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Author: Kelly

2022… How Did I Do?

Published by Kelly on December 31, 2022

It’s the last day of the year, which is when I try not to think about all the different ways I failed myself. Okay, not really. 2022 was a pretty great year, and I released a pretty great book that so far no one has hated (out loud, anyway).

Here’s how I fared in 2022!

2022 Goals

Here were the goals I set out for myself for 2022. I think the big mistake I made was putting goals on here that were completely out of my control, but I still managed to meet half of them.

Finish the novel I’m currently writing
No, I didn’t finish it. But I am well over 50% and my goal for 2023 is to get it done by June.

Publish two short stories
I honestly forgot I even put this as a goal. I submitted a few times but I honestly barely tried here.

Publish two poems
Same story.

Read 60 books
I didn’t do 60. I did WAY more than that. But more on that later…

Get 200 preorders for Community Klepto
This was one of those things that was out of my control but I managed to do it anyway. Many, many of these preorders were libraries, which I would not have gotten without my positive Kirkus and Booklist reviews. But thanks to everyone who preordered my book!

Appear on Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books
When I put this as a goal, I thought it was attainable. I had written a couple essays for Zibby’s blog already. Quickly, though, in 2022, the podcast featured more big names and celebrities and no one from my publisher appeared on it anymore. My publicist tried, twice, and we were shot down, twice. But I was still featured on a lot of other great podcasts.

Visit #22in22
I visited 28 different independent bookstores in 2022, and one of them I visited 18 times. My credit card statement can vouch for me.

Have a book launch at Book People
Book People offered me a book launch, but only on the condition that I could guarantee at least 50 attendees (they have people to pay; I get it). I am neither delusional nor optimistic to think that was possible, so they offered me a preorder campaign instead. My book launch at Bookwoman went really well, and I went on to have several solid in-person events, which I am so thankful I got to do.

Bookstores

I visited 28 different bookstores in 2022, across 12 different cities and 5 different states. I swiped my credit card 58 times. I visited Book People 19 times, even though I couldn’t guarantee enough people to justify a book launch there. These were my top 6 favorite stores, in no particular order:

Lark & Owl Booksellers – Georgetown, TX
Reverie Books – Austin, TX
Country Bookshelf – Bozeman, MT
The Painted Porch Bookshop – Bastrop, TX
Boulder Bookstore – Boulder, CO
Prospero’s Books – Kansas City, MO

Reading

My Goodreads reading challenge goal for the year was to read 60 books, and I exceeded that by quite a bit! I somehow managed to read 110 books with only a handful of DNFs. There were so many good ones, but these were my top 10:

10. Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett
9. Crazy to Leave You by Marilyn Simon Rothstein
8. More Than You’ll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez
7. The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth
6. My Summer Darlings by May Cobb
5. Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
4. Feast Your Eyes by Myla Goldberg
3. The School For Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
2. Yerba Buena by Nina Lacour
1. Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

If you’d told me at the beginning of the year that my top book would be about two video game developers from California and New York, I’d have said you were crazy. But damn this book was good.

2023 Goals

I guess this means it’s time to think about my goals for next year. My goal for the new book is to have the first draft complete by June, in time for the Writer’s League of Texas Agents & Editors conference, where I hope to make some connections with agents and meet one of my other goals.

Instead of making a goal to publish short stories and poems, which I have little control over, I am going to make a goal to write them instead. And I read over 100 books this year, so it seems only fair to read at least 100 next year.

Happy New Year! Here’s to a happy and productive 2023!

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I’m on Launch Pad!

I’m on Launch Pad!

Published by Kelly on November 18, 2022

In case you missed the live broadcast of my appearance on Launch Pad, the Authors on the Air podcast episode I appeared on with fellow authors Marleen Pasch, Rob Samborn, and Antonina Duridanova, it’s now on YouTube where it shall live forever! Check it out, and check out these other authors and their amazing books!

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It’s Launch Pad day!
Come see me at One Page Salon!One Page Salon

Come see me at One Page Salon!

Published by Kelly on September 20, 2022
One Page Salon

Two weeks from today, on Tuesday, October 4, I’ll be reading at Radio Coffee and Beer in Austin, TX at the One Page Salon, a program where authors read one page from a current work in progress. I’ll be reading from the novel I’ve been working on for the better part of a year along with authors Stacey Swann (author of Olympus, Texas) and Carlisha Bell, as well as musician Bob Schneider.

It’s a free show and Radio serves both coffee and beer, as the title suggests, so come out and see me and the other performers!

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So, no response is now more polite than a no, thanks?

So, no response is now more polite than a no, thanks?

Published by Kelly on August 29, 2022

Maybe it’s just the geriatric millennial in me, but the concept of ghosting someone has always bothered the hell out of me. I’ve been on the receiving end of it from jobs, friends, romantic interests, and more publishers and literary agents than I can count.

And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t guilty of it, too, though I try not to make a habit of it. But of course, there are those you’re better off not even trying to engage with for your own sake, like people who sell Mary Kay for a living.

Every now and then, I’ll get a string of book bloggers on Instagram wanting to review my book for a modest fee. I got a ton of these right after my book came out, and I recently got several more. Right now I am still riding on the new-ness of my book’s release, so I’m not ready to shell out for a paid book review at the moment, but I thought I’d file them away for later, so I replied to each one with a polite “What is your review policy?” which is a polite way of asking “What will you do for me, and what will it cost me?”

After the first one replied, with a predictable call to action “how does that sound to you?”, I replied honestly, saying I wasn’t interested at this time, but would consider it in the future. Back in my day, this was how we told people “this isn’t no; this is ‘not right now’.”

So imagine my surprise when the book blogger replied with an emoji (okay that wasn’t the surprising part… it is Instagram after all) – the one with the angry red face spouting expletives. It was immediately followed with a message: “No need to respond if you no intrest”

Tenuous grasp of spelling and grammar notwithstanding, I was taken aback, but when I talked to some of my younger author friends, they all said essentially the same thing – that if I wasn’t interested, I should have just not responded instead of saying thanks, but no thanks. That responding at all in a negative manner, even a polite one, was more rude than just saying nothing at all and leaving them in the lurch (after all, they’re the ones who cold called me).

Maybe I’m officially the old lady playing by outdated rules of etiquette and this is the new normal, or maybe (and I may be biased but I’m leaning this direction) they were the assholes in this situation, not me. Maybe I should put this on r/AITA and get an official judgment like the proper geriatric millennial I am. Or maybe I should just move on and not let it bother me so much; it’s not like I’m committing an unforgivable offense like putting two spaces between sentences.

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Another feature in Moms Don’t Have Time To
How I spent my pub day

How I spent my pub day

Published by Kelly on July 2, 2022

It was a long, slow road from manuscript to shelf, but my publication day finally arrived on June 21, just 6 days after my 40th birthday.

I took the day off my day job to celebrate because, let’s face it, it’s not like I was going to get any actual work done… and if you can’t take a day off to celebrate when you release a book into the world, when can you?! Here’s how I spent my pub day…

Social media

I laugh in the face of people who say authors should spend 2-3 hours a day on social media, cause ain’t nobody got time for that, but I definitely spent the first 3 hours of my pub day on social media. I was sharing pub day Instagram posts to my stories, interacting with post comments, posting myself to let people know the book was available, etc. I also started recording clips for a pub day reel, after I googled how to do it because I’m 40 and don’t understand reels.

The gym

Most of my book takes place in a gym, so of course I had to take advantage of a weekday off to go to one of the classes typically reserved for stay-at-home-moms. I honestly can’t remember the last time I took a gym class at 10 AM on a weekday (before pub day, I mean). Of course, I recorded video clips (before and after – I’m not one of those assholes who pulls out their phone mid-class) for my pub day reel.

Blogging

I wrote a post for my blog to announce my pub day. I also had 3 other blogs I had written guest posts for months earlier hit on pub day (thanks, but y’all could have spaced that out and done me a favor), so I wrote blog posts to share those as well.

Drinking in a pub

If there’s ever a day to go day drinking in a pub, it’s your pub day. I chose the Mean Eyed Cat in west downtown Austin because it’s one of my favorites, I knew it wouldn’t be busy on a Tuesday afternoon, and because I know they have Electric Jellyfish on tap.

Of course, I recorded more clips for my pub day reel and made a TikTok video because I’m still trying to figure out that platform.

Visiting a bookstore

The Mean Eyed Cat was conveniently on the way to BookPeople – Austin’s largest independent bookstore. I knew they had purchased some copies of the book because I had a preorder campaign with them, but I wasn’t sure how many, and if they would be shelved yet.

Imagine my surprise when I strolled over to the fiction section and saw the cover of my own book staring back at me, shelved cover out! I was so excited (and feeling slightly buzzed from the pub) I asked the BookPeople staff to snap a picture of me… which I didn’t like. So I took this one, wrinkles and all. Obviously I was still excited. And yes, then I recorded more reel footage.

After the kids were in bed on the longest day of the year, I capped off the day’s celebration with some wine and finished up my pub day reel, which I thought turned out pretty good. Certainly not a bad way to spend a Tuesday.

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I’m in an anthology! And it’s pub day!

I’m in an anthology! And it’s pub day!

Published by Kelly on June 29, 2022

Today is pub day for my second book this summer… sort of. I didn’t plan on this coming out just a week after my novel, but it happened just that way. Art in the Time of Unbearable Crisis is an anthology about just that, how we create art and deal in the midst of a crisis. Some people chose, naturally, to write about COVID, social justice issues, or climate change. My piece is about our experience in the 2021 Texas winter storm (it’s toward the end of the book).

It’s probably the most political thing I’ve written publicly, but it’s not about politics (and neither am I). It’s about being decent to people in the face of political differences. It applied to the situation then, and it still applies in light of recent political developments, which I need not enumerate here. We are all better when we greet each other with empathy and acknowledge that everyone’s just an imperfect human trying to do their best. The internet has made it too easy to forget the humanity of those we disagree with.

She Writes Press will donate all royalties earned on this book to World Central Kitchens, a non-profit that feeds victims of natural disaster and war (most recently in Ukraine). The book is available for purchase everywhere books are sold, but I of course recommend getting it on Bookshop where you can support your local independent bookstore!

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