October 19th, 2022 is here, which means today I’m wishing my debut novel, THE LAST CHECKMATE, a very happy first birthday! I can’t believe it’s been an entire year since this book went out into the world – a fantastic, beautiful, humbling, emotional year. I wanted to share a few highlights:
Foreign Editions
Within its first year, THE LAST CHECKMATE has published in multiple countries and languages, including but not limited to the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Italy, Holland, Slovakia, Poland, and more! Publishing a book is special enough, but to see so many different covers and translations and to have readers from all over the world reading my work and reaching out to me has been so special and humbling. Truly something I never expected.
The Audiobook
Yes, the audiobook gets a designated shoutout because I have a little story to share: I’ve been an avid audiobook consumer for years. One of my favorite narrators is award-winning narrator Saskia Maarleveld, who has narrated hundreds of books and so many works of historical fiction, including books by Kate Quinn, Madeline Martin, Christine Wells, Jennifer Chiaverini, and more. Every time I imagined who my audiobook narrator might be, she came to mind, even though I was certain it would never happen. Well, guess who narrated the audiobook for THE LAST CHECKMATE? Saskia Maarleveld! And her performance absolutely blew me away. Even better? I got to interview her! I’m part of an online historical fiction chat group called @HFChitChat, and Saskia was gracious enough to chat with me and my co-hosts about her work as an audiobook narrator. She’s an absolutely delightful person, and if you missed the interview, you can watch it here for free (don’t mind me fangirling and talking way too fast… I was excited, okay?!). If you haven’t listened to her narration of THE LAST CHECKMATE, please do – I promise you won’t regret it; it’s an entirely different experience than reading in print. I will be forever grateful that she lent her breathtaking skill to my work.
Interviews and Events
Publishing a novel comes with so much publicity, and I’ve gotten the opportunity to do some incredible things this past year! I took over the HarperCollins and Book Club Girl Instagram accounts, saw my book in airports all over the world, had my book chosen as the monthly book club pick for various book clubs, including radio host Delilah‘s book club. Most recently, I had the incredible opportunity to be on the cover of Access Magazine, which was such an unforgettable experience! I never thought I’d get to add “cover girl” to my resume, and I had so much fun taking pictures and interviewing for the article! I’ve spoken at schools, churches, and universities, I’ve interviewed with podcasts and radio, I’ve written articles both locally and internationally. Most fun of all, I think, has been getting to participate in book clubs. I love chatting with readers and hearing your thoughts on the story, and to those of you who have been gracious enough to invite me to your book clubs, thank you! If you need book club questions, you can find them here – heads up that they do contain spoilers!
What’s Next?
I’m glad you asked! Within this first year of publication, another wonderful thing happened: I wrote another book! It’s called DAUGHTERS OF VICTORY and follows two women through the Russian Revolution and the Soviet Union during World War II. You can read more about it here and preorder your copy from your retailer of choice, or grab a signed copy from my local indie – they ship! I might not be a debut author anymore, but preorders are hugely important for every book, so I would greatly appreciate your support. The book releases on January 24th, 2023 from William Morrow, and I’m so excited to share it with you.
Thank you!
Finally, I have to say this year wouldn’t have been possible without you: the readers, the book bloggers, the bookstagrammers, the authors, the social media influencers, the friends and family and supporters. As with any career and anything you’re passionate about, there are high and low points, big emotions, and lots of struggles – it doesn’t make us any less grateful for the good, but the bad is just as real, too, and can certainly affect you. I’ve highlighted the highs in this post, but there have definitely been lows, of course. Such is life. But when I look back on this year, I’m grateful even for those hard moments because they remind me not to take any of this for granted, and it makes me even more appreciative of you, in particular, because your kind reviews, love, and support are what make all the hard times worth it. It’s thanks to you that, an entire year later, people are still finding my book in stores and libraries and sharing it with their friends. It’s thanks to you that I got to fulfill my lifelong dream of becoming an author. And it’s thanks to you that I get to keep doing this job every single day. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for all the love you’ve shown me and THE LAST CHECKMATE. I hope you’ll stick around for many more books to come.