A POSTCARD FROM LONDON

Spring Shenanigans and Struggles!

The year feels like a whiplash of up-and-downs. Part of me still thinks it’s January and I’m still looking at my New Year’s resolutions and making plans. But it’s April and spring is upon us. Since I’m writing from London, grab a cup of tea, a scone or biscuit (or cookie, whatever your pleasure), find a sliver of sunlight from the window, and let’s catch up.

My nose is besieged with English pollen and hayfever meds have left me in a daze. Since my last postcard, I’ve been settling into my London flat after my whirlwind USA tour for The Deadly Fates, the third book in my Conjureverse series. I’m learning how to cook in my little underground hobbit kitchen; fighting English humidity and morning chilliness. I’m settling into my shopping routine with more frequent trips to the grocery store because European produce and meat products are fresher and thus must be cooked faster. I’ve only burned a few things trying to follow recipes in the imperial metric system. I’m finding my favorite neighborhood restaurants for takeaway (not “to go!) and having meals with my notebook. I’m conquering the London underground and all its quirks and people traffic. I’m finding great places to write and decided on a co-working space to lurk in to ensure I get my work done versus napping on the couch. I’m tasting as many sticky toffee puddings as I can to ensure I’ve located the best one. I’m trying to make the best of my mornings before the USA wakes up and the emails descend upon me. I relish being out of sync with the United States, especially right now, when the news is filled with nightmarish realities and consequences of electing a fascist administration.

London activities!

But if I’m honest, I’m struggling to find my writing rhythm across the pond. Between the haze of hayfever stealing my focus and decimating my productivity, I thought the words would pour out of me once I exited US soil. When I was in high school, one of my English teachers did a unit on travel literature that electrified me as a young person. We read various writers who spent time away from their home countries and hometowns, taking in the world. I was drawn to the Black American artists who fled Jim Crow America and built lives abroad. It ignited a flame inside me that has never gone out since I was that young person in small town America looking for the world, for adventure, for weirdness, for something bigger than myself, for inspiration.

I wasn’t escaping anything on the magnitude of those writers … but rather a box; the constraints of growing up as one of very few Black girls in a small town. But I wanted to chase those writers, walk in their footsteps, and experience some of the artistic freedoms they explored; the release from the psychic hold of American consciousness. Slowly, I think this will take shape the longer I’m away.

But for now … I split my workday, and now I essentially get two workdays. A quiet British morning to early afternoon and an American late afternoon and evening. I use the morning to chip away at words on my own personal writing projects/deadlines and the afternoon to work with my team at Electric Postcard Entertainment on my IP projects.

On my personal side, I have to turn in that never-ending first draft of book four in The Conjureverse series that I mentioned last month on May 1st so I am still deep in these drafting trenches. I don’t have much left in the draft, but it’s hard to close out this arc of the series. The third book ended in a massive cliffhanger … apologies readers. *Guilty* I’m already receiving a few letters from young readers upset and ready for this final book in the initial Conjureverse quartet.

The wonderful Holly Black, who is my creative rabbit (more on that in a future postcard … stay tuned), taught me something about writing series that I will never forget. I was lucky enough to be sitting beside her poolside in Mexico on a writing retreat when we discussed how a series should function like a book itself. So if you are a writer who uses a three-act or four-act structure, then your series can mirror that as well.

Or in more simple terms, each book has a beginning, middle, and an end, and so does the series with each book. So book one in a series is the beginning of the series arc, book two and book three are the middle, and if you get a book four, the end of the series arc, and then you can create a new arc for longer series.

I am a writer who always uses a four-act structure. I’m stuck on it and would love to take a writing workshop that might force me to use other story shapes. So this fourth book is the end of my series arc, and I have to stick the landing. Not only does the beginning, middle, and ending of the actual book have to work, the book has to end this part of the series in a satisfying manner. I’m re-reading each book. I know for some authors this is super cringe having to revisit published books. I use the re-read to consume myself with making my charts. I lay out the ingredients of each book, refreshing my memory about what I have written and set up, so that I can tie all the loose threads together as well as keep a few things open for potential sequels.

The in-progress Conjureverse series chart!

I learned that The Marvellers, book one of the Conjureverse, is in its 10th printing. This is so special to me because it means that young readers are finding the book and there’s a demand for it slowly growing. I am so grateful to teachers, educators, bloggers, and parents for sharing my world with their young readers. Both Rick Riordan and Shannon Messenger, titan authors with long-running series, told me that book four was where they saw a kick-up of their series. Uncle Rick (what we call the amazingly wonderful Rick Riordan) told me the Percy Jackson series was a failure until after book three hit shelves and young people started really finding the series. Shannon told me that she didn’t know if she was going to get a book four of her Keeper of the Lost Cities series and she had to keep the faith.

The business of publishing can linger and lurk over the psyche of the writer. I often have to write scared, unsure if I am going to be given the license to expand my world over several books because the books have to sell for the publisher to continue to publish and distribute them. As I complete book four, I’m sharpening my pencils (yes, I still handwrite often and in pencil because I love the noise of the lead scratching against the paper) and plotting more books in the Conjureverse world.

On my Electric Postcard Entertainment side, I’m gearing up for the celebratory launches of the following books:

If We Were A Movie by Zakiya N. Jamal on April 22nd.

Booksmart meets Phantom of the Megaplex in Zakiya N. Jamal's debut enthralling enemies-to-lovers queer romance, set against the backdrop of a historic Black-owned movie theater, the quirky employees who work there, and the suburbs of Long Island. Perfect for fans of Leah Johnson and Today Tonight Tomorrow.

Lights. Camera. Love?

Rochelle “the Shell” Coleman is laser focused on only three things: becoming valedictorian, getting into Wharton, and, of course, taking down her annoyingly charismatic nemesis and only academic competition, Amira Rodriguez. However, despite her stellar grades, Rochelle’s college application is missing that extra special something: a job.

When Rochelle gets an opportunity to work at Horizon Cinemas, the beloved Black-owned movie theater, she begrudgingly jumps at the chance to boost her chances at getting into her dream school. There’s only one problem: Amira works there…and is also her boss.

Rochelle feels that working with Amira is its own kind of horror movie, but as the two begin working closely together, Rochelle starts to see Amira in a new light, one that may have her beginning to actually…like her?

But Horizon’s in trouble, and when mysterious things begin happening that make Horizon’s chances of staying open slimmer, it’s up to the employees to solve the mystery before it’s too late, but will love also find its way into the spotlight?

The second book in the Love in Translation series, Love Craves Cardamom by Aashna Aavachat on May 20th.

An aspiring teen art curator who’s sworn off love spends a semester in India, where the first boy to give her butterflies again has a royally surprising secret—part of the international Love in Translation series of standalone YA romances.

Archana Dhawan wants a boy-free zone this semester abroad. Fresh off a breakup, she’s headed to Rajasthan, India—her parents’ homeland—determined to find herself and thrive at her dream art museum internship. No drama. No distractions.

Alas, the universe is trying to tempt her. On day one, she meets the hottest boy on the train. Soon after, she runs into him again at work. Not only is the museum tied to a palace, but the cute guy, Shiv, is a royal gardener!

As he takes her to the most gorgeous local spots, their undeniable chemistry grows. Then Archi gets shocking news: Shiv is not who he seems. Now she’s left wondering—was this brush with love the beginning of something warm and complex or just another bittersweet end?

The swoony Love in Translation romances can be read together or separately: LOVE REQUIRES CHOCOLATE by Ravynn K. Stringfield

My company’s first adult book, I’ll Make A Spectacle of You by Beatrice Winifred Iker, on November 18th.

This heart-pounding Southern gothic horror debut from Beatrice Winifred Iker, takes readers to Bricksbury University, the oldest and most storied HBCU in the nation. But as one student is about to find out, a long history comes with a legacy of secrets.

Zora Robinson is an ambitious grad student in her dream program, Appalachian Studies, at Bricksbury University. When her thesis advisor hands her a strange diary and suggests she research the local folklore about a beast roaming the woods surrounding campus, Zora finds a community uneager to talk to an outsider.

As she delves into the history of the beast, she uncovers a rumored secret society called the Keepers that has tenuous ties to the beast…and Bricksbury itself. Zora soon finds herself plagued by visions of the past, and her grip on reality starts to slip as she struggles to uncover what is real and what is folklore. But when a student goes missing, Zora starts to wonder if the Keepers ever really disbanded.

There’s something in the woods and it has its eyes on Zora.

I’m working on launching more dark fiction over at Chain Letter and scaring myself as I watch horror films and TV shows for inspiration. I love hunting for ingredients to create stories for others to write. Since I was such a little bookworm as a kid, I’ve stored away nuggets for characters, worlds, inciting incidents, and books. I don’t know how to turn off the curiosity. Maybe one day the story sparks will fade, but for now, I’m consumed with ideas for stories.

Spring showers will be here soon and I hope with the rain comes the words (and the washing away of this pollen apocalypse). I’ll be on deadline through August, and I need all the energy and inspiration and words as possible.

To those in the writing trenches … all the good words to us.

xoD