Twice.

Sorta.

The first mistake was forgetting I still had to write the back cover copy for my book. Not that big a deal, but come on. That should have been the first thing I did after deciding to self-publish.

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The second mistake was also not so much a mistake as it was me naively believing that the cover artist I wanted to hire (after my Kickstarter campaign hopefully gets funded) would be available to whip up the cover of my dreams immediately and well before my publication date. Turns out, just today, she closed to commissions for the rest of the year. I’d been eyeing her for months. MONTHS! Why didn’t I just reach out then?

Well, because I was still holding out hope that I’d land a literary agent and get a book deal and they’d hire their own cover artist to do the job. See? Naive. Does that count as a mistake?

So, that leaves me in a bit of a pickle. Since I want to get this book out into the world by late September, early October, I have to decide to go with the cover I designed (it’s not awful, but it’s not stunning, either), or vet other cover artists and hope they’re available for a quick turnaround.

I’ll let you decide. I made two versions of my book cover. Tell me, honestly, what you think. Should go with A, B, or C (hire an artist)?

The Covers (🫣)

Vote for your favorite. Leave me a comment. Share with friends. Be honest. I want this book to get out into the world the best possible version of itself I can manage. You can help.

Be back soon…

The Pitch: When her lab partner turns up as a ghost begging for help, a prickly teen is dragged back into a gift she’s spent years suppressing—just as a secretive coven tries to resurrect a soul-devouring warlock that won’t stop until it’s consumed everyone she loves.

Out of all the stories I’ve written and all of the characters I’ve created, this one has gotten me the most excited. The story might even be one of my favorites. There is just something about a living person falling for a ghost that felt impossibly romantic. Maybe it’s that old idea of you always want what you can’t have. I dunno.

But this story is about so much more than just young love (though that’s my favorite part). In Between is a thrilling emotional rollercoaster that takes the characters (and hopefully readers) through the dangers of power-hungry witch covens, family secrets, high school, trusting people, and falling in love.

It’s been a long journey for this book. Not quite as long as some of my other unpublished (as of yet) stories, but long enough. Hence the reason I’m pivoting to self-publishing. This story NEEDS its audience now.

The idea came to me in 2022 when I had a dream about a dead classmate I’d once “dated”. In the dream, he showed up at a party, and I was the only one who seemed to recognize that he wasn’t supposed to be there. When I woke up, I kept wondering what it would have been like if a real-life ghost had come to me needing help. And that’s how the story was born.

Since then, it’s been through 11 revisions. Not a whole lot changed plot-wise. Just a whole lotta tightening and clarifying. The first draft was well over a hundred thousand words, which is a lot for a YA novel. Even a soon-to-be self-published one. So I cut it down as much as possible. It’s probably the part I’m most proud of because I hadn’t thought originally that I’d be able to cut 20k words without losing the story. It’s such a great feeling to know (deep within my soul) that my story is actually better without all those extra words.

I hope this story finds its place in this world. I remember reading books like this, as a teenager, that were spooky and thrilling and heartachingly romantic all at the same time. In fact, I still read those books. I would love for the next generation of readers to connect with Annabelle and Will the way I did.

So now that I’ve officially decided to self-publish this series—wait! Did I forget to mention that? Book 2 is already in the marination phase, and I’ve planned a book 3 and maybe 4 in the Seance Society series. Anyway, as I was saying… To make that happen, I'll be launching a Kickstarter campaign this summer. The goal is to give the book the professional treatment it deserves—from a custom cover and paperback formatting to early print copies readers can actually hold in their hands.

In the end, the goal is to publish by late September or early October.

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