I’m Published! And boy are there EMOTIONS about it

Most of you already know via my socials that my short story “Packs and Negotiations” will be in Tender and Tempting Tales upcoming anthology! *Insert Kermit arm flailing here* You can check out that and their previous anthology Moonlight and Margaritas on their site https://tenderandtemptingtales.com/ (there’s even a free short story “It’s About Damn Time” for signing up for the newsletter! It’s delightful, I devoured it just about as soon as I grabbed it). And, rest assured, I will be spamming the hell out of it for the rest of the year at LEAST.

Can you tell we like Alliteration?

We’re gearing up for social media campaigns and contests, talking about ARC readers (which, you can sign up for here https://www.instagram.com/p/DPZRlcrgKNa/), and the like. Part of me is thrilled to start out this journey with a team of authors and editors from all sorts of backgrounds with all kinds of experience. Feels less like I’m holed up in the trenches alone. The other part of me…

This whole Published Author thing still doesn’t feel quite real to me. I’m sure many other authors have gone through the feeling. I’m also sure once I get a physical copy in my hands I’ll be freaking out all over again. If you had told me even five years ago that my first published piece was going to be a romance story, I would have been so confused and probably laughed. Though if you said it was about a werewolf, I probably would have replied, “Oh no wait that tracks.”

See, I always thought my first big published thing would be a novel of epic high fantasy, gearing up for a series that would one day grace the shelves with the likes of Sanderson or Pierce or Rothfuss or Britain. Look, a girl can dream, right? Don’t get me wrong, I still want that, and I’ve got the WIPs to prove it. Veering into the urban-fantasy, romance world has been, honestly, really fun. I’ve accidentally created a little verse of my work because of it and I’ve got plenty ideas for more. Is it what college-Marissa thought she’d be doing? Nope. Would college-Marissa still be over the moon to be published? Hell yeah.

So hold onto your bookmarks, friends, because this is shaping up to be a wild ride, and I plan on taking all of you with me. But, fear not, there will be snacks.

And probably more werewolves.