competition. 

I love how this story shows Jillian’s genuine struggle with shyness and how her friends and family help her figure out ways to address it in her own way. Also, as you may guess from the cover, the class is hatching chicks, and that subplot is skillfully woven in as a metaphor for Jillian breaking out of her shell. There are also really well-crafted family dynamics not only for Jillian and her parents, but also her friend Marquez and Rashida as well. It’s just wonderfully written all around.

I think now that I’ve read SUNKISSED I am all caught up on Kasie West’s books!

Here’s the setup: Every summer Avery’s parents take them on some sort of adventure. This summer—the one before her senior year—they’ve booked two months at a remote family camp without internet access. It’s torture for Avery’s social media-obsessed younger sister, Lauren, and also complicates things for Avery, who just found out her best friend kissed her ex-boyfriend (who she thought might not be so ex) and hasn’t dealt with it yet.

At camp she meets Brooks, the guitarist for the camp band. As an employee, he’s off limits, but it’s about more than just a potential love interest, as Brooks challenges her to explore her love for music. See, Avery loves to sing but has horrible stage fright. Of course an opportunity will arise forcing her to confront her fears.

It was sort of like Dirty Dancing meets Camp Rock. As always with Kasie West’s books, the romance was fantastic, and Avery also had family issues to sort out. A quick and engaging read!

Have I mentioned here on the blog before how much I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer? I feel like it’s probably come up at some point. I can pretty much quote the whole movie with Kristy Swanson and Luke Perry, and I own the DVD box set of the show, which came in very useful the multiple times I rewatched it the years before streaming became a thing. Annnyway, I’ve read other Buffy spinoffs and been… underwhelmed. But IN EVERY GENERATION by Kendare Blake was like slipping into an episode of Buffy with a new generation of characters.

The setup is that Willow’s daughter Frankie has been activated as the new slayer after an explosion at the annual slayer retreat leaves them with no slayers. Does this mean Buffy and the others are dead? I mean, Buffy’s never really dead, is she? My take… but also not the main focus of the story, which is on Sunnydale, Frankie, her new group of friends, and the demons converging on the town without Buffy there to protect it.

I loved how Frankie is her own sort of Slayer learning her powers. Spike is her watcher, and while he’s not my preferred soul-infused vampire, I enjoyed his character here. Willow is obviously a prominent character as Frankie’s mom, and Oz is also in the picture as part of the team and uncle/cousin to Frankie’s childhood werewolf friend, Jake. Two others round out the team, and there are also checkins from Xander.

This book is the first in a series, so not all questions were answered, but there were plenty of battles and quips and I can’t wait to see where it goes and also hopefully see Frankie interact with more characters from the original series (Angel, please!!).

If you’re a Buffy fan–or even if you aren’t–it’s a fun read!

I’ll try not to wait so long for my next review roundup. I already have one book waiting in the wings for the next one.

What have you been reading lately? Anything I should add to my TBR?

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6 Months to MSIOY Release: Inspiration

Today marks six months until the release of My Second Impression of You!

Earlier this month, I asked my Instagram followers to vote on which behind-the-scenes information to share about the book first. They chose book inspiration, and I gave newsletter followers a sneak peek in my March issue. I’m going a bit more in-depth in this post today.

So, here’s the backstage pass–you’ll be hearing about those a lot with this book!–on what inspired My Second Impression of You.

One evening, I was sitting at the kitchen table with my kids, and the question came up: What if you could relive the best day of your life?

As I do with all story ideas, I jotted this one down in my Notes app. Here’s some of what my original note said:

What if you could go back and relive the best day of your life? But it turns out when you do, it’s not so great after all. 

Maybe a girl just broke up with her boyfriend and she thinks the best day of her life was the day they met and she needs to recapture that day. If she could, maybe she could win him back. But when she goes back, she lives it from his perspective and finds out it wasn’t at all what she thought. Like he was interested in someone else or didn’t feel the same thing.

I filed away the basic idea, but I didn’t yet know who any of the characters would be or how to execute the story. At the time, I was working on another book that I really wanted to make happen but never quite could. However, I think it was good I wasn’t ready to write this immediately, because two things happened in 2019 that helped solidify this idea.

First, I broke my foot in July 2019. I couldn’t even tell you exactly how it happened. Basically I just didn’t see the steps and landed the perfectly wrong way to break my foot well enough to require surgery. Being the writer that I am, I badgered my surgeon with questions and took copious notes (you should see my daily log). As I told him, if I had to go through all of that, I was going to subject a character to it as well.

Second, in September 2019 my daughter auditioned and was cast in her first community theater production–Frozen Jr. She was part of the children’s ensemble, but the production included up to age eighteen. As I sat in the lobby during rehearsals, I heard teens talking about the classes they were taking and auditioning all over town for other productions. It opened up a whole new perspective of theater kids beyond just in school. It occurred to me that a teen girl who was that devoted to musical theater would be absolutely devastated if she broke her foot–especially if it happened in a way where she would have to miss a show and/or audition.

When I took another look at this best day idea, it was entirely clear how to torture my main character, Maggie, and how to execute it.

Yes, her boyfriend was going to dump her.As she’s texting her best friend about it, she would break her foot walking down the steps, requiring surgery.The surgery would not only prevent her from performing in her school play, the timing would also be such that she wouldn’t be able to audition for another show she really wanted to do.When she’s loopy from surgery and at her most vulnerable about how awful her life seems, she’d receive a text with a link offering the opportunity to escape to her best day ever.

Once I started plotting the book, I decided that it wasn’t enough for Maggie to only learn that her boyfriend’s perspective of that day was different from her own, so she also gets different perspectives from other characters as well. The revelations from this day cause her to reassess several of her relationships.

Regarding the shows mentioned in the book, a few were definitely inspired by my own experiences. Frozen Jr. is the show Maggie was cast in on her best day, thanks to my daughter’s involvement in it. The play she misses at school is Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I was actually in this play in sixth grade as Titania, the fairy queen. However, that would never do for Maggie. She needed to be Helena, who has to physically chase after Demetrius. Pretty hard to do with a broken foot, pre or post-surgery. And then, of course, the production she wants to try out for is–wait for it–Footloose. Ironically, I went to see Footloose while I had a broken foot, and people made sooo many jokes. So, yes, I had to do that to Maggie too. There are more musicals mentioned, of course, so I will get to those when I do a backstage pass with either a watch list or playlist.

Once I had Maggie figured out, I moved on to the two boys, Theo and Carson. Theo is Maggie’s boyfriend at the beginning of the book, and Carson is his best friend. They are both serious golfers, and their choice of sport is entirely inspired by my husband, who was a high school and collegiate golfer. He still golfs recreationally, and I tried to learn so I could play along with him, but it ended with tears (on my part, obviously).

The last piece of inspiration I’ll share is the primary setting of Maggie’s best day. I’ve always loved going to county fairs–the rides, playing cheesy games for cheesy prizes, eating greasy but delicious food. So it was the perfect setting for where Maggie met Theo–and Carson, for that matter. Hopefully the book will have you ready to hit up the first carnival that comes to town this year!

I can’t wait to share more about My Second Impression of You with all of you. What else would you like to know? If you have a request for my next feature, leave it in the comments! If you need a refresher on what I covered for Your Life Has Been Delayed, it included a playlist, watch list, the title story, how I chose character names, book inspiration, places in the book, why she started in 1995, and deleted chapter titles. You can find links to them all on the YLHBD book page.

I’d love for you to pre-order, add the book to Goodreads, or request at your local library. As always, I appreciate your support .

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YOUR LIFE HAS BEEN DELAYED Book Club Kit

A few years ago, my son started a book club with some of his elementary school friends. Each month, they’d pick a book to read, then they’d decide on snacks, questions, and activities for the meeting. It was a lot of work figuring out what would best go with each book–and also entertain eight 10- and 11-year-olds, but that’s a whole other thing . Completely by chance, we discovered that some authors had these magical things on their websites called book club kits. At the very least, they included discussion questions. But if we were lucky, they included activities or quizzes or menus or even decorations to print out.

Because I know what a wonderful resource book club kits are, I’ve been intending to make one for Your Life Has Been Delayed forever! Basically, it’s been on my to-do list since the book released, and now that it’s been out for six months, I finally got around to it.

I hope someone out there who’s reading my book will be just as delighted to find this kit as I was when helping my son with his book club. It includes:

What’s inside the book graphicAnswers to frequently asked questionsSnack & drink suggestionsA playlistDiscussion questions (not spoiler-free so fair warning!)A quiz on what was around when Jenny left in 1995What to read next after YLHBDWhat to watch after reading YLHBDAbout the author (me)

If you decide to hold a book club using the kit, please let me know! I’d love to send a set of bookmarks and/or signed bookplates for your book club. The same goes if you use it in a classroom. Click on the photo to view/download the kit or click here: YLHBD Book Club Kit

Also, if you have ideas for other things you’d like me to add to the kit, I’d be happy to consider it!

In case you don’t follow me on other platforms, to celebrate Your Life Has Been Delayed‘s half-birthday, I’m giving away signed copies–along with a bookmark and two stickers–on both Instagram and Twitter. These giveaways are open through 11 p.m. central time on Wednesday, March 9.

Enter here:
Twitter giveaway
Instagram giveaway

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Publishing Behind the Scenes: Pass Pages

I can’t believe it’s already February! Your Life Has Been Delayed has been out five months as of yesterday, and we’re a little more than seven months out from My Second Impression of You. I hope you caught the cover reveal for My Second Impression of You a couple of weeks ago. I’m so in love with how it captures both my characters and Maggie’s past and present.

For the past few months, I’ve been giving a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the publishing process. So far I’ve covered developmental edits, line edits, and copyedits. For each of these steps in the process, I was able to include examples from both of my books. However, for today’s topic–pass pages–I can only share my experience with Your Life Has Been Delayed as we haven’t yet reached that part of the process for My Second Impression of You. 

As I explained last month, the final product of copyedits is a Word document that includes typesetting notations. This version is then sent to the design team for layout as well as to an outside proofreader for another final check. So when the pass pages arrive, they are an author’s first glimpse at how the inside of the book will look. That first time I saw the title page with the little plane and my name…

One interesting thing I didn’t realize until I was on the inside of the process is that the pass pages are the version of the book printed for Advance Reader Copies. That’s why ARCs have all those warnings on them about not being final–they haven’t gone through the last round of proofreading yet. So if you get the opportunity to read an ARC and find errors, that’s not too surprising. It’s also why publishers don’t want you to quote ARCs or redistribute them. But moving on…

The pass pages arrive with editing marks from the proofreader, production editor, and book editor. At this stage, they’re mainly minor and/or picky notes. For Your Life Has Been Delayed, there were a few notes about commas, and I was determined to master the rules according the publisher’s style. However, after much back and forth, I finally gave up and have decided that when the pass pages arrive for My Second Impression of You, I’m just going to accept any comma changes without question . The main non-minor thing was that I still had some timeline issues in the pass pages. I thought we’d cleared them all up during copyedits, but apparently not . I also used the pass pages as an opportunity for one more read-through of the book. I noticed a few minor things that I marked.

After I submitted my comments on the pass pages, my editor and the production editor went through and resolved everything. Once it was all approved, the book was ready for the printer!

You know after all of those rounds of edits, we still missed a few things? I haven’t read the book again since it was released, but a couple of friends have pointed errors out. I guess we can fix them before the paperback comes out .

I hope you’ve found this behind-the-scenes publishing series interesting. If you have any other questions about the publishing process, feel free to ask!

As usual, I’ll just remind you that my latest newsletter is also out today. In addition to this feature and the cover reveal, it also includes a Valentine’s Day recipe and reading recommendations, as well as a roundup of recent interviews and highlights.

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MY SECOND IMPRESSION OF YOU Cover Reveal!

It’s cover reveal time!

I’m so thrilled to share the cover for my sophomore novel, MY SECOND IMPRESSION OF YOU. From the moment my editor at Bloomsbury shared the first concept sketches from artist Jacqueline Li, I was in love! (And you should totally go check out her other work on her site, www.jacqln-li.com.)

I’d also like to thank cover designer Jeanette Levy, my editor Allison Moore, and my agent Elizabeth Bewley for all of their contributions to this process.

So, without further ado, the cover!

Isn’t it gorgeous???

As a reminder, here’s the description for the book.

A heartfelt story about a girl who thinks she knows everything about love — until she relives a day and discovers she had it all wrong.

Sixteen-year-old Maggie is having the worst day ever. Her perfect boyfriend, Theo, breaks up with her, and then she literally breaks a leg (well, foot), preventing her from starring in the school play. When she receives a text offering her the chance to relive her best day ever – the day she and Theo met – she decides to take the leap. Everything would be better if she could figure out how to win him back. Only, there’s a catch. She doesn’t just relive the day, she gets everyone else’s perspectives, too. The information – not only about Theo, but her family, her best friend, and even Theo’s obnoxious buddy Carson (who is suddenly… nice?) – is more than she bargained for.

As she learns about all the minor details – and major ones – she missed the first time around, she finds herself transported back to reality with a completely new perspective and a big opportunity to decide how to move forward on her own terms.

Maggie is in the center, and if you look closely, you can see her thespian mask necklace. Plus, there’s the hint of her phone having some sort of extra power. Theo is on the left, appropriately standing in front of a Skee ball game, as a key scene takes place there on the day they first met. And Carson is on the right, at the coffee shop where everything starts changing for Maggie.

I can’t wait for you to read all about them! MY SECOND IMPRESSION OF YOU RELEASES Sept. 20, 2022. If you’re ready to preorder now, you can do so at my local independent bookstores, The Novel Neighbor or Main Street Books, or at any of the following: Barnes & Noble (25 percent off preorders today, 1/28!), Bookshop, Indiebound, Amazon. You can also add it on Goodreads.

I hope you love the cover! I’ll be sharing more about the book as we get closer to publication.

The post MY SECOND IMPRESSION OF YOU Cover Reveal! appeared first on Michelle I Mason.

EVERY OTHER WEEKEND Plus A Few Other YA Books You Should Read

Review time! My schedule got a bit crazy toward the end of 2021 (not even going to get into why), so a couple of these reviews are actually holdovers, but I didn’t want to miss out on covering them here on the blog.

It’s quite a variety, from contemporary young adult to contemporary with a hint of magic to a retelling of a classic novel set in a Freedpeople’s Colony during the Civil War. There should be something for every reader!

I first found Abigail Johnson through the amazing cover recreations she does on Instagram, but then I read the descriptions of her books and had a feeling I’d love them. I was right! EVERY OTHER WEEKEND is the first one I picked up.

It’s about Jolene and Adam, who get to know each other over the course of every other weekend at their dads’ apartments. Except Jolene’s dad is never there, only his girlfriend. And Adam is angry with his dad for not trying harder to fix things with his mom. This leaves plenty of time for Adam and Jolene to spend together.

They need each other in different ways, and at first it’s only friendship. Jolene, especially, doesn’t really believe in love anyway. Her parents certainly never demonstrated it to her or each other. But just when it seems like Jolene and Adam are going to try for something more, Adam’s family starts making strides toward reconciliation. It’s great for Adam, but complicated for Jolene. She wants to be happy for him, but she doesn’t want to lose him.

It’s a complicated story in so many ways, but I really loved how Adam and Jolene grew together and how the book showed such different perspectives of families. I also really appreciated the resolution at the end. It’s a more serious read but so worth it!

I really enjoyed Nicola Yoon’s other two books, and I’d heard great things about INSTRUCTIONS FOR DANCING, so I was excited to read it. Plus, a YA about ballroom dancing? Sign me up!

This book was actually so much more than I was expecting. Evie used to be all about love and had shelves of romance novels. Then her dad cheated on her mom, and they got divorced. She hasn’t talked to him in months, even though they used to be super close. She packs up her romance novels and takes them to a Little Free Library, where a mysterious old woman insists she take the only book there in exchange–Instructions for Dancing. Here’s where the book took an unexpected turn. When Evie sees couples kiss, she gets a vision of their entire relationship, from beginning to end–and they always end.

The book has a stamp to return to a dance studio, and when she goes, she somehow ends up agreeing to an amateur ballroom dance competition with the owners’ too hip grandson, with whom she immediately starts bantering. The more she gets to know him, the more she likes him–except she doesn’t believe in love anymore. Right?

This book was about Evie figuring out what love meant to her, but it was also about forgiveness and friendship and so much more. I really don’t want to give away anything more, but it legit made me tear up, and I liked it anyway, and that’s rare.

I read HOW NOT TO FALL IN LOVE by Jacqueline Firkins in a single day. I just had to get to the end!

Harper works in her mom’s wedding dress shop and has been exposed to the worst side of brides, making her skeptical about love. Her best friend, Theo, on the other hand, wants nothing more than to fall in love—and frequently does. But then he also gets his heart broken and she helps him pick up the pieces. They make a deal: she’ll teach him how to date without falling in love as long as she opens herself up to dating and proves she can do the same thing.  

It’s clear from the description where this story is headed … or is it? Because there’s Theo, who isn’t afraid to cry, plays the accordion, is seriously into medieval cosplay, and helps Harper with her SAT words. But there’s also Felix, the guy Harper has been admiring from afar forever, and once she makes the agreement with Theo, she opens herself up to him. He brings her coffee and takes her for ice cream and leaves her longing for a kiss after every outing. The tension is off the charts! 

It’s definitely a romance, but it’s more than that, as Harper works through opening herself up to real connection. Like I said, I couldn’t put this book down!

WHEN YOU GET THE CHANCE by Emma Lord is such a quick and delightful read. It’s billed as a YA Mamma Mia, as an argument with the father who’s raised Millie leads her to search for the birth mother she’s never known. All she wants is to become a Broadway star, and she believes looking into her roots will help her discover more about herself. It leads her to three different women, expanding her friendships and world. It also sends her into competition for an internship with her school arch-nemesis, Oliver. 

My 2022 book has a musical theater focus, so obviously I loved all the theater references, even more so with the book taking place in New York City. But I especially enjoyed Millie’s journey, as she learns more about herself, her dad, and gets to know these women who were a part of his life before. The story took some unexpected twists.

And, of course, there’s the romance, which is just as fantastic as in all of Emma Lord’s books. Loved the way the relationship grew between Millie and Oliver! 

I could gush about this book a lot more, but really you should just go read it yourself .

So, I realized pretty early into RADHA & JAI’S RECIPE FOR ROMANCE by Nisha Sharma that it was the companion novel to another book. However, as the other book was a YA romance and I didn’t feel it was spoiling anything to know those characters got together, I decided to go ahead and read this one anyway, and I’m so glad I did!

Told in dual points of view, the book follows kathak dancer Radha, who discovers an unwelcome truth about her mother at the International Kathak Classics semifinals and drops out. Her parents separate, and she and her mother move to Philadelphia, where she meets Jai, captain of the Bollywood Beats dance team, at her new performing arts school. They instantly connect, but Radha doesn’t want to perform ever again, and Jai’s team needs her, so that’s an instant conflict too. Also in the background is Jai’s struggle between wanting to apply to college and feeling like he needs to stay home and help out with the family business.

The story tackles some serious issues, including Radha’s ongoing therapy to deal with her anxiety about performing again, as well as the results of stroke within Jai’s family, both adopted and biological. I really loved both Radha and Jai’s growth in the story. Plus, there’s a whole subplot with Radha learning to cook with her dad (I always love books with food!) and, of course, the dancing!

Definitely check out this book, except maybe learn from me and read the companion book first (called MY SO-CALLED BOLLYWOOD LIFE).

I kept seeing recommendations for SO MANY BEGINNINGS by Bethany C. Morrow everywhere, and I finally had a chance to read it over the holidays.

So, I have a confession to make: I’ve never read LITTLE WOMEN. I’m not sure how I missed it. I guess I mostly focused on British lit instead of American lit? My only exposure is the Winona Ryder version of the movie.

Anyway, I was completely engrossed in this retelling, which follows four Black sisters coming of age in North Carolina in a Freedpeople’s Colony during the Civil War. Each sister has unique talents and goals. Meg is a teacher and longs for a husband. Jo is a writer with ideas she wants to share beyond her colony. Beth is a seamstress searching for a purpose. And Amy wants to move.

I loved following their stories over several years and learning so much history as well. I honestly don’t know much about this time period, and Bethany C. Morrow shares about the research she conducted for this book. I love when I can absorb history along with an immersive story. This book totally lives up to all the hype!

So that’s my roundup for, well, really the past few months. I’ll try to be more on top of my reviews in 2022.

What have you been reading lately? As always, I’m continually searching for my next great read!

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