A Look Behind the Curtain

Writing a Traditionally Published Book

My birthday was Sunday (I’m 42!) and friends and family have been asking me what I did on my birthday, expecting me to say, “we went out to dinner!” or “we went to the movies!” but instead I said, “I was working.”

This answer garnered a look of pity. But I like to work (mostly 😂), especially when I’m wrapping up the first draft of a super important book. And that super important book was Great & Terrible Land #1.

My deadline was April 1st and I made it! And while it’s nowhere near done, it feels, finally, like a book-shaped thing.

I’ve talked before about how I’ve been traditionally published. I used to write children’s fiction back in the mid-aughts. I left traditional publishing because I wanted my destiny to be in my own hands and I pivoted to indie in 2018.

Honestly, when I think about this journey, it feels impossible and yet fated. Back in 2016 a co-worker of mine read my YA series and she came into my office one day and said, “You should write romance” and I was like pfffftttt. I was a children’s author, through and through. I exclusively read YA. It was my passion, my life. But then I started reading Laurell K. Hamilton and Patricia Briggs and while it would be years before I pivoted, those authors opened the door for me.

2018 was the year I wrote my first spicy book and 😮‍💨 I loved it and yet felt shocked by it. I was a former teen mom who I think somewhere along the way learned that her sex life was something to be ashamed of. Pregnant at 15, it was clear from everyone around me that I was maybe, possibly, an irresponsible whore. This was the story I told myself most of my life. I was raised in a trailer park by young parents who loved to party. Finding myself pregnant at 15 felt inevitable.

But being 7 months pregnant when all of my friends were out having fun meant I was home reading books.

I wrote my first book shortly after having my son. I was 16.

Now here I am, 42, writing books that feel surprising and yet fated.

Dorothy Gale is a woman trying to accept a life she does not want because society tells her she should want it.

Typing that line right now makes my eyes burn. Because I know that feeling of being caught in a current that feels inescapable. I know that feeling of responsibility and duty when the wild unknown is calling for something more.

I’m only at the beginning of Great & Terrible Land, but I know what I want it to say: do not accept less than what you want and what you deserve.

Dorothy will explore those themes while learning to embrace her power and her sexuality, and all of the things she’s wanted and craved but tamped down because of expectations.

I know it’s still a year off before this book can be in your hands, but I’m already excited for you to read it! 🖤 For now, I hope you’ll join me in celebrating turning it in!! 😂