My Audiobook & More

August is here and I am only four months away from my book launch! My official pub date is now December 1, 2024, and excitement is building. I’ve been so inspired by the Paris Olympics, and I hope you will join me to the finish line. Thank you for cheering me on!

Book Production Progress

I have a narrator for my audiobook! I received an email last month from the casting and producing director with audition samples of three compelling storytellers. After listening to the candidates’ samples and other books they’ve narrated, soliciting input from my agent, editor, and a few family members and friends, I decided on one I am very excited about. I found her interpretation animated and emotional, which aligns well with Miyoung’s spirited character. I gave the narrator just a few notes, such as breathlessness in a few spots and dwelling on certain sounds, which can easily be addressed. She is going to be a terrific voice for Miyoung. I can’t wait to reveal who she is, and for you to hear her tell Miyoung’s story.

White Mulberry cover

My final full cover is here! I was able to see the front cover, spine, and back, with all the text and colors in one pdf! Using publishing jargon, my agent said: “The cover seen as a whole, with the wrap, copy, quotes in place, is simply GORGEOUS!” I couldn’t have said it better myself. I will share it when I can! The final digital proof of the interior is here too—clean and elegant. My editor had only two callouts from production, which were spacing issues. Since I last saw the interior, there were some minor formatting changes where chapter numbers were spelled out, the handwriting font in journal entries was replaced with simple italics, and eleven praise quotes were placed in the front matter.

My steadfast editor, Carissa, made me laugh when her emails came in because she had such great expressions for the production process: making sausage, another puzzle falls into place, and either limping or galloping toward the finish line (whichever was happening at that moment). The funniest was when I made yet another addition to my Acknowledgments page, and she said that acknowledgments are like giving an Oscar acceptance speech before the music comes on and kicks you off stage. She expressed my feelings exactly while going through this long editorial and production journey, and I am grateful for her humor. I am now being kicked off stage and my novel will be out there for the world to read soon!

Blurbs and Reviews

I have eleven amazing blurbs from authors I respect and admire! Blurbs are positive quotes describing a book to encourage people to buy and read it. These endorsements will be shared on the front, back, and inside pages of my book. This is one from Lisa See that I posted on social media recently. Take a look at the Editorial Reviews on my latest Amazon page here. It has all eleven of my blurbs there already!

My NetGalley is now available too, which is a secure digital platform that allows the community of media, bloggers, librarians, and bookstore buyers to download my book for review consideration or simply build buzz for my forthcoming book. Publishers use it to increase digital outreach to important reviews and tastemakers and drive customers to leave a review for my book on my Amazon detail page on its on-sale date of December 1, 2024!

If you would like the NetGalley link (which allows you to download on your Kindle too) or the pdf of my final digital proof, please respond to this email and I would be happy to send it to you. It is for personal use only and should not be forwarded or posted. I have many very good reviews on NetGalley and Goodreads too, and I would appreciate it if you could leave a positive review after you read it. Every review counts!

Here is my first review on NetGalley.

Publicity

My publicity team is hard at work soliciting media interest for my book. I’ve done a Q & A with @Book_Notions already. I will be doing another one with the Historical Novel Society soon, and a few others are in the works.

I’m also scheduled for some podcasts, which will be featured on the Events page. This is what my schedule looks like so far. I would appreciate it if you listened in or replay them after they air! They will all be different and hopefully entertaining!

October 21 @ 2pm PT – Cantina Book Club, Interview with Megan McCarthy Blank
November 7 @ 11:30am PT – The Writing Table, Interview with Kris Clink
November 21 @ 1pm PT – Books and Boba, interview with Marvin
December 4 @ 8pm PT – The Writers’ Forum radio show

What I’m Reading

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

I didn’t think I would enjoy a book about video games, but I loved this one. One of the protagonists is a brilliant, MIT-educated female gamer from LA, and the other, a half-Korean gamer with a disability whose grandparents own a pizza parlor in LA’s Koreatown. They create a blockbuster game which launches them into stardom, but what the story is really about is the human need for connection and the love these two childhood friends hold for each other. The author herself is half-Korean, and it’s a very entertaining book!

“Sam and Sadie—two college friends, often in love, but never lovers—become creative partners in a dazzling and intricately imagined world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. It is a love story, but not one you have read before.”

Picture(s) of the Day

Our family had a great month in Maine. Our son visited us the last week from Salt Lake City, and we boated, made s’mores, and grilled lots of good food. I wrote some chapters of RED SEAL in my writing shed and surfed on a wake surfboard. My husband calls me the surfing author now! Let me know if you’ve met your summer dreams or are still coming up with some. It’s never too late!