Book birthdays can be weird, even when you’re not in the middle of the apocalypse. For an author, a book is mentally “done” a long, long time before it hits the shelves. We have to finish our work early so that copy editors can fact check and make sure we didn’t make too many horrendous mistakes, and so that our publishers have time to print advance copies to promote the book and build some interest in the market before it releases. This means that a book is often completely done in terms of writing about 8mos to a year before it releases! Weird, right?

Signing a stack of books in my weird little cozy sleeping porch. Apparently people used to sleep out here in the hot summer nights with the windows open!

Because of the lead time on a book’s release, the release day is a bit nostalgic for me. I like to flip through the pages and read random paragraphs. Often, I wonder who wrote them. The truth is, I don’t remember! My brain is busy trying to solve the story of Book 3, which is well underway (yay!), but as I pause and reflect on Every Missing Piece, I still have so much love for these characters. The main character is an eleven-year-old girl named Maddy, who becomes convinced that the new boy in her neighborhood is a child who went missing six months earlier. Maddy is a precocious and whip smart young lady, but she’s also stubborn as heck, too. I may be related to her, lol!

Normally, I’d already be traveling to promote this book’s release. I was supposed to be in Greensboro, NC for Greensboro Bound this past weekend. I was going to hold a release party at Scuppernong Books. After that, there was going to be another launch party at my local independent bookstore, Words Bookstore of Maplewood, NJ (which is where you can get hand-signed copies!). Instead, I am comfy on my couch in sweat pants and a blanket, but at some point I will get myself presentable to join you all for a virtual release party tonight at 7pmEST, May 26, 2020.

If you’re curious about authoring or want to hear me read the first chapter of Every Missing Piece aloud, please join us tonight. This will be fun for your young readers, too. I’ll be able to answer their questions and say hello! The Zoom meeting link is on Scuppernong’s website. I’m looking forward to seeing your faces and remembering that this is real, and that I wrote this book, and that it is now yours.

Happy reading, everyone!