Here in Pennsylvania, the nights are cooling off, and it’s a season of windows open and airing out the house after the summer heat. The semester has started (three weeks in already!?), and I haven’t quite found my footing.

I had the goal of writing quarterly blog posts for updates or just little notes, but clearly that didn’t happen. So far, 2024 has been a lot of ups and downs. In terms of my writing and career, it’s been mostly ups. This spring, I got an agent! My work is now represented by Hannah Bowman at Liza Dawson, and my latest novel is out on sub right now. To keep myself distracted, I’m happily writing the next book.

The first rough draft is one of the favorite parts of the process for me. I love discovering the characters, the world, the plot–but I also forgot how consuming it all is. During the semester, I write three days a week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 8-10. By scheduling and protecting that time, I’ve been able to consistently produce good work, but I also just want to write every day for a few hours. The professor life has perks, but at least for now, with a 3/3 teaching load, I haven’t figured out how to balance it all.

This summer I spent partially on novel edits with Hannah, but I also received a grant from my college to spend a month in Scotland for story research (which I combined with attending WorldCon in Glasgow).

As part of the grant, I’ll be writing three short stories influenced by my time in Scotland. I regularly draw inspiration from places I live or travel, but this summer was the first time it was actively part of my process, rather than, for example, living in Reno and deciding to write about it like I did for A Shot of Gin. I have three ideas I want to focus on (including a horror story, which I rarely write), so I’m excited to see what comes of it.

This fall, I’m wandering around the East Coast for book events. I’ll be at World Fantasy (but not on any panels) Thursday, October the 17th and Friday the 18th, then down to the Easton Book Festival on the 19th for a panel on solarpunk. I have one more author event on September 29th, but that hasn’t officially been announced yet (but if you are in the Baltimore area, keep an eye out!).

Hope through action, my friends,

Phoebe