Book Deal Announcement

I am so thrilled to announce that my very debut novel THOSE FATAL FLOWERS is going to be published by Bantam Dell. Publication is currently slated for Autumn 2024! There are so many people that I owe this achievement to—I’ve already got quite the document saved with specifics, all ready to be entered into the acknowledgements. But to keep it brief here, I would have never made it this far without the support of some incredible friends, an agent who always believed in Thelia’s story, and an incredible editor who wants to share her with the world.

Sometimes, a scene comes to you before the entire story reveals itself. Writing THOSE FATAL FLOWERS has truly been an exercise in peeling back the layers to find the story’s core. Its first expression appeared in high school as a short story for a creative writing class—a scene of three sirens dancing around a bonfire, until, quite suddenly, one of them is forever changed. That image never really left me, but it did go dormant until 2017. Then it re-emerged as a first draft for National Novel Writing Month, when I learned quite quickly that 50,000 words does not a book make. And so I embarked on the journey to finish it. That was always the goal—just to see if I had a book in me. I didn’t have grand hopes for publication; I was too scared to admit I wanted it.

Between that first draft and this moment, I’ve moved across the country from Austin, Texas to Vermont, I’ve had two daughters of my own. And it was truly my first little one who inspired me to pick up the mantle and continue. I wanted to be a mother, a person, who makes things, both beautiful and dark, an entire messy and complicated and dazzling self. I wanted to show her that it’s okay to want things for yourself, that the impossible can happen when you’re not so scared of failing that you don’t even allow yourself to try. So “just finish a book” became “just try to query it” which became “just go on submission, who knows what will happen?”

Because of the kindness and support of so many of you, this story about violence and guilt and heartbreak, but most of all, love, has its own wings.

I am forever grateful.