Happy 1st birthday to THE STARDUST GRAIL, my Indiana Jones x Star Trek space opera. It’s a story of friendship; exploration of the inconceivably vast, weird, and wonderful universe; and the inevitable harm and beauty caused when two cultures meet. I had so much fun writing it I thought I must be doing something wrong. I tell people it was my “revenge travel” book, and the last year has indeed been full of adventure, meeting internet friends for the first time and making new ones, career firsts, attending conferences and festivals, and eating lots of ice cream.
Highlights pictured:
1. Holding a stacking of my TSG paperbacks.
2. Showing off TSG’s interstellar nodal map at the front of the book at the launch event.
3. Going around Queens one day with
@flatiron_books bestie
@geekomnivore This is me signing a stack of books at
@bookculturelic
4. Showing off my huge stack of The Stardust Grail and The Deep Sky at
@strandbookstore
5. With
@victormanibo for our joint event in Westchester
@womrathbooks . Last year, I learned I LOVE joint events, and I am definitely going to do a bunch more of those this year.
6. Stopping by
@mystgalaxybooks with
@okosunreads and
@sarahmughal769 was a bucket list I needed to check off when I was invited to ALA in San Diego.
7. I finally met
@emilyjane.author in person for a joint event
@joyandmatts in Cincinnati, something we both had wanted to do since we were debuts the prior year.
8. One of the most fun panels I’ve ever done was with
@jscalzi and
@tobias.buckell at
@columbusbookfestival
9. I went to WorldCon in Glasgow with
@kylieleebaker and my older sister. (My sis and I had last gone 20 years prior when we were teenagers and fans, so it felt full circle. And then I got to go down to Bath and do a retreat with internet writer friends I’ve known for years now but never met.
10. I got to sign books at NYC Comicon! and run around the hall briefly with
@katiewuwrites
11. Lastly, I went back to talk to students at my alma mater
@stuyvesanthighschool with my old teacher Annie Thoms and signed my books in the school library. 🥲
Tl;Dr it’s been an amazing year and books are really just an excuse to hang out with people
