i'm on substack! mossheart updates! TOWB paperback news! thoughts on the way love shows up when it comes to our dreams & trying to do this whole writing thing!

some updates on the mossheart sequel, a first-look at the goodies going into the TOWB paperback, and some thoughts on the ways the people we love show up (or don't) for the things we love most.

Hi! It’s been quite a while since I sent out a newsletter, and this is actually my first one going out on Substack (woo!) Hoping this makes it into all of your inboxes okay, and that the first quarter of 2023 has been treating you as well as it can. (What more can we ask for these days?)

What’s in this newsletter:

• A first-look at both of goodies being added into the TOWB paperback (with and a sneak peek at one of those things, which rhymes with, shmercy and shmalen shmort shtory)

• A notion template (you’re welcome! surprise!)

• Some thoughts on being a writer craving support and validation, and the ways love can show up around us

So, April. So, 2023.

First, let’s get the obvious out of the way — Barnes & Noble is running their big 25% preorder sale, which means every author with internet access is frantically posting graphics in a panicked attempt to move the needle. I posted some silly pictures of my cats yesterday to promote Mossheart, and completely forgot that TOWB also has a paperback being released this year with some very cool updates. Whoops. Sorry, Ranka. If you’ve been tempted to pick up either, preorders really do make a huge difference for others, and I’d be super grateful.

That said, if you’re anti B&N (which, valid!) and want to support a local indie…I haven’t shared this anywhere else yet, but I’m actually going to be hand-drawing a custom sticker sheet to include with the signed & personalized copies of Mossheart preordered through my local indie, Sidetrack Bookshop. I don’t have the capacity to run full pre-order campaign, but I will be doing giveaways and offering some other goodies as a thanks to people who preorder. So, either way — please hold onto your receipts! (And if you want to save on shipping, they’re doing preorders for the TOWB paperback, too!)

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First thing’s first: I shared a notion template about developing story ideas on Patreon last month, and because this is my first substack newsletter, I thought I’d offer it here as a fun surprise!

I hope it’s helpful! If you like this template, I release them on Patreon first (and some stay Patron-exclusive) If you’re already a Patron but you’re like becca wtf I missed this!? The full post explaining how I use it is here.

Happy notion-ing!

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So, the TOWB paperback.

So, two exclusive, really cool things

….Remember these tarot cards?

But first: let’s rewind.

It’s late 2019. TOWB is about to go on submission, and I am falling in love.

Here’s the thing about writing, and publishing: none of it is guaranteed, and all of it is hard to explain. If you’re an artist, whether the thing you’re creating is music or books or film, you’ve probably spent a lot of your life desperately wanting people to get it. To get you. To see that this part of you is one of your most favorite and most tormented parts about yourself, because it can be all-consuming, but god, when it works, it works, and it feels like magic, and the only reason you’ve ever been alive.

Or maybe you don’t feel that way, in which case, you probably have a much healthier relationship with art than I do. I digress.

I was in a workshop recently for The Story Grove, the writers-community-workshop offered to some of my Patreon patrons that meets twice-monthly to talk writing and craft and sprint when someone asked how I handled all the years no one believed in me. As soon as she asked the question, I felt that familiar twinge in my chest, because man, have we not all been there? When you’re first starting out, and you’re worried your shit is kind of terrible, you are so, so desperate for someone — anyone — to say, “I believe in you.” And when you’ve been at it for awhile, and you think your shit is a little better, you’re probably still desperate for it, but you’ve been to therapy and have gotten a lot better at self-parenting and mostly repress those feelings now. Maybe.

It can be really hard when you’re a new writer to find people to support your work, because the natural train of thought is to think people need to read your work. And while this is helpful — some of my early critique partners have gone on to be fellow authors and also my dear friends, which makes me feel like the luckiest person in the world — I really try to make writers believe me when I tell them that sometimes, the most valuable people in your lives are the ones who won’t read your books at all, but they’re there to cheer you on anyway.

I know, I know. You don’t want to hear it, and this incredibly annoying. What’s this chick even talking about? Of course your loved ones should read your books. Of course you need feedback. Obviously your mom-partner-spouse-coworker-neighbor needs to read your 130,0000 word novel so you have someone to talk to about your plot problems. Duh!

Here’s the thing. Community, as a writer, is essential. I would not have made it through last year, the year before, or this year (so far) without a wonderful circle of author friends I can trust with my work, my fears, and my heart. But they’re just that — author friends. Fellow writers, who understand this weird thing we’ve all decided to dedicate way too much time to. When I talk about community with new writers, and they ask me about how they find people to read their work, what they’re usually saying is: I feel so fucking alone. How do I feel less alone?

The only answer to that, unfortunately, is time.

Time, and meeting people, and not be a total asshole, ideally.

I think it’s natural when you dive into a creative endeavor to look to the people you love and want them to validate you. And we do need that — I’ll be the first to say it. I’ll never forget when, during my senior year of high school, my favorite teacher Ms. Stringer pulled me aside to tell me she wanted me to do an independent study in creative writing, and that she would be my sponsor teacher. I would have to come up with a proposal for the class, she would take it to the English department, and try to get it approved. It worked. And for an entire semester, every day, for an hour-and-a-half, I got to sit in the library and write. I wrote my first book because of her; and I thank her in all of my books because of it.

Every author deserves to have people in their lives that took the time to say this has value, and I believe in you, and even if you’re terrible at it now, I can tell you love it, and you should keep doing it anyway. Where this can get sticky, and fraught, is when those people don’t want to read the books we’re writing. And here is where I’ll get blunt.

Books are long, guys. And even the really good ones can have some shitty first drafts.

Becca, what on earth does this have to do with the paperback?

I’m! Getting! There! It’s! Called! A! Narrative! Arc!

Here’s a funny story: one of my author friends does not really like my books, and I don’t really like hers.

We write very different things, one night we were chatting and somehow got on the topic of the fact that we’ve reach each other’s work, but we didn’t really….get it. We’re writing in genres neither of the person has any real interest in. It was incredibly funny, because we had both been privately like, man I love her, but these books are not my jam for like, ages, but neither of us wanted to be rude and bring it up because we assumed the other person at least liked our book. Writers are obnoxious. When I tell this story to other writers, some bob their heads in understanding, and some are horrified. How can you be a friends with an author whose work you don’t even like? Here’s the thing: this friend shows up for me in so many other ways, and I do my best to show up for her. And the older I get, and the more I write, I’ve started to realize that’s where the love is — in the showing up. Even if it’s not in the way other people might expect.

It’s 2019, TOWB is about to go on sub, and I am falling in love with someone who does not, cannot, read.

I talk very little about my boyfriend on here for many reasons — but one thing I can, and will share, is that no one has ever been more supportive of me or my career. Full stop. He’s the first person to tell me to take risks, to listen to me as I pace around the kitchen and babble about ideas, to tell me to ask for things and ask questions and raise my hand and try. When we meet people, and they ask what I do, I say, “Oh, I’m a writer.” Which is when he usually jumps in and says, “She’s being humble. She’s a New York Times Bestselling author.”

At which point I want to die, but I am also secretly pleased, because nothing will make you feel more loved than seeing how someone you love is so goddamn proud of you.

He’s never read any of my books.

People are always really surprised that I don’t care about this. In all honesty, I think it’s pretty funny. When we first met, he was worried about the fact that I was a writer and he could not read a book to save his life. I, a writer with a vested interest in people reading my work, was also worried about this. I thought writers who talked about their partners not reading their books and being fine with it were in denial and annoying. I am sure some of you think I am in denial and annoying. That’s fine.

The thing about falling in love with a writer is, if there’s any time you’re going to suck it up and read their way-too-long unpublished novel, it’s in the beginning, when you’re in the honeymoon phase and you will do anything. I know this; he knew this. And man, did he try. But books are not his thing. So instead, he listened to me talk about TOWB, and believed it would sell when I didn’t. He told everyone around us I’d be a bestseller someday and sent me articles about publishing and taking risks.

The day TOWB went on sub, he surprised me with a giant commission of Ranka.

And I had never felt more loved.

oh, baby becca. you were so optimistic about publishing, and also your ability to get out of your car without giving yourself a traumatic brain injury. you sweet, sweet fool. pls be more careful on ice.

(Art is by the wonderful Cilene Corpier!)

When I was younger, I don’t think I could have appreciated this. I think it would have bothered me. I was so desperate for people to read my work and validate me that it didn’t always click when the people in my life who didn’t really like books were doing their best to show me they loved my love for them, anyway.

But the older I get, and the more I get into publishing, the better I’ve gotten at seeing the different ways love can show up, and the more I’ve started to cherish it. There is something so wonderfully honest and comforting in the people who love you not totally getting why you do the art things you do, but supporting you anyway. My dad has never read my book, but he makes sure to tell every single person he encounters to buy it. My best friend literally only ever reads nonfiction and struggled through TOWB (bless her) and would probably cry if I asked her to read my early drafts (don’t worry, Melissa, I won’t) but she’s one of the first person I share publishing news with, because I know she’ll be thrilled with me.

Look, I know it’s lonely. I know it’s hard. But if you’re someone who writes, and you’re looking for support — find the writers who will get it. And then look at the people who love you, who really love you, and ask yourself: are they showing up in a different way? It can be hard to see at first, to untangle the weird, quiet ways people show us they care, and harder still to accept that’s the only language of love they ever learned to speak. But you will be kinder and happier for it; and if the ones you love don’t show up at all, it’s okay to find people who will.

Because while reading an entire book for someone is, indeed, a big ask, finding some way to show the people in your life that you support their silliest, scariest dreams…really isn’t.

And what a joy it can be to show up.

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Anyway, that giant poster led to me commissioning tarot cards the day I found out TOWB had an offer, and now — they’re going in the book!

look ! at ! them !

I am so floored, and so excited. I’m also thrilled to see Cilene with her first illustrator credit; her art is genuinely stunning, and I’ve loved working with her over the years.

The cards will appear as full-size illustrations, printed directly into the paperbacks, alongside a very long, mostly soft short-story about Percy and Galen’s adventures. Every paperback version will have the bonus content; if you want to save a few bucks, you can get it in the B&N sale through tomorrow.

If you want a signed & personalized copy, you can get it through Sidetrack.

(And I am going to plug Mossheart for B&N and Sidetrack one more time, because I love it, and I hope you will, too. And the sequel is due next month and making me lose my marbles, so I desperately want book 1 to do okay so it makes writing book two worth it, lmao.)

That’s all for now. I am going to bed! I am going to try to send shorter newsletters one of these days, I swear!

Until then, I hope you’re well, and I hope you’re reading and writing wonderful books, and that you, too, have people you love showing up.

Stay hydrated!

xo,

Becca

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Just kidding. If read this far hoping for a sneak peek of the Percy and Galen short story, at this point you’ve earned it.

They are In Love. :)

Okay, now I am going to bed.