A different kind of burn
August has been a big month.
At a time when I would normally be prepping for and traveling to Burning Man (this is my first non-pandemic year that I’ve skipped since 2016), I instead stayed home and made as much progress as I could on moving Loop, Nevada forward while I waited for my editor to get back to me with her notes for Firebug.
On August 20th, my editor Jessica sent the full edited version to me, complete with no fewer than 6 “Eeek”s and 12 “Oh gosh”s in her notes (Firebug is not for the faint of heart).
I pulled up her notes alongside my final draft file and set to editing, thinking I would be pleased with getting through 20 pages a day. If I could stick to that pace, I would get through her notes in a little over two weeks.
I am positively chuffed to report that I was able to get through all of her edits in 8 days (!!!).
My English teacher mom is reading through the final draft right now, addressing any stray typos and inconsistencies (thank you x 1,000,000 Mom), and I have already started work on building out the print version of the book (e-pub formatting will be next).
I was also interviewed on three different podcasts, each of which was a fun experience and helped me to get to a place of feeling more confident talking about my work and my own personal experience with life and writing.
Aug 2: Book 101 Review
I am still sorting out the schedule of when Firebug is going to be released — the cover art is in the works with a super-talented artist, I need to sort out things like ISBNs, and figure out the timing of a sample copy — but I will hopefully have a better idea of the timing soon.
In the meantime, if you’d like to be on my Launch Team, please fill out the contact form on my site and I’ll add you to that list! It’s a pretty easy gig and entails sharing posts about my upcoming book release, as well as receiving a free advance digital copy so you can read it early and post a review on the day the book releases. Thank you again to Victoria Mattingly for telling me about this approach (I’m actually a part of her launch team for her upcoming book, Act like an Ally, Work with an Ally).
While I'm experiencing some FOMO at not being at the burn this year, I am really pleased with all the progress I’ve made since I’ve been home instead. After more than a decade of working on Firebug on and off, it’s in the home stretch, virtually done. Hard part’s over, and the rest is just sorting out logistics and checking things off the list.
This experience has been one of the most vulnerable and difficult things I’ve ever done, and I very literally could not have done it without my family and friends cheering me on. Sending love to all of you — from my couch, instead of the dust for once. <3