5 Books To Read if You Loved Netflix’s Heartstopper

If you’ve already watched Netflix’s new TV series Heartstopper three times since it came out a couple months ago, don’t worry: I’ve got some book recs that will help fill the void until season two!

Heartstopper by Alice Oseman

Okay, obviously, if you haven’t read the graphic novels that the TV show is based on, you have to start there! Alice Oseman is a wonderful storyteller, so also be sure to check out her other novels, notably Radio Silence and Loveless. The graphic novel version of Heartstopper is worth reading even after watching the show – while Netflix was pretty faithful to the source material, they added some conflict to increase tension, which, while understandable, part of what makes the graphic novels so wonderful is that they’re just the sweetest characters trying to figure themselves out.

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

When an anonymous student begins sending Felix transphobic messages—after publicly posting Felix’s deadname alongside images of him before he transitioned—Felix comes up with a plan for revenge. What he didn’t count on: his catfish scenario landing him in a quasi–love triangle…

But as he navigates his complicated feelings, Felix begins a journey of questioning and self-discovery that helps redefine his most important relationship: how he feels about himself.

This is still one of my favorite YA romances – it came out a couple years ago, and is such a perfect blend of tender moments of friendship, characters overcoming hardship, and sweet romance moments.

Hot Dog Girl by Jennifer Dugan

Elouise (Lou) Parker is determined to have the absolute best, most impossibly epic summer of her life. There are just a few things standing in her way:

• She’s landed a job at Magic Castle Playland . . . as a giant dancing hot dog.
• Her crush, the dreamy diving pirate Nick, already has a girlfriend, who is literally the princess of the park. But Lou’s never liked anyone, guy or otherwise, this much before, and now she wants a chance at her own happily ever after.
• Her best friend, Seeley, the carousel operator, has always been up for anything, but she’s decidedly not on board when it comes to Lou’s quest to set her up with the perfect girl or Lou’s scheme to get close to Nick.
• And it turns out that this will be their last summer at Magic Castle Playland–ever–unless she can find a way to stop it from closing.

Listen, if any book has a fake dating scheme, I’m immediately on board. This one is so well-written, and made me laugh out loud, while also capturing the complicated feelings of being in high school looking over the precipice into the rest of your life.

Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar

When Humaira “Hani” Khan comes out to her friends as bisexual, they immediately doubt her. Apparently, she can’t be bi if she’s only dated guys. Cornered into proving her sexuality, she tells them she’s dating someone—Ishita “Ishu” Dey, the straight A student who seems more concerned with studying than relationships.

When Hani approaches her about fake dating, she agrees on one condition–that Hani help her become more popular so she can win the school’s head girl election. It’s the perfect plan to help them achieve their goals, until Hani’s friends become jealous that she’s spending more time with Ishu. They’ll do everything they can to drive a wedge between them and ruin Ishu’s chances of becoming head girl.

Now, Hani has a decision to make: does she break off her relationship with Ishu for the sake of her friends? Or does she tell Ishu how she really feels and turn their “fake” relationship into something real?

See above: my love for fake dating plots! This one adds in enemies-to-lovers, which means it checks all my boxes.

Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee

Noah Ramirez thinks he’s an expert on romance. He has to be for his popular blog, the Meet Cute Diary, a collection of trans happily ever afters. There’s just one problem–all the stories are fake. What started as the fantasies of a trans boy afraid to step out of the closet has grown into a beacon of hope for trans readers across the globe.

When a troll exposes the blog as fiction, Noah’s world unravels. The only way to save the Diary is to convince everyone that the stories are true, but he doesn’t have any proof. Then Drew walks into Noah’s life, and the pieces fall into place: Drew is willing to fake-date Noah to save the Diary. But when Noah’s feelings grow beyond their staged romance, he realizes that dating in real life isn’t quite the same as finding love on the page.

Yes, another fake dating trope, but it’s not as much of a focus in this one. This book is genuinely funny, while also being sweet and exploring what it means to navigate figuring out who you are, and who matters most to you.

She Drives Me Crazy by Kelly Quindlen

After losing spectacularly to her ex-girlfriend in their first game since their break up, Scottie Zajac gets into a fender bender with the worst possible person: her nemesis, the incredibly beautiful and incredibly mean Irene Abraham. Things only get worse when their nosey, do-gooder moms get involved and the girls are forced to carpool together until Irene’s car gets out of the shop. Their bumpy start the only gets bumpier the more time they spend together. But when an opportunity presents itself for Scottie to get back at her toxic ex (and climb her school’s social ladder at the same time), she bribes Irene into playing along.

Alright, I’ll be honest, when I was putting this list together, I didn’t realize until now that 4 out of 5 feature fake dating… so I clearly have a type! But this one is SO good – it adds in the enemies-to-lovers trope, and just has such quirky characters that are impossible not to love!

Have you read any of these? How excited are you for Heartstopper season 2? Let me know in the comments!

Advice on Writing from Rebecca Roanhorse, award-winning fantasy writer

If you haven’t read anything by Rebecca Roanhorse, you are missing out. Roanhorse is a New York Times-bestselling author of sci-fi and fantasy, and her work has received Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Awards.

Her book Black Sun is one of the best fantasy books I’ve read in a while, so when I had the chance to attend an author talk during her tour for the release of the sequel, Fevered Star, I jumped at it. Roanhorse was in conversation with Erika T. Wurth, another indigenous speculative fiction writer, and they both had lots of great things to say about writing, so I’m sharing some of the best nuggets of wisdom here with you.

Sci-fi and fantasy author Rebecca Roanhorse at the Boulder Bookstore

Write for yourself first

How To Stay Sane While Querying Your Manuscript

If you want to be traditionally published, you have to get an agent somehow. For the majority of writers, that means querying literary agents.

Once you sign with an agent, they will be your champion: helping to make sure your book is as good as it can get, selling it to editors at publishing houses, negotiating contracts, and more. So, it’s important to have one, but the process of getting one is, honestly, brutal. It involves a lot of putting yourself (and your book!) out there, only to be rejected (or, sometimes worse, never hear back).

I first started querying back in 2019, but it’s actually taken me a couple years to really commit to the process. I kept thinking of ways to improve my book or my query letter, etc., etc. This year, I finally realized that most of those “reason” were just excuses, because honestly, I was scared. It’s one thing to think about querying your novel and know that there’s a high chance of rejection. But to actually send your book out in the world, one that you’ve worked hours and hours on and probably poured a lot of yourself into, only to have it actually rejected…is hard, to say the least.

There are lots of great resources on practical tips for writing a query letter, researching agents, etc., so that’s not what this article is going to focus on. Rather, I’m going to share the things that have kept me sane while querying, both in terms of practical suggestions to stay organized and ways to keep yourself encouraged.

Here we go!

How To Use Notion to Organize Your Writing

If you’ve ever lost track of a great plot idea or the perfect solution to that plot hole because you either didn’t write it down, or wrote it down on some random piece of paper that is somewhere in your house, car, or recycling bin, don’t worry: You’re not alone. And there is a better way to organize your ideas and writing that doesn’t involve a complex system of notebooks.

Don’t get me wrong; I love a good notebook. But I accepted a long time ago I’m just not the type of person who is going to carry around a physical notebook to jot down every idea, and the notebooks I do have aren’t pretty and organized, just a bunch of freewriting. Instead, I use Notion to keep my writing organized. I’ve already share how I use Notion to track my reading, and now I’m sharing how it helps my writing life!

First, I start with a nice clean layout of the stories I’m currently working on: Three novels, plus any shorter pieces. I also have my author career mission statement at the top, so that I always keep it in mind. I like being able to see everything I’m working on all at once, and also having a single image that captures the vibe of the story immediately available.

The Best Books from 2021

I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that 2021 was a HARD year. BUT, there were good moments – including plenty of great books! Here are my favorite reads that helped get me through the last year.

Heads up – I’m an affiliate of Bookshop.org, which means that when you use the links in this article to purchase books, you support me and independent bookstores at no extra cost to you!

How to Use Notion to Organize Your Reading (including a free template!)

A new year is only a few weeks away, and if you’re anything like me, it means you’re in full “how do I better organize my whole life” mode! Or maybe you’re reading this later and just looking for some ideas of how to organize the books you read. Either way, I’ve got you covered!

Notion is an app that works on your phone, computer, or tablet, and is super customizable (this isn’t a sponsored post, but Notion, if you’re reading this, feel free to pay me!) I use to it to keep track of lots of things, including my work at my day job, personal life to-dos, and my writing (I’ll do a separate post on that later). And, of course, my reading log!

PitchWars, historical veganism, and chaotic research: An Interview with Carly Heath, YA Historical Fiction Author

Something about fall means “historical fiction” to me, so when I found out about The Reckless Kind, a YA historical fiction novel featuring characters who are both queer and disabled and also love horses, I was immediately excited! The author, Carly Heath, was kind enough to answer some questions over email, and I can’t wait to share their answers with you!

The Reckless Kind is available on November 2. Get your copy here!

Cover of *The Reckless Kind,* provided by author

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer some questions about writing, your author journey, and your upcoming debut release The Reckless Kind!

I’d love to hear about your path to publication. I’m especially interested in the “full circle” moment of not getting a mentor in PitchWars a couple years back, and now being a mentor in PitchWars, especially since we’re in PitchWars season right now.

How to Promote Your Book for Free: Self-Publishing Guide for Beginners (Part 5)

So you’ve got a book. It’s written to genre expectations and it’s edited. Now for the biggest question: how do you actually get people to buy it?

There are lots of great options for promoting your book, which means that you’ll once again need to think about what your primary goal is for this book to help you decide the best way to spend your time and, potentially, money.

The main choice you’ll have to make, which will be guided by your goals and by what point you’re at in your career, is whether you want to pay for promo or not. There are lots of pros and cons to each, as well as methods for each, so I’ve divided them into two different post. Today, I’ll be outlining four ways to promote your book for free.

Focusing on Priorities (a blog update)

Phew! It feels like forever since I announced I’d be going on a hiatus. This summer has been a full one, with both good and hard things taking up my time.

About a month ago, I had the day off and went to a nearby art museum, both to see the exhibits of course, but also to take some time and reflect specifically on what I wanted to do moving forward with this blog.

I want to share not only my decisions, but also a little of my process of reflecting that led to them, both so you can hopefully understand why I’m making them, and also in case any part of the process is helpful to you when you have decisions to make.

Whenever I’m trying to figure out if I want to keep doing a part of my platform or where to put my focus, I always return to my author mission statement: To create diverse and authentic stories that comfort and enlarge readers.

My number one focus is creating stories, ideally that will be shared with others. Can posting on Instagram and having a blog and running an Etsy shop help with that in some ways? Absolutely! But if they end up taking time away from writing and I’m just doing them out of obligation, then my priorities aren’t really in order.

When I started this blog, I was a student and working part-time. I was busy, but I still had chunks of free time that allowed me to publish a post every week and have plenty of time to write. At the start of 2020, I moved into a full-time position, which is obviously great in lots of ways, but meant I had significantly less free time.

Blogging began to feel like it was taking away the limited amount of time I had to spend on writing my books. On top of that, it felt like to really make the blog successful, I needed to devote even more time to it, by promoting it more and interacting with other bloggers and all the things to make my blog visible—which felt like fighting an uphill battle in a time when blogging isn’t nearly as popular as it was years ago. So taking several months off felt like a relief in some ways, and allowed me to focus more energy on my top goal: writing.

But…there are a few things that make me not ready to let go of my blog entirely. For one thing, I’ve spent three years now putting a lot of time and energy into creating (at least what I think are) useful resources. I didn’t want to let that all become stagnant. I also felt bad leaving my “Self-Publishing Guide for Beginners” series half-finished, both because it feels like a useful resource and also because when I was researching for self-pub help, I found so many half-finished series like this and it was frustrating!

Also, I really love how blogging created opportunities—that I could email the publicist of an author I’ve totally fangirled over, and say “I have a blog” and they were often willing to let me interview the author! And I loved then sharing that author’s guidance and personality with all of you.

As far as articles about writing tips, though, I feel like I’ve found other mediums conductive to sharing writing advice, namely Instagram through sort of “microblogging” and of course my monthly newsletter. So I feel like I can continue to share what I’m learning, without writing a blog post constantly.

With all of that rattling around my head, I felt like I was a little bit in a stalemate. I didn’t what to let go of my blog completely, but also I wasn’t sure that it was the best way to spend my time.

So…now what?

Here’s what I’ve decided to do moving forward with the blog.

I just can’t justify spending time writing a weekly post. But since I want the blog to stay fairly up-to-date, I’m going to aim for one post a month.

These will sometimes be writing craft related, but that content will mostly be on my Instagram and email newsletter. Instead, these posts will be more focused on author interviews and also finishing my self-publishing guide.

I’m also going to work through my back catalog of posts—120 of them! I want to update them with new information I’ve learned, focus on SEO to increase traffic, fit them into my new brand style, and add all posts to Medium to increase chances of being read. I’ll be sharing revamped blog posts in my email newsletter so that you don’t miss any new tips I’ve discovered!

So that’s my plan going forward: Keeping things fresh and useful, but still leaving room for my top priority: writing.

Let’s Talk About Burnout

At the start of 2019, an article on burnout by the inimitable Anne Helen Peterson went viral. As a product of my thoughts on that discussion, I wrote two connected articles focused on burnout for creative people: one on the causes and how to identify it, and another on how to cure it.

Sometimes, I write and publish articles that are more theoretical, only to later realize how applicable it is to my life. This is one of those times.

Over two years after writing those articles on burnout, I’ve realized how fully I am feeling burnt out. Obviously, there are lot of causes: I’m working full-time now (I was part-time back in 2019) and in a new position with way more responsibilities; we’ve been dealing with a worldwide pandemic for over a year; there was a mass shooting in my community about a month ago and the work I’m doing means I engage with the aftermath every day; responding thoughtfully and actively to the news and many social justice issues in the world.