Welcome back to Haunted Books & Haunted Girls, a newsletter all about writing and ghosts. I’m so happy that you’re joining me. If you haven’t subscribed already, please consider signing up below (for free!), so you never miss an issue of this newsletter. It’s always spooky szn here.
When I started this newsletter last year, I dreamed of the day I’d get to make this post. This one, the one I’m typing right now. Publishing is a long, arduous, non-linear journey and there were times I thought I’d never get to say these words. But we can save that for later, right? Should we get to it? THE news? The final end of Le Vague Era???
As newsletter subscribers, you get to hear it first, so keep it secret, keep it safe. (As in, please do not spill the beans with a screenshot of this newsletter. That’s what Gandalf meant, right?)
Anyway. Let’s do this:
It’s official: I’m getting published!!!! My debut novel, THIS RAGING SEA, is coming out next year with Holiday House!!!!
THIS RAGING SEA is an upper YA dark fantasy with horror elements, and follows an angsty, haunted girl named Briar whose life is turned upside down when her childhood best friend Finn vanishes in time. In order to find him, she has to team up with her biggest enemy who knows her darkest secret, and ends up tumbling down a rabbit hole of sinister truths about her coastal town—and herself.
It’s hard to talk about the plot of this book without delving too much into spoiler territory, as there are twists galore, even in the first few chapters! But some themes/tropes/vibes you’ll find are…
Childhood friends-to-not-speaking-to-lovers
A physics-based magic system steeped in chaos theory
Dual pov with endless pining
So much bi rep, along with a bi-4-bi m/f romance
A non-linear timeline and a world where hours move like ocean waves
Coastal town setting with secrets dating back to the Salem Witch Trials
A hot and demonic villain
Emotional horror à la Mike Flanagan’s Bly Manor and Hill House
Sapphic enemies hate-kissing!
An angsty “I’ll love you in every universe” romance
A found family whose friendship is stronger than time itself
And soooo many tropes: wound tending, angry love confessions, nightmare/comfort, kn!ves to the throat, and more!
At its heart though, this book is a love letter to so many things. I wrote it for messy girls with big feelings who are tired of being told they’re too much. For bi people who might sometimes feel invisible. For anyone who knows that so often, family can mean the people you choose. It’s a story about fierce friendship that transcends time, about love that’s knotted across universes and galaxies, about the things we lose and what we find.
And yes, it’s also a little bit about hot sea demons.
I’ll save details about my publishing journey for another post, but for now, I will say: The road to this book began with the tiniest seed of an idea, over two years ago now. I couldn’t stop thinking about a missing boy and the tough, relentless girl trying to find him in between pockets of time. A pair of childhood friends with a complex past and an uncertain future, lives intertwined in every universe, love reaching across stars and currents. And I wrote down four words that would later turn into the core of this book: LOST DOESN’T MEAN GONE.
And then I tucked it away for a little while.
But their story didn’t let me go.
Between then and now, there’s been a million ups and downs. As anyone in publishing knows, this journey is filled with high highs and low lows, and the lows hurt. There were so many moments of doubt, of worries that my words wouldn’t ever find a home. I have cried into my keyboard more times than I can count. There are so many people I could list out and thank for believing in me, and I’ll save all that too, but just know that if you ever cheered me on, or yelled about a snippet on WritingTwitter, or slid into my Instagram DMs to tell me you were excited for my eventual news: All of it has truly meant more than you know. Thank you for being here, for reading this, for caring. Thank you.
As for Briar and Finn, these two have taken up a lot of space in my heart and brain over the past two years. They’re still mine, but soon, they will also be yours. It’s my greatest hope that their story eventually finds its way into the hands of people who need it the most.
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