It’s a lot of hurry up and wait, as it turns out. You write the book, and then every round of editing takes time. Both on your end, and the editor’s end. Then you wait for the cover design. Then you wait for the formatting proofs and approve them. Then you wait for publishing day. Hooray! You’ve made it! Your book, after months and months, is out in the world.

Then, someone asks when the next one is coming out.

I wish that I could churn out books quickly. I wish that I could publish three a year. Maybe one day it will be a situation where writing is my primary occupation, but that simply isn’t yet the case. I may not even have a book come out every year. It might be one every two years. It might be two in one year. When you sign with a publisher, all of that is out of your control. I provide the content, they do the rest!

I truly don’t mind waiting. But being a small author is also self-marketing now, and it’s hard to market something that isn’t ready to be marketed. Conversely, it’s hard to market something that you’ve marketed to death.

Speaking of, did you know that Honey in the Marrow made The Lesbian Review’s list of Best of the Best books from 2022?

A lovely honor! I feel like I’ve been so welcomed into the sapphic author community and I hope I get to stay here for a long time. Even if it takes me a while to write things; even if the publishing process is slow. Just know that I’m here, lurking, playing hurry up and wait. You can always reach out to me on socials, shoot me an email, or just wait for me to pop back into your life again with a new book in an undisclosed amount of time.

Hustle culture is so real and it feels like there always needs to be nine irons in the fire to feel productive, but I imagine it’s healthy to take breaks between projects. I know I don’t write as fast as I once did. In my twenties, especially in college and in grad school, I was alway so stressed out and busy and writing fanfiction was definitely stress relief. It was fun, I could hunker down in another world for a while, people liked it. But as I age and mature into my career and my marriage and all the stuff that comes with middle age, I’ve slowed down in pretty much every area of my life. I don’t write as fast or as much anymore, but I do think that I try to make the things I’m writing feel more important and meaningful, so I hope that’s a good trade off.