Hey creatives! Lots to share this week, up first —
🥹 the first reviews of Let Me Be Your Ghost are in
I am floored. I’m so floored by the early reviews from ARC readers and book reviewers. Honestly, I’m just out here feeling so, so grateful for the people who are reading Let Me Be Your Ghost, and it’s such an honor to be an author writing for you. Thank you.
On Thursday, The Hidden Book Nook called it “one of my favourite books of this year” and predicted a hit with romance and thriller readers. The timestamp on this screenshot says 4 minutes, which is how long it took me to take it:
Charlotte’s full review is up now, along with an interview we did about the book. I’d love for you to read them:
The ARC readers over on Goodreads have been just as lovely. One said the story “has so many layers to it,” another was hooked by the “unique premise,” and a third said it “would make a great on-screen adaptation,” which made my whole week, because this book started out as a TV pilot I wrote in 2017.
I feel really grateful to be here. I feel really lucky to be writing for you, and Let Me Be Your Ghost is kind of like a labor of love. It’s something I’ve had in mind for a really long time, and I’m really grateful and lucky to be doing this stuff and to be out in these streets. I feel grateful, and I feel lucky to be here.
A reminder, if you can: please preorder! Let Me Be Your Ghost comes out on Wednesday, November 18, and there are 10 days left to get the free book that comes with it.
🎁 Preorder in any format, from any retailer, by midnight Pacific on Tuesday, November 17, upload your receipt on the claim page, and How to Write a Memoir, my unreleased craft book, lands in your inbox right away. If you’ve already preordered, thank you!!
🗺️ my book tour starts in Santa Cruz
My first stop is Saturday, November 28, from 6:30 to 8pm at The Burning Ember, the brand-new romance bookstore on Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz. The store had its grand opening on October 30, my book will be 10 days old, and it’s Small Business Saturday — so everyone involved will be very new and very excited. Come say hi, get your copy signed, and bring a friend who likes a slow burn with secrets.
Here’s where else you can find me:
Los Angeles, Saturday, December 5: a free drop-in signing at Good Girl Books in Mar Vista from noon to 3pm, with secret gifts for everyone who shows up, then Moonstone & Mist Bookshop in Redondo Beach at 5pm.
San Francisco, Tuesday, December 15: a talk and signing at The Love Potion Library in the Castro from 6 to 7:30pm, back at the romance bookstore where I taught a sold-out class when it opened in June.
Sacramento, Saturday, January 23: Capital Books on K from 1 to 2:30pm, in the lounge at the store with Knotty Novels, Sacramento’s first all-romance book floor.
Chicago, March 18 to 20: table T2519 at the 2027 AWP Conference & Bookfair.
More dates are on the way, and every confirmed stop lives on my book tour page.
Know a romance reader in Santa Cruz? Forward this to them!
🍵 big news soon, plus Pilates and a fireside chat
Most of what I’m up to this week: I have some big news, but that’ll come out soon — but mostly, I’m just out here doing things and feeling excited about it.
One of those things: I went to a Pilates event and fireside chat with Women + AI here in Los Angeles. We took a 50-minute mat class at Homebody Studios in Culver City, then took our snacks outside and sat on the grass for a fireside chat with Anna Rinke, Homebody’s cofounder, about how she uses AI to run her business and improve her health.
I had a great time and met a lot of cool women here in Los Angeles who are building things with AI. I’m pretty pro this technology, and I think it’s really useful and helpful for things.
I think this organization is really cool because it helps with the learning gap. Women, particularly, are falling behind in adopting this technology, and men are adopting it more: a Harvard Business School working paper that pulled together data from more than 100 countries estimates adoption at 47.8% for men and 39.3% for women. Women + AI is trying to help women, especially people who work in tech or at tech companies, but also business owners, not fall behind in this tech. I think that’s pretty cool.
You can read their recap of the day here. Thank you to Sara Slayton for putting Let Me Be Your Ghost in their “in the tote” picks at the end! If you’re in LA and want to check them out, their next dinner is Friday, November 20, downtown.
I also got to be in the hot seat this week. On Tuesday, Kyle and I drove down to Chapman University so we could both talk to Michael Weiss’s Writing for Evolving Platforms class. Michael came on my Substack Live a while back, so this time it was his turn to ask the questions — and his students were great.
creating
I gave A Court of Splintered Harmony 1 out of 5 stars. I blocked off my late October for this book, and what I got was 352 pages of setup for a story that starts in the next one. Sarah J. Maas’s books changed my life, so I did not enjoy typing that.
An SF weekend, the way we do it, a new section on my San Francisco guide, plus the short list for date night. Kyle helped with these!
Jennifer Armentrout’s books in order, updated with book 5 of Blood and Ash and beyond, plus the author’s own reading order.
What book launch season looks like for an indie author and a day in the life of an author in Los Angeles, 2 quick videos on my YouTube channel.
50+ Calls for Pitches That Pay at Make Writing Your Job. This is the past week’s edition of the pitch list: a European literary publisher is offering up to €600, a new Canadian genre magazine is paying up to $400 CAD, and an independent fiction outlet is paying $300.
290+ Grants, Contests, & Residencies for Writers, also at Make Writing Your Job, with a $10,000 poetry prize that comes with a campus reading and a $75,000 to $100,000 journalism innovation fellowship.
Coming up: on Friday, November 13 at 11am PT, I’m going live on Make Writing Your Job with Kendall Cherry, whose book Here to Sell comes out November 10, to talk about selling your work without the sales bro energy.
reading
The next great bookstore might only sell one genre. Retail Dive’s Kaarin Moore reports that over 600 new indie bookstores opened across the U.S. last year, up 87%, according to the American Booksellers Association, and the specialty shops are finding their edge by going deep. Partners in Crime in Chicago splits its shelves into dark romance, sports romance, paranormal romance, and more. As one distributor puts it, “a shop owner who lives in the genre tells you what’s good.” I can confirm this from my book tour spreadsheet: 3 of my stops opened their doors this year, and 2 of them are romance bookstores.
6,000 people tried to buy 220 tickets to a romantasy ball. The Guardian’s Emma Loffhagen reports on the launch party The Spicy Librarian, a romance bookshop in Leamington Spa, threw for A Court of Splintered Harmony. Tickets cost £149, they sold out in 13 minutes, the shop’s website crashed, and riders dressed as “fae warriors” carried torches on horseback at Ragley Hall. As someone about to go on book tour, I’m taking notes. (There will be no horses at my signings, sorry!)
Searches for ACOTAR events on Eventbrite are up 228% this year. Real Simple’s Lisa Milbrand reports that romantasy events are up 196% year over year, attendance is up 237%, and readers who find books online want to “take that excitement offline.” The events are getting more creative, too: Tinder held a High Lord lookalike contest at a London bookshop, and The Times has a piece on “fairy smut” book clubs and a €3,500 romantasy retreat in Ireland. I ~ love ~ that reading has become a reason to leave the house.
Romantasy readers are now training with weighted daggers. Women’s Health’s Lindsay Geller talked to Sabina Storberg, who launched her WeaponUp sword yoga classes in 2024 expecting martial artists and yogis. “It was actually the book girls.” And if you’d rather dress the part, The Cut rounded up every ACOTAR collab you can shop, from Alex + Ani jewelry to Knix. (My Pilates class had resistance bands and zero daggers, for the record!)
