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A bit of quarantine news about I WILL BE OKAY (releasing June 30). First, the advanced reader copies are in the hands of readers now (as several posted on Instagram) and I got my first review on Goodreads. CR rated it 5 stars. So that happened. It's a little bit ummm... awesome :) And also today I approved the Final Copy of the Book Cover (which is already all over my site so it's not that exciting but also the back cover, which I saw for the first time). See below. It's also a little bit ummm... awesome :) And finally, we did the very last copy edits this week and it's about to be released to the distributor/printer (not sure the exact process) and will be out of my hands and out into the world in 3 (short) months. Well they used to be short months but this week has felt like a year because you know, quarantine/ end of the world/ job-crushing recession. But please pre-order my book thank you! So much appreciated. 
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 The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - Whenever, If Ever I meant to post this months ago but things got just a little hectic around here. The number one song of the 2010s? Well what else could it be but the band that inspired my debut novel (I Will Be Okay) and was the soundtrack to my first summer here in Hoboken back in 2013, where I got the life I'd always wanted to live and the man I'd always wanted to love and I still remember walking the streets with this song in my ears and the summer sun shining and thinking, all of this is everything. #1. Getting Sodas - The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die (2013) Here's what happened to me since December 28th, 2019. Got Elie. See post. Spent 2 weeks house training, never leaving the house other than walking her. On January 11th, my amazing editor Kristy from Amphorae sent me her officially edited copy of I Will Be Okay (on sale June 30!) for my review. This is my first novel being published and I've spent at least 30 years off-and-on writing novels so it's been to... put it mildly... a long time coming. This was exciting and amazing and by the way, could she get it back like ASAP please... On January 12th, I flew to Seattle-Tacoma airport for work. Yes that was 1 day later. Yes I had a 4 month old puppy who wasn't house trained at home. Sorry Mike! January 13 to 16 - it didn't stop snowing / raining the entire time we were in Puget Sound. We saw the sun once... for the grand total of 20 minutes one day while we were inside... good times. We left the hotel every morning by 6:30 am (actually 6:32 because the Starbucks at the Residence Inn in downtown Tacoma didn't open until 6:30 am but I was first in line every morning because did I mention I had a puppy at home and got my novel edits that weekend and was on NO SLEEP?!). We returned to the hotel at 6:30 pm. Is that a 12 hour day? Why yes it is. Do I get paid any extra for working 12 hour days in freezing cold Washington state? No I do not. Did I need to get my edits done ASAP? Why yes! So every night between 8 pm and 10 pm I skipped dinner with my boss to work on the novel edits. Which I will have to say, were helpful and strong, and after close to a year since I last read I WILL BE OKAY, it's pretty damn incredibly good. A couple of times I was like "who the hell wrote this?" Pre-order today!  So we got a dog. It was not a decision I was on board with but it quickly became a decision I NEEDED to be on board with because on day 3 of puppy Elie, my boyfriend returned to work and I was alone in the house with a puppy and I've never had any dog in my house before. So to say that first day was stressful is an understatement. To say the first week (which coincided with New Year's) was stressful is a massive understatement. It's been really really hard. She's amazing and sweet and friendly and awesome. But also she spent two weeks pooping and peeing in the house so we were on constant guard and she is a puppy so... you know ... she bites everything. They are friendly bites but still. And she barks at everything. Not all the time. Just when another dog passes us on the streets of Hoboken - which happens during every single walk! Of course she's not doing it out of anger, she literally wants to say Hi to the other dogs, and the other people, and ESPECIALLY the other children. Which is fine except when all you want is for her to poop and you've been out there for 30 minutes and it's freezing cold and/or raining (when did NJ become Seattle, exactly?) and then... sigh. Plus there's been the overwhelming anxiety of -- I need to spend all this time with her (because puppies need attention) AND I happen to have a novel coming out this year (I WILL BE OKAY, maybe you've heard of it) and we just did the editing in January, the proofs this weekend, and the marketing is starting so that's kind of little time consuming and stressful too (more to come in a post soon!) and I'm trying to finish my next novel, which feels oh so close and still so far because there's never ever time to finish the edit to my satisfaction and then oh yeah... um... I also have a full-time very time consuming job that I travel for a bunch and we have to figure out what to do with our dear Elie when I am away (my partner took off while I was away in January but we are going with sitters extensively the next 3 weeks). Anyway, I've been so busy and consumed with all things Elie that I haven't seen my friends (miss you all!), I've barely seen my partner lol, and this week was literally the first time I got to Manhattan in over a month. I am paying exorbitant rents in Hoboken IN ORDER TO GO TO MANHATTAN ALL THE TIME. Sigh. But anyway, it's been a joy and I love her. And you're just here for the puppy pics so have at it.  My first novel is being published in June of 2020 which is a scant 7 months away, seems like forever maybe but it also seems too soon, as I've spent the intervening year since the announcement of publication (book publishing takes 18 months on average) working on my next novel, which is a horror-based YA story that has some of the same themes of "I Will Be OK" but also has a monster. So that's been kind of cool but also quite challenging, as I've been blending genres in the story, something that hasn't fully worked for my beta readers. But I'm working on it. I'm on rewrite 5.4.1.108 as I keep plugging away during every free second between a 50 hour workweek, a social life, a boyfriend who likes to see me not hunched over my laptop, and a bit of concert time. I try to get in 15 hours a week on writing and I usually get there but even then it's not quite enough (I would love to do 20!) but it's getting there and I'm close to finishing the final draft, just in time to kick into edit mode for "I Will Be OK" in January.
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