My life has been so crazy these last few weeks. After my amazing release week, I went full throttle into house building/selling/packing mode, and there are days when I wake up and it takes me hours before I remember that my book is out in the world. My book!

But a post sharing my release week experience is long overdue.

The weekend before, I got some good press. My hometown paper, the St. Albans Messenger, ran a nice long piece about me and the book, quoting several passages and promoting the reading at the Eloquent Page (sorry, no link). A state-wide paper, SevenDays did a review. And I started getting pictures like this:

 

Which were surprising because I didn’t think it was supposed to be out yet! Then on Sunday, I experienced finding the book in Barnes and Noble, which was absolutely mind-blowing.

 

I smiled the rest of the day.

Tuesday, my actual release date, was actually kind of anti-climactic! My readings were scheduled later in the week, and since it was already kind of out there wasn’t much hullabaloo that day. But hubs brought me flowers and we ordered chinese, so all in all it was a good day.

Then came Wednesday night, the night I had been nervous about for a month, when I had a live interview on the local news, Channel 3’s WCAX. I’m a behind-the-computer type of person, not a TV kind of person. So after that, I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders so I could just enjoy the rest of the week!

Thursday was a Big Night – my first reading and signing at Phoenix Books in downtown Burlington. Tod was so organized and great about introducing me, and so many friends, family, and book club members (and even 3 people who didn’t know me at all) came to hear me read. It was my first time reading my book aloud to people, so I was a little nervous and I think I could have held the book higher and been a little less shaky, but otherwise it went well. I got some great questions about the writing process, and what was the most fun was the signing! I got to talk to each person individually and thank them for coming and for buying the book, and that was awesome.

Afterwards, I went out with some friends to a delicious dinner and mixed actual champagne with the champagne of beers, and regretted it the following day. Especially when I tried to make cookies and, being impatient, sliced a cold stick of butter with a knife angled into my hand. Spent a little time at Urgent Care getting a couple stitches. Fun.

Saturday was a big day, too, perhaps the one I’d been looking forward to the most! I had my reading at the Eloquent Page in St. Albans. Friends and Other Liars is set in a fictional Vermont town called Chatwick, but everyone knows it’s largely based on St. Albans, so I thought it only fitting that I do a reading there as well. It was a totally different vibe, as I was sitting in a chair and others were surrounding me in a circle. The place was packed with friends and family, my “crew,” my Physical Therapist (no joke), and even an old English and Drama teacher who learned about the reading from the paper!

After that, it was time to party! Props to my husband and parents, who went to a lot of trouble to throw a celebration at Twiggs with my closest peeps. First of all, the CAKE!

But most of all, the PEOPLE!

We drank and ate and laughed into the late hours of the night (which, at this point in my life, was midnight). The next day I was, predictably, worthless.

So that’s my summary of Release Week. Thank you to everyone who sent supportive messages, flowers, and gifts; who attended an event; who bought the book; and who generally have made these big moments in my life so special!

I sit here on a day I’ve anticipated for a year and a half, and it’s hard to believe it’s finally here! Although I’ve gotten texts and emails and Facebook posts of Friends and Other Liars out in the wild, today is the official release of the book. Amazon pre-orders are either being delivered or on their way out the door, independents are stocking them on shelves, small stacks lay on the New in Paperback table that sits conveniently at the front of Barnes & Noble. As I’ve referred to them being out “in the wild,” I picture releasing a truckload of little book creatures into bookstores, where they climb on shelves themselves and jump into people’s arms and shopping bags, cooing as they are opened and the first pages are read. I’m allowing myself to be a little silly, clearly.

This day has been a long time in the making, and I can’t help but sit here in such complete gratitude. And I thought, today of all days, (this week of all weeks), that I should take the opportunity to say all the things I’m grateful for. Buckle up, it’s going to be a long one. But stick with it, because you will probably be mentioned!

I’m grateful that this little piece of my heart is out in the world, that no matter what happens, I will always be able to say I am a published author. I am grateful for the experience of finding my book on that table at Barnes & Noble. I am grateful that in just a few days, I will do my first reading and book signings, and be surrounded by people that love and support me and my work. I know that there are many writers out there who are still dreaming of these things, unsure if it will ever happen for them, and I remember what that’s like. I know that could just as easily still be me, if my book hadn’t found my agent, Stephanie Rostan, and my editors, Sara O’Keefe at Corvus and Shana Drehs at Sourcebooks, at the exact right time. I’m grateful that I never gave up.

I thank these women and their entire teams for the incredible amount of work they’ve invested in my book. Special shout out to Liz Kelsch, my publicist at Sourcebooks, for organizing all the local press and my blog tour, and for setting up my readings and signings. As a debut author (especially one who works full-time), having someone to do this was invaluable.

I am grateful for Donna at Eloquent Page in St. Albans and Kristen and Tod at Phoenix Books in Burlington for hosting my readings and signings. I am grateful to all the reporters who have chosen to write about the book, getting the word out. I am so grateful to the book bloggers who are featuring me on their blogs this month (full list available here). I am grateful to every. single. person. who has read and reviewed the book on Goodreads, Amazon, and other platforms. I am overjoyed that so many people are liking the book, that people are holding it in their hands and allowing themselves to be caught up in the drama and the uniqueness of Chatwick.

I am grateful mostly for the people in my life who have and continue to support me. My husband, who as soon as he woke up this morning yelled “HAPPY RELEASE DAY, BABY!” He has championed me and my books for YEARS, reading early drafts and trying (sometimes successfully) to convince me they didn’t suck. He’s been there for every single rejection (all 189 of them) I received between two books. He’s never once shown doubt that I would make this dream come true. Without him to share this with, none of this would mean nearly as much.

I’m now going to rip off from the Acknowledgements of the book, to make sure I don’t forget anyone.

I am grateful to my friends and family, who have listened to me bitch about how hard it is to get published, without once outright saying that I should give up on the dream. Every time I learned I was going to be in a publication, the first thing I thought was, “My Mom is going to be SO proud.” And the most meaningful compliment I received, and will ever receive, about this novel came from my sister, Stina Booth, who said she teared up at the end, sad that the story was over. If you know her, you would know this is the highest praise conceivable. She is not a crier.

I’m grateful to all the other wonderful people who read this book in its early phases: Shayla Ruland, Cathy Wille, Meredith Tate Servello, Kristin Fields, Kathryn Saris, Loren Bowley Dow and my mom, Deborah Plant, (who, reverting to her schoolteacher days, put a checkmark at the top of every page that didn’t contain a spelling or grammatical error), and Louise Walters, my mentor through the WoMentoring Project. Without question, Louise’s honest feedback and relentless encouragement is what made this manuscript worth publishing.

To Meredith Tate Servello and Kristin Fields, I am grateful for all the advice and support you’ve offered me in the process of trying to get published. Thank goodness for Twitter, or I would never have met them! And to Amy Burrell Cormier, my writer friend, for understanding the trials and tribulations of being a writer. May we one day (tomorrow?) be sitting with a pitcher of margaritas, laughing about our naiveté in the first place.

I’m grateful also for the beta readers for my first novel: Rebecca Nichol, Brian Holmes, Jaci Mills, and Veronica Grenier. Even though that book was not published, they gave their time and patience as they slogged through my early drafts and offered constructive criticism and ideas. Perhaps almost as important, they helped me get used to receiving feedback without inhaling a Costco-sized chocolate cake in the process.

And last, but certainly not least, I thank the people who inspired the characters for this book. I won’t name you, even though I really really want to, because you deserve to be thanked, but I also want to protect your anonymity. In case you missed it, Friends and Other Liars’ dedication is:

To my crew, for the family kind of friendship that endures through all the drama, that feels the same no matter the time or distance between meetings, and that loves even when it doesn’t like.

Thank you all. So much.

Kaela

 

 

 

 

The U.S. version of my book, with it’s slightly different title, is due out February 6. It feels so far away, but compared to the year and a half since signing my contract, it’s nothing – just 4 months, 2 weeks, and 3 days away. (But who’s counting). So without further ado, here is the U.S. Cover  (drumroll please)….

It’s a little more blue than what shows here (not sure what that’s about). What do you think?

Oh and for those of you who are just as excited as I am, you can pre-order FRIENDS AND OTHER LIARS here on Amazon.

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted, and a lot of people have asked me what’s going on with my book. Unfortunately I have sort of a boring answer – nothing. The release of FRIENDS AND LIARS in the U.K. happened June 1st, and I got a lot of good reviews and did an interview and a guest blog post (full list here), and that was awesome and amazing and exciting. And now things are just sort of chugging along, and I have no idea if it’s selling well or if my book will fade into the massive noise of books never to be seen again (let’s hope it’s not the latter).

I CAN tell you that the June 1 release was only the initial launch to get some buzz, some reviews, some quotes, etc. to convince larger stores (especially supermarkets, which are apparently the major market over in the U.K.), to carry the mass market version, which will be released February 1, at the same time as the U.S. version of my book, FRIENDS AND OTHER LIARS, will be released here. Is that less confusing? Probably not!

In other book news, I have submitted Book Two (working title REMEMBER THAT NIGHT) to my agent, who is getting feedback on this draft before sending it on to my publisher to see if they want to publish it. My deal was only for one book, so while they get the right to a first look, they don’t have to buy it. If they choose not to, I will have to go out on submission again to try to find a new publisher.

Just to tease you, REMEMBER THAT NIGHT is the story of two best friends. One of them kills the other one’s fiance in a car crash. There’s also a few romances in the background, but the main focus is on how the two women struggle to move on from such a devastating event in their lives and in their friendship. I hope you’re enticed, and I hope you actually get to read it!

And because I would go crazy if I don’t have a writing project, I’ve already started on Book Three, (working title THE GOOD FAMILY), which is about three sisters from a seemingly perfect family who get called home to recognize the 15th anniversary of their mother’s death. They are all hiding things from each other, without realizing that there is a dark family secret that will blow all of theirs out of the water.

I also wrote a few children’s books this summer, which my agent (who does not rep children’s books) said she liked and wanted a colleague of hers to take a look at. I’ve never pictured myself as a children’s book author, but when you have three adorable nieces as cute as mine, you can’t help but get inspired.

So that’s all for now. You know I’ll keep you posted with any other news!

Hey all! Boy has June been a crazy month. First I officially became a published author when Friends and Liars was released in the U.K., then my husband and I headed off to Europe for our honeymoon/1-year anniversary for two weeks. Suddenly my life sounded terribly glamorous, didn’t it? (Don’t be too jealous, as incredible an experience our trip was, the reality of three countries in two weeks results in a lot of physically unappealing side effects I just won’t go into here).

Anyway, in case you missed it, in London Randy and I ducked into EVERY. SINGLE. BOOKSTORE. we saw in search of Friends and Liars, and we finally found it in Foyles on Charring Cross road:

The next day, I had lunch with Sara O’Keeffe, Susannah Hamilton, and Kirsty Doole, the team at Corvus in charge of birthing Friends and Liars into the world. We had a fabulous lunch and then headed back to their office, where they toasted my book with champagne and I signed books and it was wonderful, surreal, and completely disarming all at once. I wish I had snapped photos, especially because it was one of those “Is this really happening? To ME?” kind of moments, that I’m still half convinced it was all a dream.

Also while I was gone, a bunch of people read (and seemed to really like) the book. Here is some preliminary publicity:

Reviews:

Cover to Cover
Culturefly (20 Essential Summer Reads)
Liz Loves Books
The Bookbag
Bookliterati
The Very Pink Notebook
The Chicklit Club

Interviews/Guest Posts:
Shaz’s Book Blog (Q&A with me)
We Heart Writing (my guest post about editing)

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention what has been the most important reactions to my book, which are those of the people who I based Friends and Liars characters on. I won’t mention them by name, but their enthusiastic support of the book, (especially given the events of the book, which ARE, I must reiterate, completely fictional) took me by surprise. I set out to write a book about unconditional friendship, the kind that lasts through hardships and distance and major life changes, and here I am still learning how truly strong those bonds can be. So to these people, and to all of you who have read and championed the book so far, all I can say, even though this seems terribly inadequate, is THANK YOU. Thank you so much.

Today I am officially a published author. My debut novel is coming out through Corvus today in the UK!!!

I really can’t find any kind of appropriate words to describe this feeling. I’m just flying. For the rest of my life, no matter what happens, no one can take this away from me.

To add to the “firsts” of the day, my first ever interview has also been posted on Shaz’s Book Blog. Check it out to get some insights on the book and the writing process!

For my US friends, I’m excited to tell you that you can pre-order the US version here; it will come out February 1st. Don’t forget to ask your local bookseller and library to carry it as well! And for those of you who really want to purchase both, you can purchase the UK version here on Amazon UK.

 

 

I emailed the publicist at Atlantic Corvus, my U.K. Publisher to ask how I should go about getting my book on Goodreads, to which she replied: “Oh, it’s already on there.”

And I’m like, whaaaaaaa?

So I click on the link she sent me and what do you know – my book is on Goodreads! All I had to do was create an author profile and link to it. If you’re on Goodreads, you can follow me here.  That way when the US version becomes available you’ll be among the first to know!

And if you’re reading this from the U.K., I hope you’ll add Friends and Liars to your To Read list. It will be released June 1st!

Today I got a notification that this tweet was posted to Twitter:

And I went like this:

 

So for my friends and family who are still anxiously awaiting the day when I finally let them know they can buy my book, unfortunately you’ll still have to wait. This is an electronic Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of the book that is only available to book reviewers – magazines and newspapers and book bloggers, oh my — who are in the U.K. and have access to Net Gally.

But still – my book has taken its first step into the world. Strangers are going to read it and judge it and tell us if they think it’s pretty…oh dear. Perhaps my reaction is more like…

 

I’m so excited to announce that FRIENDS AND LIARS will come out in the UK on June 1 of this year! Check out the cover:

What do you think?

For US fans, the title is slightly different: FRIENDS AND OTHER LIARS, and that will come out in February of 2017. The cover will be completely different, so I’ll make sure to post that once I have it!

For every career, there are stereotypes. Engineers are nerdy; administrative assistants are dumb. Doctors have God complexes and lawyers have no soul. IT guys never get laid, but actors are whores. I’m not saying that these stereotypes don’t exist for a reason, but that doesn’t mean if you don’t fit into them, that you are necessarily the exception to a hard and fast rule. Sometimes it just means the stereotypes are bullshit.

Similarly, there are a lot of misconceptions around what it means to be a writer or any type of creative person. Some of them are so scary that I actually delayed going down the writing path because I believed them. So I thought I would take some time today to dispel some of myths about what it means to be a writer/artist/creative.

1. Writers are Tortured Souls

I think the number one stereotype about writers and artists is that we are all dark and brooding. We’re pictured as people dressed all in black, with dark hair and makeup and hipster glasses, and for some reason berets atop our heads (so, I guess we are all also French? Whoops, see that’s another stereotype!)

There’s the misconception that we are all crazy. I can’t say that’s entirely untrue for me, as I have struggled with depression and anxiety issues for much of my life, but that doesn’t mean the lot of us are plagued with mental illness. Artists like ‘ole one-eared Vinny Van Gogh and drunkedy drunk drunk Hemingway don’t help with that perception. There have been studies that there are higher incidents of mental illness in creative people (something about chemicals and side-of-the-brain dominance, I think), but that doesn’t mean we’re all a bunch of non-functioning loons who sit in the dark smoking and awaiting the muse.

True, great art can be created from pain. Some artists say they have to go into a dark place to create, and most creative work gets its grit and authenticity from experience. But does that mean you have to be batshit to write something that moves people? That you have to be miserable and live in darkness? Of course not! Even if you are writing or working on some heavy subject matter, you learn to go into that place while you’re working and then the word count is hit or the dryer buzzer goes off and you snap right back into being a normal human being who has a fair variety of color in their closet, thank you very much.

2. You have to suffer for your art

This ties into my first point. While some great art comes from artists who channel painful experience into their work, don’t think you have to have gone through some horrific tragedy in order to have something to say. I actually put off writing my first book for a while, well, for many reasons, most of them having to do with fear, but partly because I felt that because I had lived a pretty charmed life I didn’t have anything of value to contribute. Please, writers and artists, hear this: if you want to write or create, write or create. You don’t have to have lost a parent or sibling or lover; you don’t have to have been maimed or kidnapped or tortured. We all have experiences we can use in our art, and if you’re writing fiction, what you really need is the ability to empathize with those who have endured tragedy.

3. Writers are Introverts

Just because we sit behind a computer or writing pad all day doesn’t mean we don’t like to be around people. I have been to many writer’s workshops and conferences and just like anywhere, there are a mix of introverts and extroverts and everything in between. (Example of in between: everyone thinks of me as an extrovert because I am loud and crave social time, but I get total social anxiety before events like writers workshops. It’s not until I’m there that my sunny side reveals itself. I recently realized this makes me an extroverted introvert). Sure, there are probably writers that lack any semblance of social skills and do their best to isolate. But most of the writers I know are warm and friendly and have no trouble plopping themselves down next to a stranger at a workshop and carrying on a conversation. Some are even really good at promoting themselves and their work in person rather than behind the Twitter machine.

4. Writers are Disorganized/Messy

A lot of people assume that our brains are too cluttered with artistic ideas and grand conceptualizations that we don’t have the space to worry about things like keeping a tidy house or getting the bills paid on time. Undoubtedly, some of us who are like that. They say artists are more right-brained (intuitive, thoughtful, and subjective) vs. left-brained (logical, analytical, and objective).

Maybe I’m a mutant, but I am a fierce Type A. I thrive on routine, I get high off new organizational systems, I’m always the planner of projects and events, and I frickin’ LOVE spreadsheets. (I just went through a content edit of my manuscript and my editor teased me for sending her not just a spreadsheet outlining the changes I would make to each chapter but also two tables within the body of the email to explain different options for incorporating her feedback). I also love to balance my checkbook. These are not activities generally attributed to creative types, but I can’t be the only hyper-organized writer in the world.

Can I?

5. The Starving Artist

For a long time, I thought if I wanted to be a true writer I would have to be poor. That I would have to have no job and live in a hostel and eat beans out of cans.  That in order to be a writer, I had to devote myself so completely to “the craft” that I could not possibly allow the desire for material things and, you know, electricity, to get in my way.

Ha.

Listen, guys: if you manage to go this route, good for you. But I myself like to have a roof over my head (that my parents don’t own), nutritious food on the table, and the ability to keep myself warm under said roof during the long, cold Vermont winter. I also want to go out to dinner now and then, go on a vacation at least once a year, and be able to buy a new sweater or get a massage every now and then. All of that takes money and that means I need a JOB. That’s not to say I haven’t made compromises. I tried the marketing and copywriting route, which could have earned me a lot more by now, but I hated it so much that it drained me of any desire to write. So I’ve stuck with being an Executive Assistant because I know I will have the time and the creative energy left at the end of the day. The trick is to find a balance.

6. Writers/artists only work when they are inspired

I once questioned whether I was a real writer because I wasn’t frequently “inspired” to write. I mean, I’ve always written a journal entry when the feeling strikes, but when it came to actually writing my first novel, page after page after page, I found it much easier to flip on a rerun of Golden Girls at the end of a work day than I did to open my computer again. There’s an image of writers and artists being in the middle of something and just having to stop what they’re doing so they can get a poem or sketch on paper, and then they get so obsessed with it that they don’t emerge for days and weeks until the work is complete.

Yeah, okay.

I guess that could happen. If I didn’t have physiological needs like food and water and exercise and sex and sleep. Or if I didn’t need to go to work and meetings and appointments and clean the house and shop for groceries and find a plumber to fix our leaky tub. You get the point. Life is busy, and the world is full of so many distractions it’s a wonder we ever get anything done. Most of us have to create a schedule and make ourselves write during that time. It’s not as sexy as the artist who locks themselves in a room and emerges a week later with a masterpiece and a wild-eyed satisfaction, but it’s the reality of writing.

 

I’m sure I’m missing some here. Anyone else have any stereotypes they are always fighting against?