... a big announcement!
Everything you ever wanted to know about my second book, or at least as much as I'm willing to tell you.
Yes, the rumors* are true - I’ve sold another book!
(Actually, I sold it back in March, but I wasn’t allowed to publicly announce it until last week. Yay publishing!)
My second published novel will be titled YOU SHOULDN’T BE HERE, and is set to release July 9, 2024 from Thomas & Mercer (different imprint, but my same lovely editor, Megha Parekh). Here’s the official announcement:
And here’s what I posted about it on Instagram:
This book follows two very different characters, who are strangers to each other, but have more in common than they think: Angie, a teenager who believes her house is haunted; and Madelyn, a first-year chorus teacher who moves to Angie's Pennsylvanian hometown intent on discovering the truth behind her cousin's recent disappearance.
This book was a beast to write, but I'm so excited about how it's turned out. YOU SHOULDN'T BE HERE shares a lot of DNA with I'LL STOP THE WORLD, but is a little more grown up, a little darker, and a little angrier—while still incorporating lots of humor, plenty of twists, and even (gasp!) romance! It's about friendship and loyalty and growing up, about recovering from trauma and learning to recognize harmful patterns in others, about the pursuit of power and the abuse of power, and about the choices we all face to resist, ignore, or enable toxic people and systems.
It also is chock full of eastern Pennsylvania Easter eggs (for those who know me from high school, I named my fictional small town East Henderson, IYKYK), including mentions of every food I miss after growing up outside of Philadelphia and then moving to Tennessee. And there is a fluffy little dog named Potato who is a very good girl and, I don't mind spoiling this now: no harm comes to her. (Unfortunately, I can't say the same for all my human characters...)
There’s still a lot I can’t say about this book, but since you folks are the inner circle, here’s a few more little tidbits:
YSBH follows only two main points of view, Madelyn and Angie, with Madelyn’s being the most prominent. Yes, I do sprinkle in a couple other scenes from other characters’ POVs, but they’re all one-offs. So not nearly as many concurrent storylines to keep track of this time around!
Also, since Madelyn is an adult, this book definitely skews more adult than ISTW, although it still technically sits a little bit in that ambiguous crossover space. But I hope to field fewer angry comments about tricking people into reading a YA book this time around (ISTW isn’t really YA either, but I see how people who don’t read much YA would think it was).
This book has two major things that were absent from ISTW, that I think will make a lot of folks happy:
A proper villain. Who really, really sucks.
A bona fide romance. These poor characters tried SO HARD to be in a romcom, but unfortunately, they are in a murder book, and were quite displeased about it.
This one is also a much more straightforward mystery, although of course it still has a dash of speculative flair because that’s how I roll. Yes, the speculative part is the haunted house, but not in the way one might expect. (At least, not if I did my job correctly.)
No, this is not a horror novel. It is a mystery. Please set expectations accordingly. (Horror novel is in the works, don’t worry. It’s just not this book.)
Yes, Potato is based on Fezzik. Potato is a girl and I envision her as a mixed breed (Fezzik is a male purebred Shih Tzu), but on a soul level, they are the same. Astrid will make her literary debut in a later book.
Fezzik being his usual adorable but slightly dim self Both Madelyn and Angie are biracial Chinese-American, because this is my book and if I want to give more than one character that identity, I can! Madelyn also deals with chronic anxiety, because it remains important to me that more stories include characters with mental illness without having to be ABOUT mental illness. Anxiety is just a part of her life, like it’s a part of mine (and every other member of my household, and so many other people).
Although this book has a lot of levity and humor and twists and intrigue, it also deals with some pretty heavy themes, including emotional abuse and manipulation. There are also some intense scenes of violence against women. I think they are necessary for the story I’m telling, but if that is difficult subject matter for you, it’s okay not to read this one. I understand that too many of us have trauma in our backgrounds, and that some topics can take us right back into it, and that sometimes the healthiest thing is just to avoid them whenever possible. No need to justify; I get it, and I’m so sorry.
This was definitely the most stressful writing experience of my life, because as of when I sold this book back in March of 2023, I had written precisely zero words of it. I drafted it over the next few months and am currently in the process of revising it with my editor, and still feel kind of off-balance about the whole thing (I say while literally on a treadmill, so hopefully my actual balance is a little better). Considering I’ll Stop the World took eight YEARS to go from draft to finished manuscript, and then another year from polished manuscript to publication, moving all the way from fledgling idea to published book in about 16 months has been a big adjustment, to say the least. But even though it’s been a hectic process, I love these characters and I love my story, and I hope you will too.
Yes, just like with I’ll Stop the World, You Shouldn’t Be Here will release simultaneously in all formats, including ebook, hardcover, paperback, and audio. Currently it’s only up for preorder on Amazon (except for audio - preorder link for that one will come in a few months), but other retailers should follow shortly (most update their databases automatically every week or two, so it should start popping up soon). That said, it never hurts to put it on the early radar of your local indie or library, and actually can help quite a bit!
You can preorder You Shouldn’t Be Here here, and add it to your Goodreads list here. I will be sure to share preorder links for other retailers once I have them!
Okay I think that’s all I can share about this book for now. As always, if you read and enjoy an author’s work (yes, I do mean mine, but this is also true for any author) it is HUGELY helpful to rate and review their book on all major retailer and book review sites, including Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, and Target.
(If you just have energy for one, go for Amazon, but it doesn’t take much longer to copy & paste your review across the other platforms, I promise!)
This past weekend I ran myself absolutely ragged attending both the Kentucky Book Festival in Lexington, KY and the Southern Festival of Books here in Nashville. Both were tons of fun and I enjoyed getting to meet readers, sell and sign some books, and catch up with a bunch of writer friends, but holy cow am I tired now.
My last two big events this year will be the Louisville Book Festival in Kentucky and WriterFest in Nashville, both in November. After that, I shall be going into hibernation for the remainder of 2023, then hitting the ground running again in 2024. Hopefully I’ll find time for another newsletter or two between now and then, but I make no promises.
Until then, here’s to crackling fires, fall leaves, and giant cups of coffee.
*me talking vaguely about it in my own newsletter
He's on the bread! 😎
So cool! Congrats, Lauren.
In case you miss authentic Philly cheese steak, Amy's brother Clay recently got a food truck and has worked out the menu. It's called Philly Steaks South.