Embracing Change

Plus, some good news for LISTEN FOR THE LIE!

Hello! We are halfway through February, which means it’s not even three weeks until Listen for the Lie is out in the world! And I have a few very exciting things to share:

The book was chosen as a March Indie Next Pick! Support from indie booksellers really means the world to me, so I was thrilled to see my first adult novel chosen for this list!

And it’s also a Library Reads pick for March! Public librarians all over the US vote on this list, and I’m so honored they included Listen for the Lie! Thank you, librarians!

Also — my publisher is giving away signed copies over on Goodreads. Go enter!

Have you pre-ordered yet? There’s still time! Head over to my website to grab your copy!

Embracing Change

I moved in January. I didn’t go far – just to a different unit in my building. If you follow my Instagram stories, you may have seen me post about the flooding in my last apartment. It was a ground floor apartment in a large building, and unfortunately, if the people living in the units above you frequently clog their garbage disposal, all that water eventually backs up into the ground floor unit and comes up the sink with a vengeance. It’s a common issue in big buildings, and there wasn’t really anything else the apartment complex could do (they’d already done Hydro-jetting to clear out the lines and asked all the people living above me to be more careful with their garbage disposals, but it kept happening).  

This probably sounds weird, but I decided to just deal with the flooding for a while. When it happened, it was bad, but it was occasional. Moving’s a hassle, and this isn’t the first place I’ve lived where I’ve had to deal with plumbing issues. When I lived in a house in Austin, it also flooded. That one was caused by the builder leaving a nail in a pipe, which rusted and fell out a year later, causing significant flooding underneath the floors (I had to figure this out myself after a condescending plumber tried to tell me I just used the dishwasher wrong. How do you use a dishwasher so wrong that it floods the entire first level underneath the floors? It’s a mystery).

Am I cursed? Probably. But, to me, water invading your living space is just what happens. By the fourth or fifth time, I had my whole apartment set up for the inevitable surge of dirty water coming my way. Nothing important was ever ruined, I just got another visit from maintenance guy Martin, who thanked me for being nice about it all (yelling at poor Martin wasn’t going to help anything). I was in a routine – a weird one and kind of gross one, admittedly – but I was used to it. Comfortable.

But, in early January, I started thinking about the year ahead, and how change is rarely a bad thing. I hesitated back in 2020 when I started thinking seriously about moving back to LA, overwhelmed by the logistics of it. It would have been so much easier to just stay put, even though I was unhappy. But now, three years after moving back to California, I’m so glad that I didn’t listen to that little voice that always resists change.

I hesitated about Listen for the Lie. I gave up on it a bunch of times, including once just a few months before I queried for a new agent with it. I tried to talk myself out of change – YA was comfortable, familiar. But moving over to adult and thrillers ended up being the absolute best thing for me, and I look back at the 2021 version of me who took the leap and – again – feel grateful I didn’t give in to inertia.

And so, with that in mind, I found a nicer, third floor apartment and dealt with the hassle of packing and moving. It was absolutely worth it. While there are benefits to a ground floor apartment (it’s very easy to take the dog out), I forgot how nice it is to see the sky from your apartment. I can actually use my balcony! I can leave the blinds open to let in the sun without worrying about all the people passing by staring into my apartment!

I’m glad I was reminded again about how great change can be, especially as I head into a new phase of my career. Change is often scary, but I never regret it.