#28 - East Coast Girl, She's Been Living in Her East Coast World
AKA "somehow i won an award???"
PROLOGUE
Greetings from me, in my last days as an East Coaster! For those of you who didn’t know, I’m moving to Seattle in just over two weeks at this point, and it’s a wild and busy time. This month has made me particularly glad that I got out of my reading slump, because I’ve been on the train a lot to see people before the big move. Currently, I’m buddy reading Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen with Chelsea Abdullah. I’ve been looking forward to this one!
I also saw the musical &Juliet with a friend, and now I’m obsessed with the soundtrack. Also, because my mind is going in a hundred directions at once, I’m just rewatching The Nanny on Peacock.
Most of all, though, the countdown to a whole new life on the West Coast has begun and I’m both excited and terrified. Luckily, I’ll be moving in with my beloved baby sister, so this change is not as scary as it could be.
Wish me luck! In the meantime, let’s get into it~
CHAPTER 1: BIG BOOK NEWS
It’s been a huge month for professional news, so I’m going to consolidate it all right here for you all.
DARK ACADEMIA TITLE CHANGE
My Adult speculative dark academia has gotten a title change! The Sinister Elite is now An Arcane Inheritance, and it will be on-sale in Fall 2025. I don’t have preorder links for you yet, but you can add it on Goodreads here.
SO LET THEM BURN PAPERBACK
So Let Them Burn has an all-new look for the paperback! This new cover was drawn by Carlos Quevedo and designed by Jenny Kimura. In addition, the paperback will feature:
A sneak peek of This Ends in Embers
An exclusive bonus chapter in Reeve Warwick’s POV
Limited edition orange sprayed edges
You can preorder the So Let Them Burn paperback here to support indie bookshops!
SO LET THEM BURN SPANISH EDITION
LOOK AT HER. So Let Them Burn has a Spanish-language edition coming out in November! You can learn more here.
EVENTS
I’m going to the 2024 Salem Literary Festival in September! For those keep track, yes that means I’m going to be at two festivals that month: Six Bridges Festival in Little Rock, Arkansas and Salem Literary Festival in Salem, MA. I hope to see you there!
You can keep track of my events on my website here.
AWARDS????!!!!
Finally, I won the AAMBC Award for Breakout Author of 2024! This is my first award win since So Let Them Burn came out, and to say I was floored would be an understatement. Even now, I still have no idea what to say to fully express my gratitude to everyone who voted for me, so I’ll just say thank you, thank you, and thank you again!
CHAPTER 2: ALL ABOUT CHARACTERS
This weekend, I was playing Kingdom Hearts with my best friend. At one point, she brought up a time when I had described characters from a WIP to her, and she challenged me to take a Myers-Briggs test for each of them, only for the result to describe them with eerie accuracy. “You’re so good at knowing your characters,” she said. My sister, who has never read my books, added, “Well, characters make the story, and Kaye knows how to write a good story.”
I bring this up because I shocked them with the following information: I figure out my characters last. When I start writing, my characters are just plot devices I’m pushing from pre-planned event to pre-planned event. It’s not until I finish the draft that I feel like I know who they really are, and it’s not until the second draft that who they are begins to actively drive the plot.
In So Let Them Burn, I knew two things about Faron: she is my Joan of Arc figure, and she’s a total brat. It wasn’t until I did a few drafts that I realized how many of her actions were driven by her PTSD from war, which changed her entire way of interacting with the world. A few more drafts, I realized she was demisexual, which changed the romance arc.
The two things I knew about Elara are that she is a people pleaser and she likes girls. But, as with Faron, it took me a while to mine the depths of her PTSD and how it manifested. I also realized she had crushed on Queen Aveline, and how that added a different layer to their relationship. Basically, it took a while for these two girls to come alive to me and not just be acted upon by the plot.
I’m on my second draft of An Arcane Inheritance right now, and this is when Ellory and Hudson are starting to come alive. It’s not just about reaching THE END anymore; it’s about figuring out how they would go about reaching the end. I hope when you get to meet them they feel as real and deep as all my characters do.
According to my best friend, anyway. ;)
CHAPTER 3: THE REC ROOM
Welcome to the Rec Room, the section of my newsletter that I use to highlight books coming out each month I’m really excited about. For August, we have…
DROWN ME WITH DREAMS by Gabi Burton
In book two of this dark and seductive YA fantasy duology, perfect for fans of Fourth Wing and These Violent Delights, a siren assassin must decide between saving her kingdom and betraying the man she loves.
THE BREAK-UP PACT by Emma Lord
Two best friends who haven't spoken in ten years pretend to date after break-ups with their respective exes go viral, in this delightfully fun and deeply emotional novel from New York Times bestselling author Emma Lord.
HERE LIES A VENGEFUL BITCH by Codie Crowley
Murdered bad girl Annie Lane is back from the grave and hellbent on revenge… she just has to figure out who killed her. This fast-paced thriller by a talented debut delivers a horror-infused hunt for justice that's at once furiously feminist, darkly funny, and utterly satisfying.
THIS RAVENOUS FATE by Hayley Dennings
The first book in a decadent fantasy duology set in Jazz Age Harlem, where at night the dance halls come to life—and death waits in the dark.
CHAPTER 3: LOOK AT MY CAT!!!
I don’t even have an introduction to this picture; I just can’t look at it without saying, “Awwww.”
EPILOGUE
Thank you for subscribing and/or for sticking around! I hope you like rambles, shenanigans, and nonsense, because that’s truly all this is. Take care of yourselves and each other, and see you next month~
I thought &Juliet was amazing! Good luck on the move <3
Your sister content always gets me 😍