June Newsletter! 📚
Hello and welcome...
...to my new and improved newsletter! I'm Kaitlyn and I'm so excited you're here!
If we've been connected for a while, you may have signed up for this email list to receive updates when I made new blog posts. You might also recall, then, not receiving a lot of said blog posts in recent history. I've decided to shift away from blogging for the time being and instead send out this monthly newsletter for anyone interested in keeping up with my activities, especially those having to do with the bookish life! Still figuring out what kind of content to include so this could be a bit of an adventure for us all, and I'm so grateful that you've chosen to be in it with me. :)
What I'm Writing
As you might have heard by now, my debut novel Love From Scratch comes out next year! April 5, 2022, to be precise. It's a foodie, feminist, young adult rom-com about rival interns at an online cooking channel. For the time being, you can add it on Goodreads, but veeery very soon, you'll be able to pre-order a copy! I will send out that information as soon as I have it, which I will add again, will be happening soon. SOON. At that time, I'll also be able to reveal the cover, which is so gorgeous that I kind of want it tattooed on my face for eternity.
Anyhoo, LFS is in its near-final form at this point and I am so proud of it, as well as equal parts terrified and excited for folks to read it. All I have left on it are pass pages, which are fully designed + typeset digital versions of what the actual book pages will look like! A proofreader and I both go through those and make note of any final changes we think should be made before the book goes to print. Yay!
While book one is nearly done, I'm also in the early stages of drafting book two, Not Here to Stay Friends! This book is another young adult romance inspired by my love for the hot garbage that is the Bachelor franchise (+ other reality dating shows) and for the best-friends-to-lovers trope. I promise I will get better at describing its plot between now and when it comes out in spring 2023, and in the meantime, you can add it on Goodreads!
It's been super weird for me to go back to drafting something new after working for almost two years on my debut. LFS is now a mostly-shiny, pretty, polished diamond while NHTSF is a lump of coal too ugly for Santa to give to the naughty children. Have I sold you on it yet? I kid, I kid; I'm already in love with the plot and characters, even as I don't know them like the back of my hand just yet. Mostly, I feel so ridiculously lucky and grateful to get to publish a whole other story I've made up in my head! This is the coolest job that I never thought I'd have just a few years ago and I hope I can keep at it for a long time to come.
*David Attenborough voice*
"...here we see the author in her natural habitat, being absorbed by an overstuffed armchair while she picks at all her hangnails and calls it 'brainstorming'..."
What I'm Reading
A few of my recent favorite reads:
SING ANYWAY by Anita Kelly - a queer adult romance novella set at a karaoke bar! The first self-published work by one of my favorite writers and humans! What more do you need to know before snagging your copy from Anita right here!
TOKYO EVER AFTER by Emiko Jean - a YA romance/coming of age story about a girl who finds out the father she's never known is the crown prince of Japan. Princess Diaries vibes! A hot bodyguard! This one was so funny and sweet and I'm OBSESSED. You can find links to buy here!
WE CAN'T KEEP MEETING LIKE THIS by Rachel Lynn Solomon - a YA romance between a wedding harpist and a cater-waiter! Rachel's writing is so swoony and hilarious, and this one has especially great mental health representation. And I get to sound so smug because I already read it and it doesn't come out until next week, but you should pre-order it here!
What Else I'm Thinking About
I think this will be my miscellaneous section to ramble about other things - personal life, the weather, other fascinating topics! For today, I'll keep it brief because I've spent an embarrassingly long time making this newsletter already and is anyone even going to read all this?Â
All the hair I just got chopped off for my first post-pandemic cut. The stylist didn't scream upon seeing the state of my hair when I arrived but I could tell she wanted to.
Formula One racing. I promise I'm even more surprised by this than you are! My fiancé and I have been watching a Netflix docuseries about it (Formula One: Drive to Survive) and I've gotten more into it than I ever expected - so much drama, so fast-paced, so many attractive yet arrogant drivers with very muscular necks holding up smol heads.
Where to acquire enough cardboard boxes to fit the contents of my entire house...
If you've stuck with me this far, thank you so much! Perhaps you will be rewarded with SPECIAL, EXCITING SURPRISES next month. Perhaps!
Wishing you a wonderful month ahead,
Kaitlyn