Another Book By the Numbers

A little more than a year ago, I wrote a post in which I broke down three books in terms of how long I spent drafting them. One of those books was Bold Moves, one I can now tell you was You, Me, & the Conspiracy, and one is the book I drafted last summer, a project that I’m hoping to revise in August so that my agent can try to sell it at some point in the future.

But since I just finished drafting another book, I wanted to post those numbers for comparison’s sake.

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A Semiquincentennial Reading List

a pile of books, including Between the World and Me (Coates), Common Sense (Paine), The Partly Cloudy Patriot (Vowell), Selected Speeches (Lincoln), A People's History of the United States (Zinn), American Literature, Vol 1, and When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Song Came Through (ed Harjo)

When I was 19, I took a class that changed my life. A cliche, I know, but it happened. I was a freshman in college and an English major, but I’d begun studying Latin and had developed an infatuation with Roman history. Classics might have lured me away from English…if it hadn’t been for that survey of early American literature.

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Get In, We’re Saving Democracy (via Charity Auction)

So the big news is that Romancing the Vote–a charity auction to support voting rights–is back, babes! 

I have two items up for bid. First, an annotated advanced reader copy of You, Me, & the Conspiracy. It’s sitting next to me as I write this post, and you can check it out here. I’ve filled it with notes, explanations, digressions, playlists, coded messages, and also CLUES. Yes, I’ve provided all the things I thought you might look up while you read, so you can investigate the trail of the conspiracy along with Jess and Cal. It is precisely the way I wish everyone could experience the book, if only my publisher would agree. And if you win, you’ll get to read the book FOUR MONTHS EARLY.

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Odds and Ends

I have three super quick announcements!

First of all, if you’re a book reviewer (or a librarian, bookseller, or other official bookish type), Advanced Reader Copies of You, Me, & the Conspiracy should be available soon. If you’re interested in receiving one, please let me know via this form. I’m working with a new publisher, so I don’t know how many ARCs I’ll receive. But I want to be prepared to get those early copies into the hands of my core readers, and that definitely includes you.

Secondly, it’s Barnes and Noble preorder sale time! As you probably know, B&N members can get 25% off online preorders of paperbacks, eBooks, and eAudio with the code PREORDER25. If you were planning to buy You, Me, & the Conspiracy anyhow, this is the perfect time to snap it up for less. All the formats are available here. 

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The Cover I’ve Been DYING to Share with You!

Y’all, I have been waiting impatiently for a week to share this cover with you. I thought I would burst before those last few buy links went live. It’s embarrassing, but I have refreshed the vendors’ sites so many times, my fingers simply must be calloused.

However, at long last, I can reveal the gorgeous cover for You, Me, and the Conspiracy to the world.

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I Need *You*

Friends, I need your help!

The cover reveal for You, Me, and the Conspiracy is almost upon us, and I would love to recruit some folks to help me get the word out. If you’re interested, please fill out this form.

Essentially, I’m waiting for the buy links to go live. If everything goes according to schedule, I’ll reach out to everyone who wants to help me amplify my BEAUTIFUL cover on Sunday, February 22. I’ll send you a link to a Google drive folder with the cover, a few promo graphics, the back cover copy, and the buy links. My request would be that you post the cover on your social media channels on Monday, February 23, including the buy links if possible. (I know that IG is a jerk about links. No worries!)

Anyhow, I would be eternally grateful if you’d be willing to join my brigade.

Odds and Ends

FYI, I’m going to be at Novel Grounds bookstore in Chesapeake, VA, to support the latest release of my friend, Stacey Agdern, on January 31. If you’re around, I would love to see you and/or sign some books for you! Tickets are free (but help the store know how many books to get). You can reserve yours here.

I did attend a signing last weekend at the Blackwater Regional Library in Smithfield, VA, to celebrate the library’s 100th anniversary. You can read about the event, and see some pictures, here.

Things I Really Liked in 2025

“A glooming peace this morning with it brings; the sun, for sorrow, will not show his head”: those words are in my mind today, but they would’ve been appropriate for much of the last 12 months. I’ve struggled to write this post because every day of the new year has erupted with a story that makes me want to throw up my hands and say, “See, we don’t deserve good things right now.” But art has gotten me through this year, and I need to celebrate it.

As always, the normal caveats apply: this isn’t a best of list, it’s merely a list of things I read, watched, and listened to in 2025 that made me happy or gave me thinky thoughts. If you’re curious, you can check out my previous year in reviews: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016.

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2025 in Review

My nudge word for 2025 was balance. It’s difficult for me to remember a year that’s been so divided between moments when, in a cold sweat, I’ve thought, “I have no idea what I’m doing” and those when, in tears and triumph, I’ve thought, “I absolutely know what I’m doing.”

Is that balance? Who can say! Let’s review.

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