One Week Until Publishing Day!

Less than one week: 6 days, to be precise.

What even is my life? It’s been my lifelong dream to write and publish a book-length work of some kind. Before my M.F.A., I thought that would be fiction or nonfiction, since the bulk of my writing has been in those two genres. But then grad school came a long and made me question what genres I wanted to write in. Basically all of 2020 and 2021 were entirely poetry. No short stories. No essays. Aside from blog posts and book reviews, everything I wrote was poetry.

And now my debut book of poetry is about to be released. I’m tearing up just thinking about the journey that took me here; the moments of loss and doubt and fear, the scarring, the hatred, the love, the rebuilding of what I had torn down. I think of the people who were in my life at the start of this journey: those still here and those who aren’t anymore, the friends who’ve come and gone, the husband I divorced, the lovers I walked away from.

And now I’m preparing for a book launch, I’m setting up local readings, I’m searching the internet for contests and awards I can submit my book to. And I actually sold books during the preorders. 21 of them! And now book stores are going to carry my book on their shelves.

This isn’t vanity or bragging.
It’s reverence and gratitude.

And while I’m scheduling readings and promoting my book and doing everything I can to keep this track of success going, I’m also still working on what is going to be my first novel. It’s a book of fantasy, the first in a series of probably four or five books. I haven’t quite decided how I want to handle the publishing of those books. I might query them to agents and other publishers. I might go through and independent press. I might self-publish. I honestly don’t know yet. Book one needs another few rounds of revision and edits.

But still, it’s the moving forward, the always present urgency of words that keeps me looking down at the page with a pen in my hand.

I will finish this novel.
I will finish this series of books.
I will write many more books of poetry. So many more. My heart bleeds and beats with poetry.
My life is dedicated to this pulse, this rhythm, this thing that is so much like breathing for me.

If you want to order a copy of my book, do so here: Even the Air, Too Heavy.