Fifty Things I Did in the Week Before My Fifth Novel Came Out

(And now it’s out!)

Signing first editions of Fierce Little Thing at Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne, Vermont.

My fifth novel, FIERCE LITTLE THING, is out today — July 27th, 2021. For weeks now, I’ve saying I have so much to do and people keep asking what it is I have to do and then I slump over into a ball of stress and hope and fear and logistics… so I decided to just write down, in no particular order, what I’ve been doing in this week leading up to publication, so you get a peek inside my writer brain. That way, you can laugh with (at?) me, and, if you, too, someday publish a book, you might even learn from me — including, I’m certain, some things not to do!

• Make a mile-long list of all the instagram reels I want to shoot and post before publication day.
• Explain to my 12yo that he is going to spend Saturday morning making reels with me.
• Get into a fight with my 12yo when I show him one of my inspirations for a reel, and he says it looks stupid.
• Recover. Make up. Choose music/ clothes/ books for a reel and make my 12yo make a shot list.
• Find an old tube of lipstick in my mother-in-law’s drawer, since I forgot mine, and this old face definitely needs a pop of color
• Go out to the end of the dock, and before the rain comes, shoot the reel