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Author: Kelly

I’m in my book friends era

Happy Super Bowl Sunday, Taylor Swift in Japan Day, and International Day of Women and Girls in Science (however you celebrate – I don’t judge).

I’ve devoted far more brain matter than is appropriate to thinking about how much changed for me between 2022’s Texas Book Festival and 2023’s (back in November). In 2022, my latest book had just come out a few months prior, and while it was still having its moment in the sun, I didn’t feel like I was. I barely knew anyone in the local book scene, and I was only able to get a launch party at the same bookstore that had had me a decade before, when I was brand new to Austin.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful to BookWoman for having me, but walking between the booths at the last TX Book Fest, it struck me how different of a place I was in. My book had gotten a modest number of good local reviews and I had inched my way into the local circle by showing up at events and forcing myself to talk to people (and buying their books… lots of them… I need shelf help). Instead of gawking at the lineup of authors and cautiously approaching booksellers, I was waving to them and chatting them up like old friends, because that’s what we’d become over the past year since my book came out – friends.

For most of the last eight years, I realized I’d been in my “mom friends” era. So much of my social life revolved around my kids (and let’s be real… a lot of it still does) and being on the board of Austin Parents of Multiples that those were the only circles I was regularly in. Not that I was particularly adept at making mom friends – it took a lot of awkward minivan and Costco talk at windowless room birthday parties to find my people. Before the twins started Kindergarten, I was squarely in a niche mom friends era in which I rarely interacted with any parents who didn’t own a double stroller.

Before that, it was the “college friends” era. Instead of pizza and cake and Urban Air birthday parties every weekend, it was weddings and bachelorette parties and housewarmings. I mostly dodged the bridesmaid bullet, largely due to avoiding the whole sorority thing. I somehow found time to hang out with my now-husband in sports bars between working full time and doing the world’s weirdest freelance writing gigs. (Okay now I know how – I didn’t have two tiny humans who relied on me to feed them and bathe them and put them to bed when I would normally be in a sports bar).

But NOW… my kids are older and a increasingly more self-reliant. I have a sliver of life outside of school pickup and twin stroller walks where we take up the sidewalk AND the bike lane. Are all my pants still Costco pants? Yes – because Costco is the best and waistbands are the wort. But most of my t-shirt repertoire is now bookstore and book festival finds.

This past weekend, I attended a much-needed Zibby Books Retreat after convincing myself A) It was an appropriate use of my Indie Author Project prize money (see previous blog post) and B) I had enough solo-attended book events under my belt that I wouldn’t feel too out of my element talking about books with a group of 60 strangers. We weren’t strangers for long. There’s something about a mutual love for books that instantly bonded me to these new book friends, and made me feel like I was my own person outside of my husband and kids. They also appreciated my strong bookstore t-shirt and Costco pants game.

Of course, I still have some long-lasting friendships from my college friends era. I still camp once a year with my twin mom era friends. I went to dinner and a show with my kids’ best friend’s mom last night. They are still my people. But when my next book comes out (TBD… don’t ask), I won’t be the outsider at the Texas Book Festival anymore. I’ll be surrounded by the book friends I’ve made and am still making in my book friends era, because they are now my people, too.

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Community Klepto is the Texas Author Project winner!

I’m still grinning ear to ear from the announcement that Community Klepto was named the adult fiction winner of the 6th annual regional Indie Author Project contest for the great state of Texas! Up until now Community Klepto has only been a bridesmaid – being a finalist many a time for several awards but never the bride – so I’m thrilled to finally be named a winner!

And I get to share the honor with another Austin author, who won the young adult prize. During the ceremony, when they announced me as a winner, they also mentioned that I have a new book in the works, so I guess I need to wrap that up, too…

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Community Klepto is an Indie Author Project finalist!

I just got word that Community Klepto is a finalist for the great state of Texas \m/ in the Indie Author Project’s 2023 regional contest! It’s also part of the official collection for the Indie Author Project, and will get put in even more public libraries than it’s already in! The announcement ceremony for the regional contest to kick off Indie Author Day is Friday, November 3 – I’ll be there hoping to hear my name! Join me to hear the winners get announced at the Indie Author Day reception.

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Enter my giveaway for Community Klepto on The StoryGraph

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day to all who sea-lebrate! Not only is it one of my favorite obscure holidays; it’s also the first day of my latest giveaway for a treasure chest of five signed paperback copies of Community Klepto on The StoryGraph. So you don’t even have to pirate my book for a free copy… you just have to enter the giveaway to get a copy of a book about a hilarious gym pirate working out her booty and stealing everyone else’s.

Enter between now and OctobARRRGH 18th!

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I’m a Readers’ Favorite winner!

The Readers’ Favorite annual book awards contest is one of the biggest ones out there, with close to 100 contest categories. It’d been so long since I entered (I tend to throw my hat in the ring at either the first possible second or the last) that I honestly forgot I was still in the running, until my publisher’s office wrote to tell me I’d won as a finalist in the humorous fiction category!

Thrilled to display yet another Community Klepto merit badge on its beautiful cover!

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My work in progress is already a finalist!

I had a self-imposed deadline of finishing the first draft of my newest manuscript by my 41st birthday, which is why I’ve been a little MIA as I write and write and edit and polish. My birthday also happened to be just a few days before the deadline for the 2023 Writer’s League of Texas manuscript contest, so I decided to enter it, looking forward to getting some early feedback of things I could work on as I am knee-deep in my editing phase.

Since it was a first draft, I went in with very low expectations, so imagine my shock when I receive an email today congratulating me on being named one of the 5 finalists in the romance category (yes, satire romance is still romance)! It’s kind of a big deal, y’all… my new book’s already getting accolades, and I haven’t even finished it yet.

And since it’s on the internet, it’s as good a time as any to announce the (working) title for my satirical romance novel – DON’T GIVE ME GRIEF. Wish me luck in the final round, and check out all the other finalists in this year’s contest; word on the street is the competition was fierce!

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I’m on Drinking With Authors!

Oh, hello! You came to find me, but today I am over on the Drinking With Authors podcast where I have a full interview and a bonus literary briefs episode. Check out my episodes and like/share/subscribe/sacrifice a virgin because the podcast is hilarious.

Listen to the full interview and the literary briefs wherever you get your podcasts

Watch the full interview and the literary briefs on YouTube (my hair looked great that day)

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